Who Is Tom Price?
Dr. Thomas James Price, Jr., known to most simply as Tom, was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida. His family was active at First Methodist, and he was greatly influenced by the saints of that church and the fellow members of his Methodist Youth Fellowship..
Tom graduated from the University of Florida and soon afterwards, he followed his call to ordained ministry, traveling to Atlanta to attend the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
His first appointment back in Florida was a five-point-charge, meaning that he was serving five churches at once. One of those churches was in Crystal River. He hadn’t been there long when he had the chance to visit the Holy Land. While he was gone, Nancy Kennedy from Maryville, TN, arrived in Crystal River to teach home economics at the high school. Her first Sunday at Tom’s church, some church members said, “You’ll have to meet our minister when he comes back from his trip.” They met in August of 1961, and were married four months later. Tom and Nancy enjoyed a fabulous 52 years of married ministry and raising three children together.
Tom devoted his entire career to God's service as a United Methodist pastor, serving in Micanopy, Crystal River, Monticello, Florida Southern College (Chaplain), Haines City, Miami (3 times and as District Superintendent), and Winter Park until his retirement in 1996. Even after he retired, he continued to serve in many churches in various locations.
He loved serving as the Chaplain at Florida Southern College for seven years. Tom loved all the students. In fact, seven or eight of his students became ministers and remained friends until his death in 2013.
His passion was serving others, especially the needy, which led him on countless mission trips, mainly in Central America. He served three years with Alfalit in Costa Rica, and with El Ayudante in Nicaragua.
Tom was a master wordsmith, historian and theologian. Truly, his sermons were renowned for touching people's hearts, which is why we were inspired to share them with fellow disciples and future generations. We hope your faith is enriched by reading his sermons.
About the Project
For nine years I, Clarke, and my wife, Sally Campbell-Evans, served Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church in Tallahassee. One Christmas Eve, Tom and Nancy Price came to worship. The next day was Christmas and they were back. From then until we left, Tom and Nancy were an active part of the church except for times that Tom was appointed as an interim pastor. I had long been a lover of Tom’s preaching prowess and was grateful for the years we overlapped in Tallahassee.
Not long after Sally and I left Saint Paul’s in 2013, to move to the center of the state, Tom became ill and died. In 2018, I was curious what might have happened to Tom’s sermons and reached out to Nancy who told me they were sitting in boxes in their daughter, Laura’s basement. I shared with Nancy the idea that those homiletical gems be preserved in some way. That led to several long conversations with Nancy and Laura about what that might mean. I agreed to work on it and we wrote up a Memorandum of Understanding about the possible ways we might preserve them.
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The original manuscripts would be donated to the Conference’s Archives and History Center (now called the Heritage Center) at Florida Southern College.
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Clarke would pull a team together who might be willing to work with him and Sally on this idea. Nancy suggested some of the team members. Bob Gibbs, Flo Sapp Martin, who were a part of the campus ministry where Tom served at Florida Southern College, Gary Spencer and Vance Rains, who had served as associates of Tom at First United Methodist Church of Winter Park. We also brought in a typist, Angela Sheffield, to retype clean copies of the manuscripts which would use Tom’s unique layout of what he would take with him into the pulpit on Sundays.
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We would develop on online archive of the best of Tom’s sermons which is the site you are on now.
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And finally we would develop a book of Tom’s sermons with notes as to the elements that made his preaching so effective. This last item is what the team is working on now.
What's Next?
The work of editing over 400 of The Rev. Tom Price’s sermons was for two purposes. One is the website and digital repository for his homiletic work and related material, the other is to publish a book of sermons that will include some of the best examples of his talent and expertise in the pulpit.
The 6 friends, mentees and colleagues of Tom who are working on this project have whittled down the large number of sermons that we received to the top ten sermons for each of us. The book will contain the best of the best of Tom’s homiletical repertoire.
The sermons will be presented in a thematic arrangement. This could be according to the seasons of the Christian Calendar, or various theological themes such as grace, forgiveness, love, and discipleship. Tom’s sermons lend themselves to a number of possible themes. There will also be a scriptural index so that readers can locate the sermons by scripture text.