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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

EVANGELISM 101 (Part 6): How to prepare? Pray!

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – M.E. Dodd, the former pastor of First Baptist Church, Shreveport, is most often cel­ebrated for his leadership in establishing the Cooperative Program, Baptists’ primary funding channel for state and national cooperative missions and ministries, but the focus of his efforts on this initiative is too often underemphasized – soul winning. Indeed, Dodd’s entire ministry was defined by soul winning. During his first month with FBCS, he preached a re­vival, adding 98 new believers to the 600-member congrega­tion. In early 1918 (as WWI raged), he volunteered to be a U.S. Army chaplain, eventu­ally settling to be a camp reli­gious worker with the YMCA attached to the Second Army and recorded 5,000 profes­sions of faith that year. For the duration of his 50 years of ministry, he recorded 7,000 baptisms. Importantly, as part of the celebration of the 100th an­niversary of the formation of the Southern Baptist Con­vention, Dodd led a South-wide simultaneous crusade with “the ideal of at least one revival in every church throughout the South in 1945.” Especially noteworthy, his detailed plans for organiz­ing the yearlong South-wide simultaneous crusade … [Read more...]

South Carolina executive director (Louisiana native) shares Cajun fishing lessons

By Baptist Message staff DALLAS (LBM) – South Carolina Baptist Convention Executive Director Tony Wolfe invited messengers to cast bread on the water to remember the generation who drove the growth of the Cooperative Program and to unite as the generation that continues its impact. “The Cooperative Program is not a foolproof investment,” Wolfe said. “But it is the best strategy we have to turn diverse, disparate tributaries into one roaring river.” Citing Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, Wolfe, a Louisiana native, shared memories of fishing on the riverbanks on the Comite and Amite Rivers and related them to the challenges Southern Baptists face today while urging them to push ahead with their cooperative global mission. Wolfe grew up in Baton Rouge, where his dad, Jim, was pastor with Brookstown Baptist Church (today, he is pastor with Ridge Avenue Baptist Church, West Monroe). Tony also served in Louisiana -- as music minister with Northside Baptist Church, Denham Springs, from 1999-2003. Wolfe emphasized that May 13, 1925 was a “watershed moment” for the Convention, when a group of Southern Baptists that included M.E. Dodd (pastor with First Baptist Church, Shreveport, at the time) gathered in Memphis, Tennessee, to found the … [Read more...]