Stan Johnson

…  simply enjoys pastors. He has a life-long appreciation for the Scriptures, and for Protestant/Reformed theology (e.g. Calvin, Bonhoeffer and Barth), combined with a forty-year appreciation for and use of New Testament Greek.  Given these interests and influences, nonetheless his native bent is toward literary expressions, particularly but not exclusively that of the novel.  He has pastored in California, Indiana and Massachusetts; and prior to ordination, he ministered among university students in Southern California. 

He has degrees from U.C. Berkeley, Princeton Theological Seminary, the University of Notre Dame, and Louisville Theological Seminary. 

He was born and raised ten miles outside of Salinas, California, the home of John Steinbeck, and therefore by locale, became very familiar with the world of The Red Pony, To An Unknown God, and East of Eden.  He has written an unpublished dissertation: Reformed Theology for the Twenty-first Century; three yet-unpublished novels, Brine Inlet, Morah Falls, The Narrows; and has written The Great Opening (a working resource to Mark’s Gospel) and The Sent One (a working resource to John’s Godpel), also published in Romanian. He hopes to publish further such resources.

With his wife, Mary, his great friend and champion, and with their three grown children and spouses, they regale in their seven grandchildren: Calvin, Ian, Mary, Max, Reid, Alec and Eli.  Mary and Stan now live in Noblesville, Indiana, and continue to have an ongoing passion for pastors, particularly those of Malawi, who have limited resources.

Present Calling

            Fundamentally, I believe that my present calling is to care for and encourage pastors, especially but not exclusively those pastors serving within difficult and/or impoverished settings.  Thus I believe:

            that I am to relate;

            that I am to teach;

            and that I am to write.

Although I have written two unpublished novels, my present projects have pastors as their primary audience.  My hope and prayer are that my relatively formal, literary and/or academic writing style will be an aid to my readers.

Early in my ministry experience (I was seventeen), a believing community identified “teaching” as a primary gift given to me.  As a consequence and to the present, I seek to share that gift: whether or not in worship, a classroom or retreat setting makes little difference to me.  I am happy to share and am energized by what I have been given.  Many are the hours I have delighted in teaching the Scriptures—in Southern California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Bangladesh, and most recently in Malawi and Romania -- and soon in Uganda.

In terms of relating, many are the arenas in which I have related to others.  For years I have met with others, primarily local church leaders and pastors, one-to-one or in small, monthly, lunchtime gatherings.  But now I find that I am in the process of becoming a “spiritual director,” which means that I now endeavor to encourage a three-way conversation between our Living Lord, another and myself.  This is a turn I did not anticipate, but I find that many of these conversations are occurring with PhD students in the Philippines, and that WhatsApp or FaceTime facilitate these conversations. I find such moments of “conversation” truly enlivening.