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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Foundation weathers summer market conditions

By Jerry Love, LBF director of planned giving ALEXANDRIA – Excessive summertime heat surrounded the mid-year meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Foundation Board of Trustees on July 24.  However, board members were cool and calm as they took care of the business at hand which proved to be fairly mild, observers noted. Chuck Murray, LBF CPA and controller, reviewed the financial positions for the quarter- and year-to- date. Assets under management as of June 30, 2018 stood at $162,540,914, which is less than the beginning year assets by about $4.5 million. This difference is due to at least one church using funds for a building project, combined with the normal cycle of churches and entities withdrawing funds during late spring and summer months. Murray and Executive Director Wayne Taylor jointly reviewed a summary of the data regarding the performance of the Foundation’s investments for the year, thus far, and reported the following returns: -- Short Term Fund:  1.2 percent actual annualized yield; -- Group Investment Fund, comprised of various market sectors:  0.28 percent total return; -- Diversified Income Fund, conservative income-oriented fund: -0.51percent total return. The funds are all generating … [Read more...]

Army recommends chaplain be charged with ‘dereliction of duty’ for rescheduling marriage retreat

By First Liberty Institute communications BRAGG, NC—First Liberty Institute has responded to new charges against its client, Chaplain Scott Squires, by an Army investigator—acting under the command of MG Kurt Sonntag—recommending that the chaplain be found guilty of “dereliction of duty” for taking three business days to reschedule a marriage retreat he was prohibited from facilitating. “The United States Army, acting under the command of Major General Sonntag, is threatening to punish one of its chaplains because he followed the rules,” said Mike Berry, Deputy General Counsel and Director of Military Affairs to First Liberty. “The Army, or Congress, must hold Major General Sonntag accountable for allowing this aggressive anti-religious hostility against its military chaplains to occur under his command.” The investigation follows a complaint that Chaplain Squires discriminated against a same-sex couple when he quickly rescheduled a marriage retreat his chaplain endorsing agency, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), prevents its chaplains from facilitating. Despite Department of Defense (DOD) regulations that require chaplains to adhere to their endorsers’ rules and religious … [Read more...]

Unity leads to spiritual growth for black, white congregations

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer BATON ROUGE – Manuel Pigee boldly prayed in 2015, asking God to lead United Believers Baptist Church to a rebirth at a new property. After three years of fasting and praying, God presented the steadily growing African-American congregation with the opportunity to move into a facility utilized by Oakcrest Baptist Church, a predominantly Anglo congregation, whose Sunday morning worship attendance was in steady decline. Since United Believers Baptist Church said, “Yes,” in January to sharing the campus, the congregation has seen God move in more ways than they ever imagined. “When I became pastor of the church, I said to them I want you to know I am praying God would do something no one could take credit for -- that God would get the glory,” he said. “The way He opened the door and solidified this partnership has generated a great spirit of joy and peace. We are overwhelmed by God’s grace.” BACKGROUND United Believers Baptist Church was formed after Hurricane Katrina forced Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans to meet at three separate locations, including the Baton Rouge campus. Within a year, many members of the Franklin Avenue congregation returned to New … [Read more...]

Mortician discovers Life in Belarus

By Will Hall, Message Editor MINSK, Belarus (LBM) – Albert and Olga Melnichuck are typical Belarusians in their experiences with the deep despair that grips the people of this former republic of the former Soviet Union, but also in their life-changing  transformation after encountering the Gospel. The middle-aged Belokonevs were caught in an ever tightening downward spiral in life, according to Andrew Ryzhkov, founder of the Byelorussian Mission ministry, who told their story to the Baptist Message. “He was a drunk because of a stressful job, always dealing with death, and the economy went down,” Ryzhkov described. “His wife was constantly complaining and their marriage was falling apart. “But in the  midst of all this turmoil, they came to the local church during our team’s most recent visit, and received Bibles we were distributing [Good and Evil Illustrated Bible], and they became curious,” he observed. Ryzhkov said the couple reached out to him and his wife, Inna, and asked to meet at a coffee shop to answer their questions. “We began meeting them, and they were asking about some of the things they were reading in their Bibles. We explained the stories and shared how these pointed to Christ, and we shared … [Read more...]

Immigrant pastor hopes to ‘see green’ soon

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer MADISONVILLE –Romanian Andrei Parvu and American Ethan Todd have grown in their individual faith in God and in their friendship with each other as they have faced hardships from the red tape encountered in attempting to obtain governmental approval for Parvu to serve as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Madisonville. “It’s been hard, especially at the beginning,” said Parvu, who has briefly transitioned from pastor to volunteer until he officially obtains a green card that will allow him to return to his former role. “The fact that God initiated this process gave me the confidence and assurance I needed to know that He who begins a good work for us here at First Madisonville, He will be the one to bring it to completion. “I knew the Lord would provide for us,” said Parvu. “I have people who ask ‘How do you make it without receiving compensation.’ It’s been a journey of faith, but the Lord never forsook us.” Parvu became pastor of FBC Madisonville in January 2017, soon after he graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services allow international students, classified as F-1, to work for … [Read more...]

Be the change agent

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. -1 John 5:4 I don’t know what it’s like in your house, but my wife and I always disagree about the temperature of the room. Cathe likes it warm, and I like it cool. Sometimes I find myself breaking out in a sweat, so I’ll walk over to the thermostat and see that it’s set at 78. Then I’ll ask Cathe why she set it that high. “I was cold,” she says. So I return it to an appropriate setting, like 70. She likes it warmer. I want it cooler. We go back to the thermostat again and again, because it controls the warmth or coolness of the room. Unlike a thermometer, which goes up and down with the temperature, a thermostat influences its surroundings. A thermostat controls the temperature around it. With that in mind, are you a thermostat or a thermometer? Let me put it another way: Are you changing the culture, or is the culture changing you? Are you changing the world, or is the world changing you? The Bible tells us the stories of great men and women who served God and, in effect, changed their world. These people were not perfect. In fact, they were far from it. They failed often. But they had faith in a … [Read more...]