Journeys Reflections and
a Lifetime of Ministry
Tom and Sarah Kirkpatrick
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n January 2020 Tom and Sarah Kirkpatrick retired from over four decades of active service to the Church of God. In reflecting on his years in the ministry itself, Dr. Kirkpatrick said, “I don’t think anything matches the satisfaction of helping a person, if even in a small way, to make a change in his thinking and doing that will bring him more into alignment with what God wants for him.”
Calling
The Kirkpatricks each have a long association with the Church of God that began in the l960s. Tom started listening to The World Tomorrow broadcast while he was in high school. He remembers being intrigued by the programs refuting the theory of evolution and studying The Plain Truth magazine. After visiting with a minister of the Church, he attended services of the Radio Church of God in Wichita, Kansas, in 1965. Sarah attended services as a child with her parents. The family came in contact with the Church through the broadcast and began attending services in the 1960s in Knoxville, Tennessee. A decade later, Tom and Sarah met at Ambassador College (AC) in Big Sandy, Texas. In 1977 they were married in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Church employment
Since his early days at AC, Dr. Kirkpatrick has been employed by the Church of God in several capacities: 8
One Accord
as a teacher, an administrator, a financial manager and a pastor. After earning a master’s degree in accounting from Wichita State University, Tom Kirkpatrick served for five years as budget officer, chief accountant and instructor at AC in Big Sandy, Texas. When the college closed, they moved to Denton, Texas, where he received a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of North Texas. Sarah finished her B.A. in home economics education from Texas Woman’s University and received a teaching certificate. They next moved to Boone, North Carolina, where their three daughters, Tarah, Caroline and Bonnie, were born and where Dr. Kirkpatrick was ordained a Church elder. For nine years Dr. Kirkpatrick served on the faculty of Appalachian State University. “We loved Boone. … The Boone years were good ones, both professionally and, of course, with the Church. We still have dear friends we first met there.” When AC in Big Sandy reopened as a four-year institution in 1989, Dr. Kirkpatrick served there as chairman of the Department of Business Administration. In 1996 doctrinal changes prompted his resignation from the Worldwide Church of God. He became an associate pastor to Jim Franks in the Houston (North), Texas, congregation in the newly formed United Church of God (UCG). In 1998 through 2008 they lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as Church treasurer and operation manager for Financial Affairs. In 2008 they moved south to pastor the congregations in Birmingham and cogwa.org
