About

I WAS RAISED in Redding, a small town in northern California. My bi-vocational father established and pastored a small church while building a construction business. I grew up immersed in services with altar calls and intercessory prayer meetings. A strong sense of the reality of God’s presence imprinted my early life. My Pentecostal musical heritage with its roots in southern gospel and black gospel was one of power and beauty and remains my personal gold standard.

Beginning at age seven, I took piano lessons for nine years and began playing in church as a teenager. While serving on a year-long missions team Europe, I was the pianist for a musical ensemble we formed, singing and playing in churches and on military bases.

The piano has been a significant pleasure in my life. I now teach, and three grandchildren are among my students.

BOOKS were a staple growing up: fiction and non-fiction, bestsellers and classics. My memories of growing up are infused with reading. (My siblings would agree.) With no television in our home, we were a family of readers. There were trips to the library and that delicious sense of anticipation as the chosen books were placed on the counter where the librarian checked them out. Then, out the door with an armload of adventures.

A lifelong student of the Bible, I have read it through once a year, with one exception (see Home Page).

I MET my Yugoslavian- born husband as a 19-year-old, while serving on that missions team in West Germany. Sam and I are co-founders of a tribe of three children. We went into full-time pastoral ministry in Santa Rosa, California in 1992. During that season of raising a family and growing a church, I was worship leader, music director and taught inductive studies of the Bible.

Sam has family on three continents and this has meant traveling frequently over the years to visit them in Serbia and Australia, in addition to family in Italy and Switzerland.

We also administer the John and Dorothy Johnson Missionary Foundation which currently supports works in India, Lithuania, Croatia, South Sudan, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The foundation has also sent emergency funds to Christian ministries in Nigeria and Ukraine.

In August 2012, after a 2-year transition plan, our oldest son, Nicolas, and his wife, Dana, became Lead Pastors of our church. My husband and I are now Elder Pastors of Thrive Church Santa Rosa (thrivehere.church) and we love our work of supporting and mentoring.

Our children have graciously provided us with six grandchildren, all living nearby. This is a joy which we do not take for granted, and for which we are deeply grateful. As a family, we have had our share of sorrows. Our story includes, in past years, the untimely death of a brother, the suicide of a parent, and a stillborn baby granddaughter. We can say that, in our deepest distress, we were never without the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

FOLKS FREQUENTLY express admiration for our family. I say this with modesty and, admittedly, not a little pride. They are pastor’s kids who, with their wonderful spouses, are not just serving in the church, but obviously love the church – and each other. It wasn’t easy, and nobody gets through those years of parenting without regrets. We humbly acknowledge the abundant grace of God.

I AM ON THE BOARD of Inspire Christian Writers (ICW), an organization that provides support and encouragement for writers desiring to hone their craft for the glory of God. My primary work for ICW is as Chair of the Editorial Team for the annual Inspire Anthology. Writers are able to gain experience in preparing their work for publication, see it published, and acquire a writing credit.

And so, if you haven’t already, I hope you will subscribe to Think With Me and share the journey.

Soli Deo gloria. For the glory of God alone. Thank you for joining me here.

Debra

P.S.  Following are 8 Random Facts About Me:

• In 2009 I received a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature, graduating with Special Honors. Yes, I was always pretty much the oldest student in the class. Not to mention the weirdness of being a pastor’s wife in a California State University.
• After the devastating fires of 2017 in Sonoma County, my husband and I lived in a 341 square foot 5th Wheel RV for 23 months while our home was being built. We are, you may be surprised to learn, still married.
• I worked in a winery tasting room for eight years. The nexus of being a student of the Bible and living in a county with 60,000 acres in vineyards was the catalyst for that decision. It was a great education and a wonderful experience.
• I am something of an anglophile with viewing habits that tend to the BBC and Masterpiece Theatre. I enjoy English Literature, reading British mystery writers, watching British crime shows, and my go-to Bible commentaries are 19th century British theologians. I cannot explain this except that my mother loved reading histories of the kings and queens of England.
• For my 40th birthday, I gave myself the gift of scuba certification. A couple of years later, my husband got certified. Over the years we’ve dived Monterey Bay, Maui, Kauai, the Adriatic, Costa Rica, and three sites in Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef. I loved it.
• We live in Sonoma County, an especially favored part of this great country. Except for the fires. And drought.
• I do not like curry. At all. On anything. Ever.
• I have every reason to be very, very grateful.