Pastor Pollack, son Preston and his small plane are missing.

Bell Shoals Baptist Church minister Forrest Pollock, his son Preston and his small plane are missing, according to the church.

"They're in an intense search, even tonight," the Rev. George Thomasson said Monday night. "Other than that, we don't know. Our real appeal is to the Tampa Bay area to pray for our pastor" and their family.

On the Brandon church's Web site, Thomasson and ministerial staff encourage people to pray.

Pollock flew his plane to North Carolina on Sunday afternoon.

"He reached his destination in North Carolina; however, after leaving from there early Monday morning for Texas, we have learned that Pastor has not yet reached his destination at the time of this writing," a message posted late Monday on the Web site states. "Everything humanly possibly is being done to locate Pastor's whereabouts. We are, however, appealing to all of our church family to pray earnestly for God's supernatural intervention. The new Worship Center is open for prayer and will remain so until further notice."

Search teams are examining the area near the Rutherfordton, N.C., airport where Pollock departed about 4:10 a.m. Monday en route to a conference in Texas, according to the site.

Bell Shoals has about 6,000 members, and about 3,000 people attend services each week.

Pollock came to the church with a background in television production.

He became interested in TV production while in high school in Oklahoma, working as a volunteer intern at a TV station. He went on to start his own TV production company and work as a TV reporter and anchor and print reporter "before God called me into ministry," he told The Tampa Tribune in 2007.

After graduating from Southwestern Baptist Seminary in 1994, Pollock served churches in Fort Worth, Texas, for three years and Baton Rouge, La., for five years before joining Bell Shoals.