Ian Johnson was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, and obtained bachelor's degrees in Chemistry and Linguistics from Wichita State University in 1976. After undergraduate school, Ian spent an inordinately long period of his life in graduate schools in Iowa and Kansas, earning master's degrees in Biochemistry and History and a Juris Doctor degree. Ian has been employed as a paralegal at a small law firm in Topeka, Kansas since 1991.

Ian was raised in a Congregational church in Wichita. However, he came to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ in a Disciples of Christ (Christian) church in Wichita on December 26, 1971, and remained a member of that church until he left Wichita for graduate school in Iowa. Since then, he has been associated with churches in several some what discordant denominations—Regular Baptist, Wesleyan, and independent Charismatic. Ian was part-time assistant pastor of a small Charismatic church in Topeka from 1994 to 1996, and became senior pastor by default from 1996 to 1998 when illness forced the senior pastor who was mentoring him to resign. He learned from this experience that, while he has the gift of teaching, he is not called to a pastoral ministry. Ian has served in various non-pastoral roles in the same medium-sized Assemblies of God church since 1998.

Ian has not formally studied Theology, but studied several issues in Church History as a part of his History graduate studies. Theology and Christian unity have been a consistent and compelling focus of his life .

LINKS TO IAN JOHNSON'S WRITINGS

Published Book:
Ian Johnson and Lauston Stephens, Our Oneness in Christ (Baltimore: PublishAmerica 2006), ISBN 1-4241-6035-9.

Future Books for Publication:
HELP WANTED! Christian Author Seeks "Qualified" Joint Authors for new Works.

Web Site, first posted in 1995, seeking Christian unity: Christian-oneness.org.

Web Site Regarding Logical Errors and Other Poor Reasoning Commonly Used as Excuses for Division in the Church: Common Divisive Fallacies .

Web SiteSeeking a Common Ground on the Issue of Tongues:
A Conciliatory Approach to Speaking in Tongues .

Born and raised in rural New Jersey, Lauston graduated high school in 1968 and attended Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, in the school of engineering and science. He worked as a computer programmer in Princeton, NJ, from 1970 to 1973 and has been employed with a small dairy in Rutland, VT from 1976 to the present time. Married in1977, he and his wife, Cynthia, have four children.

Lauston's family joined an Assembly of God (Pentecostal) church when he was five and he made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ at age eleven, but neglected his faith when he left home for college. A series offive "natural" but dramatic events in the space of three months changed that. He understood the events as God's call to an adult commitment of discipleship. This included two and a half years living in a Jesus people era "house ministry" where several housemates became pastors or missionaries in various denominations. Lauston has served in a variety of laity roles in the church with a recognized gift in teaching.

Not formally schooled in theology, Lauston has pursued a sometimes esoteric study of the Church on his own, with an interest in both church history and the current Church universal. The unity of the Church has proven to be a continuing and compelling focus.

LINKS TO LAUSTON STEPHENS' WRITINGS

Published Book: IanJohnson and Lauston Stephens, Our Oneness in Christ(Baltimore: PublishAmerica 2006), ISBN 1-4241-6035-9.