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EP# 324: The Blue Church: Finding Community in Morristown

• Skip Mauney & Pastor Sonny Thomas • Episode 324

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Ever driven past that striking blue church in Morristown and wondered what goes on inside? Pastor Sonny Thomas of Peace Free Will Baptist Church joins the Good Neighbor Podcast to shatter misconceptions about church communities and share how they're creating a welcoming space for everyone in the Lakeway area.

Celebrating nearly 40 years of ministry next to Walter State Community College, this congregation isn't your stereotypical church. With a roadside sign explicitly welcoming veterans, first responders, and bikers, they're putting actions behind their inclusive message. Pastor Thomas recounts how the Christian Motorcycle Association recently showed up for Sunday service after noticing this invitation—a testament to their authentic outreach approach.

The conversation takes a deeply personal turn as Pastor Thomas shares remarkable stories of faith and healing. When doctors gave both his father and mother-in-law terminal diagnoses with weeks to live, he chose aggressive treatment over hospice care. Against medical expectations, both have recovered and returned to independent living. These powerful testimonies reflect the pastor's core message: "We don't preach self, we preach Jesus." It's this Christ-centered focus that drives everything from their Sunday services to their community outreach initiatives.

Whether you're church-shopping, spiritually curious, or simply interested in connecting with a vibrant local community, Peace Free Will Baptist Church welcomes you as you are. Find them at 600 South Davy Crockett Parkway, visit peacefwbchurch.org, or join their Sunday services at 10:30 AM to experience firsthand how this congregation is redefining what church community means in Morristown.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.

Speaker 2:

Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I am very excited today to have someone in our studio for the first time and I'm excited to learn all about them and their organization. And I'm sure you will be as well, because today I have the unique pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, pastor Sonny Thomas, who is the pastor of Peace Free Will Baptist Church in Morristown. Pastor Thomas, welcome to the show. Thank you, skip, it's a joy to be with you. Well, we're glad to have you, like I said, all excited to learn all about you and your church.

Speaker 3:

So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about your ministry? Yes, sir Skip. We're located at 600 South Davy Crockett Parkway. We are next door neighbors to Walter State Community College here in Morristown and I'm excited to be here. I've been here since right at the beginning of the pandemic. Actually, I got here in early of 2020 and we've been here for about five and a half years and just really enjoy this wonderful community. It's called the Lakeway area because we're between Cherokee Lake and Douglas Lake and it's just a beautiful area with the Smoky Mountains kind of off in the distance and it's just a great place to be. And we've been here now for almost. The church has been located in its spot for almost 40 years. We will actually celebrate our 40th anniversary on the first Sunday in November, and so we're excited about that, and God has given us tremendous opportunities to minister in this area and to be a part of this community for such a long time now.

Speaker 2:

Well, congratulations 40 years is nothing to sneeze at for sure, yes, sir. Well, congratulations 40 years is nothing to sneeze at for sure. Yes, sir, congratulations on that. Tell us how, uh, how, did you end up here? Tell us about your journey.

Speaker 3:

Well, prior to being here in Morristown, uh, I spent the last 15 years, uh, in Western North Carolina, outside of, um, uh, not far outside of Boone, north Carolina, in Ashe County, a little community called Glendale Springs and it was a very rural community on top of the mountains there in Ashe County and the community itself was less than 100 people. It was a real tiny community and God blessed us with a fruitful ministry there for, like I say right at 15 years, and we moved from there to here, and prior to that I was a pastor in a couple other spots, one in Elizabeth in Tennessee and one down in central Florida, in Orlando and I graduated East Tennessee State University, got my master's degree from Crown College in Knoxville and then I'm working on my dissertation right now for my doctorate degree from Maranatha Baptist Seminary, which is just right outside of Milwaukee, wisconsin.

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow, so doing that virtually, I'm assuming. Yes, sir, absolutely, wow. Well, very familiar with Ashe County, north Carolina. I'm originally a Western North Carolina guy myself. Okay, from Shelby. Well, very familiar with Ash County, north Carolina. I'm originally Western North Carolina guy myself.

Speaker 3:

Okay, from.

Speaker 2:

Shelby, which is down the road, a piece from Ash County, but very familiar, beautiful, beautiful country, as is Morristown, tennessee. So can you tell us about any myths or misconceptions that you hear about your church or about the church in general?

Speaker 3:

You know, I guess skip probably misconceptions about the church in general. You know, I guess we face issues of mischaracterization, for example, you know, the church is a place that welcomes everyone and welcomes them, based on the love that Jesus Christ has for all of us. And that's something that I preached on this past Sunday was that the love of Christ is available to everyone. And sometimes the church can be mischaracterized by being, you know, a community in and of itself that doesn't allow for outsiders. You know, you have to, you have to be a certain person, live a certain way, think a certain way, all these things. But that's not the church. The church is inviting through the love of Jesus Christ, invites all to come, be a part, and we focus on that.

Speaker 3:

We're a community church. We're in the city limits, right here in the city, but we're a community church that opens our doors to everyone who would like to come and hear about the love of Christ. And it's interesting, skip, right outside of our facility, on the highway, we have a big sign and it says that we welcome, and there's three categories that we list there which says we welcome veterans, and we've had a number of veterans that's come by because they saw the sign. It says we welcome first responders and we have a number of first responders in our church police and fire both and then it also says we welcome bikers. And so two weeks ago we actually had the Christian Motorcycle Association decide to come out and join us for worship because they saw the sign that says we welcome bikers and so we had a bunch of them and their wives and such here two Sundays ago.

Speaker 2:

Wow, wow, that is awesome.

Speaker 3:

It was really neat.

Speaker 2:

So obviously you're very busy, but when you do have some downtime, what do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3:

You know we can't live anywhere near Sevier County without being Dollywood ticket holders. So my wife and I we go to Dollywood. We're enjoying the empty nest life. Now Our children are grown and out of the home and it's just me and my wife and our dog and we enjoy our empty nest and a lot of the things we like to do. We love to go to Tennessee smoky games over in what used to be Kodak and that's Knoxville. We we try to go to Tennessee lady ball games, we go to Dollywood, things of that nature. You know, we're members of the local gym and we work out of the mornings before we go into work and things like that. And you know just a couple of boring people. That's about it. You know, doesn't sound too bad to me, doesn't sound boring to me at all, it's nice. Yeah, we're blessed.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Well, pastor. If you could describe, if something would come to mind, a hardship or a life challenge that you faced and overcame and came out stronger on the other side, does anything come to mind?

Speaker 3:

Well, skip, in the last couple of years we've had a lot of challenges, certainly had a number of challenges since we've been in Morristown. We went through the pandemic just like everyone else did, and I think we've come out stronger for that, because we certainly learned to trust God in a real fashion. But, just in my own personal life, the last two years, we've had some difficult things we've dealt with. My wife's mother was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer. That was in 2023. And she was only given about six weeks to live.

Speaker 3:

But she underwent a radical surgery chemotherapy, radiation and she beat the cancer and uh, and, as I was telling you off camera to start with, she lives in limestone, uh with her husband and uh, um, you know God has blessed her Uh, she's uh, uh doing very well and uh, just this summer, starting in uh in June, my, my father, who lives over in Unicoi County, was uh hospitalized, uh and um had heart failure and he and he deals with COPD really bad, and so the doctors told me to put him on hospice so he would not live very much longer.

Speaker 3:

But we opted to do a heart surgery and followed that up, you know, with some aggressive care and some rehab and he just got out of the rehabilitation just a short time ago and he's back in Unicoi County now and he's independent again and he's doing very well. And so for both of those things, you know, medical professionals told us, you know, that we were coming to the end and it would be wise to do some comfort, care and allow our loved ones to pass. But we chose to, you know, seek the Lord and trust him and and do something different. And God honored that and and he, he healed both of those and my father has a pacemaker now. That's one of the things they did, but he's doing good and my mother-in-law is doing fantastic as well.

Speaker 2:

That's incredible. Now, how old is your dad. My dad is 82. 82. Wow, well, god is good. Yes sir, yes sir, absolutely, absolutely Well. Pastor, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about you and about the Peace, free Will Baptist Church, what would that be?

Speaker 3:

You know, the thing, skip, that I would encourage one is that we're known as the Blue Church. You'll see, over my shoulder here is a picture. It's a painting that one of our church members that has gone on to be with the Lord now painted this picture and provided it to us and so it hangs in my office and it's kind of a picture of the church, but you'll see, it's a blue church and we're known in the community as the blue church and when people drive by they talk about how such an attractive church it is. It almost really makes for a nice picture, postcard type scene, but that's kind of an attention grabber. But what I want folks to know is that we love Jesus Christ and we point people to the cross, and that's where you'll find everything you need is.

Speaker 3:

Through Christ You'll find the forgiveness that you need. You'll find the love that you need. You'll find the forgiveness that you need. You'll find the love that you need. You'll find the compassion, the relationship and everything that you'll find in Jesus Christ. And we don't preach self, we preach Jesus in everything we do, all of our discipleship works and our outreaches, and everything is geared so that individuals can find the love and the fulfillment that only you can have in a relationship with Christ.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful thing to remember and couldn't agree more Absolutely, Although I can kind of see that picture. But is the roof of it blue?

Speaker 3:

No, it's just a shingle roof with a white steeple.

Speaker 2:

Gotcha, gotcha, very, very, very nice, very nice. Well, pastor, if any of our listeners, viewers, are interested and are looking for a church or unchurched, I guess you could say and are looking for a church home and are interested to learn more, how can they do that?

Speaker 3:

A lot of different ways. You can call our office at area code 423-587-6773. You can also go to our church website, which is at wwwpeacefwbchurchorg. You can also find us on Facebook, you can find us on Instagram, you can find us on YouTube. We have a lot of presence in that way. Or you can email me if you'd like. My email is pastor at peace fwbchurchorg. Anyway, but, like I say, we're located right on Highway 25, 600 South Davie Crockett Parkway, and we're right beside Walter State Community College, across the highway from a Walmart. So you really can't miss us. And if you could drive and join with us for service, we'd love to have anyone that would like to come. Sunday school starts at 930 on Sunday mornings, worship service at 1030. Wednesday nights we have a Bible study and prayer meeting for adults at 630. And we have youth classes, youth group, children's ministry all of that at 630, also on Wednesday nights. Wow.

Speaker 2:

A lot going on.

Speaker 3:

That's wonderful.

Speaker 2:

That's wonderful, very good. Well, pastor, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to myself and to our listeners and our viewers, and we appreciate that and appreciate what you're doing for the community and we wish you and your family and your congregation all the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, Skip. It's been a privilege and thank you for this opportunity to share.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Maybe we can have you back sometime when you got some big event coming up.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, hope so, thank you.

Speaker 2:

All right, thank you, all right.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much. Talk soon. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.