william h. johnson jr.

Bill was born and raised in South Knoxville, Tennessee. As a young boy he attended Sevier Heights Baptist Church and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior at age twelve. At that time, he surrendered to become a missionary. But that was not to be for the next several years.

After graduating from the old Young High School, he enrolled in East Tennessee State University, but dropped out after his sophomore year to pursue a career in hotel management.

The next twenty-five years were devoted to a very successful career as a General Manager for Holiday Inns, he was promoted to Assistant Corporate Controller for deven hotels. His hotel career took him from Indiana, to Colorado, to Georgia, and finally to Florida. It was while he was managing a hotel in Florida that the Lord reminded him of his commitment to serve Him.

Bill sold his house, and he and his wife Anna, moved to Springfield, Missouri where he enrolled in Baptist Bible College was a forty-seven-year-old freshman. While in school he served as associate pastor in a small country church, did a weekly radio broadcast and worked as chaplain in two nursing homes. He graduated in three years with a B.S. in Pastoral Ministries and was named to the National Honor Society and Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges.

Upon graduation, Bill and Anna moved back to Florida where they planted Eastside Baptist Church in the Tampa, Florida area. He has pastored churches in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. After moving back to Tennessee, and completed training with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board as “Intentional Interim Pastor” he served several churches as their interim pastor guiding them through the process of selecting their next pastor. During this time, Bill continued his education and earned his M. Div. and D. Min. degrees from Slidell Baptist Seminary.

Bill enjoys teaching the Bible, where he applies his philosophy of ministry as, “I want the people to leave on Sunday morning saying, ‘Wow, I can put that to work in my life tomorrow morning.”

His hobbies are taking long bike rides and playing his guitars and going out to lunch with his wife of fifty years.