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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Don’t get discouraged

By Steve Horn I had the opportunity to address a group of pastors recently. I was asked to speak to them on the general subject of leadership. My message was simple. “Don’t Get Discouraged.” I think this is a lesson for anyone. I shared from my experiences briefly, but mostly I shared from the Bible story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was as a great a leader as I have ever studied. Nehemiah got people who had a decades old history of inactivity to build a protective wall around Jerusalem in 52 days. How did he do that? Nehemiah was able to get them to dwell on what God had said, rather than on what others were saying. Compare Nehemiah 2:8, 2:12, 2:20 with Nehemiah 4:2-3. Nehemiah was able to direct attention to the half built wall instead of the rubble. Rubble paralyzes us, but half built walls energize us. Nehemiah discovered friends who encouraged him. I have decided not to waste my time on the people who are critical all of the time. They zap the life out of me. I call them “drainers.” I look for the “refreshers.” We have to listen to critics, but we cannot hang out with critics. We become like them. Finally, Nehemiah decided that his God was bigger than all other struggles. Here is Nehemiah’s motto: “Remember the … [Read more...]

SBC: A leader in racial reconciliation

You By Will Hall, Message Editor ALEXANDRIA (LBM)—Southern Baptist history is complicated. Slavery is most often cited as the cause for the split from Northern Baptists that led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, and it was a decisive factor. However, Southern Baptists also strongly disagreed with Northern Baptists regarding how they were organized as the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions (also known as the Triennial Convention). In general, Southern members preferred a more centralized structure of operating while Northern members favored the formation of independent societies for home missions, foreign missions and the publication of tracts, according to historian Robert A. Baker. Likewise, Baptists in the South felt they were not being treated equitably in the appointment of home missionaries to the region. But, the records of the first SBC annual meeting indicate the final straw was the approval by the Board of the Triennial Convention, in a Boston meeting, of a new rule that prohibited slave owners from serving as foreign missionaries. W.B. Johnson, the first SBC president, perceived the action not in terms of … [Read more...]