Jim Shaver has been the pastor of Providence Baptist Church of New Bloomfield, MO. since June 1, 2000. He is a native of Georgia and a graduate of Berry College, Rome, Ga. where he earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration and accounting.  Jim married Jackie Strickland of Savannah, Ga. in 1967.  They have one son, James Wesley, and three grandchildren in Missouri. 

Jim served in the U.S. Army from 1967-1971 and is a Viet Nam veteran.  After an honorable discharge from the Army, Jim began a career in accounting and worked for three major textile firms in the Southeast.

 In 1977, experiencing a call on his life to enter some kind of ministry, Jim enrolled at New Orleans Theological Seminary and began to prepare.  Upon graduation in 1979, he was called to Pastor the First Baptist Church of Adams-Friendship, Wisconsin, and ordained to the Gospel Ministry by the Boynton Baptist Church of Ringgold, Georgia in January of 1980.  Since then, he has served four SBC Churches in Missouri and Montana.  Jim served as President of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention for two terms in the 1990's.  He has spoken in ten states including Alaska.

Jim has been an active computer user since 1981 when he landed a job while a bivocational pastor as a computer operator for a utility company.  His first personal computer was a Texas Instrument TI99A quickly followed by an Apple IIe in 1984.  His interest in computers in ministry quickly led him to suggest to the Missouri Baptist Convention that a computer users group needed to be formed in the state.  That suggestion soon became the Missouri Baptist Computers Group.   Out of that group was born Christian Computing magazine for whom Jim was a contributing editor for several years. 

When he's not pastoring, speaking or computing, Jim is an avid hunter, specializing in bobwhite quail.  He has hunted game birds in eight states and has bagged eight different species.   If you're a bird hunter you might enjoy his quail hunting blog.  Jim and Jackie love to travel with their vintage Airstream trailer and have traveled in over 40 of the 50 states.