The Church of God Bahamas and Turks and Caicos will see two monumental changes take place after the 75th International General Assembly in August -- the official installment of a new national general overseer in the person of Bishop Moses Johnson and the Turks and Caicos church becoming autonomous.
Johnson, 54, will receive his official appointment at the assembly, to be held July 29 to August 2 in Orlando, Florida. He replaces Bishop John Humes, who served as overseer for 12 years and will retire in August.
The national overseer elect/acting overseer, and senior pastor of the "mother church" of the Church of God, won the position handily in October 2013 over 10 other challengers for the administrative bishop's position after receiving approximately 60 percent of the votes during the nomination ballot exercise.
He said the members showing their support in that fashion humbled him.
"Originally, I didn't really want the position, but I guess it was God who spoke. When you're going to take a position of such magnitude, you have to know that you are being led by the Lord, and I didn't want it to be of me. I wanted it to be of God. And I believe it was the will of the Lord, because God knows everything," he said.
The good thing, he said, is that the transition from Humes to himself would be a smooth one, as he has worked with Humes during his entire administration -- either as his national secretary or national treasurer. He has a good idea about the scope of the work that the administrative bishop has to do and what the work is all about.
Johnson also has ideas of his own that he wants to implement as the man in charge of the Bahamian arm of the church, which has its headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee. Evangelism, an increase in the church's membership and a sporting facility owned by the church are high on his agenda.
"We have a great number of young people and I want to create an atmosphere for them to be able to stay in the church, so we've got to put some things in place, and one of the first things I want to add is a gym that is owned by the church where our young people can have an outlet. Secondly, foremost on my mind is the evangelism thrust of the church. We're going to really be expanding the evangelism department and reaching out to people. And we want to see the membership of the church really increase. We want to really make a more forcible impact and do a much better job with our public relations.
The Pentecostal movement has been in existence in The Bahamas for over 100 years. Their world evangelization effort began in The Bahamas in 1909. The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos branch of the church has a membership of approximately 15,000.
As of the August general assembly, the Turks and Caicos will have autonomy and their own national overseer, the second big change that will come with Johnson taking the helm as national overseer. The Turks and Caicos church becoming self-governing he said is another important step that has to happen.
"When you've been a part of an organization for some 50-plus years, and you would have grown from no bishop to at least three bishops in the area, and some 20-plus ministers, and you've grown from two churches to 14 churches, it is time for them to control their own destiny," said Johnson. "And plus, they are a complete and separate sovereign nation, and whatever we did in the Turks and Caicos Islands had to be done under Turks and Caicos Islands law, and that kind of posed a little problem for us in that the Church of God. When you are responsible for property and territory, with all the legal ramifications, it is much easier for persons living within a country to deal with that, as opposed to somebody living outside the country being in charge and having to still deal with the internal laws," he said.
Johnson was ordained as the first youth pastor of the Church of God Cathedral located at East Street in 1987 before becoming the first full-time youth pastor in the Church of God on January 19, 1999. He served in that capacity for 16 years before he was elected national treasurer of the Church of God, while still serving as youth pastor. He later was elected national secretary.
In 2003 he was appointed senior pastor of the East Street Cathedral located at Lily of the Valley Corner. He was instrumental in the renovations to the "mother church" of the Church of God, and built the H.M. Pinder Senior Citizens Home and Youth Center without borrowing money from the bank.
In his second year as senior pastor, he started the Church of God Cathedral's Family Fun Day and established the now signature event of the church, the Favor, Blessing, Increase (FBI) Conference, which hosts hundreds of people yearly crossing denominations. Johnson also started the church's television program and continued the radio program, "Words of Hope", that has been running for 30 years.
Under his leadership, senior citizens within the church receive a monthly stipend. He organized home visits and ensured that clothing and food were available at the church for the needy. He also started the Church of God Cathedral's newsletter and opened the church's bookstore.
Now as the overseer elect/acting overseer and senior pastor of the "mother church" of the Church of God, he has an even greater task of carrying the Church of God to a higher level.
Johnson hopes to spend another 10 or 12 years in frontline ministry before he retires. He says it is not in his plan to be 70 to 75 years old and still be on the frontline, but he will continue to preach.
"I believe from zero to 30 years of age, a person should try to get as much education as possible, then between 30 and 60 years of age, an individual should work, and when you cross 60 years, you should prepare to depart for somebody else. So my job is to prepare for succession, so that some younger person would receive the knowledge that I have before I really punch my ticket to go to the great beyond," he said.
Paving the way for Johnson to do his job he said was the tremendous job done by the Humes. The outgoing national overseer was also a one-time president of the Bahamas Christian Council.
"Bishop John Humes has done a tremendous job for the Church of God. He and his wife, Jennie Humes, have labored long and hard and have brought the Church of God a long way, and we give our hats off to Bishop Humes who has done a tremendous job with the church. He's a people's person, and the kind of individual who has been dedicated to the work of the Lord. I am coming behind now, and picking some coconuts, and I'm eating them and some have jelly, but I would be remiss if I didn't remember the man who planted the coconut tree in the person of John Nathaniel Humes," he said.
With two more months before he's officially installed as overseer, Johnson said the Church of God is poised for greatness; he and his team; national secretary, Bishop Carlton Stuart, and national treasurer, Bishop Leslie Woodside, along with the national council to continue to be led by the Lord as they go about his work.
"It's a new season, but God is with us and the church is going to do great things," said Johnson.
Johnson is married to Cynthia Johnson. They have four children. Anniversary services in his honor will be held on Friday, June 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 29 at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

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