Today
This is how the House rocks.
A 75-strong adult choir launches into worship that rolls around the 18,293-square-foot sanctuary and up to the reinforced rafters. The House musicians—working their drums, piano, organ, saxophone and guitars—set the pace. The glorious celebration of more than a thousand members—looking back and shouting forward—is repeated live on two jumbo screens at the front of this great worship center. This booming celebration sends the congregation to its feet as it’s captured on one of three video cameras around the facility, to be made into CDs and DVDs. On this day, Sunday, in this year, 2014, The House of the Lord in Akron, Ohio, celebrates taking its 40th lap around the sun.
This is how the House rolls.
Originally conceived as a nondenominational, evangelistic church, this place of worship, this place of teaching, lead by Bishop F. Josephus Johnson II, is above all a community of hands. Thousands of hands from thousands of soldiers that have touched and shaped this House for four decades. Hands that are male and female, black and white, young and old, dreamers and pragmatists, and of those who are no longer with us. Hands with the talent to heal, the talent to teach, the talent to prophesy, and to build and create wonder. Hands that have sacrificed and have bled. Baby-smooth and hard-knock rough hands that have dared to touch the infirmed and dejected. Hands that balled into fists when it was time to fight the good fight. These are hands—our hands—that form a tapestry that spreads out through the community and across the years. Hands, held by God’s grace and guided by Bishop Johnson, that have collectively built this House.
Senior pastor and founder Bishop Johnson, known to the congregation as Bishop Joey, steps to the dais, in the pulpit, above the alter, in front of the choir, the view before him awash in swaying raised hands, and does what he has done for the past 40 years. Preach:
“The first act of God’s story is creation. The second
act is The Fall. The third act is redemption. The last
act in God’s story is His glorification. This four-act
story gives meaning and purpose to all other stories.
Even the church’s story.”1
And teach:
“The Church is a mystery of the body of Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Ghost residing at the center of that
mystery of all church people, past, present and future,
dead and alive, in heaven or on earth. Here right
now today in our midst through the power of the
Holy Ghost.”2
This glorious celebration marks the beginning of the House’s next era, but it also celebrates an era bygone. Before church websites and Facebook pages. Before the facility was big enough for expanded parking lots and stadium seats. Before the church housed a gymnasium, a dedicated prayer chapel, and an accredited elementary school. Before myriad ministries and community outreach and mentoring and counseling programs. Before two Sunday services and Wednesday Hour of Power services that spread across two sanctuaries. Before the church worked in conjunction with the city of Akron and a hospital conglomerate to build a senior citizen living center and clinic. Before the might of numbers and the strength of reputation, before a legacy of hands would mold this House … there was the beginning. Way back then.
Back, when thousands was four.
1974-1984
“Divine foundation: God prepares you, even before you’re
saved, for the plans He has for you.”3
—Bishop Johnson, Sunday sermon
It is the decade of disco and soul. In these years, the Watergate Scandal puts Gerald Ford in the White House, and later sees Jimmy Carter replace him. This decade is marked by ballooning inflation. Fidel Castro becomes the president of Cuba (1976). Apple Computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. VHS goes head to head with Beta Max. The film The Exorcist is driving audiences back to church, Jaws is driving them out of the water, and Star Wars is blasting them into space. On TV: Kojak, and Roots, the landmark television miniseries airs in 1977. The World Trade Center is built in New York. Elvis Presley dies. It is the decade of The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees, Steve Wonder and “sho you right” Barry White. Andraé Crouch charts with “Take Me Back,” and Michael Jackson follows up Off The Wall with Thriller. Cult leader Jim Jones leads 900 of his members to their deaths. The Sony Walkman hits the streets. Pac-Man becomes an arcade obsession. The first test tube baby is born. Ronald Reagan is elected president. Mount St. Helen erupts. John Lennon is killed. The end of the decade sees the early, undefined emergence of the AIDS virus. The Boston Celtics become the 1984 NBA champions, the Los Angeles Raiders win Super Bowl XVIII and the Detroit Tigers win the 1984 World Series.4
1974
Four years into the decade, the middle of a recession, inflation was stifling the nation and spilling down to small towns. Within the Rust Belt there was the Rubber City and in the Rubber City, as Akron was known, despair was in the air as much as the scent of rubber. Population had peaked at the decade’s beginning and now was in decline, as were jobs. The rubber industry that had meant so much to the city and region (Goodyear, Goodrich, Firestone and General Tire were all based in Akron) was flagging, and during the next two decades would spiral down to rock bottom.
A gallon of gas was an outrageous 55 cents.
It might have been a good time to pray, but it wasn’t necessarily a good time to start a church. Besides, Akron had plenty of those, including The Chapel, which would eventually become one of the largest churches in the state of Ohio.
But a twenty-something graduate of Akron’s South High School had a dream—and a calling. Joey Johnson was short in stature and tall in ambition. He had begun a career at The Babcock & Wilcox Co. in nearby Barberton, Ohio, before he and three others were lead to found a church.
Copyright © 2015 by Marvin Brown
