Jamie Thompson – Pastor

I am daughter of Keith and Sandra Thompson, sister to Laura. I am granddaughter of James and Evelyn Finch and Lester and Mildred Thompson, all of whom I knew and cherished and miss dearly now. I was born and raised in Kinston, and my family has deep roots in eastern North Carolina. Queen Street United Methodist Church is where I was baptized, confirmed, and called into ministry. The congregation of Queen Street loved me, raised, me and taught me the faith and I am forever indebted to them. After graduating from Kinston High School, I went on to Mount Olive College where I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion in 2007. I spent a year after college discerning next steps and during this “in between year” I worked part-time at Westminster United Methodist Church and part-time at Great Outdoor Provision Company.

I then moved to Richmond, Virginia to attend Union Presbyterian Seminary where I earned a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theology with a focus in Theology and Christian Social Ethics. The subject of my ThM thesis was a theological and ethical critique of the prison industrial complex, a survey of how systemic racism is embedded in our criminal [in]justice system and what role the church might play in working to establish restorative responses (rather than punitive ones) that are rooted in justice and the shalom of God in our society.

I began serving as a United Methodist pastor on August 5, 2012. The places and ministries I have served over the last ten years include: a two-point charge (two churches at the same time) in Greene County, associate pastor to downtown historical church and new-community-ministry-planter in New Bern, associate pastor to missional congregation in Aulander (Bertie County), and solo pastor and community ministry convener in Pink Hill, NC.

A few of my favorite things are being outdoors, running (I sort of love it), riding my bike, martial arts, reading good books, sitting on the porch, spending time at my family’s camper on Bogue Sound, and of course, hanging out with my two cats, Zippy and Gladys Herdman.