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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

My father’s final prayer – is it yours?

By James Dobson In August 1977, my wife and children joined me on a trip to Kansas City, Missouri, for a short visit with my parents.  We enjoyed several days of family togetherness before it was time to leave. As we drove to the airport where we said good-bye, I asked my father to pray for us.  I will never forget his words. He closed with this thought: And Lord, we thank You for the fellowship and the love that we feel for each other today. This has been a special time for us with Jim and Shirley and their children. But Heavenly Father, we are keenly aware that the joy that is ours today is a temporal pleasure. Our lives will not always be this stable and secure. Change is inevitable and it will come to us, too. We will accept it when it comes, of course, but we give You praise for the happiness and warmth that has been ours these past few days. We have had more than our share of the good things, and we thank You for Your love.  Amen. Shortly thereafter, we hugged and said good-bye, and my family boarded the plane. A week later, my father has suddenly grabbed his chest and told my mother to call the paramedics. He left us on December 4 of that year. Shortly after, my mother joined him in heaven. How quickly … [Read more...]

2018 ECON scheduled now available

By Message Staff PINEVILLE – The schedule for the 2018 state Evangelism Conference is now available. Known as ECON, the conference will take place Jan. 22-23 at First Baptist Church, Pineville. ECON will feature inspiring messages by speakers from Louisiana and beyond. Each message will center around the theme verse, John 4:35. ECON will serve as the official launch for the Harvest, an initiative to “pray for every home and share Christ with every person” began in the fall of 2015 with a small group of leading pastors. Strategy development and the enlistment of churches were undertaken in 2016.  Statewide evangelism training sessions were held in 2017 and different methods were piloted. Now, there will be a concerted push by nearly 900 Louisiana Baptist churches in concentrated prayer and soul-winning activities. The cooperative effort includes a diversity of approaches such as multi-church crusades, door-to-door outreach, one-on-one evangelism, single-church revivals and other activities which leverage compassion ministries to share about the love of Christ. The vision has caught on, with church participation far-exceeding the original goal of 700 partnering congregations. Ray Jones will return to the ECON for a … [Read more...]

Herrod takes passion for training pastors to ends of the earth

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer PINEVILLE – Ron Herrod has traveled the world and trained thousands of pastors but none of his ministry experiences have been more pivotal than the teenage years that fundamentally shaped his spiritual journey. Saved at age 15 during a youth camp in Macon, Miss., just two months later Herrod committed his life to the Gospel ministry just two months later. Then just shy of turning 16 years old Herrod started serving as pastor of his first church, Lambert Grove Mission in Chickasaw, Ala. It would be his first pastorate during 36 years of ministry to congregations in Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana. Herrod, founder of Ron Herrod Evangelism Ministries Association in Knoxville, Tenn., will speak during the Jan. 22 morning session of the 2018 Louisiana Baptist Convention Evangelism Conference at First Baptist Church in Pineville, as part of a two-day program of speakers. He will be joined in the program by Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans, and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Brent Crowe, vice president of the Student Leadership University, Orlando, Fla.; Rick Gage, founder of GO TELL Ministries, Atlanta, Ga.; Sammy Tippit, founder … [Read more...]