Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Johnston.
Hi Mike, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in NC and graduated from UNC-CH. Spent 12 years in the business world before attending Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA. As a teenager, my grandmother told me I would be a minister one day which I found to be quite comincal, but she was correct.
While in seminary, I did an internship in hospital chaplaincy and fell in love with that type of ministry. After completion of seminary and a short time of church ministry, I returned to my true calling as a hospital chaplain.
Spent over 30 years doing hospital ministry in VA, NC, SC and finally here in TX where I served as a palliative care chaplain at Baylor All Saints in FW.
My passion for this type of ministry came from walking with patients and their families at critical points where I could be a sojourner of care and compassion. It was truly a privilege to walk with these folks over time and they were great teachers to me and others on what matters most when facing life challenging situations. I also was fortunate to work with incredible staff – other chaplains, nurses, physicians and a variety of healthcare professionals.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No road is smooth. Dealing with tragedy and trauma was a daily occurrence for me as a chaplain. Truly the most difficult situation is when there is an infant and child loss – there are no words in those moments to take away someone’s pain. The second death I ever dealt with was a SIDS death of a 4 month old and all I could think about in those moments were my own two kids.
The other struggle for me was here in Texas during COVID. Bearing witness to families saying goodbye without being able to be at bedside was incredibly challenging and hard to not hold in your soul at the end of the day.
Even though the road wasn’t smooth, there are life lessons to be learned on the journey – lessons of faith, hope, loss, and peace.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Beyond my work I have discovered a love for photography. Capturing moments and memories in time actually goes hand in hand with my ministry as a chaplain.
I find a lot of divinity in nature and love waterfalls, landscapes, sunrises/sunsets, oceanscapes and just trying to capture moments. One of the lessons photography has taught me is about noticing the details – things like a leaf captured in a web of Spanish moss; things like a lone seashell on the beach; things like a spider web across a cat tail stalk.
My photos are not necessarily what I’m known for, clearly my years as a chaplain I met people in critical moments and amazingly still communicate with some of them even though it has been over 25 years.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: MJ4_Photography
