As summer nears a sweltering end, “40 Days of Purpose” is coming to the state
of Louisiana.
All Louisiana Baptist Building employees are preparing to engage in the study
by Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren.
As summer nears a sweltering end, “40 Days of Purpose” is coming to the state
of Louisiana.
All Louisiana Baptist Building employees are preparing to engage in the study
by Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren.
In addition, Baptist students at four Louisiana schools have been chosen to
participate in a “40 Days of Purpose” pilot program this fall.
The “40 Days of Purpose” study is based on a pair of books by Warren, pastor
at Saddleback Church in California. “The Purpose-Driven Life” and “The Purpose-Driven
Church” seek to foster spiritual growth by challenging persons and churches
to embrace the purposes God intended.
The books have captured the attention of the evangelical world. Indeed, “The
Purpose-Driven Life” recently was named the Evangelical Christian Publishers
Association’s Book of the Year for 2003.
The companion 40-day study follows the thrust of the books and is designed
to help persons focus on their lives and how they are being lived.
Any number of Baptist groups have embraced the study, including the Louisiana
Baptist Convention. The state denomination currently is engaged in a pilot program
with about 40 churches, and leaders say they hope to expand that
emphasis.
As part of the effort, LBC Executive Director Dean Doster recently announced
all Baptist Building employees will engage in the study, beginning Sept. 3.
The Baptist Building study will involve a two-hour meeting and seven one-hour
sessions. During the scheduled sessions, the building switchboard will be open
but only messages will be taken for employees.
Meanwhile, Baptist Collegiate Ministries also have joined in the Louisiana
campaign, launching a pilot effort that leaders say they hope will spread
nationwide.
As part of the effort, Baptist Collegiate Ministries students on four Louisiana
campuses will engage in the purpose study early in the fall semester.
“If truth was known, the study really is geared more for college students than
anyone, so we thought we’d bring to campus and see how students responded,”
said John Moore, state director of Baptist Collegiate Ministries for Louisiana.
Moore said he and others are hopeful that the pilot effort will be a success
and can be shared with others. He said Campus Crusade leaders already have expressed
interest in the project.
Schools involved in the pilot study include Louisiana College in Pineville,
Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Northwestern State University in Natchitoches
and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
“This is a wonderful opportunity, …” said Tim Stewart, Baptist Collegiate
Ministries director at Louisiana College. “Our students and the Baptist Collegiate
Ministries students at the other campuses will work through the (study) just
like churches around the nation do currently.
“When we complete the 40 days, our students will have the opportunity to provide
feedback and suggestions on how to make the current campaign more accessible
to college students.”
Stewart agreed with others that he hopes the study can spread, not just across
the nation but on his campus as well.
“We’d like to see the entire campus community get involved,” he said. “Imagine
if we get the entire campus on the same page, how we could transform this
campus.”
The Louisiana effort comes even as others are promoting the “40 Days of Purpose”
study elsewhere.
For instance, in October, Warren and fellow Southern Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell
are scheduled to train more than 10,000 church leaders as part of the first
Purpose-Driven Church Conference offered east of the Mississippi River.
Touted as a “SuperConference,” it will combine 11 different Purpose-Driven
seminars on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
“This is truly going to be a SuperConference, like none we have ever done before,”
Warren said.
Warren and Falwell say they hope the SuperConference will spark national
revival.
“I’m praying that God will use this conference to set fires of revival burning
across America,” Falwell said. “We are expecting thousands of pastors and local
church workers to register for this
conference.”
(For information on the Louisiana Baptist Convention “40 Days of Purpose” effort,
call 800-622-6549 or 318-448-3402. For information on the upcoming SuperConference,
visit www.superconference.com. To register for the 40 Days of Purpose campaign,
which will be kicked off at the SuperConference, visit www.purposedriven.com.)