Our Pastor & Family

Reverend Doctor Ronald D. Thomas, Sr. 

     The Reverend Doctor Ronald D. Thomas, Sr. grew up in small-town Southern New Jersey when, as he says, “it really was the Garden State.” A graduate of Williams College, MA Pastor Ron attended the Yale University Divinity School.  Through his first years as a pastor, he attended the divinity school at Vanderbilt University where in 1986 he completed his Doctor of Ministry degree. Over the summer months during college, Ron volunteered at his home church.  It was there that he met (and began to date) Miss Cheri Kellum and . . . just prior to his last year of divinity school . . . they became husband and wife. Their first appointment upon graduation was a little two-point charge in Waynesboro, VA.  It was there that the first of five Thomas children would be born as over the course of the next thirty-two years the Lord would lead them through Virginia to Florida and finally, in 1998, to another small town – Sebastian. After nine wonderful years leading the folks at Main Street UMC, Dr. Thomas “took honorable location” (retired) from the Methodist denomination and stepped into the role as pastor of the non-denominational congregation here at Friendship Christian.