2: Have We Lost Our Humanity? with Rev. Dr. Lisa Johnson

For Episode 2 of Respect Circles, we’re bringing you our very first guest, and we are so excited to be introducing you to her today. Dr. Alesia Johnson, or “Lisa” as she usually is called, has been an important part of Respect Circles since the beginning, and she always brings such wisdom and depth to our conversations (Lisa also happens to be AJ’s sister!)

Lisa is a product of Richmond City Public Schools and retired from teaching in that same school system after serving and working for over thirty years. She is a certified Diversity, Culture Competence, and Social Justice Trainer for the Virginia Education Association. She completed her undergraduate studies and some graduate studies at Virginia State University and additional graduate studies at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union, where she earned a Master of Divinity degree with honors. She has an earned Doctor of Ministry in Formational Counseling from Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio.

Lisa is a member of First Shiloh Baptist Church in Mechanicsville, VA, where she works as a counselor with victims of sexual and domestic abuse; couples counseling, teen girls, and individuals who are sensing a need to live life differently. There she also serves as a senior caregiver, a small group facilitator, the Program Director, and a member on the healing care team for the Healing Place ~ Center for Christian Counseling and Spiritual Formation. She leads workshops and seminars nationwide and serves as a speaker/facilitator and preacher for conferences. Prior to her call to ministry at First Shiloh, she was a member at The Saint Paul’s Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia for over forty years, where she was licensed and ordained to preach the gospel. She is the Chaplain for the Henrico County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, serves on the Board of Directors for Hope for Families (Camp Hope), and also the Council for Richmond Hill.

Lisa enjoys teaching, facilitating, fellowshipping with her family and friends, worshipping, and studying the word of God. She has a passion for the marginalized and privileged, the victim and perpetrator, and believes that we all deserve healing. She has traveled extensively to share the gospel. It is her desire to be used by God to serve as a wounded healer, bringing others to a place of holistic healing.

In this episode, we'll begin to have some real dialogue about the issues that we’re all facing in this divided nation, specifically looking at whether or not we have lost our humanity - and if so, how it can be recovered and repaired.

You can learn more about Lisa and the work she does at https://alesiajohnson.org/alesiajohnson/, and as always, we invite and welcome your input! Send us your thoughts on what you like about the podcast, what you want to see more of, and who we should invite into the conversation as guests on upcoming episodes. You can always reach us by email, respectcircles@gmail.com , on social media at https://www.facebook.com/respectcircles and https://www.instagram.com/respectcircles/ or by viewing our website at www.respectcircles.com.

Thanks so much for listening! We’d love to have you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a rating and review. See you next week!

In this episode you’ll hear:

That work that Lisa does, and what she says matters the most to her when doing it [5:23]
What she feels is challenging society in the biggest ways right now [9:14]
The main things that people are hungry for, and what would dramatically improve the state of the world that we live in [12:03]
What factors Lisa believe landed us where we are at this point in time [16:10]
Why the word “reconciliation” causes tension for her, and what she feels is the more appropriate word to use [18:58]
Ways that we can collectively start to move towards healing together while advancing the conversation [21:22]
The issue that Lisa has with missionary work, and where missionaries are going most often going wrong [25:22]
Her best advice for young adults [29:07]
A big rule that she lives her life by, and why this is so important to her [35:40]