This week’s blog introduces your students to James Bartlett
Johnson, a Kentucky Christian whose life exhibited both determination and
discipline. Determination is a virtue that, when added to discipline, opens the
potential for people to fulfill their God-given destinies. Ask your students what
they think about determination. Ask them to share instances when someone
they know showed determination. Discuss if they think a person’s determination will
make them succeed without being combined with discipline.
Then share about James Bartlett Johnson, an African American
man whose determination allowed him to fulfill his vocation because he prepared
with diligent discipline over a period of eight years. James Johnson was born
in around 1830 in Taylor County, Kentucky. He was converted to the Lord Jesus
Christ when he was an enslaved eighteen-year-old thanks to his mother’s
teachings and prayers. From that time, he knew that God had called him to
preach. He also knew that, until he was able to read the Bible, his preaching
potential would be extremely limited.
Being determined to follow God’s call for his life, Johnson
bought a spelling book. He taught himself how to spell and read using this simple text book. He started studying the Bible. He studied for eight years before
he preached his first sermon. Meanwhile, he married Mary Buchanan who was a
freed slave. The couple had a child. Then his master sold him, away from his family, down the river to
Louisiana. There, he preached the Christian message for the first time. It was
an effective sermon to which many people responded by coming to faith in Jesus
Christ. This made the new master angry. He beat Johnson and forbade him to
preach another sermon, but it did not stop him from preaching.
During the Civil War, Johnson served as a soldier in the
Union Army. He started churches for the troops. At the end of the war, now
emancipated, Johnson returned to Louisville to his wife and child. He became
the pastor of an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Springfield,
Kentucky. So many people received the Lord through his ministry that a revival
broke out. It also ignited so much prejudice and hatred that arsonists burned
down the church. It did not stop Johnson’s determination to be faithful to his
calling to share the Christian message. Over the course of his career, he
pastored and preached in many locations.
Determination kept Johnson faithful to his calling in the
face of much adversity. Discipline started him on the path. What aspects of Johnson’s
story interest your students? Is his life an inspiration for them? Are any of
them willing to share how his life impacts and inspires them?
c. 2021 by Lesley Barker
