By David Jeremiah, Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church, El Cajon, Calif. EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) – “Houston, we have a problem.” When NASA flight directors heard those words from Apollo 13, it was like an invitation: “You are hereby invited to solve a life-or-death problem” – and they did. Flight director Gene Kranz sprang into action: “Okay … stay cool. Work the problem, people.... Failure is not an option!” (Excerpt from the movie, “Apollo 13.”) Work the problem! With no heat, no light and little communication with the ground, the astronauts drifted back toward earth in darkness – helpless. Work the problem! Ground engineers had to conserve enough power to fire the engines and direct them safely into the earth’s atmosphere. And they did! Lost in space Ever felt lost in space, drifting along, helpless, wondering if even God is stumped by your situation? We know God can solve problems, but in your darkest moments you wonder if He is even working on it. Friend, He is! Look at the Apollo 13 situation in a split-screen format: three astronauts on the left screen huddled in their freezing spacecraft, speaking little to conserve energy, fighting to stay awake, with only a flashlight – dark, cold, silent. On the right … [Read more...]
What’s on my heart for SBC
By Ronnie Floyd, Southern Baptist Convention president COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) – For 11 months, I have had one of the greatest privileges ever given to me by the Lord. Serving as president of the Southern Baptist Convention is one of the most humbling and overwhelming experiences in life and leadership. With each day, while my burden deepens, my hope exceedingly rises. What an incredible moment God has given to each of us to live at this time in human history. In light of that, I want to share a few things on my heart about our upcoming SBC annual meeting. Coming together Yes, coming together is on my heart. I pray we will come together in Columbus, Ohio, on June 16-17. I pray we will come together in unity. While our uniqueness and various perspectives express themselves at times, we do need to resolve: We will come together, stay together, and leave together as followers of our Lord in our Southern Baptist family. I pray we will come together in Columbus with great expectation. This expectation does not need to be in men or programs, but in the Lord Himself. He is doing some mighty things among us and I pray when we are together, He will do some mighty things in us. Come expecting God to meet with us powerfully and send us out … [Read more...]
Horn: ‘Humbled and blown away’ by positive response to ‘ The Pledge’
By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA – Enthusiastic. Burdened. Inspired. Confident. That was the mood inside a room of more than 20 pastors from Louisiana Baptist congregations of all sizes and locations during a recent meeting in which they sought to reignite a passion for the Cooperative Program and cooperative missions through an initiative called “The Pledge.” “I need to be challenged,” said First Lafayette Pastor and current LBC President Steve Horn. “I need to be challenged in every area of my life. If not challenged to give, we always fall back to status quo.” “We believe we can do more together than we can do by ourselves,” Horn told the May 14 meeting of 20 pastors. “And we believe in the methodology of our cooperative endeavors and our Cooperative program. It has served us well and will serve us well in the future. First announced during the Louisiana Baptist Executive Board meeting on May 5, The Pledge is a plan to challenge churches giving less than 3 percent to the Cooperative Program to move to 5 percent; churches giving between 3 and 8 percent are encouraged to increase by 2 percent; and churches giving between 8 and 9.9 percent to go to 10 percent. Churches who already give 10 percent in their … [Read more...]
Training students to make a difference for Christ
They are two Southern Baptist institutions of higher learning in Louisiana, with a different type of student they educate, their location and the enrollment numbers. But despite their differences, Louisiana College and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary have one end result – training students to make a difference for Christ in a culture that is increasingly hostile to the gospel. Originally named Baptist Bible Institute, NOBTS was founded in 1917. An act of the SBC Annual Meeting created the seminary as a way to evangelize the city of New Orleans. The school now has extensions in Shreveport, Monroe, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Angola Prison and Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. Enrollment stands at 3,800 this year, and the school is a training school for ministers. Louisiana College, meanwhile, started in 1906. The liberal arts college trains mainly undergraduate college students in more than 80 majors, minors and pre-professional programs of study that includes nursing, teacher education, Christian studies, business, social work, chemistry and convergence media. Its enrollment is 1,080. Why does a student pick a Christian-based school over a university that is secular in nature? Steve Lemke, provost at NOBTS, … [Read more...]
Corley shares Bridge Church’s successful matrix with WMU attendees
BOSSIER CITY – Two words from Christ more than 2,000 years ago still are very much alive today and continue to impact one’s own community, state, nation and world. Follow Jesus. “A call to be like Jesus – to see the world with His heart, through His eyes, to see the possibilities and act boldly in His power,” said Lane Corley, Louisiana Baptists’ church planting strategist and pastor of the Bridge Church in Madisonville. “That’s our challenge and it’s the one our community is waiting for.” In fact, following Jesus may require much sacrifice but yet could be found as close as a believer’s front yard, college campus or office building. But before following Jesus, a Christian must start with getting his or her heart right with God. A heart is one of four symbols the Bridge Church uses for a simple tool to find ways to follow Jesus in its community. And the same matrix can be adopted by any other church, Corley emphasized. In addition to the heart, the other symbols are an eye, lightbulb and finally an arrow. After getting one’s heart right with God, a believer must have his or her eyes open to needs of the world, then have an imagination for the heart and eyes to dream of ways to reach people and lastly an action for a … [Read more...]
M-JAM particpants challenged to follow Jesus and follow Him when the opportunity presents
MINDEN – Andy Partington received a little help as he shared the importance of missions. Holding a puppet, Partington talked with more than 470 youngsters and their adult leaders about saying yes to Jesus. “When you follow him amazing things happen,” said Partington, who serves as the children’s pastor at First Baptist Church in Minden. “We just have to choose to be obedient.” Partington was the main speaker during the recent M-JAM, also known as Missions Jamboree. The day-long event featured Louisiana and international missionaries and was held at two locations – Williams Boulevard Baptist Church in Kenner on March 14 and First Baptist Church in Minden on March 21. The schedule was the same at both locations and allowed for youngsters in first through sixth grade and their leaders to attend M-JAM at the church closest to where they live. Attendance was 245 at Williams Boulevard Baptist and was 472 at First Baptist Minden While Partington was the main speaker for the M-JAM in Minden, Maegan Bruce was the main speaker for the event at Williams Boulevard Baptist. The event used challenging messages by Partington and Bruce, in addition to music by Chance Fussell and friends during the main celebration sessions to tell the … [Read more...]
Royal Ambassadors learn about missions, pioneer days
WOODWORTH – Brandon Duvall and his son, Brandon Jr., could have spent their weekend catching an LSU baseball game, playing golf or doing many other activities to spend their free time on a beautiful spring weekend. But the father-son duo chose to spend time with other young men learning about missions and what it was like to live in the pioneer days at the annual Royal Ambassador Congress at Tall Timbers Conference Center. “I loved talking to pioneers and how they talked to us about what a man has to do,” said fifth-grader Brandon Duvall Jr., a member of the First Baptist Church Krotz Springs RA group. “This weekend we got to learn about missions and interact with people, some I never met before. It was a pretty interesting time.” His father enjoys how RAs teaches the boys and their leaders about missions, both during and away from RA Congress. “They have so many outdoor activities plus teach our boys how to be men of integrity,” he said. “I look at this as my mission field because so many men aren’t Christians.” The Duvalls were among the 345 people from 21 churches attending this year’s RA Congress. Thirteen boys made decisions for Christ and 9 indicated a re-dedication of their faith. The two-day RA Congress featured the … [Read more...]
Lane’s senior project helps impact her life, lives in community
PINEVILLE – When Lexi Lane* initially began brainstorming the topic of her senior high school project at Pineville High School, she knew her focus would center on orphans in another country*. She never dreamed how this project would impact her life and many lives around the community. What she received in the process was a return to her roots overseas and seeing first-hand the love of Christ on display through the lives of special needs orphans in the country. Lane said she wanted to go back to see her birthplace, to understand more about the culture, but also to help an orphanage in some way. Lane's life began in a rural area in the country. Adopted at 14 months old, Lane has no memory of what life was like as a baby. When the time came for Lane to choose the topic of her senior project – which is required for graduation – she thought of her desire to give back to her country in doing something for orphans there. Lane’s mom, Pam, started the process by contacting an organization that helps unite families with orphans from around the world. Sean and Pam Keith adopted Lane. Lane was then directed to a childhood advocacy organization. Starting in May 2014, she began raising funds for a trip to work in the orphanage and … [Read more...]
Crockett Point Revival: A POWERFUL MOVEMENT OF GOD
CROWVILLE – Evangelist Bill Britt originally planned to preach just four days at a Crockett Point Baptist Church revival. However, Britt’s scheduled four-day stay at the Deer Creek Association church continued for two weeks as the congregation extended the revival not once, not twice, but three times. By the end of the revival in mid-March, 197 people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior and numerous others made other decisions for God. Britt could only attribute the extension to one reason – God. “When we came to the end of the scheduled last day each time, crowds were so big and so many saved, we didn’t think the Lord was finished,” Britt said. “It wasn’t just me and Joe but the people who also wanted to keep going. That was a key deal. People were hungry to meet with the Lord and to keep bringing their friends.” Joe Senn, pastor of Crockett Point Baptist, said the extended revival was not about the pastor, congregation or who was on the schedule. The center focus was God and how he moved. “The revival was about allowing the Holy Spirit to move without restraint,” Senn said. “Again, some may believe there is a secret to a revival of this magnitude. Who wouldn’t want to see revival of this nature commence at all … [Read more...]
