He served in the United States Navy as an enlisted man, before studying at Vanderbilt University, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1972.
He then studied at the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and earned his Master of Divinity in 1976.
The University of the South and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary both awarded Johnson a Doctor of Divinity in 2002.
[3] On March 30, 2001, after a process that took seven hours, Johnson was elected on the 15th ballot as the third Bishop of West Tennessee.
He was consecrated and installed on June 30, 2001, by Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee, used because of its large facilities, something no Memphis-area Episcopal parish had.