Pastor Walter Johnson To Celebrate 100th Birthday

PLANTATION, FL (January 5, 2001) - When Rev. Walter Johnson steps to the microphone to offer the blessing at Covenant Village of Florida, heads bow as his rich voice resonates throughout the dining room. Set to celebrate his 100th birthday January 10, Johnson may have stopped working last summer, but as Chaplain Emeritus at Covenant Village he continues a pastoral ministry he began in 1928.

A minister of the Evangelical Covenant Church, Johnson was born in Los Angeles in 1901. By the time he was old enough to choose a career, his mother thought the new automotive industry would be promising. She hoped he would be an automobile mechanic or salesman.

However, Johnson felt God calling him to ministry. In 1927, he set out for Chicago in a Model-T Ford to pursue a degree in ministry at North Park College and Seminary. In 1928, he began preaching at Chicago's Lakeview Covenant Church while attending school. He received his theology degree in 1931.

Johnson was ordained in 1935 while serving a Covenant church in Berkeley, California. During 72 years of ministry, he served as an Evangelical Covenant Church pastor in six states and two Canadian provides. In 1945, while a pastor in Everett, Washington, he started a weekly Christian radio program called Harbor Lights, featuring the talents of young people from the church. Johnson presented a brief message and his wife, Esther, played the piano.

The Johnsons moved to Florida in 1978 when Johnson accepted the position of chaplain at Covenant Palms, a retirement community in Miami. When the community moved to Plantation and was integrated into Covenant Village of Florida in 1981, Johnson moved along. Then 80 years of age, he and Esther took up residency in the continuing care retirement community where he continued his work as chaplain.

Four generations of Johnsons will help celebrate his landmark birthday at 2 p.m. Saturday, January 13, at Covenant Village. Special guests will include LeRoy Peterson, recently retired as a missionary to Japan and member of one of Johnson's early confirmation classes in Everett; Donn Engebretson, executive director of the Department of Ministry; and Southeast Conference Supt. Kurt Miericke.

Covenant Village of Florida is a nationally accredited not-for-profit continuing care retirement community established in 1977 to serve the needs of senior adults in Broward County. It is administered by Covenant Retirement Communities, Inc., on behalf of the Board of Benevolence of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

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