Rev. Steve Johnson’s story may not be unique, but how he became a Christian and later successfully served a local church on a ‘parttime’ basis is definitely intriguing.
“I didn’t grow up in church,” the Bradley Baptist Church minister acknowledged last week.
”I got in church because I met a girl, she was pretty, and one of her things was, ‘I we’re going to date, you have to go to church.’ I wound up marrying her.
So, that’s what got me in church.”
Johnson and the former Amy Marshall married Aug. 18, 1989, after dating for about two years. It was during those two years that his life changed. The couple was attending Bellevue Baptist Church in Macon, and an Easter cantata was being produced.
“Nobody wanted to play Judas (the apostle who betrayed Christ),” Johnson recalled, “and here I was; I didn’t even know who Judas was. So I’m like, what’s this Judas dude, you know, what’s with him?
“But nobody wanted to play him, so I raised my hand and said ‘I’ll play him’ because there was no speaking part. You just sat at the table, the Lord’s Supper table, and then you got up and walked out. So I said I’ll play Judas.”
That same night Johnson heeded the call.
“I played him (Judas),” Johnson said, “and I was grabbing hold of the pew.
I was sweating, and I was like, I ain’t going down.
I ain’t going down. But finally, I went down front.
That’s when I surrendered my life to Christ.”
The minister noted that as a youngster he had speech issues. “I did not ever want to be a pastor.
Being a pastor and getting in front of people. This is a God thing; this is not a Steve thing.
“I went to a speech therapist for eight years.
I failed the first grade, not because of grades but because they could not understand what I was saying … All of grammar school, I went to a speech therapist to teach me how to speak.
“I still, to this day, will look at some words, and they might come out wrong. It doesn’t matter.
But for God to put me in this position, I’m like, this has to be a God thing.”
Prior to his introduction to Christianity, Johnson enlisted in the Army and spent six years, including Guard duty, in the military. He credited a high school JROTC instructor with his motivation.
“His name was Sgt. Maj. Oscar Sapp Jr. He was a mentor to me, and so I wanted to go into the military. But he gave us something that I’ll never forget.
This is what he made us memorize: ‘I will persist until I succeed. I was not delivered in this world in defeat nor does failure coarse in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be slaughtered by my shepherd. I am a lion, and I refuse to walk, to talk, to sleep with the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny; I will persist until I succeed.’ I learned that when I was 18, and I was like, wow.”
Later in life, shortly after his experience in the Cantata, Johnson took the step that helped define his life.
“I started going to seminary at night,” he recalled.
“I would try to work through lunch, get off work, and drive to Atlanta to the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. They had a hub in Atlanta. As soon as that was over, I came back and went to work the next day.” Johnson, who would drive to Atlanta once or twice weekly, said it took him 10 years to earn his degree. During that time, he began putting his education into practice.
“I started in ministry at Bellevue. I did children and outreach. It was part-time.”
But things changed in 2003. A pastor contacted Johnson, asking him to come to Jones County.
“He said, ‘I’ve got a little church up in Gray I want you to go preach at.’ So I said okay, and I was just going to fill in. It was a little church on the hill.
We had about probably 30-35 people on a good Sunday. The church took a chance on me. I’d never been a pastor. I was still in seminary when I applied here, but they hired me.
“And from that moment on,” he continued, “we’ve just seen God work out in a mighty way. As I always tell the church, we don’t only want God to show up; we want God to show out.
And that’s what God did here. He showed up, and He showed out. And that’s where the church is today.” The larger, multi-purpose building used now was built in 2009, and around 300 churchgoers are present Sundays, according to Johnson.
“And ‘we’ actually built this building,” he pointed out. “We put up every wall in here. We worked every Saturday for over a year.”
That was 16 years ago, and in the lobby now is an artist’s rendering of yet another building.
“And it’s not that we just want to build a building,” Johnson stressed. “It’s just that we believe we’re going to have a need for a building because we’re going to continue to reach people in this community. And as we continue to reach people in this community, we’re going to need more space.”
Johnson’s accomplishments at Bradley Baptist have come on a ‘part-time’ basis. “This is actually my first year as full-time.
I’ve been a bi-vocational pastor ever since until this year. I’ve always worked a full-time job and pastored a church.”
Johnson said church members have helped him.
“You have a lot of good volunteers,” he praised.
“You have a lot of good people that are willing to step up and serve, and they have.
“The other is,” he added, “you get to have a very supportive wife. My wife did things that I could not because I was either at work or on the road going to school. She handled a lot of that … She doesn’t get paid, but she spends a lot of time up here.”
Johnson expressed his pride in the church’s outreach work in the community, including Christmas projects. The minister said, however, that some of their focus in the season is different.
“A lot of people said, well, you know, during Christmas you do a lot of stuff because there’s needy people. But the Bible also says we need to honor people. It says give honor where honor is due. We gave every law enforcement employee at Jones County law enforcement, every employee at Gray Police, a smoked turkey.
“We also have gift cards that were given to 90-something workers at Lynn Haven,” Johnson noted. “We bought them all a $10 gift card from Scooters just to say ‘thank you,’ to honor them for what they do. They take care of precious elderly people, and that’s a tough job.”
Other Christmas activities include 15 or more members singing for Autumn Lane residents, ringing the Salvation Army bell for a day, responding to residents’ wish lists from Lynn Haven (Nursing Home) and Autumn Lane (Assisted Living) with gifts, the annual Breakfast with Santa at the church, and one specific project.
“There was a family in need, an elderly lady, so we put a metal roof on her house.”
There are numerous other activities the church undertakes throughout the year, including ‘Night to Shine,’ a prom for special needs individuals.
“This year we have 141 guests. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but 141 guests have to have 141 buddies.”
Security and other personnel are needed, and the entire sanctuary is emptied out to make room for the festivities.
Then there is the monthly Touching Hands Ministry.
“Every month we go to Lynn Haven. We file their fingernails, and we paint them. So we call it our Touching Hands Ministry, which they love because that’s where you can just sit down with them, you talk to them, you’re doing their hands, and then they put lotion on them and rub them. It’s really good.”
There are other, varied activities, Johnson pointed out, and he is appreciative of the volunteers.
“Really, our church is very active,” he commented. “Almost everybody has some type of ministry. We might not see that ministry each and every event, but it’s their passion, and they might do another ministry somewhere else.”
The veteran minister said he loves his first church and its people and believes it will be his last.
“I hope it is,” Johnson said. “I have no desire to go anywhere else. Some pastors want to move to the next bigger church. I look it from this perspective: If you want to move to a bigger church, make the church you’re at the bigger church … Every time we can make our churches bigger, that means we’re winning more souls for Christ.”
