Christian Formation Ministries, Inc.

Richard H. & Dawn M. Johnson

Reverend Richard H. Johnson: Resume'

Music Career: 1969-1980

Richard “Stonefingers” Johnson started singing and playing in coffeehouses around Boston, Massachusetts during the folk music boom of the sixties. A powerful and original acoustic guitarist and Dobro player, he gained a following as he worked the college and folk club circuit throughout the northeast.

His manager gave him the nickname "Stonefingers" after he messed up a couple of fingers and had to do a concert with a big bandage on his hand. After Richard met the Lord and began to read the Bible, he discovered that Jesus was the Living Stone, so he kept the nickname. He is known as "Stonefingers" everywhere except in Arkansas, where they just call him "Stone."

As an opening act during the seventies, he shared the stage with Bonnie Raitt, David Bromberg, Martin Mull, Robert Klein, Ry Cooder, John Prine, Mose Allison, Dave Van Ronk, Odetta, Steve Goodman, Phil Ochs, Patrick Sky, Pat Martino, Tom Bergeron, Elizabeth Cotton, The James Cotton Blues Band, Ian Matthews, Looking Glass, Vassar Clements, Tim Sample, and other performing artists of national stature.

These are some of the things the press had to say about him at the height of his career:

“Take a Dobro, put it in your lap, and practice for a decade or two, and you may come out sounding as good as Johnson does.”

“Richard has skill and style.”

“He’s a pleasant surprise, a performer with a breezy, contagious good humor.”

Richard recorded twice in the seventies, but his music career ended in 1980, when he put the guitars away to get sober. He spent the next two years working odd jobs, attending AA meetings, and learning how to live without alcohol and drugs.

Training for Ministry: 1982-1993

In January of 1982, Richard surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. For the next eleven years, he served in other men’s ministries while ministering in music on a part-time basis.

During this period, Richard worked in cable television as an Advertising Account Executive, Television Commercial Writer/Producer, and Advertising Sales Manager at American Cablesystems. He next served as Advertising and Circulation Manager for New England Church Life, a monthly newspaper published by the Evangelistic Association of New England (now Vision: New England). He then moved to Christian radio, starting as an Advertising Account Executive at Boston’s WEZE, later becoming General Sales Manager for New Hampshire’s Love Radio, and finally serving as Director of Operations for Cross Country Communications in the Louisville, Kentucky market, managing Inspiration Radio WZCC/WXLN and hosting their morning drive show, Kentuckiana Sonrise, along with his stuffed animal sidekick and co-host Rollie the Rooster.

Stonefingers Ministries: 1994-2004

Richard went into full-time traveling ministry in January 1994, with ordination as a Minister of the Gospel following in 1995.

Richard has released seven CDs since 1992.  The latest one, Forgiven, Forgotten, Set Free was recorded in 2004 at Gaither Studios (yes, that Gaither).

Some of the people "Stonefingers" has performed or ministered with over the past twenty years include Doc Watson, Jeanette Carter, Reverend Dan Smith, Mike Warnke, Jim Cole, Rosey Grier, Meadowlark Lemon, Rick Cua, Gordon Jensen, and John Fischer.

The ministry gradually evolved from being an evangelistic concert ministry, to include teaching and preaching, until it began to assume its present form as an apostolic work.

While he no longer lives on the road, and has cut his traveling schedule considerably in order to concentrate on developing the ministry in southern Indiana, Richard and his wife Dawn still travel occasionally, presenting their seminars and ministering in churches, prisons, jails, youth detention centers, and other venues throughout North America. Over the years, thousands of people have come to Christ through this ministry.

Christian Formation Ministries: 2005-?

During his 2004 sabbatical, the Lord instructed Richard to give the ministry a new name, to reflect the changes that He was bringing about. CFM, Inc. was founded in January of 2005 to further facilitate Richard and Dawn's ministry.

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