Neville Johnson

Neville Johnson is a former Missionary and Pastor in the Assemblies of God church in New Zealand. For most of the 1970s his church was the largest Pentecostal church in Australasia. He currently runs a ministry called The Living Word Foundation. ^[1]

Early years

From 1968 until December 1970 Neville and Josie Johnson served as missionaries in New Caledonia. It was then that they returned to New Zealand taking over the leadership of the Auckland Assembly following on from Bob and Noelle Midgley, a church which had entered a period of significant growth.^[2][3]

Queen Street AoG

The church moved several times as numbers grew eventually settling in the Auckland Town Hall and became known as the Queen Street Assembly of God. During this time the media began go show some attention to what was happening in the AoG, and Pastor Johnson did the first radio interview on commercial radio by an AoG pastor on 1ZB. He spoke on divine healing.^[4]

During this time Mission work with the Queen St Assembly as a base grew and a Bible College began, the Zion Bible Training Centre. This was a period of huge change in the Assemblies; Frank Houston resigned as Superintendent in 1977 and soon after Jim Williams was elected in his place.^[5]

During the 1970s issues arose in the assemblies for serious dialogue that included divorce and remarriage, church government, the structure of mission and the relationship of the AoG to other Pentecostal streams. Johnson served on the National Executive from 1971 until 1975.

Scandal

On 27 April 1983 at a special members' meeting at the Queen Street Assembly it was announced that Johnson had resigned, having admitted charges of misuse of office, and immoral, improper and deceitful conduct. His credentials were withdrawn, and such was the potential effect on the denomination as a whole, General Superintendent Jim Williams sent a message to all AoG pastors.^[6] Efforts were made to assist in his restoration, but he resigned from the denomination in February 1984. Many of the details of these events are unclear. What can be surmised is that Johnson had for some time believed that he had special revelation from God regarding the fact that his wife would be taken from him and he would be allowed to re-marry. To this end he felt he had special grace which allowed him to engage in several affairs over several years. When those involved came forward, and Johnson was confrounted, he refused to be corrected regarding the nature of his self imposed deception, and thus the ensuing fallout gradually diminished the church until today, all be it that it is no longer an AOG church, it numbers in the few hundreds as opposed to the once few thousands.

It needs to be noted that Neville Johnson was a sincere seeker of the Lord, and fell into the trap of "to the pure all things are pure." The reasons for this lay within his own heart and before the Lord Himself.

Neville Johnson was believed by many to be a Prophet. He would regularly visit Perth, mainly to a small pentecostal group "City Chapel" who met in a methodist church in Raglan Street, North Perth [1970-80s]. He was held in high regard there and gave direction and influence to a little known pastor "Frank Hultgren". Later in his ministry, he and his wife moved to Perth where Frank invited him to minister in his church. Frank then provided Neville with funds and staff to start his own fellowship/church in a Perth hotel (The Kings Ambassador hotel on Hay Street). Frank's church, City Chapel, had already moved into a new church building called "Shiloh Faith Centre" located in Balga, Western Australia [at the request of the resident pastor Bernice Hall. Shiloh Faith Centre later moved from Balga to Hepburn Heights where a new name of 'North City Christian Center' was adopted. It later became part of the Christian City Church movement and is now known as C3 Hepburn Heights.

An interesting aside here is that Neville Johnson brought a tape library /ministry with him to Perth which was established at Shiloh Faith Centre called the "Living Word Foundation".^[7] These tapes have later been transferred to CDs and the copyright seems to have left Shiloh Faith Centre.

Frank Hultgren mostly was a launching pad for Neville Johnson to rebuild his life and ministry in Perth, Western Australia. Frank had five children and two of them [Sandy and Ashley Hultgren] now run a church in Queensland.^[8] Darren Hultgren runs a church in Perth.^[9]

Frank retired from Shiloh Faith Centre and later to moved to Oral Roberts University and took up a position there.

From Ian Clark's book: ^[10]

“

Neville then moved to Perth, Western Australia where he established his own independent congregation. Following this, Pastor Johnson wrote a letter of repentance to the national Executive asking that forgiveness be extended to him. At it's August 1985 meeting the executive agreed to do this . . . He was also encouraged by the executive to write an apology to the Auckland Assembly for the hurt he had caused the church. Nothing appears to have come of this.

”

Current Activities

In the 1990s Johnson founded a church in Perth. He has since moved on from this and now runs The Academy of Light.

From the website:^[11]

“

The Academy of Light is an End time Training facility using the Internet and Satellite transmission which can be received direct to television sets and computer screens worldwide. Its purpose is to train and prepare Christians and non Christians for the end-times

”

His message now has a special focus on end time revelation, the ministry of angels ^[12] and The Book of Enoch, referenced on his website.^[13]

This has not been without controversy, with some debate over the validity of these visions and this teaching. ^[14]

Notes

1. ^ http://www.lwf.org.au
2. ^ Alphacrucis Journal
3. ^ p133 Clark
4. ^ p134 Clark
5. ^ p166 Clark
6. ^ p186 Clark
7. ^ http://www.lwf.org.au/
8. ^ http://www.victorygc.com.au/pastors-sandy-and-ash/
9. ^ http://www.c3churchglobal.com/profile/DarrenHultgren
10. ^ p186 Clark
11. ^ http://www.lwf.org.au/aol/
12. ^ Whitedoveministries.org
13. ^ http://www.lwf.org.au/aol/resources/
14. ^ http://gloryofhiscross.org/jerusalemtemple.htm

References

• Living Word Foundation Neville Johnson's site.
• Assemblies of God in New Zealand website
• Ian G. Clark Pentecost at the Ends of the Earth: The History of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand (1927-2003)
• Philip D. Carew, Māori, Biculturalism and the Assemblies of God in New Zealand, 1970 - 2008 (Thesis in PDF format)
• Jonathan Harper, “The Church that’s Taking Over Auckland,” Metro no. 29 (1983): 122-135.

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