Kentucky Wesleyan College is pleased to announce the appointment of Shawn Tomes as director of campus ministries on July 1. He has been the area director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes since 2013. Tomes is a 1994 graduate of Wesleyan and earned an M.A.E. degree in school counseling with a secondary emphasis from Western Kentucky University. He previously served as an art teacher, guidance counselor and assistant basketball coach at Apollo High School for eight years. He was also head basketball coach at McLean County High School from 2002 – 2004. He has served as youth pastor and counselor at Island United Methodist Church and is a certified lay speaker. Tomes has also served as a community volunteer to youth in many capacities.
President Bart Darrell says, “Shawn Tomes brings an incredible combination of faith, high energy and a long history of commitment to the personal spiritual growth of young people. He has vast experience in organizing and executing high level programming that will take our campus ministries’ activities to levels not seen before.
Shawn’s connection with youth and schools through his leadership of FCA and his connection with the United Methodist churches and other churches gives him unique abilities, along with the rest of our campus leadership, to grow campus ministries at our great college. Campus ministries will be a backbone and foundation of all we do here at Kentucky Wesleyan College. Under Shawn’s leadership, we expect our campus to be the Christian ministries hub, not only for our campus and student body, but also for our community, region and beyond.
We also thank Reverend Kent Lewis for his 12 years of work with our students in campus ministries, and we appreciate the foundation he has helped build. We wish him the best as he moves on and continues to touch lives in everything he does.”
“As a long-time active lay speaker of his local United Methodist Church and one of our most requested lay speakers, Shawn brings an appreciation of the partnership between the college and the United Methodist Church,” said Rev. Mark Gibbons, Owensboro District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church. “He is grounded in a personal United Methodist/Wesleyan faith perspective, while also able to relate to persons of other faith perspectives. I am pleased that as part of this transition in his life, Shawn will officially enter candidacy to become a licensed pastor in the United Methodist Church. Bishop Lindsey Davis and our Kentucky Conference Cabinet fully endorse his appointment as director of campus ministries.”
Wesleyan Chair of the Board of Trustees Rev. Tom Grieb shared, “I am very excited to have Shawn Tomes on board, and I look forward to exciting days ahead as he networks with our students, staff and faculty. His broad experience with FCA bodes well for effective ministry.”
“I am humbled and honored to serve my alma mater, and I can’t wait to get to campus,” said Tomes. “My Kentucky Wesleyan experiences shaped me, and I am grateful to the college for investing in me then. Now I have the opportunity to give back. I will seek to serve and love those who cross my path to the best of my ability and build relationships of eternal value.”
Shawn and his wife, Marcia, an educator at Southern Oaks Elementary School, have two children; a daughter, Kenzie, a senior at Apollo High School, and a son, Isaiah, a seventh grader at College View Middle School.
