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A Word from Ray…. The Southern Baptist Convention Meeting in New Orleans during June 17-20, 2012 was one of the most encouraging and productive events in the history of bivocational ministry across the SBC. I was able to interact with bivo and smaller membership church pastors from across the US and beyond. We gained many new friends who signed up to receive our monthly e-newsletter. Most of the folks we met have never heard of the Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network. We gave out hundreds of brochures that will connect more and more folks with our organization. The two most exciting events for me were the bivo lunch and the NAMB presentation by Dr. Kevin Ezell. We had almost 200 in attendance at the luncheon. Dr. Kevin Ezell has labeled bivos as the “Iron Men of the SBC.” He spoke such encouraging and challenging words to the group and then presented each one with an “Iron Men of the SBC” tee shirt and pin. Two books were given out, Bivo Planters and Pastors edited by Aaron Coe and Rural Church Planting by George Garner. The second exciting event was at the NAMB presentation where Dr. Ezell said, “Thank you for all you do as bivocational pastors. Not until I came to the North American Mission Board did I realize the enormity of what bivocational pastors do in North America.” He said that one of the key initiatives of NAMB in the future will be to call out and equip thousands of bivo pastors to reach North America. Thank God for this strong affirmation for the great men of God who serve as bivo pastors. |
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The National Celebration for next year will be April 18-20, 2013 at William Carey University in Hattisburg, Mississippi.
There will be an International Bivocational Celebration at Liberty University in 2014. I am very excited about what God is doing in our midst. May we give Him our best. Blessings, Ray Gilder National Coordinator Bivocational and Small Church Leadership Network Tennessee Baptist Convention rgilder@tnbaptist.org office: 615-371-7907 cell: 931-607-3146 |