Johnson was born in Greenville, and after graduating from J.L. Mann High School in 1986 he joined the Air Force. After four years of service, Johnson returned home. He would soon accept a calling into the ministry, taking over a church with 80 members from his grandfather in 1993. By 2001, the church had grown to more than 800 members. It now occupies a 25-acre campus in Southern Greenville County and today, Valley Brook Outreach Baptist Church is 1,800-members strong.

The growth is due mainly to the church's foundational calling, which is outreach. Johnson was awakened to the overlooked needs of people while ministering to a young man who was willing to listen to the Gospel, but he wanted to know how the church could help him during that moment, while he was hungry and homeless. That experience changed Johnson and it became a guiding force behind Valley Brook's mission.

Since then, the church has distinguished itself for ministering to the whole person and all of their needs. Valley Brook, in keeping with a new and spirited evangelical movement, offers a wide variety of outreach ministries that include things such as counseling for addictions, classes on budgeting and finance and programs to create job skills.

Johnson is ministry chairman of the Upstate South Carolina Business Group (USCBG), a consortium of churches partnering with the business community to facilitate job and economic opportunities in the Upstate.

WJMZ salutes Pastor Johnson for his work in this community, a new generation man of God who is making Black History in the Upstate.