Rick and Merilee Johnston pastor New Life Bible Church in Wealdstone, Middx England but started their life together in the United States.
Pastor Rick was born in Los Angeles, California but raised all over the United States as his parents moved back and forth across the nation to fulfill what they believed was their evangelistic calling. Merilee was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Damascus, Oregon just outside of Gresham.
Pastor Rick was saved June 6, 1963 in Chelan, Washington. He realized he was a sinner and needed God and one morning climbed out of his bed and knelt on the floor and asked Christ to come into his life. Merilee received Christ during a vacation Bible school as a young girl.
Rick and Merilee met at Portland Bible College after Merilee had transferred from a Canadian Bible college. They married in the August after their graduation in Portland, Oregon.
The Johnston family has four children, three born to them, and they are all involved in the ministry. Janelle is 31, Angela is 29, Jared is 27 and Jimmy is 25. Janelle is on the worship team, is a steward and helps mentor young girls and co-leads a pastoral cell group with her sister Angela. Angela is a worship leader and co-leads a pastoral cell group with her sister Janelle. Jared is married to Wawira and is in charge of the Audio/Visual department. He and Wawira will soon lead a pastoral cell group. Jimmy is married to Hannah and they ran the Bookstore ministry and have now moved to work with Chip Kawalsingh who is married to Hannah’s sister, Sarah in Leicester, England. Chip and Sarah pioneer a church that is growing and abundantly blessed.
Rick and Merilee both graduated from Portland Bible College. Pastor Rick went on to take further studies at Warner University and Western Baptist Theological Seminary. He was an elder at Bible Temple/City Bible and directed the counseling department and was a full time instructor at Portland Bible College.
Pastor Rick has worked at a bank, tree nursery, gas station, demolition, charity store, pig farm, trailer manufacturing company, painting business and hospital alongside of training and working in ministry. Merilee worked at a bank until the children were born and has worked in care homes over the years caring for the elderly.
While at Bible Temple, Rick’s ministry involvement included teaching Sunday School, visitation of the elderly, prison ministry, counseling of adults, he taught at Portland Bible College for 12 years, was an elder, worship leading, did youth ministry, was a district pastor, ministered in presbyteries and prophetic ministry, was a trustee, taught marriage groups, traveled in overseas missions, etc.
After moving to England from the United States, Rick and Merilee Johnston started New Life Bible Church from scratch in October of 1984. They are currently a city church with about 350 in attendance spread across an area of ten miles with some exceptions.
Pastor Rick leads a local group of 9 churches in weekly prayer with the pastors and is involved in community evangelism working together to reach the community. Merilee heads up the Women’s Ministry, Head of Worship Department, and as a homemaker she keeps theJohnston home together. She is also a musician, and hospitality, compassion and intercession are key areas of her involvement.
New Life Bible Church is a church whose strengths are teaching, loving relationships, unity, and personal development tracks, with a forward outlook.
The church has Pastoral Cell Groups, prayer meetings, youth ministry, Junior Church, Gospel Café, Community Evangelism Outreach, Discipleship classes, Missions, and Leadership Training just to name a few.
New Life Bible Church and Pastor Rick and Merilee have a vision to plant 25 more churches, establish a training/sending center, a technical school, and a prison ministry. They are also involved in missions in Kenya and Uganda.
The church is currently raising funds for a new facility, planting a new church, and building buildings in Africa.
A challenge for the church is the people in their community generally see themselves as religious, need nothing in that area, and see the church, per se, as irrelevant, outdated, and impotent.
Their strategy to combat these challenges is to approach their community at several levels. The strategy is with modern facilities, compassionate help for the poor and needy, to have meetings with the miraculous where people can get saved and healed, outreach to youth, working with troubled families, intercession, preach and model a faith-filled, vibrant, joyful Christianity.
Rick and Merilee became MFI members when MFI first started; they were at Bible Temple when the original vision for MFI came forth.
Pastor Rick and Merilee feel that MFI is fundamentally people. Rick says “Its people have inspired, blessed, encouraged and prayed for us…continuing to offer the welcome of friendship and commitment of relationship. Its conferences are helpful and inspiring. Its resources are truly enabling.”
We are all blessed to have great leaders and a wonderful couple like Rick and Merilee in our fellowship. As founding members, they have been faithful and committed to MFI and the relationships it represents for almost 20 years. Be sure and pray for them and get to know them when you can, it might just be the best investment of your time this next year. n