Before coming to St. John’s Seminary, Father Thoma served his religious community, the Congregation of the Resurrection, in a variety of ways. In his twenty-two years of active ministry, Fr. Thoma has served two parishes, been chaplain/teacher at Gordon Technical High School in Chicago, Illinois, and was Director of Formation for the Congregation while working on his doctoral degree. He has served as an adjunct professor at Kenrick Seminary and Aquinas Institute of Theology, both in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2004, Fr. Thoma has taught the men of St. John’s Seminary the craft of Catholic preaching. Throughout his career in ministry Fr. Thoma has always placed preaching God’s Word at the core, trying to “preach and teach wherever called upon to do so.”