Alexandria Carl L. Taylor III  # Baton Rouge Karen O. Wagley Bernice Amber LeFaye Urrey Bossier City Lindsey Burns Central Joy Clark Katherine Clark Jacob Forrest Schopp Justin Bryant Schopp  # Columbia Janna Carroll  # Deville Cody Edwards  # Micah Rachelle May  * Shane Middleton  # Trey Miller  # Doyline Brittany Lee Courtny Sulzer Grand Cane Justin Hoell Kennedy  * Greenwell Springs Rachel Oliphant Harrisonburg Grace Jordan Ruth Jordan Sarah Jordan  * Heflin Bethany Daniels David Daniels Jonesboro Hilary Reed Kenner Nathan Michel Graham Waller Joe Waller  * Lafayette Toni LaBiche Lake Charles Mollie Yorks LaPlace Hannah Bergeron Leesville Elizabeth Gautreaux Ashley Hartel Zachary Mueller Livingston Ashlyn Harrell Luling Anne-Marie Laque Marksville Ellen Durand Minden Daniel Hutto Monroe Silver Ringold Justin Woods Morgan City Matthew Powell  # Mt. Herman Jonathan Statham Natchitoches Cammie Recer Marlee Roberts Pineville Katie Boles  # Ashley Cockerham Brittany Jones M’Kayla Love Camille Perkins Jay Purdy Hannah Quarles  # Rachael Quarles  # Kara Ramirez  # Pollock Brett Roussell Ponchatoula Allison Layne Joiner  # Quitman Molly Frances … [Read more...]

The American Family Association on July 3 launched a boycott of McDonald’s, saying the restaurant chain’s corporate leaders refuse “to remain neutral in the culture wars” by promoting the homosexual agenda. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – The American Family Association on July 3 launched a boycott of McDonald’s, saying the restaurant chain’s corporate leaders refuse “to remain neutral in the culture wars” by promoting the homosexual agenda. An official with the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, while not commenting specifically on the AFA boycott, issued a statement to Baptist Press recapping general principles regarding Christian stewardship in their consumer spending. “Discerning Southern Baptists note which corporations support causes or movements which are antithetical to a biblical perspective and then weigh carefully which businesses in good conscience and, perhaps of necessity, they can patronize,” ERLC Vice President Dwayne Hastings said July 7. “In this day of conglomerates and multinational corporations, it is difficult to find a large corporation that does not in some way support something which stands in opposition to what we know to be good and moral,” Hastings added. “Yet as … [Read more...]

When John Hebert and Clovis Sturdivant spent time together at the Baptist Building recently, it was for more than just to share a cup of coffee. ALEXANDRIA – When John Hebert and Clovis Sturdivant spent time together at the Baptist Building recently, it was for more than just to share a cup of coffee. Hebert, Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Region 4 (Central Louisiana) missions strategist, and Sturdivant, director of missions in Jackson, Winn and Shady Grove Baptist Associations, met to discuss chaplaincy ministry in the state. Chaplains are people assigned to be a spiritual leader in a non-church setting such as a hospital, military installation, police/fire department, prison and, increasingly, in the workplace. “I haven’t been able to give chaplaincy any attention,” said Hebert, who is responsible for 50 or more church and/or community ministry centers statewide, and for ministry to an unknown number of chaplains across the state who are affiliated with Southern Baptists, in addition to his work with associations and churches in Central Louisiana. Despite his workload, Hebert did provide assistance at least twice in the recent past to Sturdivant, the DOM said. Sturdivant, certified by the International Conference … [Read more...]

Homelessness in this tropical Southern city has changed in the nearly three years since the area was keelhauled by Hurricane Katrina Aug. 29, 2005, and Southern Baptist ministries have adapted to the changes even as local church and associational leaders strategize ways to better meet changing needs. NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Homelessness in this tropical Southern city has changed in the nearly three years since the area was keelhauled by Hurricane Katrina Aug. 29, 2005, and Southern Baptist ministries have adapted to the changes even as local church and associational leaders strategize ways to better meet changing needs. Groups serving New Orleans’ homeless estimate there are about a thousand chronically homeless, living on the streets of the city. Another 2,400 are in some sort of homeless housing at any given time. More live in abandoned housing, but these numbers are very difficult to estimate. Homeless advocates say the number of homeless people is double what it was before Katrina, yet the general population is perhaps half what it once was. The make-up of the homeless individual also has changed. Only perhaps half the number of “traditional” homeless people – the possibly mentally ill, drug and/or alcohol abusers – are … [Read more...]

Nothing happens randomly in the life of a military chaplain. Ken Williams was out on exercises with other members of the U.S. Army’s Second Infantry Division stationed at Camp Hovey in South Korea. Reporters from the Armed Forces Network were doing a story on how military chaplains minister to soldiers when they’re in the field. They asked Chaplain Williams to recruit a couple of soldiers so they could get some video footage of him with the troops. He picked out two young men and asked them to sit down and make small talk while the cameraman got what he needed. During the conversation, one of the soldiers said, “Hey, I really do need to talk to you about something. Can we get together later?” Williams recalls the meeting: “When we met that evening, he told me he wasn’t sure if he had eternal life. I led him in a prayer to receive Christ.” Maj. Williams, a 17-year veteran of chaplaincy ministry in the National Guard and U.S. Army, knows he has to stay alert and take advantage of the ministry opportunities God gives him. “Satan is the ultimate insurgent. The Bible says he’s always looking for victims,” Williams says. “I have to always be on a heightened state of alert, recognizing that everyone in my path is someone … [Read more...]

Secularists have exploded over the passage of the “Louisiana Science and Education Act.” Secularists have exploded over the passage of the “Louisiana Science and Education Act.” The bill recently was signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal after having been passed by an overwhelming majority of the Louisiana legislature.  According to its text it protects the freedom of “teachers, principals, and other school administrators” in elementary and secondary schools to promote “critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of a variety of scientific theories including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.” In other words, the act provides for the freedom and support of teachers and school boards to present varied analyses on these and other scientific issues. So why are the denizens of blogs like the Huffington Post in such a huff? Because “science” is their “truth,” and it is blasphemous to question their beliefs. Secularists are unwilling to have their orthodoxy challenged. Just as Galileo had to fight against the church and government of his day, those who dare to question today’s “settled” theories are banished by scientific and political … [Read more...]

The President’s Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been mired in the Senate for months. Late June finally brought signs that a vote, and passage, could be near. The program would cost $50 billion – that’s $165 from each American to fight AIDS, or $1.3 billion from New York City alone. The President’s Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been mired in the Senate for months. Late June finally brought signs that a vote, and passage, could be near. The program would cost $50 billion – that’s $165 from each American to fight AIDS, or $1.3 billion from New York City alone. But will the money allocated for AIDS stop the spread of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa, where 76 percent of the world’s HIV-AIDS deaths occurred last year? Not if the dark dealings I’ve witnessed in Africa continue unchecked. In the fight against AIDS, profiteering has trumped prevention. AIDS is no longer simply a disease; it has become a multibillion-dollar industry. In the late 1980s, before international experts arrived to tell us we had it all “wrong,” we in Uganda devised a practical campaign to prevent the spread of HIV. We recognized that population-wide AIDS epidemics in Africa were driven by people having sex with more … [Read more...]

A privately-owned prayer garden less than three miles west of town pays homage by its designer to the One for whom it was designed. KENTWOOD – A privately-owned prayer garden less than three miles west of town pays homage by its designer to the One for whom it was designed. During missionary service over a seven-year period with his artist wife Anne, John “Shady” Hurst walked through many prayer gardens across the globe and decided he would build one on his land once they were back home. “The first thought of such a park was given to me when my wife and I were in Indiana as church planters with the [Southern] Baptist Home Mission Board,” Hurst wrote in a history of the park, which continues to be reprinted and handed out to visitors to the no-cost park. “Upon returning home to retire, I was reading Ecclesiastes in my Bible and God convinced me that He was leading me to do this work for Him,” Hurst continued, a few paragraphs later. “I am not a Solomon, but the little that I do have, I want it to be used of God. This makes me a very happy man.” Inspiration Park emerged over a 10-year period across 34 acres of what previously had been dairy cattle pasture. It grew in stages, as the Hursts envisioned biblical and … [Read more...]

More than 25 churches across this part of the state are to play a part this month in Camp USA for 28 youngsters from South Korea and their seven chaperones. CENTRAL LOUISIANA – More than 25 churches across this part of the state are to play a part this month in Camp USA for 28 youngsters from South Korea and their seven chaperones. It’s the fifth annual Camp USA, a joint project sponsored by the Cenla/Korea Missions Partnership – now known as Reach Missions – and the Korea Baptist Church Development Board, equivalent to the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Christian Resources. “The commitment of Louisianians to Korea extends back for 41 years,” said David Cranford, pastor of Tioga First Baptist near Alexandria, and coordinator of Reach Missions. “We’ve been going there every year for evangelistic crusades in cooperation with the Korea Baptist Convention’s Home Mission Board. Five years ago we added a west-bound component to the partnership. “It’s the completion of – the cross-cultural component of – the fellowship that assures us that achieving the Great Commission mandate is possible,” Cranford continued. “As we see Christianity extending across the globe, our faith is affirmed.” The 35 Koreans are to be in … [Read more...]

About 150 people mostly from Louisiana left last Friday, July 11, for a major evangelistic/ministry thrust in Brazil. LAFAYETTE – About 150 people mostly from Louisiana left last Friday, July 11, for a major evangelistic/ministry thrust in Brazil. For the second year in a row, they went to Belo Horizonte, about a four-hour bus ride northeast of Rio de Janeiro. “We go at the invitation of the Brazilian Baptist Convention and Brazilian national pastors,” said Wayne Jenkins, evangelism/church growth strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “We help them in reaching out to the people in their communities.” This is the 24th annual trip Louisianians have made to Brazil; the number of volunteer missionaries going has about doubled – from about 80 the first year to nearly 150 this year. The mission trip is a year-round project, said Syd Smith, Jenkins’ administrative assistant who does much of the detail work, such as keeping old and new volunteers informed, making sure they have passports and visas, arranging in-country transportation and housing. “There’s so much going on that just about anyone can find a place of ministry on the Brazil mission trip,” Smith said. “If you can put a Band-aid on a kid’s skinned … [Read more...]