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Jakavious Terrell Pickett is a native of Crystal Springs, MS and he is married to Natasha Pickett.  Together they have two children, Shae and Jaquille.  He serves as the Sr. Pastor of Praise Temple Full Gospel Baptist Church of Biloxi, MS where he was installed by Bishop L. Lawrence Brandon in January 2015.  He is a member of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International where he has served in numerous positions to include the Mississippi State Director of Christian Education for Youth, District Director of Youth and Young Adults, 1st Assistant to the Regional Director of Young Adults, and the 1st Assistant to the District Overseer for the Southern District of Mississippi.

 

In 2007 Pastor Pickett and his wife Natasha founded the F.R.E.E Foundation.  The F.R.E.E. Foundation was established to provide a first-class ministry to youth in rural areas across the state of Mississippi.  He sits of several boards to include Feeding the Gulf Coast, East Biloxi Community Collaborative (Co Chairman), Coast Young Professionals (Past Chairman), and Leadership Gulf Coast (Past Treasurer).  He was recently selected as Program Chair elect for Leadership Gulf Coast and will be a catalyst in pushing the 2020 and 2021 Leadership Gulf Coast class.

 

Pastor Pickett is a graduate of Trinity Theological Seminary.  He is also a 2016 graduate of Leadership Gulf Coast and is currently a part of the 2019 class of the Gulf Coast Business Councils Masters Leaders Class.  He’s received several awards to include the Dorothy Ashley Award for Top Religious Leader (2015 and 2018), One Coast Top 10 Under 40 Business Professional (2016), Bishop Paul S. Morton Award for Pastoral Excellence in the Emerging Church (2017), CYP Forever Young Award for being a top mentor (2018), and One Coast Community Leader Award (2019).

 

Pastor Pickett honors the call and position that God has blessed him to have along the coast because he has the opportunity to affect change not just in the spiritual realm but in the natural.  He considers himself to be a bridge that is bringing together the church and the business community to cause change in South Mississippi.  It is his desire to be a pillar in the community and the society in which he serves in order to see it become a productive place by empowering those in his presence to pursue their destiny.