Instructor:  Rev. Dr. Thomas Minton,  currently serves as Senior Pastor of Eminence Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Eminence, KY.  Until recently he was with Disciples Christian Church, in Nevada, Missouri.  Before that he served First Christian Church in Republic, Missouri.  He holds degrees from Abilene Christian University and Asbury Theological Seminary in Biblical Studies, in World Mission and Evangelism, and in Missiology respectively.

                 Thomas has many years of experience in ministry including sixteen years in Switzerland and Germany as well as short-term missions in Holland, Austria, Kenya, the Philippines, Ecuador, and Mexico.  Also, he served churches in Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, and Missouri.  His goal in ministry is to encourage and build up the church as a spiritually vital, worshipping community of faith, ?loving and serving from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth? (www.disciples.org/internal/vision/ ).

      His spouse, the Rev. Barbara J. Minton, also an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was most recently the Senior Pastor of First Christian Church in El Dorado Springs, Missouri. Together they are the parents of a son and two daughters and have eight grandchildren.