Abundant Life Church: Father passing torch

By JOHN HESTER
faith@nwfdailynews.com
FORT WALTON BEACH — After thirty years of preaching at Abundant Life Church, Dr. L.M. Thorne has passed the torch. He promoted his son Michael Thorne to the post of executive pastor in front of the congregation.
“His mother and I always knew Michael would be the one to take over the church,” Dr. L.M. Thorne said in an interview.
The new pastor is eager to continue and expand Abundant Life’s outreach programs, such as Jesus Cares and the Life Enrichment Center.
“My passion for ministry has not changed over the years even though my intensity has,” the 45-year-old Thorne said.
He has been in full-time ministry since 1984. Thorne began as the youth pastor at Abundant Life. He then stepped down in 1995 to take the post of missions pastor, which allowed him to travel to Romania, Hungary, Russia, Germany, Cuba, Belgium and South Africa.
Then in 2006, Thorne began taking on more duties at the church itself as a means of transitioning to leading the church full time.
So far the new pastor credits the staff and congregation with helping him grow into his role.
“The more that the staff and the members of our church are successful, the more successful I will feel,” he said. “I now have a better understanding of what it truly means for ‘the buck to stop here.’ ”
“God has shown me that there are two ways to pastor a church,” Thorne said. “One of the ways is to lead them like a shepherd, guiding by example. The other way is like a cowboy, herding cattle with a whip.”
He added, “Many pastors today want to just lead people to Jesus and then feed them. My dad had a vision 30 years ago: to win the lost, to make disciples and to send those disciples out.
“Today that vision remains the same. We truly desire to win the lost, to make disciples and then to equip them for the work of the ministry,” Thorne said.
“But I don’t just want to continue with the same vision. I want to expand upon it. We are going to utilize untapped resources to accomplish this, like getting the church on the Internet. I want to do things we’ve never done before and go places we’ve never gone before.
“We will continue to be a lighthouse to our community, being true to our foundation. But I also want to blaze a trail for others to follow, a trail that will lead them to the true joy of the Lord.”
Meanwhile, the elder Thorne clarifies that stepping down as senior pastor hardly means he’s done with ministry work.
“My son Michael will have chief preaching duties, but it will take a while before he can fill my shoes completely,” Dr. L.M. Thorne said.
He added, “I will still be very much in the picture, working side by side with my sons.”
His younger son, Terry Thorne, manages the church’s radio station, WPSM Psalms 91.1 FM, and serves as business administrator for the church.