About
About this Site
matthewmthomas.com provides an outlet for emerging missional reflections in pursuit of discipleship to Jesus Christ in order to apply faith fully to life. matthewmthomas.com is written for leaders in the worldwide Body of Christ in academic, missional, denominational, congregational or professional circles who desire to interact with emerging approaches to mission and discipleship through a variety of disciplines.
About the Author
Matthew M. Thomas is the Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Warren, Ohio, a congregation in northeast Ohio transitioning from a traditional mode to an emerging/missional stance.
Thomas was raised in Champaign, IL as the oldest of four children. He graduated from the University of Illinois Laboratory High School in 1997 and began studies at the University of Illinois that fall. After an initial major in Electrical Engineering, Thomas completed studies for a double major in History and Classics, receiving a B.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2001. In 2002, Thomas participated in a six-week mission experience in Latvia and the Baltic. In 2004, he received an M. Div. from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, IL.
Thomas’ missional outlook is shaped by his practice of pastoral ministry, and has been shaped by his family; scriptural rootedness; the evangelical outlook of his home church, the First Baptist Church of Champaign at Savoy; interactions with numerous missionaries, including some through the Urbana conferences; through the Koinonia Christian Cooperative of the Baptist Student Foundation at the University of Illinois; through charismatic experience, through spiritual classics and the study of the Patristic Writers; through the faculty and students of Northern Seminary (2001 - 2004), particularly Douglas R. Sharp, Robert E. Webber, Michael Quicke, Karen Walker-Freeburg, Roland Kuhl, Charles Cosgrove and The 703 Guys.
Thomas can read and write both Ancient & Koiné Greek (500 BCE - 600 CE) and Latin, and is cautiously conversant in French. He looks forward to studying German and Hebrew in preparation for doctoral work.
Thomas’ hobbies include singing and playing music, computer repair and programming, handyman projects, modelmaking, reading, writing, camping & the outdoors, walking and bicycling. Thomas is single and lives in Warren.
