By Julie Cupples, Louisiana Baptist Children's Home and Family Ministries communications MONROE - Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries was presented the Faith in Families Award from the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. The award was given for LBCH’s efforts and commitment to promoting adoption awareness and community support for children in need of permanent families. The Children’s Home Connect 1:27 Foster Care and Adoption ministry seeks to recruit and certify Christian foster and adoptive families and works with churches to establish support ministries for foster care and adoption. If you or your church would like to learn more about helping children in need contact Beth Green at 318.243.2244. … [Read more...]
Video: See the Light Bible distribution
NATCHITOTCHES - Christmas has come and gone, but the impact some Louisiana Baptists made in the city is eternal. A group gathers one Saturday each year during the annual Festival of Lights in Natchitoches to distribute Bibles to those attending the event. Below is a video recap of the 2015 See the Light Bible distribution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-7AbBcAbdg … [Read more...]
Send photos and video clips of your baptism
The Message is preparing to launch a special feature on its website to celebrate every baptism of Louisiana Baptists by publishing a picture or brief video clip of each one on www.BaptistMessage.com as a kind of yearbook of evangelism within the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “Our aim in celebrating each walk of faith into the baptismal waters is that it will inspire Louisiana Baptists to be even bolder in proclaiming the Gospel and lead to even greater harvests of souls,” said Will Hall, editor of the Baptist Message. March 1 is the target start date for the initiative and The Message is asking churches as well as individual Louisiana Baptists to email a 10-15 second video clip or a high resolution photo file to brian@baptistmessage.com and include the baptized person’s name, pastor’s name, church name and date of baptism. … [Read more...]
Baptist Press interviews Naghmeh Abedini
By Diana Chandler, Baptist Press ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) - Naghmeh Abedini is making plans to join her husband Saeed Abedini at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, N.C., where he has been resting with his parents and sister since arriving there Thursday (Jan. 21) from Berlin, Germany. She changed earlier plans to fly with the children to meet her husband in Germany, where he was receiving medical treatment after his release from unjust imprisonment in Iran, after the couple determined he needed more time to heal psychologically, she told Baptist Press today (Jan. 22). "When I spoke to him he didn't seem to be in a good state of mind, and so we just had to give it time before our family reunited, especially with the kids," she told BP. "I had a quick conversation with the German doctor and he said overall he was healthy, he was pretty healthy [physically]." The 35-year-old pastor suffered beatings and harsh punishment during three-and-a-half years in prison in Iran, where he had been held due to his Christian faith. He was freed Jan. 15 with three other Americans in a prisoner swap the Obama Administration negotiated during nuclear disarmament talks. Naghmeh Abedini and their … [Read more...]
Jesus is pro-life
Defend the Faith underscores privilege and duty
By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS (BP) - The need for Christian apologetics -- the clearing of obstacles to faith -- has never been greater, attendees were told throughout the annual Defend the Faith conference, Jan. 4-8, at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary "Every age presents unique challenges to the Christian faith," said Defend the Faith director Rhyne Putman, NOBTS assistant professor of theology and culture. "We face moral shifts in our culture, religious pluralism, other competing worldviews and assaults on religious liberty." Sponsored by the seminary's Institute for Christian Apologetics, the event was attended by more than 200 people, one-third of whom were college students from various states. Plenary sessions were streamed via the Internet for the event and its messages to have an even wider reach. One current missionary in East Asia who watched the live-streamed sessions emailed one speaker to thank him for his candid portrayal of the difficulties facing those who engage a non-Christian culture. Featured among more than two-dozen speakers were Douglas Groothuis, professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary; teaching fellow Jana Harmon with the C.S. Lewis Institute; resurrection … [Read more...]
Louisiana Baptist church planters commissioned at special service
By Message Staff ALEXANDRIA - Surrounded by family and Louisiana Baptist state missions services team members, six church planters were commissioned on Jan. 20 during the first-ever service of its kind for church planters in the state. The church planter commissioning service on Wednesday was for those who started a church since October 2015. Since then, 11 churches have been started in the state, including five in January. The goal for 2016 is to plant 30 churches in Louisiana, keeping in step with the goal to plant 300 churches by 2020. To reach that goal, 170 more churches will have to be planted between now and 2020. John Hebert, missions and ministry team leader for Louisiana Baptists, said his team is engaged in partnering with churches, associations and other Southern Baptist entities to plant healthy, culturally relevant, biblically sound, multiplying churches that seek to fulfill the Great Commission. “At the spearhead of this effort is the work of our Church planters,” he said during the commissioning service. “Today these church planters have come before this assembly to receive the blessing and commissioning and commitment of Louisiana Baptists’ support. God has called them to serve in places across our … [Read more...]
GuideStone announces release of its Ministers’ Tax Guide
By Roy Hayhurst, GuideStone Financial Resources communications DALLAS — GuideStone Financial Resources will release its popular annual tax guide in two phases. The Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches section is available now at GuideStone.org/TaxGuide. This section details filing requirements for Forms W-2 and 1099, as well as a brief section on filing requirements many churches will have to undertake as part of the Affordable Care Act. The remainder of the annual 2016 Tax Return Preparation and Federal Reporting Guide, Ministers’ Tax Guide for 2015 Returns, with its step-by-step filing instructions of personal ministers’ taxes, will be available online by the end of January. GuideStone participants can receive the free guide by visiting GuideStone.org/TaxGuide or can request a free printed copy by calling 1-888-98-GUIDE (1-888-984-8433). The guide was written again this year by Richard Hammar, a noted CPA, attorney and widely published author who specializes in legal and tax issues for ministers. Additionally, the material is edited by GuideStone’s staff to ensure that it addresses, in detail, the tax issues directly affecting Southern Baptist pastors. “Each year, we hear from so many pastors and other … [Read more...]
US Supreme Court agrees to tackle religious hostility by states
By Staff, Alliance Defending Freedom WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Jan. 15 to take up a case that addresses the question of whether states can exhibit hostility to religion by prohibiting churches and church-run organizations from participating in state programs solely because the groups are religious. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent a church-run pre-school and daycare center which the state of Missouri excluded from a program that provides recycled tire products to surface children’s playgrounds. Last month, ADF filed a brief with the high court that answered the state’s arguments in favor of religious discrimination in the program. “No state can define religious neutrality as treating religious organizations worse than everyone else,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “That isn’t neutrality; it’s a hostility to religion that violates the First Amendment. That’s the primary issue that the Supreme Court will address. In this case, the state should not have excluded this preschool from the recycled tire program simply because a church operates the school.” “Children’s safety is just as important on church daycare playgrounds as it is on other daycare playgrounds,” added ADF Senior … [Read more...]
Saeed Abedini in Germany awaiting wife’s arrival
By Diana Chandler, Baptist Press GERMANY (BP) - The wife of freed pastor Saeed Abedini is expected to meet him in Germany, according to news reports released Jan. 19, where his health was being assessed after his release from a three-and-a-half-year imprisonment in Iran. Naghmeh Abedini was preparing to fly to Germany for a reunion before his return to their Boise, Idaho, home, she said in a Jan. 17 telephone interview on FOX News. "We are ready to welcome him home. I'm getting ready to fly out to Germany to be able to see him, and the kids are really excited because they are making welcome home signs," she said. "There's a lot of readjustment and a lot of healing that needs to happen. It's time for our family to heal and to move forward." Abedini was serving an eight-year prison sentence because of his Christian faith. U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., an evangelical Christian who has worked for Abedini's release, said in an Idaho Statesman report that he expects Naghmeh Abedini to arrive in Germany by Jan. 20. Pittenger arrived in Germany Jan. 18, but had not been able to meet with the pastor by that night. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) lobbied extensively for Abedini's release, which was … [Read more...]
