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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Discipleship to be focus of LCU’s first C3 of 2024

By Elizabeth Clarke, LCU News PINEVILLE, La. (LCU News) - Robert Freeman will speak at Louisiana Christian University’s first Christ Church Culture (C3) event of the semester, Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. Freeman, the founder of Robert Freeman Ministries, an Urbana, Illinois-based ministry that is a Christian voice in the national conversation about race, will discuss racial reconciliation and diversity from a biblical perspective. He also will share how discipleship brings true reconciliation. Freeman, who will speak the following day at LCU's chapel service at 11 a.m., has been actively involved in community work. He has held numerous leadership positions in diverse areas such as community development, economic growth, Habitat for Humanity, hospital patient care and hospital ethics. He also has served on the Governor’s Task Force on racism and has been invited to meet with several U.S. presidents. Additionally, Freeman has been a featured speaker in religious events around the country and has also participated in mission work in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Freeman received a Bachelor of Science from Delaware State University and a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School near Chicago. He also earned a … [Read more...]

NCAA mocks female athletes with trans policies

As a senior in college where I just completed my final season as an NCAA athlete, my unique experiences culminated last week in a face-to-face interaction with the chair of the NCAA Board of Governors, Linda Livingstone. … [Read more...]

Kelly: Pastors must deal with personal pain

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer RUSTON, La. (LBM) - Pastors must deal with personal pain so they will not move to the point of disconnection, Northeast and Morehouse Baptist Associational Missions Strategist Steven Kelly said during a time of tes­timony for the 2024 Loui­siana Baptist Evangelism Conference, Jan. 23. Kelly shared about how God helped him through the pain of deal­ing with the Aug. 21, 2018, death of his new­born grandson, Elijah Kelly. Elijah weighed four pounds, 13 ounces when he was born, June 6, 2018. Two days later, the doctors diagnosed him with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare condition that left the newborn with only three of four chambers of his heart working properly. In the ensuing months, the baby en­dured open-heart sur­gery, brain bleeding, kidney dialysis and countless injections at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. On the day Elijah died, Kelly was attending a conference. He received a call that he needed to come to the hospital and arrived in time to spend four hours with family members in Elijah’s room before he passed. Kelly said he did not become angry with God, but that he did have to deal with great pain -- a pain that he has minis­tered to many times … [Read more...]

Billingsley talks medical battles, safeguarding his Christian character

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer RUSTON, La. (LBM) – Charles Billingsley has faced several medical battles, but with each trial he remained focused on praising God who eventu­ally gave him victory, he shared with the Baptist Message in an exclusive interview, Jan. 23. In 2007, Billingsley nearly lost his voice after a blood vessel burst on his vocal cords, leaving him with a polyp and unable to sing for several months. Then, in 2020, he spent Easter quarantined with COVID. Through those times, Billingsley said he rediscovered God’s gift of worship. “I remember I went up into the Blue Ridge Mountains (in 2007) and sat at a picnic table when I was reading a book by my friend David Jeremiah called ‘A Bend in the Road,’ and I couldn’t make any noise,” he said while at the 2024 Louisiana Baptist Evangelism Conference. “But it’s crazy because in the midst of all that reading I was just crying out to God asking Him to heal my voice that I would be able to sing again. And in the middle of reading -- while I was out in the middle of the woods -- this big old huge maple leaf just came and landed right smack dab in the middle of my Bible, right as I was crying out to the Lord. And I just felt like the Lord was … [Read more...]