About our pastor

 

Tom Atkins is our Pastor at Rutland Methodist. Atkins graduated from Virginia Tech with a BA in English, minoring in Drama, History, and Communications. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Hollins University and D. D.Div. from Christian Bible College and Seminary.

 

Before entering the ministry, Tom worked in high technology. He was an integral part of three start-up divisions and systems integration companies: The Whitlock Group, TGS (later bought by Ascent Media), and Diversified Systems, designing and project managing Television and other broadcast and A/V facilities throughout the U.S.

 

In 2011, Atkins founded Quarry House, which works with businesses and individuals in business and personal development as a coach and consultant as part of the John Maxwell Team. He continues that work today. 

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Raised in the Methodist Church and later an ordained deacon in the Baptist Church since 1984, Atkins has preached and taught at churches in many denominations, with a focus on teaching and leading people to understand and develop their spiritual gifts. After moving to West Pawlet, Vermont in 2009, he began attending Rupert United Methodist Church, and began as supply pastor there in September 2013. He began the process of becoming a licensed United Methodist Pastor in 2014, completing that work in 2015. Tom has pastored at Chapel on the Green in West Arlington, Vermont, as well as Rupert Methodist (Where he still serves.) He was called to Rutland UMC in July of  2024.

 

As a bi-vocational pastor, Tom is also a Leadership and Life coach and consultant at Quarry House, a published poet, a freelance writer of magazine articles. fiction, non-fiction, and essays, as well as an artist and photographer. He considers himself still a newlywed, married to Cindy Atkins since May, 2017. They have three children scattered across the globe.

 

Tom sums the heart of his ministry with the words “Love, No Exceptions.”  “My reading and studying of the gospel, and my experience as a person and pastor has led me to believe all the artificial barriers to people’s being part of the church and God’s kingdom are just that – artificial. I do not care what color you are, what your sexual orientation is, where you are from, where you have been – you are a child of God and deserve to be loved and accepted as such. Period.”

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