The Deacon/Trustee Board is calling a Special Church-Wide Business Meeting on Sunday, August 23, for the purpose of voting on Jenny Guillory to become our Part-Time Minister of Education as funded by the Unlimited Partnerships Program. On Sunday, August 16, after our Regular Church-Wide Business Meeting, you will be given an opportunity to visit with Jenny in a question and answer session.

What is the Unlimited Partnerships?

Unlimited Partnerships connects seminary students to churches affected by Hurricane Katrina to work as Part-Time Ministers of Education with personal training and funding sources coming from another sponsoring church. In our case with Jenny, Northport Baptist Church of Northport, Alabama (a church that has been a friend to us in many ways) has agreed to be the sponsoring church. This means that they will provide Jenny’s salary for us, and their Minister of Education Steve Brown will act as Jenny’s mentor.

Who is Jenny Guillory?

I write that almost in jest, but I also know that not everyone in our church knows Jenny very well. After the Unlimited Partnerships staff informed me that our church was selected to receive a Minister of Education through their program, I recommended that they consider our own church member Jenny Guillory. Jenny joined our church last September, and she has been living in our neighborhood for about a year. She is a student at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary working on her Masters of Arts in Christian Education. She has been one of our Summer Missionaries through the North American Mission Board working in the Sports Camp. She has been teaching one of our children’s Sunday School classes for about 6 months and has been active on Wednesday nights and in the Women’s Ministry. She also volunteers at the Baptist Friendship House on Elysian Fields Avenue. Her commitment to our church and neighborhood has been inspiring.

Our Deacon/Trustee Board met yesterday, interviewed Jenny, and spoke with a representative from Unlimited Partnerships. They unanimously recommended Jenny to our church for this position.

Of course, you can get to know Jenny better by coming to the question and answer session after the Regular Business Meeting this Sunday.

What will Jenny be doing at our church?

The Unlimited Partnerships students are to focus on four areas of the church: evangelism, discipleship, creating new small groups, and leadership development. Jenny will be working under my supervision and under the mentorship of Rev. Brown from Northport Baptist. We are allowed to tailor her activities to our own church and neighborhood so long as it falls under these four areas.

Why are we having two business meetings?

One question that came up in yesterday’s meeting bears repeating here for the sake of clarification. Why do we not just vote on Jenny this Sunday at our Regular Church-Wide Business Meeting? Would that not be more simple?

It would be easier to vote on Jenny this Sunday, but I think that would not be fair to our church members. Our Deacon/Trustee Board made this recommendation after yesterday’s church service. Many of our people will not be hearing about this until Sunday the 16th. The 16^th was the agreed upon date of our quarterly Regular Church-Wide Business Meeting. Hearing this news on the same day that you have to vote puts too much pressure on our church members, as though we are “railroading” Jenny through. We do not want to do that to you. Jenny is coming to you as a recommendation from my self and the Deacon/Trustee Board, but you need to pray and consider for yourself whether or not you believe this is God’s desire for Grace Baptist Church. Furthermore, the vote on the 23^rd will be by secret ballot so that you can vote according to your conscience without fear of publically opposing your church leadership.

Bringing someone onto the church ministerial staff is very important, and we want to take our time and do it the right way.