Lindemann named Mississippi Bivocational Pastor of the Year

By John Pace

JACKSON, Miss. — Each year at the Annual Meeting, Mississippi Baptists recognize a Bivocational Pastor of the Year. In doing so, we are reminded of the great number of faithful and dedicated bivocational pastors and ministers who manage a career in the marketplace while  serving as dedicated Christian ministers and servants in churches all over the state.  

Approximately 54 percent of Mississippi pastors are bivocational. These ministers are heroes of faith in their dedication and service as they evangelize, love, disciple, counsel, preach, teach, minister to, and encourage their flocks as undershepherds of Jesus Christ. They are vitally important to the work of the Kingdom of God and Christ’s church in our state, nation, and world.  

The 2026 Mississippi Bivocational Pastor of the Year was awarded to Rev. Taylor Lindemann, pastor of First Baptist Church, Brooklyn. He has served as pastor of FBC Brooklyn the past seven years while also teaching math at Purvis Middle School and driving a bus for the school system. Lindemann was also recently named the 2025-26 Teacher of the Year at Purvis Middle School. 

Lindemann grew up in Meridian, where he attended Oak Grove Baptist Church. His pastor, Roy Dabbs, impacted him powerfully through discipleship and mentoring. He trusted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Lord when he was 7 years old. As a teenager and high school student, due to various factors in life, Lindemann wrestled with doubts and questions, but Christ ministered to him through these trials and led him to continue to grow in faith and the understanding of God’s plan for his life.

After surrendering to the call to ministry in 2013, Lindemann began to prayerfully seek God’s will about ministry opportunities. He served as youth pastor at First Baptist Church, Marion, during the summers of 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2016, he began to serve with Carterville Baptist Church, Petal, as a youth ministry intern. During that time, Lindemann worked bivocationally at a bakery in Hattiesburg and also filled numerous pulpits as a supply preacher. 

Lindemann graduated from William Carey University (WCU) in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and was ordained to the ministry by FBC Brooklyn. In April 2017, he was called to be the bivocational student minister at the church, effectively leading it to impact the young people in the community. 

In 2019, FBC Brooklyn was without a pastor. While serving on the pastor search committee, Lindemann filled in as supply preacher, as well as taking care of various pastoral ministry responsibilities. Months into the pastor search process, the search committee extended a call to Lindemann who became the bivocational pastor in August 2019 at 24 years old. 

Lindemann has now faithfully served as pastor of FBC Brooklyn for more than 7 years. During his time as pastor, he went back to WCU to get his alternate route teacher certification, serving bivocationally as an assistant teacher in Harrison County schools, as a teacher in Forrest and Stone counties, and now as a teacher and bus driver at Purvis Middle School. He also able to attend earned a Master of Divinity degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2023.

Randy Sims, Associational Missions Strategist in the Pine Belt Baptist Association, has dubbed what has happened at FBC Brooklyn under Lindemann’s leadership as “the Brooklyn miracle.” In the last 5 years, the church has celebrated 46 baptisms, with 141 other spiritual decisions that have led to church membership, for a total of 187 new decisions and additions to the church family. 

When Lindemann began his ministry as pastor at FBC Brooklyn, the church had about 50 people attending, with approximately five youth and 10 children as part of the ministry. The church now has about 150 people in attendance on Sunday morning. The church’s midweek services have also expanded. On Wednesdays, FBC Brooklyn ministers to around 30 youth and 60 children from the community.

The growth and evangelistic impact of FBC Brooklyn can be attributed to the commitment of Lindemann and the church to love and minister to the community through intentional evangelism, discipleship, and leadership. Community events and ministry to local schools through a bus and van ministry have helped the church connect with and reach multitudes of students, children, and their families with the Gospel and love of Jesus Christ. 

Three vans run weekly throughout the community to bring children and students to FBC Brooklyn. There is such a great need in this ministry area that they often have a waiting list for their van ministry, sometimes having to make double routes or employ church members to make a stop in their own vehicles on the way to church. The expansion of the bus and van ministry, alongside the overall growth of the children’s ministry, necessitated the addition of a children’s minister at the church this past summer.

In November 2025, the church also undertook and completed the construction of a new fellowship hall — an idea that had been considered for about 20 years. This provided the church greater and more affective space for student ministry and their growing church family. 

FBC Brooklyn is also committed to missions, evidenced in their mission partnerships and trips to Canada, and in their faithful giving to the Cooperative Program, the Pine Belt Baptist Association, the Margaret Lackey State Offering, the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions, as well as supporting other local ministry and mission efforts.

Lindemann is thankful that his bivocational ministry allows him to spend every day engaging people in the community as a teacher, bus driver, family man, and community member, while providing constant opportunities to build relationships where he can witness to, minister to, counsel, and connect people to Christ and His church. He has noted that his commitment to serve Christ faithfully in his pastoral role while working a busy school schedule earns him credibility and authority when leading and exhorting his church family to do the same in service and faith. 

His success in ministry, said Lindemann, has been in identifying and raising up committed ministry leaders and volunteers who can manage ministry leadership that he can’t always provide due to time constraints. He also emphasized how important it has been to develop effective time management skills as a bivocational pastor, which for him includes devoting the time from 4 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. each day, before he starts his bus route, for sermon preparation and his own spiritual and ministerial growth. 

Lindemann’s wife, Adrienne, is a stay-at-home mom and serves faithfully at FBC Brooklyn alongside Taylor in every aspect of ministry. Taylor and Adrienne are blessed with two children, 4-year-old Raley, and 2-year-old Malachi. 

Pace is director of Leadership at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.