ASBURY PARK – St. Stephen Episcopal AME Zion Church had just one pastor, the Rev. Derinzer Johnson, for over three decades.
Johnson was supposed to be an itinerant preacher, someone who would travel from place to place spreading his message. Usually, itinerant clergy only stay at one location for a year or two, maybe five years in some instances, before moving on to the next assignment.
But Johnson, who has now moved back to his native North Carolina where he plans to start a ministry, was given the opportunity to call Asbury Park home for decades.
Semaj Y. Vanzant, Sr., pastor at the Second Baptist Church of Asbury Park, explained how amazing it is that Johnson was not reassigned.
“They call them itinerancy, which means that they only assign one (preacher) for one year. So, like the fact that he has been reassigned 30 times, to be able to serve 30 more years, is unheard of,” Vanzant said.
When Vanzant arrived in Asbury Park from New Orleans in December 2015, he reached out to community leaders and the pastors that were “really involved.”
“So Pastor Johnson’s name kept coming up,” Vanzant continued. “To me he was a role model, to me he was somebody to really connect with to do work, and he was somebody who I saw had the same heart that I had in realizing that we had to have one foot in the church and one foot in the community.”
“Thirty-one years at St. Stephen Church for me was a time of fulfilling an assignment that was given to me by the Lord. This assignment was to serve the church community, and the city of Asbury Park,” Johnson said.
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Johnson, born in Morven, North Carolina, in 1951, spent the early part of his life in the South, attending Livingston College in Salisbury, North Carolina, and The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. Along the way, he also served in the Army.
But, he said, he soon answered the call to serve as a preacher in 1978, and years later found himself in Asbury Park.
Johnson said he was especially proud of three initiatives from his time at the Shore.
The first aimed to help people just trying to live the American dream.
“I was one of the organizers of the Asbury Park/Neptune Coastal Habitat of Humanity Organization, where I served as the first president. This organization was responsible for building a home from the ground up for a family who were first-time homeowners,” Johnson said, adding the group also helped refurbish homes.
The second was the Asbury Park Community Action Network, commonly referred to as CAN.
“Co-founding, along with retired Lt. George Corbin … This was a grassroots movement that addressed the violence in Asbury Park. The network consisted of clergy, churches, city officials, organizations and businesses in Monmouth County,” Johnson said.
The third helped give some people a second chance.
“Finally, I take pride in spearheading an expungement program that helped to clear those people who had criminal activity on their records. This was done in order to improve their quality of life, and to help them gain employment and housing opportunities,” Johnson said.
Corbin said when Johnson “hit the ground, he hit the ground running.”
“Opening up his church, using it as neutral territory, opening it up for the expungement… here is a guy that was able to ignite some of the pastors in the area,” he said.
Corbin credited Johnson with being able to unite pastors who were essentially competing against one another for congregants.
“He was very successful. What I really appreciate is when he got those people, he preached to them. Whether you were a cop, the chief of police attended our (CAN) meetings, other pastors, the citizenry, the community at large, and all of our stakeholders. I’m telling you he was a powerful preacher when it came to that (uniting people),” Corbin said.
When Johnson preached, it was more than just another sermon. He was speaking to the contemporary issues facing the community.
“Everything that he attacked was current. Everything he preached about were current events. Things that were happening in Asbury, the shootings and things of that nature. He really made an impact on my family, the governor, etc,” Corbin said. “Johnson was the man. He always trusted me up front to speak, but he did the preaching.”
But Johnson said he wished he could have done more.
“As I look back and reflect on time, if I could have done anything differently, I would have spent more time advocating for the homeless by helping to provide permanent housing for them,” Johnson said.
Executive Director of Interfaith Neighbors Paul McEvily credited much of the current redevelopment of Springwood Avenue to a community meeting that Johnson held at the church around 2004.
“There must of been 250-300 people that turned up that night in the church to attend that community meeting. There was a plan at that time to redevelop all of those vacant lots along Springwood Avenue as housing … the community had a very strong negative to reaction,” McEvily said.
The aftermath of that meeting led to the creation of the Springwood Avenue Advisory Committee. The committee met for about two years before producing the Springwood Avenue Redevelopment Plan.
“That is still playing out, of course, the creation of the park, the creation of housing, the Springwood Center, and it all really started with the community meeting that the reverend agreed to host right there at St. Stephen’s Church. It was actually an amazing night to hear the voice of the community,” McEvily said.
Gov. Phil Murphy has even attended services at St. Stephen’s in the past.
“A voice for those in need of a second chance, Rev. Derinzer Johnson has been a powerful advocate in our faith communities. In my time at St. Stephen Episcopal AME Zion Church, I witnessed the impact of Rev. Johnson’s ministry and his commitment to empowering others. I will always admire and appreciate Rev. Johnson’s support in working alongside my administration to promote equity and build a stronger, fairer New Jersey for all,” Murphy said.
Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: [email protected]
Source: Asbury Park
