Mount Olive Baptist Association
FOREST HILL – According to Pastor Joel McMickin’s wife, Sally, construction work in and out of the church has been affecting the ability to minister.
“We’re surviving though,” she said.
Last fall after the Fall Festival, a snow storm hit the church and damaged the fellowship hall, kitchen and nursery making them unusable. McMickin said decoration plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day were cancelled. Children’s activities have even been stopped.
Church members are working on it though.
“Every Saturday we are working on the fellowship hall,” she explained.
The church family hopes to have all the work completed by Easter.
And members have dealt with construction outside the church. Roadwork has been going on right outside the church for quite a while, McMickin said. This has cut down on some church attendance.
But even in all this inconvenience, God is being seen.
“They [church men] repanelled the whole kitchen [and updated it] which made it more efficient for the ladies,” she said. “The men have been tremendous.”
And when the nursery is completed, McMickin said it will be an entirely new nursery with new furniture, lots more baby beds and swings and highchairs, even a small refrigerator for formula and juice. It too will be “more efficient,” easier to minister in.
McMickin wonders if God is preparing the church family for a population explosion of nursery-aged children.
“One of our head deacons’ wives had a vision [about seven years ago] that this church would be overflowing with children,” she explained.
The road construction has made the church more visible from the highway, McMickin added. When it is completed there will be a brand new exit right in front of the church.
Vernon Baptist Association
NEW LLANO – Sometimes the direction a church goes isn’t what the church body had planned. Such is the case with New Sunrise Baptist Church.
According to Joann Plummer, wife to Pastor Buster Plummer, the church closed its doors a couple of months ago because of Pastor Plummer’s health. When asked about prayer, she said that, “They [the church members] all got prayer going” for her husband.
Plummer explained that her husband’s health is “somewhat better.”
But she still hopes God’s people will continue to pray.
“[Please pray] that he can get up and walk around again,” she said.
Pastor Plummer’s breathing isn’t as good it should be so Plummer said she would appreciate prayer for that too.
Caldwell Baptist Association
COLUMBIA – Pastor Charles Lutrick’s wife Barbara said that Palestine Baptist is “a little country church,” but that doesn’t stop the church family from reaching across the world for Jesus Christ.
“We support several missionaries,” she said. “Plus, we support the Gideons monthly.”
The church members also are faithful to bring the needs of community members, many who don’t even attend church, to the attention of the entire church body. And what they do with this knowledge is exactly what Jesus calls them do.
“We go ahead and give them a love offering,” Lutrick said. “Last Sunday we gave about four” love offerings to families in the community.
And the love offerings are just that, offerings full of love.
“They are such loving people,” she added.
Lutrick experienced this love firsthand. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through 15 months of chemotherapy treatments.
“They were really good to” me and my husband, she said.
The Lutricks live 35 miles from church, but during those 15 months, the church members would bring them meals, and every Sunday, different church members made sure Pastor Lutrick had a nice lunch.
“They always took care of him,” Lutrick said smiling.
One of the wonderful things about the Palestine Baptist Church body is the singing talent.
“We have several who sing,” she said. “And some of the children are the same way. We’re really happy here.”
Chappapeela Baptist Association
LORANGER – Pastor Larry and Teresa Kropog have only been at Creekside Baptist for six months, but already God is bringing growth.
“We have three or four baptisms coming up,” Teresa Kropog said.
They aren’t scheduled yet, but she said her husband is thinking about doing them on Easter Sunday during the morning service.
All the believers being baptized are high school students, which is so exciting for the Creekside Baptist members.
“We have a lot of elderly people,” Kropog said. “They are thrilled to have young people” attending church again.
Plus, these same church members are “willing to try anything – they’re a good group of people.”
The youth began attending because of one female high school student. She starting coming to church. Then, “She’s brought friends in,” she said. “And they’re on fire. God is definitely moving.”
One new activity just beginning at Creekside is a monthly movie night. The first movie the congregation will watch is “Fireproof.”
In April prior to Easter, Kropog said the movie will be “The Passion.”
Presently, about 20 people attend Sunday worship services. It is exciting to see the growth but sometimes the Kropogs can get impatient.
“We gotta learn to wait on God,” she added.
Vernon Baptist Association
LEESVILLE – God brought Pastor Billy Johnson and his wife Genevieve to Calcasieu Baptist Church just four months ago, but already things are happening.
The church family recently started a weekly visitation program.
“We have visitation every Tuesday night,” Johnson said.
Members visit people in the hospital and people who visited the church.
Sunday School attendance has grown in the last few months. When the Johnsons first arrived, only about 13 attended. Now, 30 to 32 people attend Sunday School every Sunday.
The congregation has Wednesday night Bible study and Sunday night discipleship class. Currently, Johnson is teaching Revelation.
“We average about 20 Sunday nights,” he said.
The thing he loves about the Revelation study is that he and the members who attend have great discussions.
One of the neat things about the church body at Calcasieu Baptist Church is the variety in people’s backgrounds.
“It’s a mix of ages,” Johnson said. “And we have a lot of interracial marriages.”
He attributes a lot of this to being so close to Fort Polk. Johnson retired from Army after 23 years.
“I was a First Sergeant at Fort Polk,” Johnson explained.
This helps him “speak the same language” as many in his congregation. Many are also retired military or currently serving in the military.
St. Tammany Baptist Association
COVINGTON – Hope Church celebrated its sixth birthday last October, and part of that celebration included sending out the church’s pastor Lane Corley to plant a new church.
Since then the church family has been seeking a new pastor, said Jennifer Miller, the church’s administrator and ministry coordinator.
“[The pastor search committee] has narrowed it down to a few people,’ Miller said. “We’re getting close” to getting a new pastor.
Being without a pastor hasn’t stopped the ministry at Hope in anyway though.
On every Friday during Lent (except for Good Friday), the church serves a Fish Fry to its community. The church is in a large Catholic area. Many take advantage of the fish fry. During the event, those who attend are given the chance to fellowship and request prayer for whatever they need. Miller said a clipboard goes around for people to write their prayer requests on. Both those who know Jesus and those who don’t, appreciate this ministry of prayer. And everyone who doesn’t attend Hope Church are given a New Testament and an information about the church.
All money raised during the fish fry goes toward missions, Miller said.
“We push our missions all year,” she said.
The church family calls its entire mission program “Hope For The Nations.”
The church supports the Southern Baptist Missions here and abroad, a church plant in Covington that is reaching many unchurched people; and a missionary couple in Zimbabwe who are church planters.
“They have planted to date nine churches with our funding,” she said.
Some of these individual churches are also supported by Hope Church.
“We support six pastors over there,” she said. “We send each of them $25 a month.”
That doesn’t sound like much here, but in the area where they are in Africa, it is a lot, she added.
About 85 people attend Hope Church of Waldheim weekly.
“We spike to 100 every once in a while,” Miller said.
St. Tammany Baptist Association
PONCHATOULA – If you ask Pastor Lane Corley what are the most challenging things about starting a church plant, he might tell you that it can get lonely or discouraging, but mostly any negative aspects of church planting don’t register with Corley. He has a whole different attitude toward it.
“Church planting is a lot of fun,” Corley said. “A new church has a vibrancy about it . . . Our association had been searching for a church planter.
Last October Corley, along with his wife Heather and a few other believers were commissioned to start a new church plant.
Since then, ministry has been full of reaching out to others, having Bible studies, praying and making contacts.
“We’re trying to focus on the unchurched,” he said. “There are a lot of people interested.”
Presently, they meet in Bedico Baptist Church’s old sanctuary on Sundays, Corley said.
Bedico Baptist is one of the church plant’s main sponsors, along with the North Shore Baptist Associations, the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board.
. This month, the Bridge Church Team, has begun more public ministries, such as: “block parties . . ., Sunday night worship gatherings, ministries to our Parish Jail and an impoverished mobile home park,” Corley explained.
Presently, Corley said all involved call the new church Bridge Church, but the name may change.
Anyone interested in receiving the Bridge Church newsletter should contact Corley atlanecorley@gmail.com. And he covets prayers from fellow believers.
“I’ve planted a church without a peer network and now, planting my second church, I’ll be leaning on peers in church planting for prayer, encouragement, and collaboration,” Corely added.