Ministry, Where I’m Supposed to Be
April 10, 2025
Dr. Paul Johnson follows a call to counseling and crisis ministries
Listening can be its own liturgy. Imbued with spirit and intention; it becomes its own act of worship—reverence for how God manifests through the other person. As Dr. Paul Johnson was discerning the ministry to which he felt called, this was a truth he uncovered at the Edinburgh City Mission, which maintains a collaboration with five Scottish churches. The mission offers food and social services to clients experiencing a personal crisis. “It’s not a place where you just get a bag of food handed to you,” Johnson explains. “People come in, have a cup of coffee, talk with someone about what they need. It’s a place that affirms the dignity of the other person, recognizing they are also created in God’s image, and invites them to tell their story.” During the summer Johnson worked there, he provided crucial care to the people he served but also received an incredible gift. “I think I’ve found where I’m supposed to be,” he says contentedly and exhales.
Dr. Johnson comes to seminary after a career in academia. A former physics and astronomy professor, he earned a PhD in science in religion after he retired but found himself yearning to pursue a ministerial vocation. After a year in lay leadership at his local Methodist Church, he made the decision to enroll in Garrett’s MDiv program, but was unclear where that road would lead him. “I’ve been associated with school as either a student or faculty member since grade school,” he laughs. “I needed to figure out a way to serve the community, which is why last summer was absolutely seminal as I search for meaning.”
He soon discovered that the art of journeying with people tapped into this desire for service and connection. Cultivating pastoral relationships with clients became particularly rewarding, as he watched them claim agency over their own healing. “I was working with one man who suffered from drug addiction, anxiety, and depression; he was so sad that he just spent his time watching TV,” Dr. Johnson shares. “I asked him what he did when he wasn’t watching television and he said, ‘Well, sometimes I draw.’” Dr. Johnson invited him to share something he created and was stunned when the man returned with a striking oil painting of Jesus rendered on a sheet of cardboard. “I asked if I could buy it, and he looked astonished that someone would want it,” he says with sadness. “I hung it up in the food bank and, the next time he came in, he was completely floored.” Over the coming weeks, Dr. Johnson encouraged him to devote more time to his painting, suggesting he contact art galleries who might display his work. “The last time I saw him, he was dressed in a three-piece suit, beaming on his way to an art gallery,” Dr. Johnson recalls with a grin. “He thought this experience was a gift I gave him. But I felt I received something from the Holy Spirit, telling me that the work I was doing is life affirming—not just to others but to myself.”
Dr. Johnson also had opportunities to pray with various clients he served. “One man came from Dakar, where he grew up in a refugee camp,” he says. “I asked if we could pray together, and he answered, ‘Well, no, I’m a Muslim.” Undeterred, Dr. Johnson told him that he was glad to pray together in a way that would feel authentic to both of their faith traditions. “I said, ‘What if we pray at the same time, each in our own language?’” he explains. “So, there we sat, he’s praying in Arabic; I’m praying in English. Afterward, I looked at him and there wasn’t the same distance between us anymore.” Dr. Johnson shares that experiences like this were deeply shaped by the counseling classes he has taken at Garrett. “We spent time learning what it means to encourage people to engage and tell their own stories, without dictating the shape of that process,” he says. “It affirmed my way of doing soft evangelism where our primary purpose is to help people, hear their voices, and pray beside them. The moment it feels like coercion, that person is going to pull away.”
Back in the States, Dr. Johnson searched for another opportunity to offer pastoral care and has started working as a rape crisis counselor for the Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center. “By the end of the summer, I decided that I’m called to crisis ministries,” he says. “I can’t solve people’s problems, but I’m honored to be a person who walks beside them.” In a world that’s torn by an epidemic of isolation and loneliness, it’s also a chance to help people knit themselves into a wider community. “There’s such a hunger and thirst for intimacy,” he shares. “Whether it’s spiritual intimacy or just being able to tell someone your story, there’s a desire to have people see and appreciate us for who we are.”