MANSFIELD, Ohio — Thom Miller, the minister with two wives, whose story went viral overnight, is involved with a few ministries in Mansfield, including a church.
Who is he?
After reading his story, Richland Source set out to learn more about him and his family. How are they reacting to the fact that their story can be found in 0.64 seconds on a Google search? How do his church members feel about their pastor’s lifestyle?
What follows is an accounting of a reporter’s attempt to learn more.
To start, I called the numbers attached to both ministries. No answer. In fact, both calls ended in a recorded message stating the number had been changed.
When that failed, rubber to concrete followed. I searched for the addresses to his ministry and church, on North Diamond Street and Crider Road, respectively.
A ministry, located on North Diamond, came up in the Internet search as Special Visit Ministry, Inc. Another lead suggested his church was on Crider Road (it wasn’t).
Visits to each location were disconcerting.
Both buildings are vacant and exemplify Mansfield’s blight issue.
The building on Diamond Street is peppered with broken windows and a second-hand for-sale sign, according to the board covering one of the many bullet-ridden windows. The front door also has a mail slot. No one answered a knock on the padlocked door.
A drive to the church on Crider Road followed. There was no sign announcing the structure. Upon closer look, the inside was ransacked, gutted. The outside looked like it had seen better days. After a few knocks and friendly ‘hello’ shouts, I decided to leave.
Just then a man emerged from inside the abandoned church. He wore a headlamp strapped to a hardhat and disheveled clothes.
“Do you know Thom Miller?” I asked, hoping it might be him — the elusive minister I was seeking all morning.
It was the wrong man. He had just acquired the building to start his new record company. He was gutting the place, he said. He said Miller had once been pastor at the church.
The man knew of Thom Miller, however. He read Miller’s story earlier that morning. All he knew, he said, was that Miller had a food pantry and church up the road at Hilltop Ohio Inc. Excited for the new lead, I blurted a ‘thank you’ and started for my car.
“Do you know about Hilltop?” he said quickly, interrupting my haste.
“No,” I answered, curious.
“It’s Crackville,” he said. He told me it used to be a hotel “back in the day.” But now, people live there for $80 per week, he said.
I thanked him profusely and sped off, eager to find Miller or any information that could lead me to him.
I knocked on the office door, with no answer. As I waited, I saw a paper taped to the inside of the window: “Food Pantry every 1st and 3rd Saturday in December.”
I had the right place.
After a solid minute of intermittent knocking, I left. I jotted down the number of the Hilltop office, hoping a phone call later might help me.
As I pulled away, I gave one more hopeful glance in the office’s direction. There was a man standing in the doorway, inhaling a cigarette. I turned around and approached him.
“Do you know Thom Miller?” I asked again.
After giving me a good look and noticing my office apparel, I thought he would surely not talk to me, suspecting I must work for something official.
“Yeah, I’ll call him right now,” the man said casually. I heard Miller on the other end; he was asking if it was Dillon Carr — I had left him a message on his phone for Special Visit Ministry earlier.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I said.
“He said he’s going to call you right now,” the man with the cigarette said. Sure enough, when I raced back to my car to get my phone, it was ringing.
“You found me, the infamous pastor with two wives,” he said, laughing.
Per reporter protocol, I introduced myself and asked if he would be interested in giving me an interview as a follow-up to his viral story. I wanted to know how he and his two wives were holding up after seeing the public’s reaction.
He rejected the interview, explaining that Barcroft Media planned on publishing another story later this week.
“I can’t in good conscience,” he said. “I have to let them do it first.”
Then I asked him about the Word of Faith church and his ministries.
“Yeah, we run a food pantry out of the church there at Hilltop,” he said. “Every first and third Saturday.”
As for his story, Miller said, “Something much bigger is coming in two to three days.”
Barcroft Media is a media content company based out of London, England. According to its website, it was founded by Sam Croft in 2003. Miller’s pictures and a video is available through licensing with the company.
