He resisted the pulpit. Now he’s building a church of his own 

As the son of the man who leads one of the most influential Black churches in the country, Rev. Joshua Thomas spent years avoiding the call to ministry. It’s not that he didn’t love the church; he preferred to stay behind the scenes, making sure the audio, lighting and other technology worked.

“Growing up in a pastor’s family, it was definitely not my dream” to stand at the pulpit, said Thomas, whose father, Bishop Walter Scott Thomas Sr., is pastor emeritus of Baltimore’s New Psalmist Baptist Church and whose brother, Dr. Walter Scott Thomas Jr., is senior pastor. “I did not want to be a pastor.”

But God, he said, had other plans.

After preaching his first sermon in 2008 and serving in multiple ministry roles, Thomas heeded the pastoral call. Now, four years into senior pastoral leadership, he has launched Freedom Church in metro Atlanta — a congregation shaped by his upbringing and his own vision for ministry.

“I will forever be unapologetically a son of New Psalmist,” he said. “New Psalmist is in my DNA. When God blesses you with something so great, the worst thing you can do is pour water on that fire.”

‘We’re creating something new’

While New Psalmist influences Thomas’ new venture, he said Freedom is not simply recreating the practices he inherited. Instead, the congregation aims to create space for people who have struggled to find a spiritual home.

Freedom Church officially launched late last year and has held weekly worship services throughout 2026. This fall, it is moving from Saturday worship in Lawrenceville, Georgia, to Sunday morning services in nearby Duluth.

“There’s no handbook on what Freedom is because we’re writing it as we go,” Thomas said. “Every chapter we’re creating something new.”

For Thomas, planting a church begins with one essential question.

“It starts with a why,” he said. “Some people start churches just because they want to say they have a church, and that’s not enough.”

As he heard from more people searching for a place to worship, Thomas said he felt called to act.

“The Lord began speaking, saying, ‘That’s what I’m calling you to do.’”

Those conversations have grown into a congregation.

“People have found us,” Thomas said. “Our sheep know our voice, even if we didn’t know them.”

Healing the ‘church hurt’

Thomas said Freedom is intended to welcome people carrying “church hurt” and those who have never felt comfortable with traditional church expectations.

“If someone’s a new believer, they can feel safe at Freedom,” he said. “If someone’s been in church for 40 years, they can feel safe. If someone’s looking to heal from past church hurt, they can find their place.”

That emphasis begins before worship starts.

“When you come to Freedom for the first time, the first thing you encounter are smiling faces,” Thomas said. “People that are welcoming you there.”

He described a congregation where visitors are not questioned about where they belong or whose seat they occupy.

“You can be fully you and continue to grow,” he said. “You don’t have to put on a front.”

Thomas said his sermons are designed to send worshippers home eager to study Scripture beyond Sunday morning.

“You can’t grow just in Sunday service,” he said.

Even as Freedom builds its in-person congregation, Thomas is committed to those who may never walk through its doors. About 200 people worship online each week through the church’s livestream.

“The world has changed,” he said. “There’s no longer this great separation between the physical and the digital space.”

Thomas believes churches that continue treating digital ministry as an afterthought risk missing an entire generation of online worshippers.

“The faster the church accepts that, the more ministry we can do,” he said.

For Thomas, Freedom Church is less about creating another congregation than creating new possibilities for ministry. He recalls helping feed more than 500 people despite having no church kitchen because members found another way.

“So often we have the ideas, but we have all the reasons … why we can’t,” he said. “Anything is possible.”

Thomas believes a church without generations of traditions can become a laboratory for fresh ministry, provided it remains anchored in the gospel.

The son of one of Baltimore’s best-known pastors is writing his own chapter in Georgia, carrying forward a rich inheritance while making room for people who have long wondered whether there was a place for them at the table.

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