About EPHOD
EPHOD stands for Every Person, Household, Oikos — Discipled. Oikos is a Greek word; in EPHOD it means everyone in your sphere of influence. The vision behind the name is that every person, your household and each person you have contact with becomes a follower and disciple of Jesus Christ.
EPHOD is a way of living with the Bible: reading it every morning and evening, memorizing a verse each week, writing down what God shows you, and meeting with other believers to share it. In a year you read the whole Bible and become someone who can disciple others.
The program was developed by Rev. Herb and Rev. Karen Johnson during thirty years of missionary ministry with the Assemblies of God in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Today it is carried forward by the churches they served, on this website, and in the EPHOD apps.
Rev. Herb and Rev. Karen Johnson
Ordained ministers of the Assemblies of God USA. Bachelor's degrees from Evangel University, Springfield, Missouri; master's degrees from Indiana University. Appointed missionaries in 1974.
Since 1975 they have lived and served in Ethiopia, Kenya, France, Belgium, Tahiti, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Their children are Kevin and Kristi; their grandchildren Dillon, Kayla, David and Ian; and their great-grandchild Ali.
Herb and Karen choose the daily Gold Nugget.
Where EPHOD came from
Wherever the Johnsons served, they kept meeting the same need: believers who loved Jesus Christ and wanted to grow, and pastors who had no practical way to train them. The Johnsons set out to give pastors anywhere a practical way to equip their people, as Ephesians 4:11–12 describes:
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” Ephesians 4:11–12 NIV
Over more than ten years they developed the EPHOD Church Strengthening Seminars, thirteen seminars on the foundations of the Christian life. They are built on one conviction: a disciple is someone who continues in God's Word, then goes and makes other disciples.
“If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” John 8:31 KJV
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19 NIV
The seminars have been taught to hundreds of people in Cambodia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, in city churches and remote villages. In Papua New Guinea, people came from miles around to fill the churches to capacity for the week long seminars.
EPHOD was shaped in many cultures and needs no building, budget or seminary. An EPHOD lifestyle just needs a Bible, a notebook, a few fellow believers and a decision to keep living for Jesus Christ every day.
The 10 Point Plan
The seminars teach ten habits of a disciple:
- Daily Bible reading
- Weekly Scripture memorization
- Sunday school and worship
- A weekly care cell, small group or Bible study
- A devotional journal
- Pray and fast one meal each week
- Sharing or witnessing Jesus Christ
- Tithes and offerings
- Daily prayer and worship time
- Taking notes in services
Each point explained, on the home page · Take the seminars online
The EPHOD lifestyle
The daily reading
An Old Testament passage each morning and a New Testament passage each evening. Follow it from January to December and you have read the whole Bible. The prophets are read in the order they lived, and the New Testament is arranged so the story keeps coming back to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The plan is the Full Life Study Bible Reading Plan, used by permission of Life Publishers International.
The weekly memory verse
A verse from the week's reading passages, chosen in Manila by Zarah Tan of Binondo Full Gospel Church.
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11 KJV).
The daily Gold Nugget
An inspirational verse taken from the day's reading passages.
The weekly devotion
A short devotion from Gospel Publishing House on the week's reading, posted every week since 2017. There are more than four hundred so far.
Small groups
“Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.” Mark 6:39 NIV
A small group is where EPHOD comes alive: each week the group shares what God showed them in the reading, goes over the memory verse, and prays for one another.
The seminars
Thirteen seminars on being a disciple and making disciples, taught by Herb and Karen. Free online, with every seminar on video.
EPHOD today
In Papua New Guinea
The program the Johnsons carried into the highlands now continues under its own leadership as EPHOD of Papua New Guinea, within the Assemblies of God of Papua New Guinea. The EPHOD PNG app serves believers there and Papua New Guineans in Australia and the Solomon Islands, in English and Tok Pisin, with Scripture in more than two hundred Papua New Guinea languages so that people can read the daily passage in their own tokples — their heart language.
In the Philippines
Binondo Full Gospel Church in Manila chooses and posts the memory verse and devotion every week. The EPHOD PH app speaks English, Tagalog and Chinese, and it was the young people of the church who asked for Scripture in the modern Tagalog they use every day.
The apps
EPHOD PH and EPHOD PNG were built by Kevin Johnson, Herb and Karen's son and the missions coordinator at Victorville First Assembly of God, so people could follow the reading plan on their phones. He launched EPHOD PNG in Papua New Guinea in person in 2026. Many believers there walked to a top-up store and bought a day's worth of data just to download the app; some had come from villages where the signal carries only calls and texts. That is why the apps work entirely offline once the Bible is on the phone, and why they are free, with no ads and nothing to buy.
About the EPHOD PH app · EPHOD PNG at ephod4png.com
The people and churches behind EPHOD
These are the people and churches who sponsor EPHOD and carry it forward.
EPHOD of Papua New Guinea
- Ben HariMissions Director, Papua New Guinea
- Paul TakuEPHOD National Director
- Mark Ani and Grace AniMark serves as General Secretary of the Assemblies of God of Papua New Guinea
Philippines
- Binondo Full Gospel ChurchManila
- Pastor Zaldi Lim
- Zarah and Lawrence TanZarah chooses the weekly memory verse and posts each week's devotion
Sponsors
- Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM)Sponsor of the Johnsons' missionary ministry and of EPHOD
- Indiana District, Assemblies of GodMissions department sponsor
- Victorville First Assembly of GodVictorville, California. Sponsoring church of the EPHOD PH and EPHOD PNG apps
Get in touch
Questions about EPHOD, the seminars or the apps are welcome, and so are churches who would like to bring the seminars to their people. Contact us.
Start today
You don't need to wait for January. Open this morning's passage, read it, and come back tonight.