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Incoming Sunday School General President Paul V. Johnson and his wife, Sister Jill Johnson, pose for a photo at Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Monday, April 8, 2024. Photo by Scott G Winterton, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2024 Deseret News Publishing Company.This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.
By Kaitlyn Bancroft, Church News
Elder Paul V. Johnson has never been a Sunday School teacher, but he has plenty of gospel-teaching experience, from his career as a seminary teacher to the nine years he spent as Church commissioner of education.
And effective August 1, the most important thing he’ll bring to his new role as Sunday School general president is “my love for my Heavenly Father and the Savior, and my love for young people and other people too,” he said.
Elder Johnson was sustained as Sunday School General President during the Saturday morning session of the Church’s 194th Annual General Conference on April 6.
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Elder Paul V. Johnson2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.He began serving as a General Authority Seventy in April 2005 and has been serving as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy since August 1, 2021. He will receive emeritus status effective August 1, 2024.
In all his time serving and teaching, Elder Johnson said, he’s learned that gospel connections and personal testimonies are what matter most.
“I think there are a lot of technical things about teaching that may be helpful,” he said. “But if we miss the core, if we miss the Savior [and] His gospel, if we miss the love of our students, it really makes [teaching] much, much more difficult. …
“You don’t have to be a university-trained teacher to have an impact in teaching the gospel to other people. It isn’t a requirement. But a testimony of the gospel is a requirement, and love for those people, I think, is a requirement to really be a powerful teacher in the Church.”
Gospel Influences
Elder Johnson was born June 24, 1954, in Gainesville, Florida, to Vere Johnson and Winifred Amacher Johnson. Before he was a year old, his parents moved to Logan, Utah, where they raised him and his seven siblings. His father was a dentist, and at one time Elder Johnson thought he would follow the same career path.
Logan is where Elder Johnson’s testimony of the gospel took root. He recalled the impact of friends, ward members, local Church leaders and his grandmother, who lived with his family part time. She was a convert from Switzerland, Elder Johnson said, and was “the most staunch believer you could imagine. She would always talk to us about … how grateful she was [that] she found the gospel.”
His parents were also enormous influences on young Elder Johnson’s faith. His mother was a “very believing woman,” he said, while his father was “a dedicated follower of the Savior.”
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Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve, accompanied by Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy and commissioner of education for the Church, lead procession for BYU-Hawaii commencement exercises. Photo provided by BYU–Hawaii, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.Seminary was another place Elder Johnson’s testimony grew. It’s where he got serious about reading the scriptures, a love that later solidified during his full-time missionary service, he said.
Elder Johnson met his future wife, Jill Washburn, when he played high school football in Monticello, Utah, for one year. They became friends while attending the same ward and seminary class, and she wrote to him while he served his mission in Norway.
But after Elder Johnson’s mission, he took a job at what was then the Language Training Mission in Rexburg, Idaho — not at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where Sister Johnson was attending school.
Sister Johnson thought that might be the end of anything between them, but when Elder Johnson found out she was seriously dating someone else, he realized he needed to “step it up a little,” she joked.
They were married August 18, 1976, in the Logan Utah Temple and have nine children and 43 grandchildren.
As for the Language Training Mission job that might have come between them, Elder Johnson spent only a year working in Rexburg, moving to the current Missionary Training Center in Provo after it was built. The Provo Missionary Training Center is where he realized he wanted to become a teacher, he said. Later on, he realized he specifically wanted to teach seminary.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology in 1978 and a Master of Education degree in 1982, both from Brigham Young University. He also earned a Doctor of Education degree from Utah State University in 1989.
Sister Johnson also loves teaching and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in early childhood education from Brigham Young University.
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Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Presidency of the Seventy speaks during a BYU campus devotional on March 14, 2023. Photo by Brooklynn Kelson, BYU, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.Faith and Miracles
The Johnsons have faced their share of trials together. Early in his career as a seminary teacher, Elder Johnson became seriously ill, to the point that Sister Johnson believed she might lose him, she said. After two years, a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease finally brought effective treatment, and Elder Johnson began a complete recovery.
“It was a miracle,” Sister Johnson said, adding that the experience put Elder Johnson on a path toward Church leadership. “It was very, very difficult to go through that. [But] we see the Lord’s hand. You just hang on in faith, and it works out.”
Later, one of Elder and Sister Johnson’s daughters died of cancer at age 36, leaving behind her husband and three young sons. But through their grief and heartbreak, the Johnsons again saw miracles — like when their daughter’s widower was distinctly guided to a woman who had also lost her spouse to tragedy. Their marriage is an “amazing” blending of families, Sister Johnson said, where both deceased spouses are loved and remembered.
Also, one of the Johnsons’ grandsons needed a prosthetic leg after a surgery treating his bone cancer. The grandson went on to serve a mission and is currently attending college, Sister Johnson recounted. “That really was one of the most amazing experiences we had as a whole family.”
Though these and other challenges haven’t been easy, Elder Johnson said all these experiences have shaped his perspective of God’s plan.
“I think it makes me, as a teacher, yearn to help people grasp on to the Savior and to their Heavenly Father,” he said.
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President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, center, with from left, Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé and his wife, Valérie Caussé; Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Kathy Andersen; Elder Paul V. Johnson, a General Authority Seventy, and his wife, Jill Johnson; and Elder Larry Y. Wilson, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Church’s Temple Department and his wife, Lynda Wilson; at the Paris France Temple.Copyright 2024 Deseret News Publishing Company.Speaking to current Sunday School teachers, Elder Johnson said it’s important to understand the power of Jesus Christ’s gospel as contained in the scriptures and words of the prophets.
It’s also important that teachers move the focus from themselves to those they’re teaching. When the focus is on students learning rather than on teachers, individuals are more likely to draw closer to Christ, he said.
“The great temptation as a teacher is to worry about what people think of you as a teacher, … and we can get so overprogrammed that we lose sight of the students,” Elder Johnson said. “What we’re really trying to do is turn the students to their Heavenly Father and to the Savior.”
Sister Johnson added that when someone loves the Savior, teaching is natural — both formally and informally. “Everywhere you go … there’s someone you can share how you feel about the gospel [with]. And that’s what teaching is.”
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Elder Quentin L. Cook, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, laughs with Archbishop of New York Michael Dolan and Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Presidency of the Seventy while meeting together in New York City on Thursday, March 3, 2022. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2024 Deseret News Publishing Company.Guiding the Rising Generation
Elder Johnson’s experience isn’t just in teaching. He’s also served in the Young Men program and in elders quorum, and as a bishop, stake presidency counselor, counselor in the Chile Area presidency and president of the Europe Area.
Outside of Church and work responsibilities, Elder Johnson said his large family loves being together, from Church history trips to simply playing sports and games. Sister Johnson said their family especially loves their yearly reunion, where each of their children’s families produces a short film highlighting something fun or unique about them.
But teaching is something Elder Johnson continually comes back to as he strives to help people make gospel connections, he said, and as he prepares to step into his new calling. Raising children during his teaching career especially had an impact on him, he added.
“It’s been really helpful to watch … our own children and grandchildren and others and just see how we can best help them to find the truth of the gospel and have it be fastened in their hearts so that they can move forward the way they should,” he said.
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Elder Paul V. Johnson is from Gainesville, Florida. He was sustained as the Sunday School General President in the April 2024 general conference and will begin on August 1, 2024. Graphic courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2024 Deseret News Publishing Company.Elder Paul V. Johnson
Family: Paul Vere Johnson was born June 24, 1954, in Gainesville, Florida, to Vere Johnson and Winifred Amacher Johnson. He married Jill Washburn on August 18, 1976, in the Logan Utah Temple. They have nine children and 43 grandchildren.
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in zoology in 1978 and a Master of Education degree in 1982, both from Brigham Young University. He also earned a Doctor of Education degree from Utah State University in 1989.
Employment: Elder Johnson built a career as a seminary teacher and later as a Church Educational System administrator. He also spent nine years as the Church commissioner of education.
Church service: President of the Europe Area, counselor in the Chile Area presidency, stake presidency counselor, bishop, elders quorum president. Sustained as a General Authority Seventy in April 2005 and has been serving as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy since August 1, 2021. He will be given emeritus status effective August 1, 2024.
Copyright 2024 Deseret News Publishing Company.