Personal History

Rev. Dr. Milton L. Thomas, Sr.

Rev. Milton Thomas, a forty-year resident of New Hampshire, was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Roxbury.  In his youth, he was a member of Twelfth Baptist Church where he gave his life to Christ at age thirteen and was baptized by the late Reverend William H. Hester.

Rev. Thomas attended Lowell University for engineering and later completed his undergraduate degree at Boston University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Marketing Management.  He put his degree to use at Gould Inc., Instruments Division from 1974 – 1979, as the Northeast Area Sales and Marketing Manager, and further capitalized on this experience in his own bulsiness from 1980 through 1990. 

MJT Associates, Inc., as it was known, was the first wholly owned minority manufacturer’s representative firm that engaged in the national sales and marketing of imported and domestic high-tech electronic test instrumentation. 

It was also during the late 1980’s, when as a walking Deacon that Reverend Thomas answered his call to the ministry.  The clarion call was further confirmed as he matriculated on a full scholarship at Boston University School of Theology in 1990; graduating in 1993 with honors in the Masters of Divinity degree program.  While matriculating at Boston University, he was employed by Bunker Hill Community College, where he initiated and developed the school’s Cambridge satellite campus.

In 1994, with a Benjamin Mays Fellowship, Rev. Thomas continued his post-graduate education by completing his course work and language requirements for a Doctorate of Theology (Th. D) degree at Boston University in Systematic Theology and Psychology of Religion.  In 2000, he received another Masters Degree in Sacred Theology (STM) from the same institution. 

A son of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Malden, Massachusetts, Rev. Thomas was licensed to preach in October 1991 and ordained in November 1994.  In the winter of 1994, he was called to pastor the Third Baptist Church in Lawrence, Massachusetts where he served for seven years.  In February 2000, Rev. Thomas became the founding Pastor of New Life Christian Ministries, a multi-cultural body of  believers located at 150 Middlesex Street in Lowell, Massachusetts where he served until 2020.

It is through the weekly programs at New Life that the community has access to a food and clothing pantry, counseling, bible study and worship services in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

In 2001, Rev. Thomas became the Protestant Chaplain for the Middlesex County Services.  As Director, he was responsible for managing the religious services of all faiths, insuring that the First Amendment Rights of all fourteen hundred plus inmates was honored and respected without deference or preference.

As Director, he also served as an adjunct counselor for the Sheriff’s treatment program’/ facilitating the unit’s ‘Parenting Workshop; that he developed and continued to refine.  The six-week, thirty-six-hour workshop focused on ‘grieving’ the systemic intent of the workshop was to nurture emotional ‘freedom’ and the courage to live and effectively parent without the angst to recidivate.

The inmate response and success of the ‘parenting workshop’ was the impetus for The Sheriff’s Office to sponsor Rev. Thomas’ return to school in 2008; namely The San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California.  There as a Doctor of Ministry candidate he continued to study the effects of unresolved gried in the lives of ‘repeat offenders’ as a major contributing factor to prison recidivism.  Rev. Thomas retired from the Sheriff’s Office in January 2016.

Rev. Thomas is a active board member of the United Baptist Convention of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.   He serves the convention as the chairperson of The Commission on Ministry, which is responsible for qualifying candidates for ordination. 

Pastor Thomas has been married for forty-nine years.  He and his wife, Jo, are blessed with two sons; and six grandchildren.  Praise God!

The Thomas’ live by Joshua 24;15… “As for me and my house, we serve the Lord.”