MCNEILL, Miss. – Bivocational ministers from across the Southern Baptist Convention will gather May 6 at the Pearl River Baptist Association Camp for their annual meeting.
By Brian Blackwell
Staff Writer
MCNEILL, Miss. – Bivocational ministers from across
the Southern Baptist Convention will gather May 6 at the Pearl River
Baptist Association Camp for their annual meeting.
Originally scheduled at New Orleans Baptist
Theological Seminary, the meeting was moved to Mississippi because of a
lack of hotel space in the city ravaged by two two hurricanes and
breached levees. The camp is located 25 miles north of Slidell.
Testimonies from people impacted by Hurricane Katrina, music by Pearl
River Baptist Church in Albany, Miss., and a video produced by the
Louisiana Baptist Convention about the storm’s impact in New Orleans
are among the planned activities.
“We’ll also focus on rebuilding churches in
Mississippi and Louisiana that were damaged by the recent hurricane,”
said Gary Mitchell, Louisiana Baptist Convention small church
strategist and a longtime SBC leader in bivocational ministry.
Called “Bivos Helping Bivos,” the bivocational
ministers and their laity will help two churches damaged by Hurricane
Katrina prior to and after the conference.
Work projects at Epiphany Baptist Church in New
Orleans and a church in Waveland, Miss. – both of which are served by
bi-vocational pastors – will be May 1-5 and May 8-12. Tennessee Baptist
Disaster Relief coordinators are underwriting the cost of meals and
lodging during the effort.
For more information, call Ray Gilder at (615) 371-7907 or e-mail rgilder@tnbaptist.org.