Pettis County Commissioners Meet With Area Clergy

A half dozen religious leaders gathered in the Pettis County Commissioner's Chamber on Thursday afternoon for the first-ever Pastors and Leaders of Faith meeting at the Pettis County Courthouse, 415 South Ohio.

All three commissioners were present for the 45-minute meeting, as well as a few county officials.

Eastern Commissioner Israel Beaza explained the reason behind the meeting:

“We're definitely grateful that the pastors and leaders of faith accepted our invitation to be able to come out. Now, we weren't able to invite everybody that we would have liked to, because of the small capacity of our chambers, but the ones we did invite, tey were very willing to come on out, we think it went great. It was a time of prayer, and really, it shows that our public officials, we understand that we need guidance. And what better guidance than from God. So again, that was our whole intention of hosting them here, and just bringing prayer and humbling ourselves in front of God to show that we want His guidance,” Baeza told KSIS.

Following an invocation from Rev. Jon Church, president of the Pettis County Ministerial Alliance, and pastor of Katy Park Baptist Church, Commissioner Baeza provided opening remarks, followed by a “prayer for our community” by Rev. Jeremiah Greever, pastor of First Baptist Church of Sedalia.

That was followed by a “prayer for our county government” from Rev. Jason Veale, pastor of Smithton United Methodist Church.

Presiding Commissioner Bill Taylor then read a National Day of Prayer proclamation, which he then presented to Rev. Church.

Bishop Paul Jones, Burns Chapel Free Will Baptist Church, then provided a closing prayer for the occasion, followed by closing remarks by Western Commissioner Jim Marcum.

Each pastor was provided with a two-page printout that listed phone numbers for all county officials and department heads.

Get our free mobile app

Baeza said he felt like there was a good cross-section of pastors represented at the meeting, even though some could not attend due to scheduling conflicts.

“Our whole intention is to continue this, moving forward, and we'll rotate and we'll bring some more (pastors) in. This is the first of many meetings, and it was a perfect opportunity with the National Day of Prayer,” Baeza said, adding that “we want them to know that they have direct access to all their elected officials, and hopefully that makes communication a little better, and we definitely encourage them to reach out.”

Baeza noted how many churches there are in Sedalia. “I think a lot of people don't realize how many we have,” he commented.

“Our doors are always open, but I think this was a good opportunity to remind ourselves and to really express to our community our willingness to seek the Lord's guidance in everything that we do,” Baeza concluded.