Salem Pastoral Ministry

The Rev. D. Thomas Ford, Jr., an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has served as a parish pastor in North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, and as director of development for Habitat for Humanity in Americus, Georgia, where he worked with former president Jimmy Carter. In 1986 he became area director for Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, later serving as vice president and associate director of development. From 1993 to 2003 he was executive director of Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry and its associated foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. From Feb. 1, 2003 - March 25, 2003 he served as executive director of Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida. From October 1, 2003 through March 31, 2007 he served as Pastor of Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ashtabula, Ohio. Beginning in June of 2007 Pastor Ford served as Supply Pastor for The Southwest California Synod of the ELCA. Effective February 16, 2008 he is serving under Call from the Southwest California Synod Council as Interim Pastor of Salem.

Pastor Ford received his B.A. from Lenoir-Rhyne College in 1969 and his M.Div. from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1973. He was ordained June 3, 1973 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Hickory, North Carolina, by Bishop George R. Whittecar. He has done doctoral-level graduate work in New Testament at the seminaries of the Hyde Park Cluster of Theological Schools in Chicago. He has also studied at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California; California State University at San Bernardino; the University of California at Riverside; and Harvard University’s business school and John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has completed a one-year residency in Clinical Pastoral Education at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, N.C. He has traveled and studied in Israel, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic.

Pastor Ford has been extensively involved in developing new Lutheran congregations; sponsoring refugee families; advocating on behalf of world hunger relief and the rights of gay and lesbian people; developing and administering programs for the prevention, treatment, and intervention of child abuse; developing and administering programs for the elderly and for emergency assistance; and developing and administering programs and residential facilities for the homeless.
He has been married for 40 years to Elsie, a registered nurse. They live in Arcadia, CA. Their son, John (age 36), teaches at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, as well as runs his own custom furniture design and manufacture company in Alhambra, CA; their daughter, Anne (age 33), is a free-lance writer in Chicago, Illinois. Their new grandson Aiden Yun Ford was born Sept. 12, 2006 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.
Pastor Ford’s hobbies are Civil War history, genealogy, and running. He has completed four marathons. His last race was the 9.3.-mile Gate River Run in Jacksonville, Florida, which he completed in 2003 in 81 minutes, 22 seconds.

The Rev. Ford is a 14th-generation North Carolinian. At age 61, his hair remains red.