By Baptist Message staff More than 100 adults and guests met recently for encouragement for the Louisiana Association of Baptist Ministry Assistants’ regional conferences, April 19-22, which was held at four locations. The events, entitled “Affirmed and Encouraged,” featured keynote speaker Rhonda Kelley, associate director of innovative evangelism and adjunct professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and breakout sessions dealing with biblical womanhood in today’s culture, gender communication and walking in holiness. Glenda Suggs, ministry assistant for Morehouse and Northeast Baptist Associations, also shared about “becoming your ministry best” and Shana Johnson, support supervisor for the Louisiana Baptists’ business and information services team, spoke about “finding value in ACP reporting.” Associations that hosted the event were Carey Baptist Association office in Lake Charles, CenLa Baptist Association at Kingsville Baptist Church in Ball, Concord Union Baptist Association office in Ruston, and Northshore Baptist Association at First Baptist Church in Ponchatoula. “Our hope was that these four regional conferences would be both affirming and encouraging for church administrative/ministry … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) -- After a year that saw most activities come to a halt by COVID-19, and facilities battered by hurricanes, tornadoes and major storms, the state’s Baptist camps are gearing up for a busy summer. “COVID-19 had huge effects on us and many other camps in 2020,” Josh Bumgardner, director of Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center, told the Baptist Message. “This is the first time in our history that we did not host or program overnight summer camps for our churches. Summer is the focal point for our year and not having camps – understandable, with the ongoing pandemic -- was a huge loss to our staff and to our churches. Most of our other retreats and guest groups cancelled throughout the year, too.” But so far (mid-April) in 2021 the camp has filled 1,925 spots, with space for an additional 1,325 guests. Bumgardner said his staff has worked hard over the past year to work on upgrades to the new Dogwood Cabin, renovations to hotel rooms at Lee Lodge, as well as repairs to the activity building and Indian Creek Lodge that sustained damage from Hurricane Delta. He asked for continued prayers for his staff and guests, and, also for other Christian camps … [Read more...]

By Baptist Message staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines widely accessible and a continued reduction in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Tuesday, April 27, the end to the state’s mask mandate. While masks still will be required at colleges and universities, early childhood education centers, healthcare facilities, on public transit and most state government buildings, local leaders and business owners will now be able to set their own mask policies starting today, April 28. Social distancing still is recommended. “Many Louisianans have been wearing masks for more than a year now and the statewide mask mandate has been in place for nearly 10 months,” said Edwards, who has kept a mask mandate in place since July 2020. “We know masks work – the science is clear and we’ve seen the positive impact in our own state. “It’s intuitive for people to protect themselves with masks in higher risk situations, and this important mitigation measure should continue,” he continued. “But we have many more tools for slowing the spread of COVID than we did not have even a few months ago, including better treatments and, most importantly, several highly … [Read more...]