John Thweatt is a child of God seeking to introduce other people to his Father. He is a husband to Kim and a father to Hannah, Hope, Hollie, and Kimberly Joy. He has served as pastor of three churches and has been teaching/preaching in the local church for over 20 years and is currently the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pell City, AL.
John graduated from Boaz High School, Boaz, AL and then received a BS in Education from Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL.
He received a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX and a Doctor of Ministry from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, LA.
His main gifts lie in preaching and teaching and he is committed to teaching through the Bible book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and word by word.
When he is not with his family or working John enjoys running (he tries to complete a marathon or a half marathon every year) and an occasional round of golf.
Nov 5, The Pastor’s Role
The other day I listened to sermon by Alistair Begg while driving to Birmingham. I love to just hear him talk, but his sermons are always powerful. You can hear the sermon I was listening to at http://www.truthforlife.org/site/News2?abbr=lst&page=NewsArticle&id=9617&news_iv_ctrl=1102
In the sermon Alistair spoke from 1 Thessalonians 2:8 about the role of the pastor. Pastor Begg said two things that really moved me. First he asked, “How do we know that our pastors love us?” He said, “The day that you’ll discover that I don’t love you anymore is the day that I stop studying my Bible to come and preach it to you.”
Second, he spoke of the responsibility of the pastor. The word “share” comes from the word herald. The job of the herald was to stand up, speak up, and shut up! They didn’t originate the message—their responsibility was to go into the throne room of the king, to receive the message from him, to come out to the streets, and to proclaim the message of the king.
As a pastor I know a little about doing weddings, doing funerals, doing dedications, doing baptisms, and counseling, but those things are not the measure of my love for you. The best test for my love for you is my willingness to spend hours before the Throne of God and to bring a message to you from Him.
Right after Mr. Evan Zeiger’s funeral I spoke to his grandson. He spoke of how his grandfather taught him the word of God. One comment he made stuck with me…He said “He betrothed me to Jesus. He never betrothed me to anything else, but Jesus.” I love our denomination, I love our church, I love so many things, but the One thing I want to make sure that you do is the fall passionately in love with Jesus Christ Himself.