Bio

Ministry Matters!

Pastor. Singer. Psalmist. Scholar. Founder. Real.

Reverend Guy S. Johnson is all these things, but his heart is to minister to the people of God – ALL of the people of God.

He started singing at 3. His late mother would tell everyone that he stood on a table and sang “Midnight Train to Georgia.” He hasn’t stopped singing since.

Guy has been blessed to sing on stages across the country, and with some of the best musicians on the planet. He has ministered through music with our modern day psalmists, both as singer and clinician. A student of the late Wesley Boyd (Richard Smallwood Singers), he learned the basics of ministry at Wesley’s feet – God and musical excellence. A true renaissance singer, Guy also studied with the late Ronnie Wells, founder of the East Coast Jazz Festival, and has worked with jazz vocalists Anthony Compton, Janine Gilbert-Carter, and Marlena Shaw.

A scholar, Guy holds a Master of Divinity Degree from the Lancaster Theological Seminary (PA), where he studied with Valerie Bridgeman, Greg Carey, Julia O’Brien, and Daryl Hollinger. He is also a proud graduate of Dominican University, River Forest, IL. 

Guy also holds a passion for activism, especially in the arena of sexuality and the Black Church.

He is the founding lead servant of The Sanctuary Center, a place for all people. The Sanctuary Center is more than a church – it is a place where all people, no matter who they are, can come and feel safe. It is truly a sanctuary. Guy describes it this way:

“We are a place where all persons are welcome, but all behaviors are not. We check our egos and attitudes at the door (physical or otherwise), because our focus is to love and serve God and Neighbor…with no exceptions.”

Outside of the church, Guy currently serves as an educator – he’s gone into the family business of teaching English Language Arts, serving the students in Prince William County (VA) Schools. Prior to returning to the classroom, he served as Interim Pastor of the North Congregational United Church of Christ (Just North UCC) in Columbus, Ohio. He also served as an interim pastor to congregations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the settled pastor of the two greatest little churches on earth: the Keysville Grace United Church of Christ in Keymar, MD, and the Mt. Pleasant Reformed United Church of Christ in Frederick, MD. Prior to ordination, he also served as Pastoral Assistant to Dr. Robert Apgar-Taylor at the Grace United Church of Christ, located in Frederick, MD. 

But in all of this, Guy keeps God first, for he understands that without God, he would be like a “ship without a sail”.