DANIEL WHYTE III, PRESIDENT OF GOSPEL LIGHT SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, REMINDS REV. KEVIN JOHNSON, THE NEW PASTOR OF THE HISTORIC ABYSSINIAN BAPTIST CHURCH IN HARLEM, NEW YORK THAT HE, WAS FORCED TO RESIGN FROM THE HISTORIC BRIGHT HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA, WHICH WAS STEEPED IN POLITICS FOR MANY YEARS UNDER PASTOR AND CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM H. GRAY III, AND TOLD YOU NOT TO GET INVOLVED IN POLITICS BECAUSE THE CHURCH WAS SICK OF IT, TELLS HIM NOT TO GET INVOLVED IN POLITICS AT THE ABYSSINIAN BAPTIST CHURCH BECAUSE THEY ARE PROBABLY SICK OF IT TOO. WHITE EVANGELICALS AND BLACK CHRISTIANS ARE GETTING TIRED OF PASTORS SPENDING THEIR TIME IN POLITICS. ABYSSINIAN CHURCH DOES NOT NEED FOR YOU TO STOOP SO LOW AS TO RUN FOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK OR CONGRESS OR THE PRESIDENCY, AND THEY DO NOT WANT YOU TO SPEND YOUR TIME CAMPAIGNING FOR A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. WHYTE HAS GIVEN THIS SAME MESSAGE AND WARNING TO AL SHARPTON, FRANKLIN GRAHAM, RAPHAEL WARNOCK, ROBERT JEFFRIES, AND ALL OTHER WHITE EVANGELICALS AND BLACK PROTESTANTS. GET OUT OF THE “HELL” OF POLITICS AND STAY OUT OF THE “HELL” OF POLITICS! “NO MAN THAT WARRETH ENTANGLETH HIMSELF WITH THE AFFAIRS OF THIS LIFE; THAT HE MAY PLEASE HIM WHO HATH CHOSEN HIM TO BE A SOLDIER.”
Rev. Kevin R. Johnson has resigned as senior pastor of the historic Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, according to sources.
He announced his resignation Sunday to church members.
Johnson has had disagreements with some church officials over his leadership and the direction of the church including his involvement in politics and other issues.
Sources say Johnson told church members that he would be leaving and is expected to step down as pastor in late October.
Johnson’s departure comes after ongoing strife at Bright Hope.
Last month, members of Bright Hope Baptist, at 12th and Cecil B. Moore, reportedly met after Sunday service for a contentious meeting about Johnson.
Church members have also been angry about the recent resignation of an assistant pastor, the Rev. George F. Taylor, who had been at Bright Hope for 48 years.
In March, Taylor abruptly resigned during a meeting with Johnson and three other church leaders, Taylor’s supporters said.
Taylor’s supporters said he had been fired for insubordination.
The anger over Taylor’s sudden departure was just the latest example of ongoing controversy at Bright Hope, which began as a Baptist mission in 1910 and was helmed for many years by the late U.S. Rep. William H. Gray III, and his father and his grandfather before him.
In April, the deacon board sent Johnson a registered letter asking for a formal church meeting to address concerns.
In addition to the controversy over Taylor’s departure, church members’ complaints include:
That Johnson failed to honor his promise to include a charter school and community center in a development that the church is involved with on the nearby Wanamaker School site.
That church officers have been repeatedly rebuffed in their request for an independent audit of church financial operations.
Johnson’s interest in politics also upset church members who said that he had promised not to get involved. Johnson had publicly expressed brief interest in running for mayor of Philadelphia in 2015, but later dismissed the idea.
Johnson, the fifth Senior Pastor of the nationally renowned church, is actively involved in social and community issues.
According to his biography on Bright Hope’s website, “Under his leadership, Bright Hope’s community development corporation, Bridge of Hope, is in partnership and building a $100 million, 14-story student apartment tower for Temple University students directly across from the church. Johnson has promoted economic empowerment by investing and depositing millions of dollars into United Bank, a Philadelphia owned and operated African-American bank.” The biography adds that: “Within six years of becoming the undershepherd at Bright Hope, more than 1,000 new believers have joined, several new ministries created, and countless hearts have been touched through God’s ministry.”
Currently, Johnson is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln University, and sits on the boards of the Urban League of Philadelphia, the Forum for a Better Pennsylvania, the Mayor’s Voter Task Force, and previously served on the Obama Campaign’s National African-American Clergy Advisory Board. A recipient of numerous awards and citations, Newsweek featured Johnson as one of the “up-and-coming” national post-Civil Rights ministers. Also Morehouse College inducted him into the prestigious Board of Preachers and Johnson is a frequent columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune.
Johnson is a Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude graduate of Morehouse College and was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. and Oprah Winfrey scholarships. He continued his studies at Union Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree as a Union Scholar, and received the prestigious Maxwell Fellowship, awarded to the seminarian most likely to succeed in parish ministry. Johnson earned the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree in Organizational Leadership and Transformational Learning from Columbia University.
He is married to Kimya S. P. Johnson, Esq., a labor and employment attorney at the law firm of Cozen O’Connor. They are the parents of three children.
Philly’s Rev. Kevin Johnson selected as new pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church
The congregation at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York selected on Sunday the Rev. Kevin Johnson, pastor of Dare to Imagine Church in Mount Airy, as its senior pastor.
Johnson is scheduled to assume his new role as Abyssinian’s pastor in mid-July, according to LaToya Evans, a spokesperson for the church. He will succeed the late Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, who died in October of 2022.
“With profound gratitude, I humbly accept God’s call to serve as Abyssinian Baptist Church’s 21st senior pastor,” Johnson said in the announcement. “This sacred responsibility fills my family and me with joy.”
Founded in 1808, Abyssinian is one of the oldest African American Baptist churches in the U.S. and, through the years, has been known for its social activism and community service under the leadership of pastors like Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the first African American congressman from New York, and Butts, who before his death helped to build the first new high school in Harlem in 50 years.
Abyssinian Baptist church has ministered through the Harlem Renaissance Era, through the American Civil Rights Era, and, more recently, was the first church to collaborate with the government on COVID-19 efforts, according to Evans. The church has also been home to several notable parishioners such as actress Cicely Tyson and the late style icon Andre Leon Talley.
“It has been a lengthy and thorough search and selection process where integrity, fairness, faith and inclusivity have been paramount, and the church has selected a celebrated candidate who will carry out Abyssinian’s mission as its 21st pastor,” Evans said.
Johnson was selected from among 40 candidates, according to the church’s pulpit search committee.
Johnson is not new to Abyssinian as he was directly mentored by Butts, serving as an assistant pastor before arriving in Philadelphia in 2007 to lead Bright Hope Baptist Church as its pastor for seven years.
In 2014, Johnson founded the Dare To Imagine Church with just 20 people in his home. The Philadelphia ministry now boasts a congregation of over 1,500 members on a 6.8-acre campus in Mount Airy. Under his leadership the church has donated three quarters of a million dollars to support local organizations that provide services to people in need. He also serves as founder, president and CEO of the Dare To Imagine Community Development Corporation.
Without a doubt, Johnson had a heavy presence in the community, serving as president and CEO of Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, or OIC. He also ran for Congress in 2018. He could also be heard on WDAS radio and had a featured column in The Philadelphia Tribune.
Johnson was a magna cum laude graduate at Morehouse College, where he was an initiate of the Psi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. He later received postgraduate degrees at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary.
According to Evans, Johnson addressed the status of Dare To Imagine Church on Sunday and shared a memo detailing his transition plans. It’s unclear who will lead the church in Johnson’s absence.
He is married to his college sweetheart, attorney Kimya Johnson, a corporate diversity leader and employment attorney. They have three children, Miles, Lena and Laila.
“This journey has left us humbled,” said Dana J. Fleming, chair of Abyssinian Baptist Church’s pulpit search committee. “Challenged, inspired, encouraged, and ultimately filled with excitement and gratitude for what God is doing in the life of God’s church.”
