John Thomas can be spotted around Mineola most days.

The minister at the First Methodist Church runs 4-6 miles per day in the neighborhoods around the church facilities.

He said it helps with his health and his prayer life.

Thomas came to Mineola in January with wife Rhiannon, son Evan and daughter Brooklyn under somewhat unusual circumstances.

The well-documented split in the Methodist church resulted in some churches remaining United Methodist (UMC) while others went with the newly-formed Global Methodist Church (GMC), including most in Wood County.

The Mineola congregation had just been assigned a new pastor last summer during the regular Methodist preacher rotation, but Kevin King decided to remain with the UMC while the Mineola church voted to be a part of the GMC.

Thomas had been with the church in Troup (also a GMC) and was assigned to come to Mineola.

He has been receiving positive marks, and the church has seen a growth spurt.

The move to Mineola has also been a blessing for the Thomases, he said.

Rhiannon is close to home, having starred in tennis at Lindale High School. She now works in that community as an occupational therapist.

Though the split was what brought the Thomases to Mineola, he said it is not something he has talked about or had time to think about.

If anyone has questions, they will gladly be answered.

But his philosophy is to move forward.

“We want to make Jesus Christ look good,” he said, and evangelism is a big part of that.

Friday night found the congregation teaming with St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church for a tailgate party at the Mineola football game.

Thomas spent 12 years teaching and coaching before moving into the ministry.

He said he misses it every day, but he would not go back to that.

He said it did help prepare him for the ministry by developing relationships and encouraging others in all kinds of situations.

He began the local pastor track in 2013 with churches at New Summerfield, Mt. Vernon and Neches and went full-time in 2018 at Carroll Springs southeast of Athens.

He studied at seminaries at Duke and Asbury and completed what he termed a 9-year journey when he was ordained by the GMC in February.

Though Thomas’s father, also a Methodist minister, had been preaching in Birmingham, Ala., Thomas essentially grew up in Lubbock, moving there at age nine, and continued his schooling at Texas Tech, where he met Rhiannon.

The start of his coaching career took him to East Texas, to Palestine Westwood.

It was during a stint at Frankston that the seed was planted for a different line of work. It was suggested that he could make a bigger impact on the community through ministry.

Along the way, the Thomases adopted Evan, now 16, when he was two. And 12 years ago Brooklyn was born to the couple.

Evan attends the state school for the blind in Austin, spending weekends, holidays and summers at home.

Brooklyn attends iUniversity Prep, an online academy of the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD where she concentrates on dance and acting.

The kids compliment each other, Thomas said, and have made him a different Christian.

“There are some things you need to let go,” he noted.

Unlike the UMC, which has most of its preachers on a 5-6 year rotation, the GMC is not a guaranteed appointment.

“You get out of it what you put into it,” Thomas said.

He bases his ministry on tenets such as treating other with respect, building relationships, making an impact on the community, and in all things, glorifying Jesus.