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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Seek God to become a champion

By Stewart Holloway What does it take to be a champion? It has been fun to watch LSU football this year. Since I work Sunday, I usually go to bed on Saturdays long before the game is over, but I couldn’t do it this year. It was too much fun to watch the team work as a unit to execute amazing plays, and I loved the sincere passion of Coach O. The man is living his dream. Not many of us get to do that, but he is - and he is making the most of it. I’ve also enjoyed watching our oldest son fall in love with LSU. After making a few games at Tiger Stadium with my mom, he’s hooked. He may even rival Rebecca’s passion in the years to come (but good luck with that). As a leader, I’ve watched this season asking, “What’s the difference?” I’m sure there were a lot of football technicalities at work, but it was the leadership of Coach O that I think made the difference. It is obvious Coach O genuinely loves this state, LSU, his team, his staff, and the fans. While love motivates, it was wisdom that brought the difference. Coach O was wise enough to realize that he didn’t have all the answers, so he recruited the right players, hired the right people, and even brought in others to speak into his team through the year on key points. The … [Read more...]

Tornado kills 3, leaves path of destruction

By Message Staff HAUGHTON, La. (LBM) – Gevan Spinney woke up early Saturday, Jan. 11, to a howling wind from a  powerful storm system making its way through Haughton. A short time later he walked outside to find 60 downed trees across his lawn but miraculously with no damage to his house. Spinney, pastor of First Baptist Church in Haughton, credits God for sparing his life and home. “Once the sun came up I found my wife, Andrea, in the front yard weeping,” Spinney told the Baptist Message. “It became real obvious the Lord had His hand on our house and protected us. We had this overwhelming feeling come over us. Our family was so very grateful for the Lord’s protection.” While Spinney’s home escaped destruction, others in his area were not as fortunate. His house was located along the path of a storm that produced an EF2 tornado, whose winds reached 135 mph and caused widespread damage and three fatalities in the state. The tornado touched down before 1:30 a.m. south of Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier Parish and ended around 2:05 a.m. five miles north of Arcadia. According to the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office, Jerry W. Franks, 79, and Mary Sue Franks, 65, of Haughton died when the tornado destroyed their … [Read more...]

Skills of a church planter: responsiveness to the community

By John Hebert, Louisiana Baptists missions and ministry team leader ALEXANDRIA (LBM) - The Areopagus is just a bare marble outcropping near the Acropolis in modern-day Greece. It is an important tourist attraction because at one time it was the place where major decisions were discussed in the city of Athens – even court sessions were held there, especially murder trials. By the Apostle Paul’s day, it was a place where new ideas were heard by the philosophers of the city. More importantly for our purposes, it was the place where Paul made a speech to city leaders known as the sermon on Mars Hill. In that speech Paul skillfully adapted his message using cues from the culture to more effectively communicate the Gospel, piquing interest by putting the message in terms that made sense to the locals. He was responsive to the community. Serious church planters and leaders should always be responsive to the communities they are trying to reach. He must speak the language of the community -- not just the dialect, but the local narrative or context, especially the prevailing elements of the culture. In Athens the narrative was philosophical in nature, and it’s clearly visible in Paul’s approach recorded in Acts 17:22-23. … [Read more...]

ECON: Sutherland Springs’ Pomeroy to share hope that transcended shooting

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer LAFAYETTE, La. (LBM) -- One week after a shooter gunned down 26 people attending a worship service Nov. 5, 2017, at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Pastor Frank Pomeroy, whose daughter, Annabelle, was killed, too, stood before the remaining congregants and other guests and presented a message of hope found in Christ. “We have the freedom to choose, and rather than choose darkness like the young man did that day we choose the light,” Pomeroy said in his message under a tent on the church grounds. Two years later, Pomeroy told the Baptist Message that a day does not pass when he fails to remember that fateful morning. But instead of focusing on the tragedy, which took the life of his 14-yearold daughter (there are five surviving Pomeroy children) and killed close friends in his congregation, Pomeroy stressed how the faith community around the world comforted and strengthened his family, the church and the small Texas town they serve. Prayers of support and donations poured in following the shooting, and the North American Mission Board funded construction, through the Cooperative Program and other gifts, of the church’s new multi-purpose facility. … [Read more...]

First Lafayette to host ECON, Istrouma to hold ‘Who’s Your One’

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA (LBM) -- Pastor Jeff Ginn stood before Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge in March and challenged every member to pray for and share Christ with one person in 2019. His congregation wholeheartedly responded to and embraced the “Who’s Your One?” evangelistic strategy and, by the end of the year, saw many come to a relationship with Christ, including more than 90 who were baptized, an all-time single-year high for the 100-year-old congregation that averages around 2,000 in Sunday morning worship attendance. Ginn hopes to equip others with resources to carry out the initiative when Istrouma Baptist hosts the Who’s Your One Tour and evangelism training, Jan. 26-27. The training precedes the annual Louisiana Baptist Evangelism Conference (ECON), Jan. 27-28, which will be held at the First Baptist Church in Lafayette. “We are so excited about hosting this event,” Ginn told the Baptist Message. “I know that God will challenge us all to be more intentional in praying for others and sharing the Good News with them. We implemented the ‘Who’s Your One’ strategy at Istrouma and, to my knowledge, we baptized more people in 2019 than in any other year of our … [Read more...]