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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Louisiana’s Barrett key to SCOTUS ruling against shutdown of NY churches

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor WASHINGTON (LBM) – Amy Coney Barrett, a native of New Orleans, joined her fellow Trump-appointed U.S. Supreme Court associate justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, to rule against New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, who had set a 10- and 25-person cap on attendance at houses of worship in COVID-19 hotspots according to the severity of the public outbreak as indicated by a color-coded map developed by his office. The case, brought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Orthodox Jewish group Agudath Israel of America, asserted that the governor’s restrictions violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and treated houses of worship more harshly than comparable secular facilities. The two religious organizations testified “without contradiction,” according to the 5-4 decision, that they have complied with all public health guidance, have implemented additional precautionary measures, and have operated at 25% or 33% capacity for months without a single outbreak.” Agudath Israel also produced evidence that Cuomo had drawn the map intentionally to include the Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn without cause. The decision was announced the night … [Read more...]

Skills of a church planter – practicing financial integrity

By John Hebert ALEXANDRIA (LBM)--Adrian Rogers, deceased pastor of the historic Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis and a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention who helped lead a grassroots movement to return the denomination back to its conservative biblical roots, told a story about the importance of financial integrity that I still reference in sermons today. “I heard about a man who was an executive in a company,” Rogers said (now archived on lwf.org). “They were going to move him up and make him one of the chief executives. The board of directors had talked it over, and it was a done deal. It was a monumental advancement. But in the company cafeteria one day, the owner of this company just happened to be behind this man in the cafeteria line. Unbeknownst to him, the CEO saw him take a pat of butter costing about 3 cents, then put a slice of bread over the butter so the cashier couldn’t see it. The CEO went back to the board and told them they had the wrong man—he didn’t have integrity. And for 3 cents, the man lost a monumental promotion and multiple thousands of dollars!” MORAL OF THE STORY I don’t accept that the man was simply a few pennies short of what he needed at check-out. Neither do I believe he … [Read more...]

2020 time of triumph during much tragedy

BENTON, La. (LBM) – When Pastor John Fream made a 2020 dare to members of the Cypress Baptist Church in Benton in January, urging them to embrace the “Who’s Your One” evangelistic challenge to share the Gospel with someone close to them, little did he know that two months later a pandemic would test the church’s commitment to the task. But instead of backing down, members embraced the circumstances as an open door to present the Gospel to their neighbors, he said. In the ensuing months, the congregation shared the Good News that can sustain during the uncertainty of a COVID-19 health emergency; and, by the end of November, 238 new converts had been baptized, up from 214 baptisms in 2019. “Our folks have been intentional to reach people and offer the hope in Christ,” Fream said. “We’ve been very aggressive about challenging them to do it. People need hope and we want to give them the Hope.” Even when the church was unable to meet, baptisms continued. Fream said during a six-week period, when the congregation was unable to meet in their facilities because of COVID-19 attendance restrictions, 20 people were baptized in pre-recorded videos that were broadcast during the livestream of services on Facebook Live, YouTube … [Read more...]

LC president releases holiday CD to support student scholarships

By LCNews staff PINEVILLE, La. (LCNews) – Louisiana College President Rick Brewer has released a Christmas album that not only can fill a loved one’s stocking but also will support student scholarships. The CD includes Brewer’s own arrangement of many beloved holiday favorites including “O Holy Night,” “Jingle Bells,” “White Christmas” and “Go Tell It On the Mountain.” “Christmas is a wonderful time to celebrate and rejoice,” Brewer said. “What would the holidays be without music?” Brewer recorded the album in his living room with assistance from LC Director of Technical Production Jeff Young. Brewer’s son, Jason, a Nashville, Tennessee-based musical artist, handled the post-production of the CD. “We recorded it in my living room on my piano with the acoustics in my house,” Brewer said. “Jeff recorded it with an Apple computer and microphones, and we emailed it to Jason.” This is the second album Brewer has released. In 2015, he recorded “Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs” alongside his son whose album, “The Explorers Club,” was released this summer and reached No. 5 on the United Kingdom Top 100 albums. Brewer said he is grateful to the Lord for his musical talents and for the support of both his family and … [Read more...]