By Staff
PASTOR PUTS HIS HAIR ON THE LINE – Jamie Lamoreaux, pastor of Briarwood Baptist Church, may have a shaved head by next Sunday if 250 children sign up for the church's vacation Bible school next week. Practicing for the event is Lamoreaux's son, Weldon. The honor of shaving Brother Jamie's head will go to the highest bidder. The money raised will be used to buy Bibles for Northeast Middle School students. Photo by Paula Merritt / The Meridian Star
By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
July 13, 2002
Jamie Lamoreaux is a young man with a head full of hair but that could change by July 21.
The pastor at Briarwood Baptist Church will still be young, but he may be bald.
If the church registers as many as 250 children for Vacation Bible School next week, Brother Jamie, as he is more commonly known, has agreed to shave his head July 21.
Last year the church's former pastor, Dr. David Chambers, kissed a pig when 225 children registered for Bible school.
Mary Kate Snow, who has organized the Bible school for two years, has no doubt they will register 250 especially with the honor of shaving Lamoreaux's head being open to the highest bidder.
Snow said people can bid on shaving Lamoreaux's head by calling the church office at 681-6615. Money raised will go toward purchasing Bibles for Northeast Middle School students.
The church purchased Bibles for all Northeast Elementary School students at the end of this school year.
Deadline approaches
Snow said the church has until 9 p.m. Friday to register enough children for Lamoreaux's head to be sheared at the Bible School Family Night, scheduled at the church for 6 p.m. July 21.
Lamoreaux, 31, became pastor in April, replacing Chambers who moved to a church in Alabama. Lamoreaux had served as associate pastor and minister of youth at Briarwood.
Lamoreaux and his wife of 11 years, Shannon, have two children, Weldon, 10 and Ashton, 8. Lamoreaux calls Meridian his home, having moved here from England at the age of 11 with his family.
His father was in the U.S. Navy.
Lamoreaux graduated from Northeast High School in 1988, attended Meridian Community College and then joined the U.S. Air Force in 1991.
Military experience
For 8 1/2 years he served as a law enforcement officer in the Air Force. Because his head was shaved when he first went into service, Lamoreaux said it won't be a shock if it's shaved again.
Lamoreaux is currently a junior, pursuing a bachelor of science degree in religion through the external degree program at Liberty University in Lynchberg, Va.
Lamoreaux said he was called to the ministry in 1998 after hearing a church service in San Antonio that changed his life.
He said two verses the pastor quoted in that service from the book of Romans Chapter 10, verses 9 and 10 will stay with him the rest of his life:
Strong impression
Lamoreaux said that the "Lord used that specific church on that specific day to teach me that he was seeking me as much as I was seeking him. Now I continue to grow daily in Christ to be the man he created me to be."
Lamoreaux served as associate pastor at New Hope Fellowship Baptist Church in Syracuse, Utah, before moving back to Meridian in 1999. A friend told him about a possible opening at Briarwood.
He was ordained as a Southern Baptist Minister at Briarwood Baptist Church in October 2001.