In Honor of J. Foy Johnson, My Former Pastor

------Αρχικό μήνυμα------
Από: Steve Strang
Προς: Εμμανουήλ Χρύσης
Απάντηση σε: info@charismamedia.com
Θέμα: In Honor of J. Foy Johnson, My Former Pastor
Εστάλη: 3 Αυγ. 2012 19:59

Can't view this in HTML? Click here to view web version. August 3, 2012 by Steve Strang In Honor of J. Foy Johnson, My Former Pastor
When J. Foy Johnson passed away on July 29 at age 90, he was prominent enough in Assemblies of God circles that we ran his obituary in Charisma News. But what we didn't print was that he was my pastor when I was a teenager and had been a family friend since then.
Friday as they lay him to rest in my hometown of Lakeland, Fla., I will be two states away. I regret I can't attend his service to show my deep respect and to offer my condolences to his eight children. So I'll share my thoughts here to honor the life of a man most of my readers never knew. But you can learn from his life. Click here to read his official obituary. What follows are my memories:
He was a godly and spiritual man. There was never the hint of scandal. He exhibited Christ's love all the years I knew him. There's no question he loved Jesus. He grew over the years as a leader. He started his preaching career with his older brother as Nazarene evangelists and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a church in Alabama, where he met his future wife. He turned down a pharmaceutical scholarship to Auburn University to go into the ministry and pastored in Georgia and in a small town in Florida before moving to Lakeland in 1952 to lead Lakeland First Assembly of God. When I moved to Florida in elementary school I was impressed by how big Lakeland First Assembly was. It wasn't a megachurch by today's standards, but it was considered huge back then. Brother Johnson set the foundation for the explosive growth that took place in the church in the decades that followed when he was elected district superintendent of the Peninsular Florida District of the Assemblies of God in 1966. I was in 9th grade then.
In the 24 years Brother Johnson was district superintendent, the district grew and today is one of the largest in the denomination. In 1976 he was elected an AG non-resident executive presbyter for the southeastern region, a role he filled for 18 years. He held many other important positions, including ...
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