Meet Bishop Johnson

Apostle Raymond Allan Johnson accepted the call to the Ministry as a young man. Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, Apostle Johnson – who we call “Pastor Ray” – accepted Christ in November 1974; and he preached his First Sermon on the Third Sunday of April 1975, at the Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, in Jacksonville, Florida.

He was ordained on Sunday April 9, 1978, at the New Mt. Vernon Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan.

Pastor Ray’s earliest years in the Ministry were spent in Youth Ministry. He was the Minister to the YouthFellowship at Bethel, from 1975 until 1977; the Youth Choir Director at New Mt. Vernon, from 1977 to 1978; and directed Bethel's Annual Youth Retreats from 1979 to 1982. Pastor Ray has five years' direct experience in Urban Missions, gained during his tenure as the Executive Director of the Christian Mission Center – known today as the Jacksonville HelpCenter.

For his last two years at Bethel, Reverend Johnson served as Assistant to the Pastor.

In 1983 he returned to Detroit, and a decade later joined the Second Unity Full Gospel Baptist Church. In 1993 he became the Apostolic Adjutant to Bishop Gregory M. Davis, Sr. – General Overseer of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship. After Bishop Davis resigned from Second Unity Elder Johnson continued as Adjutant to the new Pastor, Bishop Clarence L. Morton, Jr. – who was at the time the Bishop of Interdenominational Ministries for the Fellowship.

In 1993 Apostle Johnson also established Elder Raymond Allan Johnson Evangelistic Ministries, Inc. (ERAJEMI), as a Ministry to churches and pastors, and in response to changes in the federal tax laws that applied to church tax exemption - particularly under the rules for Article 501 Section (c)(3) of the U. S. Internal Revenue Code. The goal was to create a Ministry that would specialize in providing guidance and professional advice to Pastors and other key church leaders, in all matters relating to church fiscal management.

In the course of time the initial objectives were expanded to include small businesses and non-profit corporations. Also, owing to Elder Johnson's personal love for design, desktop publishing, and overall Web Design, an additional design component was added, called Living Concepts, which is today a part of the Destiny Digital Media Group.

In addition to Ministry to churches, as stated above, ERAJEMI is a Totally-Evangelistic and Evangelical Ministry. Elder Johnson's twenty-three years' experience in the Watchtower Society has afforded him special preparation for Ministry to people bound in cults, and other heterodoxical religious movements. In 1998 he established "XJW-Central" as a Ministry to Jehovah's Witnesses and former Jehovah's Witnesses, and the first "Virtual Church," Abyssinian Church of the Living Word. Today XJW-Central boasts almost 150 members throughout the United States, as well as Berlin, New Zealand, Italy, Holland, El Salvador, Ukraine, Fiji, and - of course The Peoples Republic of China.

Through the years Pastor Ray has been blessed to share his gifts with the Body of Christ, in the areas of Evangelism, Urban Evangelism, Christian Apologetics, Ministerial Training, Christian Education, The Ministry of Protocol and Helps, and Church Administration.

In April 2004 he organized and incorporated Hope Fellowship, in the state of Michigan, and began regular services in Detroit's Masonic Temple under the banner: "Hope Fellowship: Home of the Abyssinian Church of the Living Word;.

Hope Fellowship struggled in the beginning, but having a legal structure made it possible for Pastor Ray to carry the Ministry to Lorain, Ohio where he organized again in August 2004, under the name DESTINY FELLOWSHIP.

Destiny also faced many of the challenges common to new Ministries, especially in finding a permanent home. But early on, God continually granted favor. With no funds for a building, the earliest services were held in a park. But when the weather forced the church to find an indoor location, the Lord opened a door for them at the Spitzer Plaza Hotel, in Lorain. The church lost its home again, when that hotel closed without notice. But in February 2005 God again granted favor in providing an even larger meeting place in the Spitzer Conference Center, on the campus of Lorain County Community College. Worship continued there until services were suspended, from July 2005, until the new beginning here in China.

Year of Destiny

Pastor Ray had begun a series of messages in the fall of 2004, called the "Destiny Series." These messages culminated in the first message of 2005 where he proclaimed "2005: The Year of Destiny." That launched us forward, under our new name: DESTINY FELLOWSHIP - In May 2005 the Abyssinian Church of the Living Word became "One Church in Two Locations," Ohio and Michigan, when we began to meet for worship in a little park on the shores of Lake Erie.

Truly, God is faithful to His prophetic Word, and 2005 proved indeed to be a year of destiny! From the second to the third Sunday in April, Pastor Ray celebrated his Ministerial Anniversaries - 30 years in Ministry on the 2nd Sunday, and the 27th anniversary of his Ordination, on the 3rd Sunday.

At the Beginning of the year, in 2005, Bishop Thomas G. Mitchell approached Pastor Ray to write a protocol manual for the fledgling Apostolic organization he presided over - United Kingdom Builders International Ministries, Inc. The last week in April he was one of nine pastors elected to the office of Bishop at the UKB Spring Conference in Port Huron, MI.

In October, after the end of his assignment with Ford Motor Company at the Lorain,Ohio Assembly Plant, Pastor Ray accepted one of the biggest challenges of his life. He accepted an assignment as a contractor to - Jiangling Motors Corp., Ltd. (JMC) - Ford's Joint Venture in Nanchang, in the Peoples Republic of China, not fully discerning why the Lord would send him on such a peculiar venture, Bishop-elect Johnson packed his bags and headed east – Far East! Although the assignment was in thesecular realm, God opened a pathway for a new beginning in Ministry as well.

Turning China Upside Down!

The year ended with a grand entrance to the next level of destiny, for Pastor Ray - now Bishop-elect Johnson. On August 4, 2006 Bishop-elect Johnson was formally consecrated into his office, during this year's annual Kingdom Conference, convening at the UKB World Headquarters church - Open Arms Cathedral - in Toledo, Ohio.

God then began to lay the ground work for the launch of Destiny Fellowship - China, by introducing him to Peter Leon, whom he would succeed in Ministry in Nanchang.

Peter had worked in China for JMC for three years, and during that time established a fellowship in his home. In time he made the acquaintance of Brother Immanuel and Sister Sara, who were instrumental in helping him to grow the Ministry in Nanchang.

During the 2005 Christmas Holiday, Bishop-elect Johnson and a small delegation met Peter and Terese Leon for dinner in Michigan, where Peter gave him information on how to contact Brother Immanuel.

After he returned to China from his Christmas vacation, he made an appointment to meet Immanuel and Sara. To his surprise, Bishop-elect Johnson was told that nanchang had already been systematically divided into 27 Ministry Zones --- corresponding to the 27 colleges and universities in the city -- and that there were pastors serving in 16 of those Ministry Zones.

Destiny Fellowship started on a chilly Saturday night with eleven Saints from Nanchang and even Shanghai. In the first four months, Destiny:

• Was blessed to grow to a membership of more than fifty members;
  
• Merged with the Chinese-language church formerly pastored by Brother Peter, and gave the Church the name "City Conquest"
  
• Launched the web site for Destiny China and City Conquest, borrowing the URL formerly belonging to Abyssinian Church of the Living Word: http://acolw.org;
  
• Launched a second web site - still under construction - at the URL http://destinychina.org;
  
• Began laying the groundwork for "Nanchang Language Institute" - a Ministry Center for training Chinese-speakers to improve their English, and English-speakers to improve their Chinese;
  
• Baptized eleven new Saints in Jesus' Name in the bathtub in Bishop-elect Johnson's apartment;
  
• Held a massive pre-Easter rally and service for students from the 27 colleges located in Nanchang;
  
• Published its own songbook, entitled Songs of Destiny: Volume I. The first printing had 50 English-language songs and an MP3 playlist. It was not very long out, before its size doubled with the addition of another 50 Chinese-language songs;
  
• Established Nanchang Ministers' Institute for the training of men and women for Ministry throughout all of China;
  
• Launched a third web site - still under construction - at http://ncministers.org;
  
• Anointed twenty NMI students, on May 6: the Inaugural Day of the Institute.
  

Our Ministry theme in 2006 was "Turning China Upside Down for Jesus Christ," based on the segment of Acts 17:6 which says, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too ... !"

Who can say how far God will take the Ministry in Nanchang? It is our goal to reach a thousand new souls within the next two years for each fellowship -- Chinese and English. Beyond that both Pastors have agreed that our goal is to infect China like a virus with the good news of the Gospel. Bishop Johnson sees the day when the world will look and marvel at how powerful the Church in China has become. We are standing with him in prayer for that day.

The day after NMI was launched; Pastor Ray and Pastor Immanuel were walking along together, when the Spirit of the Lord simultaneously dropped the word "HARVEST!" into their spirits. God made it clear that 2007 would be a year that would see a great harvest of souls come to Christ in China. He also put a great burden in the heart of Bishop Johnson to " ... Pray ... the Lord of the harvest, that he ... send forth labourers into his harvest." Matthew 9:37-38 And so we began to assemble the architecture for the Macedonia Movement Campaign.

We ask you to prayerfully consider your role in helping us to Prepare for the Ingathering that God has promised us in 2007.

That day before it was all over the two pastors found themselves reflecting on the fact that
Destiny China already had members from India, Africa, China, and America, making it a truly international Ministry. Pastor Immanuel believed that God had a better name for the "City Conquest" Chinese fellowship; and indeed He did. Before their walk was over - the Lord had settled on the new name:

HARVEST CHINA INTERNATIONAL CHURCH!!!

We are blessing God in advance for the prophetic outcome embodied in this wonderful new name!

And we solicit your prayers that God will give us the workers we will need to get our house ready for the Ingathering in 2007.

---

Prayerfully and Respectfully Submitted

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY of

THE CHURCHES OF THE LIVING WORD

U. S. A.

© 1993, 1999 - 2007