Staff

Tom Claibourne grew up in a small town, studied for the ministry in a large city, and has spent his adult years serving with Bethlehem, a rural congregation in southern Ohio, just 25 miles from where he was born.

During these 60+ years he has developed an interesting world perspective through his unique experiences and extensive travel that has taken him to all 50 states and 30 countries on five continents. While doing covert missionary work for two summers in the 1970's, Tom crossed communist borders 26 times, with each crossing offering its own unique adventures.

Claibourne has swam in five seas and two oceans, waded across a river in Haiti, and traveled on both the Nile & Amazon Rivers. He climbed the Berlin Wall, a Roman aquaduct, one of the Great Pyramids of Egypt, and even over a fence in Germany to run on the Munich Olympic track.

Though even into adulthood he struggled with public speaking, writing, and self-confidence, God has given Tom the opportunity to serve with a strong church for four decades, serve on the national speakers ' circuit for the Energizing Smaller Churches Network, publish more than 100 articles, and write a monthly illustration column for preachers for 20 years.

As an avid defender of the public display of the Ten

Commandments, Tom has been interviewed many times by the the radio, television, and print media, and helped dedicate a granite Ten Commandments monument in the West bank in Israel. 

Tom and his wife Linnea are the parents of 3 adult children.

Tom still participates in several sports and enjoys reading, yard work, and other outdoor pursuits.