Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson (born July 18, 1951) is the senior leader of Bethel Church, a charismatic megachurch in Redding, California.

His father, M. Earl Johnson, previously held the Senior Pastor position from 1968 to 1982, when Bethel Church was part of the Assemblies of God.

Prior to this position, Johnson, along with his wife, served as the Senior Pastors of Mountain Chapel in Weaverville, California from 1978 to 1996.

Johnson attended a John Wimber signs and wonders conference in 1987 with the specific goal of seeking a revival of healing.

He left discouraged because he had been teaching the same concepts John Wimber had been teaching, but the outcome was drastically different.

Johnson states that this discouragement brought about a realization that faith required risk, and after this realization, healing miracles began to happen.

He traveled to Toronto, Canada in 1995 to attend some of the Toronto Blessing revival meetings.

Johnson recounts receiving a fresh touch from God at these meetings that focused his life's work on pursuing the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.

The congregation has grown in membership from 2,000 when he joined in 1996, to over 11,000 in 2019.

Johnson has taken public conservative positions on same-sex marriage, abortion, open borders, and many other topics.

He is an author, functions as an itinerant speaker and has been featured in various media.

Johnson is a fifth-generation pastor and has held the position of senior leader at Bethel Church since 1996.

He is known for leading a church and Christian movement with a large focus on miracles and the Holy Spirit.

According to Christianity Today, Johnson has "considerable influence among charismatic Christians all over the world".

Johnson joined Bethel with a stipulation that the message would always be about revival, with an emphasis on God's supernatural presence.

The church lost a thousand members over his vision.

However, under his leadership, the church has since grown from 2,000 members in 1996 to over 11,000 in 2019.

In 1998, Johnson, along with Bethel Senior Associate Leader Kris Vallotton, started the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry to train students to become revivalists.

The school has over 2,000 students from 57 countries.

Johnson is also part of the Core Residential Faculty at Wagner University in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

Brenda ("Beni"), the wife of Bill Johnson, passed away from cancer on 13 July, 2022.

Bill and Brenda Johnson have three children including: Brian Johnson, Eric Johnson and Leah Valenzuela.

Johnson has appeared in multiple documentaries, including Father of Lights and Holy Ghost Reborn, produced by Darren Wilson.

He has also been interviewed and highlighted in several CBN news stories.

He was featured on the cover of Charisma magazine in August 2016 with a story titled "Born for Revival."

Johnson was also a guest on Sid Roth's It's Supernatural in October 2016.

In 2016, Bill Johnson outlined why he voted for Donald Trump in a Facebook post, where he criticized abortion, open borders, the welfare system, same-sex marriage, socialism, political correctness and globalization, all as contrary to God's will.

His wife and senior pastor, Beni Johnson, has also supported Donald Trump.

Johnson was featured in the 2018 documentary American Gospel: Christ Alone as a prominent figure in the prosperity gospel movement, emphasizing supernatural miracles as evidence of salvation.

Johnson has also been the subject of criticism.

In 2018, his church publicly opposed three bills in the California state legislature that would have restricted conversion therapy as they felt the bills might have restricted their ministry.

Their opposition included a released statement, letters to legislators and encouragement of congregants to contact legislators through a sermon titled "What Would Jesus Do in a PC World?"

by senior associate leader of the church Kris Vallotton and tweets, also by Vallotton, that specifically addressed those that had "come out of homosexuality".

Johnson again endorsed Trump in 2020.

Bill Johnson opposes homosexuality calling it a sin and "violation of design".

In a Facebook video blog he elaborated on the issue stating that "God did not make those human bodies to come together, to fit, in that way".