Northview Church fires Senior Pastor CJ Johnson 3 years after defending his hiring

Elders at Northview Church in Indiana announced Wednesday that they have fired CJ Johnson due to concerns over his leadership style, approximately three years after defending his hiring as senior pastor in 2021 despite warnings from former members of the now-defunct Southland City Church in Minnesota.

“After a lengthy process of prayer, evaluation, feedback, and discussion, the Board of Elders, in accordance with our employment policies, made the decision to remove Pastor CJ from his role of Senior Pastor, and terminate his employment effective immediately,” the church’s elders announced in a letter to the congregation.

The elders said the decision to dismiss Johnson, 41, followed a long period of evaluation and an investigation in which findings were “inconclusive.”

“Over the course of Pastor CJ’s tenure, various concerns were brought to the attention of the elder board and the executive team regarding aspects of leadership style, interpersonal conduct, and the impact those behaviors were having on staff, attenders, and trust within our community,” the statement explained.

“Within the last year, a significant allegation was brought to the elder team. We took it seriously and determined it warranted an investigation by a law firm. Although the findings in the investigation were inconclusive, we continued to review and evaluate patterns.”

On May 19, the elders said “all three of our executive pastors unanimously brought their own concerns to the elder board and shared their concern for the future of our church under its current leadership.”

“The Elders did not arrive at this decision quickly or lightly. Over an extended period of time, as noted, concerns were raised, feedback was received, accountability measures were pursued, and efforts were made to address the underlying issues,” they explained.

“Ultimately, the Elders, with unanimous support from the Trustees and the Executive Team, have concluded that the leadership culture being experienced by many within the church was inconsistent with our values and expectations for anyone entrusted with spiritual and organizational leadership.”

As the church looks toward finding a new senior pastor, the elders have appointed Mark Crull to serve as interim senior executive pastor.

While serving in a similar role at Southland City Church, Johnson was accused by several people who served at that church of “speaking dishonestly from the pulpit, lacking transparency about church finances and threatening or manipulating those who questioned his ideas or leadership," according to a report in the local outlet Current. His leadership reportedly forced a majority of Southland’s staff to quit within a couple of weeks in late 2020. 

When asked by The Christian Post about the allegations raised in the report in 2023, Jason Pongratz, an executive pastor at Northview Church, said elders of the congregation had conducted a “full due diligence process” and worked hard to ensure Johnson was the person God wanted them to hire. He called the allegations against Johnson a “distortion of truth” by some former staff members at Southland City Church.

“Everyone involved worked hard to ensure that the selection of the senior pastor was someone they could confidently stand behind as the person God has for the church for the next chapter in Northview’s history. The leadership of Northview Church did not take this task lightly. Northview’s elders conducted a full due diligence process regarding Pastor CJ,” Pongratz said in a statement.

“Recently, members of Pastor CJ’s former staff have reached out to own their parts of the distortion of truth and have begun reconciling with Pastor CJ,” he said. “However, we believe that it is in the best interest of all involved for our church to respect the former staff members’ privacy and give them the space to heal with Pastor CJ.”