By Erik Cave, Director of NextGen Ministries, PacNWC
Enjoy this interview with Thomas Sudbury, the new Pastor of Creative Arts at Yakima Covenant Church
What is your personal and ministry background?
My name is Thomas Sudbury, and I am the pastor of creative arts at Yakima Covenant Church in Yakima Washington. I am working under lead pastor Dean Nelson. My wife Jennifer and I have four amazing kids, Elijah (8), Noah (6), Jacob (3) and Malachi (1).My wife grew up here in Yakima and I am from Prince Edward Island Canada.
I have worked at a number of different churches throughout my minister career, primarily in the areas of worship arts and youth. I have been a camp counselor, program director, worship pastor, worship arts pastor, and youth pastor. As this is a part-time ministry for me, I am also working full-time at the YMCA as The director of youth outreach.
What are you passionate about in ministry right now?
Right now I am very passionate about the opportunities in ministry to reach out to those who may not normally step foot inside the church doors. This is both for those who are older or have health complications that keep them from coming during the pandemic, or from other people who have either been hurt by church or are not normally drawn to a traditional church building. I love working with the team we have in place right now and building relationships in the church as well.
How can we pray for you?
Please pray for our family as both my wife and I are essential workers which puts a large stress on our kids and our family. Also pray for more opportunities to reach out to young families here at Yakima Covenant.
Five Things You Didn’t Know about Thomas:
- One of my favorite things to do is play music with my family. I enjoy collecting instruments and teaching them to my kids. We I have a piano and drums set up in our living room And as much as we can we play together. Even our two youngest join in and it’s a blast!
- One thing I could not live without would be my family. I enjoy spending as much time as possible with them. We love to go on trips, discover new things together, and enjoy life. My wife and I are both very young at heart and we love to go to Disney or on adventures with the kids.
- Our favorite place to be is Disney. We love Disneyland, Disney World, and the cruises. My wife was a Disney employee for about eight years and you can see her and lots of YouTube videos!
- The best place I have traveled to would be Israel with my wife and our youngest at the time Jacob. It was an amazing opportunity to see where Jesus walked as well as the old city. I really felt connected to the city and Mt. Arbel because from there you can see the entire earthly ministry of Jesus (and a few cows that get stuck up on the mountain)
- One of the opportunities I have here at Yakima Covenant Church is to develop a Creative Arts Team. I think leadership to me means serving like Jesus did and finding ways to bring out the best in everyone. I am looking forward to building new relationships and living life together with this team.
[Click Here] to visit Thomas’ Facebook Page
[Click Here] to learn more about Yakima Covenant Church