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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

LCU to hold baccalaureate, commencement ceremonies

By Elizabeth Clarke, LCU News PINEVILLE, La. (LCU News) – Louisiana Christian University will hold baccalaureate and commencement ceremonies, May 8 and 9, for 195 graduating students. The festivities will begin on Friday evening with a baccalaureate service at First Baptist Church, Pineville, at 6 p.m. Stewart Holloway, pastor of First Baptist Pineville, will offer a charge to the graduating class. The ceremony will be followed by a toast to the graduates at the president’s home on campus. “This gives students one more opportunity to worship together before they graduate,” said LCU President Mark Johnson. The following day, commencement exercises will take place inside Guinn Auditorium with two ceremonies. The 10 a.m. ceremony includes the undergraduates who are earning degrees from the School of Sciences, Computing and Artificial Intelligence, the School of Christian Studies, the College of Health and Professional Programs, the Schools of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Media, Communication and Fine Arts. The 2 p.m. ceremony includes the undergraduates and graduate students from the Ray and Dorothy Young School of Business, the School of Education and the School of Social Work. There will be 124 … [Read more...]

LSU BCM students spend spring break on mission

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer PANAMA CITY, Fla. (LBM) – Sixty-three members of the LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry took trips to Florida, Hawaii, Utah and the country of Columbia over the spring break to offer the gift of salvation. During the March 6-15 evangelistic outreaches, they witnessed a mighty movement of the Holy Spirit in a variety of ministry opportunities in which they participated, according to LSU BCM Director Blake Grundy By the end of the mission trips, the teams collectively engaged in 731 Gospel conversations and saw 71 of those come to faith in Christ. IMPACTFUL Forty-two students traveled to Honolulu to assist students from the BCM with the University of Hawaii-Manoa with evangelism, yard work at a conference center of a local church and property maintenance at Pu`u Kahea Conference Center in Waianae (the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention’s camp). Another 15 students traveled to Panama City, Florida, to share the Gospel with individuals along the beach. Additionally, four students shared the Gospel to Mormons in Utah and two others assisted with a marriage retreat in Columbia. Grundy led the team in Panama City and was inspired by students who went from apprehensive … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptists invited to pray for Gospel harvest

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Send Network Louisiana has launched an effort that invites Louisiana Baptists to pray for at least 1 percent of those in the state who do not know Jesus to be reached with the Gospel over the next decade. Based on Luke 10:2 which asks the Lord to send out workers into the harvest, the emphasis encourages Louisiana Baptists to set their alarm for 10:02 a.m. or p.m. and pray during that time for workers to be sent into the harvest and for those who do not know Christ to be reached. “This is a God-sized goal,” Louisiana Baptist Church Planting Strategist Jacob Crawford told the Baptist Message. “And the truth is, ‘unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain.’ “I think one of the things that God has really been dealing with us about is, or convicting, at least, me personally, about, is that we can strategize all day long,” he said. “We can have all these plans that look amazing on paper, but if God’s not in it, it will mean nothing.” GOSPEL VISION The Send Network Louisiana partnership between Louisiana Baptists and the North American Mission Board, which went into e­ffect Aug. 1, 2023, has helped the state further its God-sized … [Read more...]

ANNIE ARMSTRONG EASTER OFFERING: Troy Gause: Raised from the dead

Courtesy of the North American Mission Board MARRERO, La. (NAMB) - Church business meetings are not normally fertile ground for happy accidents. But Ames Boulevard Baptist Church’s tiny remnant of elderly members unintentionally set a miracle in motion when they voted to hire Troy Gause to mow their grass. Every year, 700-800 Southern Baptist Convention churches cease to exist. “That’s how I got to know the church,” Gause said. “I started taking care of their property and learned how they’d dwindled down to just a few faithful members. They were probably just a couple months away from closing their doors.” When longtime Ames’s members like Linda Morrow realized “Troy Gause, landscaper” was also “Troy Gause, church planting missionary,” they began to pray. “He’d just started a church but needed a place to meet,” she said. “When we met, it was so clear God was putting us together to replant something new.” Now, the sign out front says Cross Community Church, and the name is not the only thing that’s changed. “There’s life back in this building,” Gause said. “Baptisms are happening, salvations are happening, and this church has been raised from the dead.” Prayers on multiple fronts are requested for Gause … [Read more...]

Pastor’s daughter leads Parkview Baptist to girls’ state basketball title

By St. George Leader, Special to the Message BATON ROUGE, La. (SGL) -- It’s quite a story! Anna Richerson led Parkview Baptist School to two state championships and was named most valuable player in both games. But these honors are just the tip of the iceberg in the storied high school career of this amazing senior. Her stats include 2,300 career points, 430 assists, 850 rebounds, 400 steals! Plus, she was selected to all-state and all-tournament teams. On top of that, she is a member of Parkview’s state championship track and cross-country teams. Amazingly, she does not attend Parkview. Instead, she is a homeschooler who has been permitted under LHSAA rules to compete for the Lady Eagles. She is the daughter of Lewis Richerson, pastor, Woodlawn Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, and his wife, Erica, and sister to four siblings. HEAVENLY HIGHLIGHTS Richerson has been homeschooled her entire life and completed her junior and senior years as a dual enrollment student with Northwestern State University. She developed a passion for both basketball and serving Christ at a young age, she said, noting that her love for basketball began through Woodlawn’s Upward Basketball program, which taught her the game. Today she … [Read more...]

Apologetics 101 (Part 4): Proof of the Tower of Babel

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – In the beginning, God commanded that Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; …” (Genesis 1:28), and He repeated this charge to Noah and his family after their deliverance from the watery death that the rest of the world experienced (Genesis 9:1). But a mere 100 to 350 years after the global calamity caused by the Great Flood, and while mankind was only starting to repopulate the earth, men and women convinced themselves to stop their expansion across the globe and to settle down in one place to “build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens,” choosing to “make a name” for themselves rather than continue to “be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). However, this biblical account about the history of mankind has largely been disputed by scholars and archaeologists, especially during the better part of the 19th and 20th centuries. But today critics will concede at least some nuanced agreement with some elements of this historical account because of the discovery of many tower-like structures, stepped-pyramids called ziggurats, beginning with excavations in Ur (southern Iraq) … [Read more...]

Louisiana Notables

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Baptist Message provides churches an opportunity to share with other Louisiana Baptists an upcoming revival, homecoming, new pastor, new staff member, a community outreach, or a concert in Louisiana Notables. To place your event in the paper, send your information (who, what, where, when, time) to philip@baptistmessage.com or call 318.449.4345. Please submit your information four weeks prior to the event to insure placement in the Message. ON THE MOVE Matt, wife Whitney, Cate, discipleship pastor with Istrouma Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, is the new Louisiana Baptist Sunday school/discipleship strategist. He began on April 20. Gene Gibson is the new pastor at Beech Springs Baptist Church, Minden. Mickey Christy is the pastor at Gardiner Baptist Church, Gardner. Mike Schultz is the new senior pastor at Woodland Park Baptist Church, Hammond. Chuck Foy is the new pastor at Aimwell Baptist Church, Aimwell. Clayton, wife Gracie, Bryan is the new pastor at Cheniere Baptist Church, West Monroe. Britney Allen is new minister to children and families at First Baptist, Ponchatoula. HOMECOMING Centerville Baptist Church, St. Landry: 100th Anniversary Celebration, July 26, Sunday School, 9:30 a.m., … [Read more...]