Angeline Riesterer/Collegian
Chuck and Madelyn Johnson have served Hillsdale College for 15 years with their counsel and teaching.
Several gray cats with striking green eyes mount the steps leading to Drs. Chuck and Madelyn Johnson's home. They pause and stare for a minute and then roll over, warmly greeting the visitor. The human occupants of this home are just as friendly, for when your ministry, job and life revolve around helping others, making people feel welcome becomes second nature.
For the Johnsons, neither the fact that their children are grown with families of their own, nor the fact that they are of retirement age and have led full lives slows this couple down. Retirement, in fact, is referred to in the Johnson household as the “R” word and is forbidden in conversation.
It is not the multiple college degrees that drive Chuck and Madelyn on. Nor is it for money or recognition, but a chance to serve, to help and to minister to those people who sit in their home and bare their souls in exchange for wisdom and advice. It was this willingness and passion to meet people's needs that led the Johnsons to Hillsdale 19 years ago.
Recognizing the calling on their lives to be co-pastors, Chuck and Madelyn moved from bustling Ann Arbor, Mich., to the quiet town of Hillsdale to become the pastors of College Baptist Church. Little did they know that there was also a college located on this small dot on a map that would soon beckon their services and ministry.
Chuck has been working as the counselor for Hillsdale College for 15 years, and he and his wife have their own ministry of providing counseling to churches, pastors, families and spouses in crisis. The word has gotten around, and, this past week alone, the Johnsons opened their home and ears to three different cases.
Madelyn described their ministry in the prayer, “Lord, you send the wave, and we'll catch it.”
Chuck and Madelyn said they stay “young at heart” by surrounding themselves with many people, including college students.
According to the Johnsons, the girls on campus who are the “most qualified partners” emerge from the class they jointly teach, called Sociology of Marriage and Family, which consists predominantly of female students.
“It's not that the men don't need it,” Chuck said. “It's that they don't think they need it.”
Senior Christina Martinez, a student in their class, said she is taking the course mainly because of a desire to pursue counseling, as well as having an interest in the Johnsons' view of marriage and family.
“It's a good idea to have a married couple teach the class,” Martinez said. “The first day of class I fell in love with them.”
Chuck and Madelyn gave each other permission to interrupt when the other was lecturing during the class, because, as Madelyn put it, “We co-everything.”
Ironically, Chuck and Madelyn grew up just 10 miles apart in Gary, Ind., but did not meet each other until their freshman year at Wheaton College in Illinois. After their first date, Madelyn announced to her roommate that she was going to marry Chuck. Meanwhile, Chuck started a “ring fund”—a jar in his room in which fellow students donated money for the cause of the impending engagement.
After getting married while still students at Wheaton, Chuck and Madelyn each went on to obtain their master's degrees: Chuck receiving two master's from Grace Theological Seminary in divinity and theology, and Madelyn attending the University of Michigan where she received her master's in behavioral science and education as well as the equivalent of another master's.
With an empty nest at home, Chuck and Madelyn ambitiously each received their doctorate degrees from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“I never dreamed of all this,” Madelyn said. “My only dream was to be a pastor's wife and to have children.”
Certainly, the Johnsons have impacted and will continue to impact many people through their lives. As recently as a week ago, Chuck unexpectedly spent the night in Simpson Hall, once again ministering peace and counsel to those most in need.