HOF 6.8.25 - Flipbook - Page 53
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, June 8, 2025 53
WALTER SCOTT
THOMAS SR.
As a young man in his 20s, Dwayne Debnam seemed to have his life lined up. He was happily married with two children, was using his IT skills in a manager’s job
at Black & Decker, and believed a long, prosperous career in the corporate world awaited.
Then he met Bishop Walter Scott Thomas Sr.
It was the preaching and teaching of Thomas, longtime senior pastor of New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, that inspired Debnam to “reconsider what
God had in mind for my life.” The more time he spent with Thomas, the more it felt as though he, too, should consider a life in ministry. Now he’s one of more than
200 people from the pastor’s orbit who lead churches of their own.
“It was a scary, nerve-wracking time, and I wasn’t
sure where I was headed, but I don’t regret making
the change one bit,” says Debnam, 62, now in his 30th
year as senior pastor of Morning Star Baptist Church
in Catonsville. “I feel blessed to have kept the cycle
going.”
It’s not an uncommon story in the life of Thomas,
who retired last year as the leader and driving force
behind New Psalmist, one of the city’s most influential
Christian congregations. His 50 years as its pastor call
to mind the Gospel parable in which Jesus said faith
the size of a mustard seed could move a mountain: It
has been all about growth.
“He has galvanized people to want to do more,” says
Victor March, the CEO of March Funeral Homes and
a friend of more than 40 years. “He’s able to pull the
strength out of people so that they’re able to participatewithvalueinwhatthey’redoing.…Hewasableto
take a very small church in terms of membership and
build (it) into something almost like a megachurch,
onethatisreallytiedintotheneedsofthecommunity.”
When he took over New Psalmist in 1975, it had
about 150 members. Thomas’ preaching talent, scriptural knowledge and gift for personal connection built
it out so fast he had to move to bigger locations three
times, most recently as part of a $50 million construction project in 2010. Its current sanctuary, complete
with state-of-the-art sound and video systems, can
hold half its 8,000 members at a time at its campus in
Lochearn.
The married father of three attracted the rich and
influential. The late U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings was
a friend and longtime member. President Bill Clinton visited New Psalmist for its 100th anniversary in
1999 and hosted Thomas and associates at the White
House. President Barack Obama did the same. But
those who know Thomas say his influence spread one
person at a time.
Longtime New Psalmist member Ed Kane has seen
Thomas linger after services and speak with more
Name: Walter Scott Thomas Sr.
Age: 75
Hometown: Baltimore
Current residence: Ellicott City
Education: Baltimore Polytechnic Institute;
University of Maryland, B.S.; Howard
University School of Religion, M.Div.; Saint
Mary’s Seminary & University, D.Min.
Career highlights: Lecturer and president,
Hampton University Ministers Conference;
bishop and presiding prelate, Kingdom
Association of Covenant Pastors;
representative of Christianity to the Alliance
of Religions and Conservation, London; author
of four books on spirituality and leadership.
Civic and charitable activities: Served as
Head of Baltimore Cable Commission under
Mayor Kurt Schmoke; member, board of
directors, Reginald F. Lewis Museum
Family: Married to Patricia Grace Thomas;
three children; six grandchildren
than 100 people one-on-one, always remembering
names and situations and “seeing people through a
godlike lens — not that he’s godlike, but he teaches,
preaches and believes that God sees us all in a way
that perhaps understands our foibles and sees all our
potential and specialness.”
But Thomas brought other dimensions to his leadership. A math and science whiz from boyhood, he
majored in economics at the University of Maryland
and began his adult life as a manager for a regional
phone company. But the more he interacted with
clients, the more he came to sense they had needs
beyond their worldly concerns.
“They needed a discovery bigger than the ones they
were making,” Thomas said. “I started questioning
whetherthecourseIwasonwouldhelpthemfindthat.
The answer came back a resounding ‘no’ — you’ll have
todosomethingelsetohelpthemseewhotheycanbe.”
He volunteered with a legendary local preacher,
the Rev. Dr. Harold Carter Sr. of New Shiloh Baptist
Church, got two advanced degrees in religion and
changed directions.
Half a century later, Thomas says, he understands
that God was always preparing him for his calling. It
took economic skills to provide for New Psalmist’s
finances, management skills to plan for its growth,
negotiating skills to get buildings built, and his gift
in communicating scriptural ideas to become a
sought-after speaker on leadership and spirituality as
far away as Japan, South Africa and England.
“It’sraretofindaleaderinanyfieldwiththatcombinationoftalents,andhe’salwayslearningandstudying
somethingnew,”saysOdellDickerson,NewPsalmist’s
chiefoperationsofficer.“He’sagenius.He’sthesmartest person I’ve ever met in my life.”
The New Psalmist Thomas leaves behind is still
growing. The biblical counseling ministry he founded
more than 40 years ago is oversubscribed. Its four
choir groups keep Sunday services lively, its Sunday
morning TV show, “Empowering Disciples,” is still
aired nationally, its programs to stem hunger provide
fresh food for 100 people per week, and this summer,
more than 40 young people are scheduled to attend
the STEM internship program Thomas brought to
the campus two years ago. His son, the Rev. Dr. Walter
Scott Thomas Jr., meanwhile, has earned rave reviews
as the new senior pastor.
And a few miles to the south, Debnam is carrying
on the Thomas tradition. He has grown Morning
Star from a modest-sized church to a congregation of
1,500,andhecanlistadozenformermemberswhoare
pastoring churches of their own today.
“It wouldn’t have happened without Bishop
Thomas,” he says.
— Jonathan M. Pitts
