Nova Johnson

Co-Founder and President of Bridge of Mercy Ministries

Following Christ Wherever He Leads 

Nova Johnson is a Catholic evangelist, catechist, pro-life advocate, writer, and ministry developer whose life has been shaped by a persistent desire to follow Jesus Christ wherever He leads—even when the path is unconventional, countercultural, or difficult. She holds a Master’s Degree in Catholic Theology and Education Ministry from Catholic International University. As Co-Founder and President of Bridge of Mercy Ministries, she brings nearly four decades of Christian witness and service, together with experience in Catholic formation, legal advocacy, parish ministry, street evangelization, outreach to the poor, and ecumenical friendship.

A Teenage Conversion to Jesus Christ 

Nova’s journey began outside the Catholic Church. Raised in a family that did not attend church and in a home environment strongly influenced by the secular and materialistic culture of the time, she began exploring Christianity independently as a teenager. Her first decisive conversion experience occurred at the age of sixteen, when she responded to an altar call at a contemporary Christian concert by singer Carman Licciardello on November 2, 1985.

With little religious support and even active hostility towards Christianity at home, Nova quietly began building a life of faith and relationship with Jesus Christ for herself. She slipped out of the house to attend services at different churches, listened closely to contemporary Christian radio, attended Christian concerts, and worked after school in a Bible bookstore. She became a voracious reader of Scripture and gravitated toward the independent Charismatic movement, where she encountered Christians who expected prayer to be personal, faith to be lived boldly, and the Holy Spirit to be active in the lives of ordinary believers.

Nova attended a magnet high school for gifted students, where creativity, questioning, and unconventional thinking were encouraged. She was already comfortable thinking outside cultural expectations, and she soon discovered that few things are more genuinely countercultural than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As her love for Jesus deepened, she spoke openly about her faith with classmates, whether they were particularly interested or not. What allowed her to get away with this youthful enthusiasm was that her classmates could see she was not merely reciting religious arguments. She was genuinely happy in Jesus and spoke from the heart.

At the same time, Nova was struggling with the pain and instability of a high-conflict family life. She began praying for God to show her the true church home in which Jesus wanted her to worship. She expected the answer to be an unusual, innovative, frontline Charismatic congregation devoted to active evangelization. She also prayed that God would lead her to the university He had chosen for her.

During these years, Nova was greatly influenced by Christian author Gene Edwards, particularly his book The Divine Romance. Edwards wrote strongly against divisions within the Body of Christ and the continual splitting of congregations. He encouraged Christians to recover intimate fellowship and simple forms of community life. His writings gave Nova an enduring concern for Christian unity and left her increasingly dissatisfied with the idea that attending yet another newly-founded, separate church could be the solution to the divisions already wounding Christianity.

An Unexpected Path Toward Catholicism 

God’s answer to her prayers began to emerge through a series of unexpected encounters.

While attending a Russian food festival with a young man who had invited her there on a date, Nova was given a tour of a Russian Orthodox sanctuary. There she felt a sudden and powerful attraction to an icon of Saint Mary of Egypt, the converted sinner and desert ascetic. Nova did not understand why the image affected her so strongly. She began searching for information about the saint and asking why Christians who already had Jesus and the Bible would devote attention to saints or sacred icons.

A Christian bookstore owner for whom Nova worked recommended that she rent a VHS tape of Franco Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon, the film about Saint Francis of Assisi. Nova was captivated. In Francis, the seventeen-year-old high school student saw a young person who broke free from a materialistic, wealth-obsessed society and plunged joyfully into the radical freedom of the Gospel. His life revealed that evangelical simplicity, complete surrender to Christ, love for the poor, and the historic Catholic faith might belong together.

Another important influence came through a trusted Christian friend from the independent Charismatic movement, who began telling Nova about reports from Medjugorje, then in Yugoslavia. Young people there claimed that the Virgin Mary was appearing to them and calling the world to deeper prayer, fasting, conversion, love for Jesus, and reverence for Holy Communion.

The reported apparitions puzzled Nova, but the Catholic response fascinated her even more. Catholics acknowledged that the alleged visionaries might be mistaken, deceived, or fabricating their account. Yet they also considered it entirely possible that the Virgin Mary might visit and communicate with people—because, according to Catholic experience, God had sometimes permitted such things to happen.

Nova had never encountered this way of thinking. She understood that Mary was not God, but she could not find anyone who could explain how Catholics believed a saint in heaven might remain aware of and communicate with people on earth. She approached Catholics and even parish religious-education personnel in Alabama, but her questions went largely unanswered. Rather than ending her interest, the lack of satisfactory explanations intensified her search.

A Simple Invitation to Mass 

Nova was eventually awarded an academic scholarship to attend the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. On the day first-year students were moving into the dormitories, a young woman in Nova’s hallway invited everyone to attend the Catholic Mass being celebrated at 5:00 p.m. in the building next door. The professors who coordinated the Sewanee Catholic Community would provide pizza and salad afterward.

The invitation was simple. The Mass was nearby. Dinner would save the students a long walk to the campus cafeteria. Nova had always appreciated being invited places, and this seemed like another convenient opportunity to observe Catholics “doing their thing.”

Father Steve Stolowski, then pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Decherd, Tennessee, was the celebrant at that Mass. Good Shepherd served the Sewanee Catholic Community as a satellite ministry. Nova later requested an appointment and traveled down the mountain to speak with Father Steve about the Catholic faith.

The Good Shepherd Church counseling office was not the setting that anyone would have designed for a conventional conversion story. Around Father Steve were piles of disassembled gadgets and mechanical devices, scientific and engineering magazines, a giant ashtray, and a heavily used coffee cup. But resting on the coffee table was a large photographic book from Brother Sun, Sister Moon—Nova’s favorite film and one of the unexpected instruments God had used to lead her toward Catholicism.

For Nova, the discovery felt like a quiet confirmation that the same Lord who had been guiding her through books, music, saints, friendships, and unanswered questions had led her to that particular priest.

Father Steve took Nova’s questions seriously and helped her enter the sacramental life of the Church at age 19 as a college sophomore. On April 2, 1989, Nova was received into full communion with the Catholic Church through his ministry at the Sewanee Catholic Community. Decades later, the priest who had helped welcome her into the Church would become her fellow co-founder of Bridge of Mercy Ministries.

Nova’s conversion did not draw her away from evangelical zeal. It gave that zeal a sacramental home.

Courageous Pro-Life Advocacy 

Her belief that Christian faith must lead to courageous action became especially visible in her pro-life work. Nova served in ministries for women and families affected by abortion and participated for years in evangelization and “sidewalk counseling” outside abortion facilities. Her approach sought both to defend and protect unborn children and to reach women who were frightened, pressured, abandoned, or being misled about the reality and consequences of abortion.

Nova also learned how legal and regulatory action could be used to protect women and unborn children from dangerous abortion practices. In 1993 and 1994, she coordinated two campaigns petitioning the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners to revoke the licenses of two abortionists who had been caught engaging in unsafe practices and violating restrictions imposed by the Medical Board.

The campaigns required research, evidence gathering, persistence, and the willingness to confront powerful commercial interests. Both physicians ultimately lost their medical licenses. The result was the permanent closure in 1994 of a chain of five abortion facilities operating in two states.

Father Steve, who had known Nova since her college years, later described her as having “the courage of a lion” in confronting the abortion industry. He recalled that she started her pro-life mission in a regular university environment in which pro-life activism was not socially rewarded and where peer pressure could be severe. Nova nevertheless continued because she believed that the lives of unborn children and the safety of vulnerable women were more important than personal approval and social acceptance.

Mercy on the Streets and in the Shelter 

Her work among the poor developed with the same directness. Nova learned how to follow the Lord’s command to serve “the least of these” by independently reaching out to poor and homeless people in Bessemer, Alabama, approaching people personally, listening to their stories, praying with them, sharing practical assistance, food, and all-day bus passes with them, and speaking openly about Jesus Christ. Having learned from Father Steve as her spiritual mentor, Nova understood that laypeople didn’t need to wait for a formal parish committee before responding to suffering directly in front of them.

For several years, Nova also served Birmingham’s First Light women’s shelter as an on-call overnight volunteer. Working as a small part of their excellent and highly effective programs allowed her to touch the lives of women experiencing homelessness, crisis, instability, and personal danger. It strengthened her conviction that Christian mercy must be more than a charitable idea. It requires presence, inconvenience, attentive listening, and a willingness to remain with people during the hours when they feel most alone.

Her outreach often brought her into close contact with Protestant Christians serving the same communities. Nova learned to begin with the Christian faith they held in common, sharing prayer, Scripture, concern for the poor, and love for Jesus. Rather than treating the Rosary as an obstacle to Christian friendship, she learned to share its mysteries as a meditation on the Gospel itself—the Incarnation, ministry, suffering, death, Resurrection, and glory of Christ. Praying and discussing the Rosary with Protestant Christians sometimes became a way of building deeper bonds of trust and love.

Forming Children and Serving Single Adults 

Nova’s experience in Catholic parish life has included catechesis for children and extensive ministry with single adults. After being drafted into coordinating a Catholic singles group at a large Alabama parish, she began observing how little serious pastoral attention was given to adults between Confirmation and marriage preparation.

She encountered single Catholics who remained faithful to Mass, supported their parishes, volunteered, worked, maintained homes, and carried adult responsibilities, yet rarely heard their state of life acknowledged in parish prayers or formation. Their spiritual needs were often addressed through social activities, recycled youth programming, or the assumption that a singles ministry existed primarily to help people find dates.

Nova began advocating for something more demanding and more hopeful. She argued that single Catholic adults should be formed as mature Christian disciples and active members of the laity. They need serious instruction in prayer, virtue, forgiveness, financial responsibility, healthy relationships, discernment, service, and the apostolic responsibilities received through Baptism and Confirmation. They also need preparation for whatever vocation God may eventually give them, whether marriage, priesthood, religious life, or a dedicated single life of Christian service.

Theology of the Body and Adult Chastity 

A central part of this work has been her promotion of Pope Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and the virtue of chastity for adults. Nova presents chastity not merely as a list of prohibited acts but as the integration of the human body, soul, desires, relationships, and vocation within God’s plan of self-giving love. She challenges single adults to reject the cultural assumption that using another person’s body is a harmless form of recreation. At the same time, she challenges parishes to provide the friendship, formation, spiritual support, and authentic community that make faithful Christian living possible.

Theological, Educational, and Professional Formation 

Her concern for single adults eventually became a significant focus of her graduate theological work. Nova began master’s-level studies in Catholic theology in 2019 and has pursued advanced formation in theology and education ministry. Her studies have included Scripture, Catholic spirituality, sacramental and liturgical theology, moral theology, Church history, catechetical methods, theological reflection, and adult faith formation. She has also undertaken formation in spiritual direction through a Passionist retreat center.

Nova’s academic work is marked by the same quality that has characterized her ministry: she is less interested in abstract discussions that remain on paper than in discovering how Catholic truth changes the way Christians pray, build communities, confront injustice, accompany the wounded, and evangelize the world.

Her ministry formation is complemented by a broad educational and professional background. Nova earned a Bachelor of Arts in German Language and Literature from the University of the South, where she attended as a Georgia Wilkins Scholar and studied abroad as an exchange student in West Germany. She later earned an Associate of Science in Paralegal Studies from Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama. Her work in legal, administrative, research, and organizational settings has required careful writing, investigation, planning, evidence evaluation, and managing complex human and institutional situations. These experiences strengthened her ability to distinguish evidence from assumption, identify institutional problems, navigate regulatory systems, and transform moral concern into organized action.

For over a decade, Nova has worked as an independent small business owner providing administrative, technological, and project support to businesses and organizations. Her experience includes business operations, customer and vendor communication, financial and revenue documentation, purchasing and accounts-payable support, database and workflow organization, and the preparation of forms, newsletters, promotional materials, and digital content. She has configured and maintained email, cloud-storage, VOIP phone systems, videoconferencing, shared-file, and customer-management systems while assisting clients with onboarding, troubleshooting, website content, and special projects. This combination of entrepreneurship and practical technological experience enables her to move readily between developing a vision and building the systems needed to carry it forward.

Christian Friendship and Mission in India 

Nova’s evangelizing work has also developed an international dimension through Christian friendships in Andhra Pradesh, India. Her friendship with Protestant minister Vijaya Bhaskar Rao, founder of Alpha Global Ministries, led to opportunities to share the Rosary as a means of teaching the Gospel, particularly among people for whom literacy could not be assumed. Seeking help with the Telugu language introduced her to Father Michael Tarigopula, a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Nellore who is stationed in Madison, Wisconsin, serving in the United States.

Nova recently traveled to India in 2026, where she participated in Christian teaching, prayer gatherings, women’s formation, worship, and outreach to tribal forest communities. These experiences deepened her respect for Christians who worship with joy and simplicity while facing poverty, social pressure, and personal risk. They also confirmed her belief that Catholics and Protestants can form sincere bonds of Christian friendship without ignoring their differences or surrendering their convictions.

The Church as a Spiritual Home 

Bridge of Mercy Ministries grew from this long history of conversion, evangelization, advocacy, catechesis, and personal encounter. It was not conceived merely as a collection of programs. It arose from Nova’s conviction that the Church must become more attentive to people who are spiritually searching, slowly drifting away, grieving for prodigal family members, struggling to live faithfully as single adults, wounded by family or social circumstances, or uncertain whether there is truly a place for them in the parish.

Father Steve has acknowledged that Nova helped him understand more fully why the parish must become a genuine spiritual home and family. Because he had grown up in a loving and supportive household, he had not always recognized how deeply people from fractured or unstable families might need to experience the Church as the family promised by Christ. Nova’s own history made that need impossible for her to overlook.

Becoming a Living Bridge of Mercy 

As President of Bridge of Mercy Ministries, Nova draws upon the whole path by which God formed her: the sixteen-year-old responding to an altar call; the teenager secretly driving herself to church; the Bible-store employee devouring Christian books; the gifted student searching for a radically evangelical community; the Protestant puzzled by an Orthodox icon; the young woman inspired by Saint Francis; the college freshman who accepted a simple invitation to Mass and pizza; the Catholic convert welcomed by Father Steve; the pro-life advocate confronting dangerous abortion practices; the street evangelist praying with the poor; the shelter volunteer accompanying women through the night; the catechist teaching children; and the parish minister insisting that single Catholic adults must no longer remain invisible.

Nova knows from experience that a simple invitation can redirect a life. She knows that people sometimes search for the Church long before the Church notices them. She also knows that the grace of conversion is not meant to end with the person who receives it.

Her leadership is grounded in the conviction that every Catholic is called to become a living bridge of mercy: someone willing to notice the overlooked, invite the searching, accompany the wounded, defend the vulnerable, teach the truth, cross human divisions, and help prepare a spiritual home in which the lost and the returning can encounter Jesus Christ.