The Pastor

Dr. Roger D. Johns, who likes to be called Dick, was appointed pastor of Saint Mark's United Methodist Church in November 1998. Dr. Johns was born and raised in Louisiana. He graduated from Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport, Louisiana (B.A. in English), Drew University School of Theology in Madison, New Jersey (M.Div.), and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina (Ph.D. in Contemporary Theology).

He has pastored churches in Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas and Alabama. He taught and served as Chairman of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at church-related Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama for almost 20 years. At the same time, he also served as pastor in the Alabama - West Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

His wife, the Reverend Louise Stowe Johns, taught as instructor in Christian Education at Huntingdon College and worked as director of Religious Education and pastor in various churches. She was the first woman chaplain in the state prison system of Alabama, where she worked at Tutwiler Prison for six years. She has served as consultant to the Restorative Justice Ministries Inter-Agency Task Force of the United Methodist Church. She received her Doctor of Ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia on May 19, 2001. She is pastor of the Community UMC in East Norwich.

The Johns have two children. Christopher Stephen, who is a graduate of the American University in Washington, D.C. and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts/Harvard Universities in Medford, Massachusetts. He works for the Office of Management and Budget of the White House in Washington, D.C. Their daughter, Catherine Michele, is a graduate of Birmingham Southam Collage in Birmingham, Alabama and is presently working in Los Angeles.