Jay Johnson
Portfolio created 8/11/2010
Who I am:
God has called me to full time ministry in worship and discipleship. Lord has given me gifts and abilities to lead wholehearted worship. I have also been given a passion for reaching the lost as well as ministering to believers. Over the past few years, I feel God has been preparing me for a broader role of ministry that encompasses education and outreach. Reaching the un-churched and those who have lost their way because of “religious hang-ups” has become the passion of my ministry. God has blessed me with many ways to draw people to Christ. He has given me many strategic methods to accomplish these goals.
My vision is to bring every person that comes to church to authentic, wholehearted worship that humbles self and seeks the manifest presence of God and growing to be more like Christ in our daily walk through real discipleship.
Qualifications:
I excel in worship programming and leadership.
I have discovered, taught, and mentored beginning musicians to play in our praise band, helping them to realize their God-given talents and taking them to new levels.
I play acoustic guitar, which is how I prefer to lead worship. On keyboards, I read chord symbols and can play by ear. I also play trumpet, French horn and baritone. I am knowledgeable in composition, arranging and charting music. I also transpose music. I have had four years of classical voice training. I have a wide range of drama skills, including opera.
I am skilled in using Power Point, Song Show Plus and Media Shout for video projection. I love using I-Worship Videos to enhance the worship experience, as well as a variety of media resources to enhance the overall worship experience.
I have led ‘FAITH’ based evangelism and have seen dramatic church growth as a result of it. I counsel individuals and couples, lead, teach and organize countless events for all ages.
God has gifted me with administrative and organizational skills that have been necessary in the growth and function of the church. I have found myself in this position in the past several churches God has placed me in.
I have an outgoing and fun-loving personality. I love meeting new people and spending time getting to know them.
I am vision-driven person. I set goals, make a plan and then achieve those goals. I don’t leave tasks half-done. I have a very strong work ethic, which I believe is important to have in a position where you have to be self-motivated. I work well with people who are task oriented and driven like myself. I try to motivate and encourage those around me as well. I also enjoy brainstorming for new ideas and ways to step outside the box to draw the lost to Jesus.
Employment:
April 2010-Present
Interim Minister of Music/Worship Programmer, Hernando Baptist Church, Hernando, MS
450-550 Members
My responsibilities as Interim Minister of Music started with to creating and organizing three rotating praise teams for the Contemporary Worship service. I am responsible for teaching and leading musicians and vocalists. I also lead a Worship Choir for the Traditional service. I lead praise team and band practices twice a week and choir practice weekly. I work with video and media production each week.
December 2008- April 2010
Minister of Music /Administration Grace Point Fellowship SBC. Batesville, MS
Less than 100 Members
Grace Pointe Fellowship is a new church plant sponsored by the Mississippi Southern Baptist Association. My responsibilities were to create a worship team that led the church in a contemporary format. I have mentored musicians and vocalists from the birth of this plant. I have organized and planned worship services as well as do administrative office duties of the church. My wife and I held weekly youth outreach functions for community teens. I played a large part in starting Grace Point Fellowship, including creating the Vision, Purpose, and Goals, ect.
I also taught Private and Guitar and Voice lessons as well as guitar classes at a local school, as well as ran my own wholesale and retail business working with reclaimed wood. I make furniture, crosses and frames from old barn wood.
January 2007- June 2008
Worship Pastor Hosanna Family Worship Center, Pope, MS
250-350 Members
My responsibilities started with planning and administrating worship services each week. I organized and led two rehearsals per week, creating teams of rotating vocalists and musicians. Other responsibilities in the church included counseling, visitation, and administrating office functions. As a Worship Pastor, I focused on being more of a pastor than just a music leader. Accountability was an important focus within my group.
I also mentored a small fellowship group that met at my house weekly. I had responsibilities within the multi media of the church such as programming, video and correlating them together with the worship services. I also oversaw staging and lighting crews as well as trained sound, lighting and video technicians for our services which were very contemporary in nature.
April 2006-August-2006
Minister of Music and Education, First Baptist Church, Lake Alfred, FL
250-300 Members
As a Minister of Music, I was responsible for leading and planning four (4) worship services a week. I led two blended worship services on Sunday morning with praise team, band and choir. Sunday night services were contemporary style worship services majoring on praise and worship music. I led worship with acoustic guitar. I was in charge of scheduling special music for all services, weekly choir rehearsals and praise band practice. On several occasions, I taught Wednesday night services as well as led the music. I implemented drama as an intricate part of worship services. My educational responsibilities provided a various range of tasks. I was responsible for overseeing all Sunday school teachers and classes. In my task of choosing the appropriate materials for Sunday School, I put the FAITH evangelism into practice. I also led a Couples Sunday School class as well as a couples’ Bible Study in my home. I led church-wide in-reach and out-reach for our church community. I made hospital and home visits. I also counseled individuals and couples as it was needed.
July 2003-December 2005
Minister of Music and Education, First Baptist Church, Nesbit, MS
200-350 Members
My duties reflected those of an Associate Pastor and Church Administrator. I planned 3 weekly services, held choir and band practice, and led those services each week, in which I was solely responsible for all decisions for anything concerning music or worship. I led blended services leaning toward contemporary style there. I did outreach ministry, such as hospital and home visits, as well as organizing a church wide visitation program and implementing it to reach out to our community. I was in charge of planning, organizing and carrying out all types of church events. I counseled with individuals of all ages as well as couples. Some other responsibilities I had were supervision of paid staff, teaching men’s discipleship classes, conducting weekly leadership meetings, making decisions for and ordering all education materials, creating and implementing a record system for small groups, making a budget for all Music Ministry and Education Ministry and presenting those budgets for approval. On occasion, I led the church business meetings and prayer services and when needed, I preached the message. I put together our own Passion Play style presentations for outreach each Easter that had great success rates in seeing lives changed.
Aside from my church position, I taught private and group guitar lessons, led revivals, seminars and conferences for several different churches and conducted weddings and funerals.
February 2002-July 2003
Minister of Music, First Baptist Church, Arkansas City, KS
450-500 members
I ministered to the spiritual and physical needs of the corporate church body with particular emphasis in Worship and Children’s Ministries. This included developing, organizing, recruiting, training, and leading the Worship Band and Praise Teams as well as choirs for Worship Services. I led a contemporary service and traditional service on Sunday morning and blended services in the evening. I led the Children’s Ministry for preschool through grade school, which involved creating, organizing, recruiting, and leading all activities for children, such as Missions Club, Children’s Camp, Vacation Bible School, Team Kid, Children’s Choir and Drama. I created and directed a Youth Drama Team and a Puppet Team. I supported the Youth Pastor by helping with many youth functions, such as Acquire the Fire weekend retreats and ski trips in which I led worship for them. I arranged for many local and well known artists to come and perform, such as Lenny Leblanc, and Paid in Full, and organized group trips for the church from concerts to Promise Keeper Conventions.
I was involved with the community there in a number of ways. I developed, organized, and directed a city-wide “9-11 Remembrance Service” and Praise in the Park” that involved all area churches as well. Both were highly successful. I taught music at Ark City Christian Academy as a volunteer for all ages K – 12. I also taught private voice lessons and guitar lessons.
October 1998-February 2003
Minister of Worship, Calvary Baptist Church, Batesville, MS
250-350 members
I led worshippers, musicians, and adult and youth choirs in a wide range of music styles. I led two blended services on Sunday and on Wednesday night. I directed passion play style musicals, Christmas cantatas, and youth concerts. I worked with the youth group for lock-ins, fellowships, and special functions. I started a senior adult program and took them on several day and overnight trips for various places for fellowship. I arranged for various groups to come and hold concerts as well as arranging for different groups to go out of town to concerts and events. I took our youth choir on a 10 day concert tour in Mississippi and Alabama. I led many worship at many revivals in other churches and sang at many funerals and weddings.
May 1992-July 1998
Minister of Music, Independence Presbyterian Church, Batesville, MS
I led worshippers, musicians and choir in traditional and southern gospel style music. I led annual Christmas and Easter Cantatas, and sang at many weddings and funerals. I also taught Sunday school and served as a Deacon.
1986
Radio Disc Jockey, WBLE Radio Station, Batesville, MS
1985
Minister of Music, North Batesville Baptist Church, Batesville, MS
I led worshippers, musicians, and choir in traditional and southern gospel style music as a summer job while in college.
1983-1984
Minister of Music, Union Baptist Church, Kossuth, MS
I led worshippers, musicians, and choir in traditional and southern gospel style music. I worked with the youth group and directed the Christmas cantata and various other events while attending college.
Training:
2008
Integrity Worship Leaders Conference
Mobile Alabama.
2005
Timothy Barnabas Conference with Dr. Johnny Hunt, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, GA
Integrity Worship Conference, Mobile, AL
2003
Integrity Worship Conference, St. Louis, MO
Cowley College, Arkansas City, KS-Continued education and religion classes
2000
Integrity Worship Conference, Atlanta, GA
1999
Worship Seminar by Tom Krauter, Memphis, TN
1991-1994
Shelby State, Memphis TN-Worked towards B.A. in Music Education with emphasis in voice and choral direction
1983-1986
Northeast Mississippi Community College, Booneville, MS. I majored in music education and took courses in secondary education.
Certification:
2003
Licensed and ordained as a SBC minister, First Baptist Church, Nesbit, MS
Personally Speaking:
Prior to our move to Kansas, the ministry positions I served in were bi-vocational. I worked for 15 years as a brick mason, both as an employee and an employer. While at Calvary, I stopped laying brick and worked as a sales representative for Old South Brick Company out of Jackson, MS. Though it was a frightening step, I knew without a doubt the Lord was calling me to be devoted to Him in full time ministry. I must say, I am thrilled that I finally took the step of faith.
I have started a small business of making and selling crosses made out of old barn wood.
Besides woodworking, I love to fish and hunt, but seldom get the chance. My wife and I are both from Batesville, MS. We lived in Memphis during the first years of our marriage then returned to Batesville when our first child was born. I am 45 and my wife is 39. We have been happily married for eighteen years and have three children, Culley, age 15 Jacey, age 13, and Gaddie, age 12. Allyson has a degree as lab technician. She is very passionate about serving the Lord and our family. She is completely supportive of my calling, and always helps me in any way she can. God has given her the same passion to worship the Lord as he has given me. Allyson has led women’s discipleship ministries and taught many Bible studies in past churches where we have served. She created and painted backdrops and staging for many of our dramas. She has been instrumental in Media and Video productions in every place where we have been in ministry. She also has created and led church-wide drama teams.
She loves helping however the Lord leads and has always been involved with various church ministries. We are both passionate about missions and have gone on mission trips to South America twice and here in the states. We have done some speaking together as a couple on marriage and relationships. Allyson and I are alike in that we pour ourselves into whatever we are involved with to see it to success.
We are both totally committed and excited to go wherever the Lord calls us.
I have a personal goal of finishing my music degree, which I lack just a few hours and going on to seminary. I would love to see this happen in the very near future.
My Personal Testimony
I was saved in Sunday school at the age of nine at First Baptist Church in Batesville, MS. I came to the realization that I was a sinner and in need of a Savior. I found out that the only Savior was Jesus Christ, God’s precious, one and only Son, who left heaven to teach us how to live and sacrifice His own life for me. On the third day after His death, He was raised from the dead and He is seated at the right hand of the Father. I know He will return one day, because God said He would. I believe the Bible is God breathed from Genesis to Revelation and depend on it to teach me how to live.
My mother is credited to making sure my brother and I were in church every week as a child. I lived in a home with an alcoholic father, who passed away 5 years ago. Because of the environment I grew up in, I had to work for everything I had and learned to persevere through tough times.
I heard the call to Music Ministry at the age of fifteen. I knew without a doubt that the Lord had called me to a life of service for Him, for His Glory. But while I was in college, I began to turn my back on the Lord and my calling. Before I knew it, the life I was once seeking became a memory. My life was now all about living for myself. I left college and began traveling with a secular band and working in masonry.
It was not until I married my wife that I began to hear the voice of God whisper to me again, and I started to turn back to the God I once knew. I became the Minister of Music of the church that my wife grew up in and stayed there in service for eight years. Unfortunately, there was no conviction of sin in that particular church. I was still able to live my life just as I pleased, then I would just show up and go through the motions at church and lived unchanged.
Praise God, He had plans to change our lives drastically! In 1998, we left that church and moved to one that preached sin and repentance. It was then that my wife, at 28, was saved, and I came to a newness of life with my LORD. I made a rededication to God and my calling and things have not been the same since! Within a few months, the Lord called me as Minister of Music in that same church. It was there that my passion began to burn for true, authentic worship and desiring to lead the people to worship “In Spirit and in Truth”. That is still my relentless desire daily. I will never be able to praise God enough for what He has done and continues to do in my life!
Thank You, Jesus!
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