Click to Login or Sign Up

Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Minister’s Housing Allowance case over for now; remains constitutional

By Roy Hayhurst, GuideStone Financial Resources DALLAS, Texas - Litigation challenging the constitutionality of the minister’s housing allowance has formally ended after the Freedom From Religion Foundation chose not to appeal a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The FFRF, which won a challenge to the housing allowance in a district court on December 31, 2017, lost during an appeal to the Seventh Circuit when a three-judge panel ruled unanimously to overturn the lower court’s decision. The minister’s housing allowance was codified in federal tax law in 1954, GuideStone® Chief Legal Officer Harold R. Loftin Jr., who has monitored this and other challenges to the housing allowance, and attended the oral arguments before the Seventh Circuit panel in Chicago, praised the ending of the case. GuideStone has actively engaged in the various challenges to the housing allowance exclusion, filing amicus briefs alongside Southern Baptist and other denominational benefit plans and advocating with legislators and regulators. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation said that they believed given the composition of the Supreme Court that the could not prevail in the case,” Loftin said. “We believe that … [Read more...]

Celebration Church mourns sudden death of Westbank campus pastor

Dear Celebration Church Family, As many in our Church family know all too well, life is filled with unexplainable tragedies. Last night such a tragedy occurred when our Celebration Westbank Campus Pastor, Claude Williams, was taken from this life in a traffic accident. As far as we can tell, Pastor Claude and his long time friend Jeff Leinart stopped on the elevated Westbank Expressway to assist someone who had a flat tire. While they were assisting the person someone else hit them and the car they were working on, and their lives and another person’s life were ended. Pastor Claude’s wife, Twila, and their boys (Emmett, Elijah and Emory) were in Knoxville, Tennessee visiting her mother. They and Pastor Claude’s mother have been told about what has happened. Let’s pray for them constantly, asking the Lord, the “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3) to help them process through their pain and sorrow in the coming weeks, month and years. We will stand with them and assist them in every week in the coming days. We also need to pray for our Celebration Family, especially our Celebration Westbank Members. Pastor Claude was greatly loved by all who knew him. He has been a faithful, faith-filled, godly and loving leader and a … [Read more...]

Living blessed

By Waylon Bailey Several years ago John Ortberg wrote a book on spiritual disciplines entitled, “The Life You’ve Always Wanted.” It deals with prayer, Scripture, solitude, and other practices which will bring us the kind of life and relationship with God we’ve always wanted. That seems to be the same kind of message Paul gave to the Church at Colossae. He encouraged those new believers to set their minds on the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. He also encouraged them to leave earthly things (meaning things of the flesh which are opposed to God) behind. He gave them a list of things to “put on” and a list to “put off.” He then told them to live according to who they are in Christ. What can we do to have a life that pleases Christ and by extension gives us “the life we’ve always wanted?” Paul reminded them of the virtues which are uniquely Christian but which non-Christians appreciate and desire to see in those who believe. Paul gave eight areas where we should live according to our new life in Christ and endeavor to let the Spirit of God work in our lives. These areas are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love. Who would ever … [Read more...]

Celebrity bodyguard joins body of Christ

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer CENTRAL – Hadley James had served as a bodyguard for high-profile celebrities around the U.S., and was awash with all the perks that came with the job; but, he found true satisfaction and returned to his walk with Christ after watching live worship services broadcast by Greenwell Springs Baptist Church. A few months later James experienced another spiritual watershed moment when he was baptized alongside his daughter, Nicole, in front of the Greenwell Springs congregation. “It was one of the most exciting experiences in my life,” James told the Baptist Message. “My daughter was lost and is now alive in Christ.” SEEDS, SON & HARVEST A number of divine appointments led up to the Feb. 10, 2019, celebration for the James family, with the first Gospel seeds planted in early 2016. James had retired from the bodyguard profession in 1995, ending his behind-the-scenes with the rich and famous, to take a position as director of security and loss prevention for a national construction company in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also began breeding Great Danes as a side venture. Hadley had become a child of God as a sophomore in high school, but he had drifted away from the Lord in the … [Read more...]