Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Karl Johnson

Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer

Rev. Karl Johnson, head of the Jamaica Council of Churches, noting the adroit ability of others to commandeer both political and theological leadership roles, believes he is too much of his own man to try such a feat.

Instead, he said, he is committed to a religious path which he says gives full expression to his personhood.

Karl, a committed ecumenist who is also a much-sought-after preacher/speaker both in local multi-denominational circles and overseas, believes that one can experience full freedom of self as a Christian. His own life is a case in point.

Karl Johnson grew up with Christian parents, Lester Ezekiel Johnson and Vindell Yvonne. Daddy was an overseer at Caymanas Estate and a lay church leader and mother was a teacher for many years at Gregory Park All-Age School.

Life was pretty normal for Karl and his siblings and there was no pressure to work in Christian service.

The call

Karl attended St. George's College and then Calabar to do sixth form before enrolling at CAST (now the University of Technology ). The call to the ministry took definite shape at CAST.

Karl, who is today a storyteller par excellence, reflects that the story is told of one man who faced the ordination committee and, explaining his belief that he had been called, said that one day he had seen the peculiar words GPC flash across the sky. He interpreted them to mean Go Preach Christ. However, after his interview before the committee was completed, the panel told him, "No my son, those words meant Go Plant Corn."

His own story reads differently. At age nine Karl was at home one day when one of his father's friends, a businessman named Vassell, who had no interest in church, rolled up at the house in Caymanas in his old Valiant with an extraordinary story. Vassell, Karl remembers, said he had been at home listening to a programme when he heard an audible voice which said, "Karl is going to be a preacher to the nations."

"What he said made no sense, but it stayed with me," Rev. Johnson recalls.

While doing sixth form at Calabar, he said, he was impressed by the involvement of 'ordinary' students in chapel service and Christian ministry. It was the start of his awareness that he could be involved too. But, it was not until his second year in college that he felt compelled to inform his ministers that pastoral service was the career he wanted. They advised him to complete his studies first.

Johnson began his formal preparation for full-time Christian ministry in the mid-80s by entering the Jamaica Theological Seminary. During that same period, he embarked on an itinerant evangelistic ministry which has been a hallmark of his Christian ministry for many years.

In 1987, he enrolled at the United Theological College of the West Indies to engage in pastoral formation under the auspices of the Jamaica Baptist Union.

Ordained

In August 1990, he began his pastoral ministry in the Ulster Spring Circuit of Baptist churches in Trelawny. It was here that he was ordained to the Christian ministry on September 17, 1992.

In 1990, he had arrived in Ulster Spring with all his belongings in a Lada motor car and one dresser given to him by his mother. Poor materially, he was soon blessed by marriage to Yvette one year after arriving in Trelawny.

His wife (today and the information technology manger with GraceKennedy), he said, was to be an incalculable source of support and leader of the music ministry wherever she went.

The early years were part of an enjoyable learning experience for the couple. "Being involved in the cut and thrust of the ministerial art, you are going to make mistakes, but if you are serious and disciplined, you will learn from them, Rev. Johnson states in reflection on these times.

Early error

One such lesson, he said, was the early error of interpreting attendance at church as a sign of spirituality. "The lesson taught at Ulster Spring was that to come out at night was, for some, a death warrant."

In 1996, Rev. Johnson and his wife accepted a call from the Calvary Circuit of Baptist churches in St. James to serve on the pastoral team alongside the Rev. C. S. Reid.

The Montego Bay experience, he reflects, was enriched by the persona of Rev. Reid. "It was a wonderful experience to serve with someone of such experience. It was like being in a university."

The lesson learn in Montego Bay, Karl Johnson believes, was 'you are not just for some but for all, even those who think they do not need you'.

His community oriented ministry in Trelawny and St. James included work as chairman of the Albert Town High School, Alps Primary School and Freeman's Hall Primary School in Trelawny, Barracks Road Primary School in St. James and chairman of the St. James Ministers' Fraternal.

In 2001, the Jamaica Baptist Union decided that Karl Johnson was the man to lead the movement as general secretary.

Rev. Johnson reflects, "I did what I thought I would never do - leave congregational pastoring to come into institutional ministry. But, I believe God was preparing me".

Life at the JBU was not just about pushing paper, but also about discerning the direction for the denomination and being a pastoral supervisor for the churches and their ministries, the keeper of the record and the repository of information.

Karl Johnson believes deeply in the transformative role of the Church in society.

One of his biggest remaining challenges, he adds, is that of how "a believing community can let its voice be heard in a clear and non partisan way and yet one which is not devoid of sensitivity.

"We live in such a polarised environment and the Church is a part of that. There is nothing wrong with having opinions but they cannot replace the more profound one of who you are as a human being created in the image and likeness of God and what God demands of you."

He tries to rise to this challenge in all his roles.

Rev. Johnson also serves as chairman of the board of the United Theological College of the West Indies, as well as that of Calabar High School. He is also member of the General Council of the Baptist World Alliance. Karl Johnson is director of the board of National Religious Media Commission. He is a member of the Teachers' Services Commission and a board member of the Jamaica Business Development Company.

According to Yvette Johnson, she believes that her husband's core strengths lie in a unique ability to connect with people from all walks of life.

"It s a God-given talent."

She adds that, even though he is a strong decision maker, he has the ability to change when needed. "There are positions which were strongly held which I have seen change over time which tells you that he is someone who is growing."

Yvette and Karl Johnson are parents of sons Nicholas, Joel and Nathan.

The couple say that their strongest challenge in parenting has been that of raising boys who are being shaped by a generation which is truly foreign to them. They boys, they say, are not immune from the desires of others in their age group, but, as a couple, they think they have been fairly successful in imparting the right values to them.

In church, Karl Johnson has sought to also transmit similar values to the wider community in his role as spiritual father.

His ministerial role, Johnson states, "involves being the pastoral representative of God, seeking, discovering, interpreting and proclaiming his mind to the people".

A large part of his service, also involves "walking alongside people who often live on the margins, who were oppressed. This involves, he says, "no spotlight, no fanfare."

He believes that those (pastors) who are in service for fanfare and accolades will end up being sorely disappointed and perhaps, might be advised to seek fulfilment in some other sphere.