Pastor to be feted for 50th year at St. Mark Baptist
4/9/2005The Rev. I.J. Johnson is being honored tomorrow and each Sunday in April for his 50th anniversary as pastor of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church on Detroit Avenue.
Pastor Johnson earned a bachelor of theology degree from Easonian Baptist Seminary in Birmingham, Ala., and attended Anderson College and Ball State in Indiana before moving to Toledo, where he also studied at the Toledo Bible College and the University of Toledo.
The minister founded St. Mark Baptist Church on Oct. 4, 1955, and the congregation purchased its present building at 1419 North Detroit Ave. in 1956.
In 2003, Pastor Johnson was named a Pastor of the Year by the Baptist Ministers Conference of Toledo and Vicinity.
Speaking tomorrow at Pastor Johnson's 50th anniversary celebration service at 4 p.m. will be the Rev. Forest Shears of First Baptist Church, Rossford.