Thom Rainer

About Thom Rainer

Thom S. Rainer is the founder and CEO of Church Answers, an online community and resource for church leaders. Prior to founding Church Answers, Rainer served as president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. Before coming to LifeWay, he served at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for twelve years where he was the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Alabama and earned his Master of Divinity and Ph.D. degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition to speaking in hundreds of venues over the past 30 years, Rainer led Rainer Group, a church and denominational consulting firm, from 1990 to 2005. The firm provided church health insights to over 500 churches and other organizations over that period. Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo, have three grown sons: Sam, Art, and Jess, who are married to Erin, Sarah and Rachel respectively. The Rainers have 11 grandchildren: Canon, Maggie, Nathaniel, Will (with the Lord), Harper, Bren, Collins, Joshua, Joel, James, and Dominic. He is the author of 38, including: I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, Breakout Churches, Simple Life, Simple Church, Raising Dad, The Millennials, and Essential Church. His most recent book is The Post Quarantine Church, a Tyndale publication.

Experience

1. Founder

   Church Answers

   Jan 2018 — Present · Franklin, TN, US

Education

• The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

  Master of Divinity (M.Div.), Evangelism

  1983 — 1985

• The University of Alabama

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Corporate Finance

  1973 — 1977

• The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Evangelism

  1986 — 1988