Preacher's Corner
Tom Marcum and his family
Front: Logan—grandson; Middle: Jeffrey, Tom, Sherie, Jason;
Back: Ashley, James (oldest son), Abby (daughter in law) Jonathan
My name is Tom Marcum. My family and I have been lead by God, and chosen by the elders to serve in ministry with the Belmont Church of Christ here in Dayton, Ohio. I want to thank you for spending some time on our website and taking this opportunity to get to know me a little better. I hope you will give me that same privilege to get to know you. If you are visiting our website from out of town we hope you will join us if you are ever in the Dayton area. If you are visiting our website from the Dayton area and are not a member of the Belmont family, we would love to have you come join us as we strive to follow Christ in our lives each day. If you are a member of the Belmont family I wish to thank you for this opportunity to serve along side you, and cannot tell you how excited Sherie and I are for the opportunity to get to know you on a deeper level as we walk with our Lord. God has many wonderful things in store for all of us and I would like to begin by sharing a brief biography with you of who I am, and how God has blessed me over the years.
I was born in Columbus, OH on January 26, 1970 to Tom and Jewell Marcum. We lived in Pataskala, OH until I was five years old when we moved back to Crum, WV (1975) where my mom and dad had been raised. We moved back to WV in order to help care for my paternal grandmother. She had battled breast cancer for many years, and it had metastasized into bone cancer. She was given only months to live, but actually lived another two and a half years. It was during this time I learned how to preach. I would attend worship with the Crum Church of Christ and listen intently to the preacher in an effort to memorize all that I could for Mam’aw. I knew she could not attend church; I also knew how much she valued and enjoyed worship, particularly the singing and preaching, as she would sing to me from her bed every single day, and tell me how important it was to listen to what the preacher said. So, I would do my best to memorize all I could, and then “preach” it to her from the foot of her bed as soon as I got home. My family loves to tell people of my grandmothers belief that I would one day grow up to be a preacher. The one thing that has not changed since she entered her rest in 1977 is my love for sharing the Gospel with those that need to hear.
Growing up in the coal fields of West Virginia is an experience I will treasure for my entire life, and can only wish to raise my family in the love I experienced and was blessed with. I literally had the privilege of having my extended family live on the same farm I lived on, and cousins living right across the creek from me. My dad’s sisters and brother were living within a stones throw of us, and raising their families to be focused on God and each other. We were taught the value of family-both church and biological from an early age. I was blessed to have some wonderful influences in my life from my parents to aunts and uncles who taught all of us right from wrong, the value of relationships, and more importantly, the value of Christ within me. There are more family members I have been blessed to be guided by than can be mentioned here, but there are a few I believe must be. I have already shared my Mam’aw with you, but probably the most influential person in my life has been my Aunt Ann. She has always been the stabilizing force for our family, and in particular me. Aunt Ann has always been available with words of comfort and wisdom; words of encouragement and rebuke; words of guidance and insight. To this day she still is the first person I call upon when I need advice, strength, Scriptural insight, or simply someone to listen. She not only was my guidance counselor in school, but she has also been my guidance counselor for life. She has taught me more with her words and her life than anything I have learned with two Master ’s degrees. I feel as Timothy did when Paul expressed the faith he was taught from his grandmother and mother. My grandmother blessed me with an audience, but my Aunt Ann has blessed me as my mother, and guide of my faith. She is more than an aunt; she is my mother.
A third person of influence was my Uncle Randolph. This was my dad’s only brother, and I grew up with he and his family living in the same yard I did. “Uncle Randy” was one of, if not the, smartest men I have ever known. There simply did not seem to be anything he did not know, and if there was, he would not stop until he figured it out so he could know it also. He read the Bible on a consistent basis, and knew more about Scripture than many of the Bible professors I have had the privilege to study under. The interesting thing about “Uncle Randy” is that he did not become a Christian until he was in his seventies, and only a few months before he passed. I had the privilege of baptizing him just a few months before his death, and at this time his health had failed him to the point where he could not see, nor could he walk on his own, so I had the blessing of life to carry him in my arms into the baptistery and immerse him into Christ. The tears in my eyes at this blessing were only overshadowed by the tears of the angles in Heaven that “Uncle Randy” was redeemed.
The last influence I will take a moment to share with is my uncle Bert Gillman. “Uncle Bert” is without a doubt one of the most calm people I have ever met. I have never seen him lose his temper or control of himself. I have heard that was not always the case, but all of it changed when he allowed Jesus Christ to become his Savior and guide. At a very early time in my life “Uncle Bert” drove the JOY BUS for the Black’s Road Church of Christ in Pataskala, OH where he still to this day serves as a shepherd and has for more than twenty years. “Uncle Bert” has consistently been a source of strength and guidance in my walk in ministry helping me to learn how to work with leaders and also how to be more effective in serving in a ministerial/pastoral role for the family of God.
When I was in the eighth grade I met my future wife. Sherie Stroud came to our family reunion with my cousin Lena and we hit it off great from day one. That evening at home my dad asked me who the girl Lena and I were hanging out with was and I told him her name was Sherie and I was going to marry her some day. Sherie and I dated in high school and again in college, but it took God many years to whip me into shape, and prepare the man He needed me to be for Sherie. She and I were married in August of 1994, and I have been blessed every day since then with a “woman of noble character” (Proverbs 31:10). Her mother likes to tell people that each time she prayed for God to put someone into Sherie’s life who could love her, strengthen her, and help her walk in Christ’s foot steps, I showed up at her door, but it took God many years to show me His plan for me, and He has blessed me beyond measure with her in my life.
I graduated from West Virginia State College in May 1994 with a BA in History and English after spending three years at West Virginia University. My desire had always been to coach college football; however, God had different plans for me. During my last year of college I spent most of the weekends preaching somewhere in southern West Virginia or southeastern Ohio. It was during the final semester of school I was asked to become the minister for the Pennsville Church of Christ in Pennsville, Ohio. I accepted that opportunity with three weeks left in school. I continued my education past the initial BA degree and in 2002 received a Master of Science in Christian Ministry (Bible) from Southern Christian University in Montgomery, AL and in 2008 received a Master of Divinity in Marriage and Family Therapy from Amridge University, formerly Southern Christian University.
Sherie and I have been married for almost sixteen years now, and while we have not been blessed with biological children we have five children. Our oldest is James, 28, and he is married to the lovely Abby and the live in Texas where James has been stationed at Fort Hood for now on ten years. Sherie and I are the very proud grandparents to Logan, who brings us simply great joy. We also have Jonathan, Jason, Ashley, and Jeffrey who wrap us in their love and humor each and every day. I realize God is not finished with me yet. I am still a work in progress, and know that He will continue to mold and shape me, sometimes painfully, until I am the vessel painted with, gold tested in the fire, and refined by the perfect blood of Christ. I have been so blessed by the hand of God I simply do not know how best to describe it except to say---“I once were lost, but now am found; Was blind but now I see.”
