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"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

More Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers trained at two Monday night sessions

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer Two Monday night training sessions resulted in 31 more members of Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief mud-out team members. Twenty-two people attended a training session at Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport while nine were present at Alford Heights Baptist Church in Many. They join other disaster relief volunteers who are serving in areas impacted by the recent flooding of the Red River. Ricky Woodard is among those who already have benefited from the ministry of disaster relief volunteers. Woodard, whose Shreveport property is less than 100 yards from the Red River, estimates work done by the mudout team from Zoar Baptist Church saved him nearly a month’s worth of clean-up. “They’re like a bunch of ants coming together and getting things done almost instantly,” Woodard said, with his two grandchildren standing nearby. “I’m so appreciative.” The team worked all day, removing mud and debris inside homes in the neighborhood heavily damaged by the river’s recent floodwaters. Loren Warren, a member of the team from Zoar Baptist Church, said that despite the temperatures that reached the upper 90s, the humidity was a small inconvenience compared to the blessings the … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptist DR teams begin cleanup work in Caddo, Bossier and DeSoto parishes

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer SHREVEPORT - Less than a football field away from the Red River, Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief teams are working on homes heavily damaged by the river's recent floodwaters. Teams arrived earlier in the week to begin work on homes throughout the Shreveport/Bossier area. The teams that are on site are the incident command, chaplains, assessors, feeding, laundry, childcare, medical professionals and the in the trenches mud-out recovery teams. A childcare team will arrive Saturday to give comfort and games to kids of those families seeking help from volunteer agencies of VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) as well as a variety of government agencies. Additionally, a Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief medical team that includes a medical professional on call for physician level will be assisting in the recovery effort as well. The wheeled units on site this week are from Bellaire Baptist, First Baptist Blanchard, Zoar Baptist, Rolling Hills Ministry, and Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association Some of these same units will join up with other units coming in next Monday. Operations will be from Eastwood Baptist Church in Haughton to Summer Grove Baptist Church … [Read more...]

Resources for men’s ministry

By Baptist Press Staff NASHVILLE (BP) -- The following are men's ministry resources recommended by Stephen Rummage of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla.; Fred Luter of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans; and Richard King of First Baptist Church in Las Cruces, N.M. Henry and Tom Blackaby, "The Man God Uses" (Nashville: B&H, 1999). This seven-week study helps men understand how God is working in their lives and how to surrender completely to Him. Topics covered include a godly man's relationship to family, work, church and community. Al and Lorraine Broom, "One to One Discipling" (Multiplication Ministries). This nine-lesson study is designed for one person to teach another the basic doctrines of Christianity. Edwin Louis Cole. "Maximized Manhood" (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker, 1982). This book teaches men to realize their full potential in Christ, addressing such issues as pornography, adultery, television addiction and immaturity. Tony Dungy, "Uncommon Manhood" (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2012). This book encourages men to focus on character, integrity and courage rather than status. Tony Evans, "Kingdom Man" (Carrol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2012). This book explains how men can be godly in their … [Read more...]

Fred and Chip Luter share insight about servant leadership at home

By David Roach, Baptist Press EDITOR'S NOTE: Father's Day is Sunday. NASHVILLE (BP) -- When Fred Luter had a son, he wanted to give him a biblical name. So he decided on "Chip." As in, "chip off the old block" -- a reference to the oft neglected biblical principle that children's lives are shaped by the spiritual, intellectual and emotional leadership of their fathers. "When I started living for God and then I got married and God blessed me with a son, one of my prayers to God was, 'Let me be the spiritual man in my son's life that I didn't have in my home growing up,'" said Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. "And God honored that." Today Fred "Chip" Luter III is campus pastor at Idlewild Baptist Church's Sulpher Springs campus in Tampa, Fla. Fred Luter Jr., a former Southern Baptist Convention president, is among the Baptist leaders seeking to teach men practically what it means to be the leaders of their homes. "Men are supposed to be, according to Scripture, the provider, the protector and the priest of their family," the elder Luter told Baptist Press. As providers, men are responsible to meet their families' needs financially "no matter how much their wife makes," Luter said. … [Read more...]

S.C. massacre ‘demonic,’ Baptist pastor says

By Diana Chandler and Art Toalston, Baptist Press EDITOR'S NOTE: Responses by Southnern Baptist leaders Ronnie Floyd, K. Marshall Williams, A.B. Vines, Russell Moore, Frank S. Page and Richard Harris follow this story. CHARLESTON, S.C. (BP) - Christians are uniting in prayer and benevolence across racial distinctions in Charleston, S.C., after a 21-year-old man massacred nine Christians in a June 17 prayer service at historic Emanuel AME Church, said neighboring Southern Baptist pastor Keith Biggs. "Everyone together -- white, black, Hispanic, everybody -- we're coming together in unity to see this not only [as] an attack on people, but an attack on the body of Christ," said Biggs, associate pastor of Citadel Square Baptist Church, which neighbors the site of the crime. "I mean, who can walk into a church and sit for an hour and have prayer, and then just begin to kill everybody?" The FBI identified the shooter as 21-year-old Dylann Roof of Columbia, S.C., whose uncle told police he believes Roof received a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present, Reuters reported. Roof was arrested late Thursday morning in Shelby, N.C. In what police are calling a hate crime, a man identified as Roof sat calmly in the church during … [Read more...]

SBC panel: Value love, Gospel with LGBT community

By Tom Strode, Baptist Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) - Christians should not undervalue the effect of love or the Gospel in relating to gays and lesbians, recognizing, however, that faithfulness to the biblical definition of marriage will prove costly, members of a special panel told messengers at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention. During the Wednesday afternoon session (June 17), five panelists answered questions from SBC President Ronnie Floyd about how churches and pastors can minister in an American culture that increasingly approves of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The discussion occurred about two weeks before an expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could result in gay marriage's legalization nationwide. Same-sex marriage already is legal in 37 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, the conversation came on the same day Floyd and 16 former SBC presidents released a statement saying they will not perform and the churches they pastor will not host same-sex ceremonies. Rosaria Butterfield, an author who has chronicled her journey from lesbianism to Christ, told messengers not to "deny the power of the Gospel to change lives and to travel at the grass-roots level. Your friendships … [Read more...]

Ronnie Floyd unopposed as SBC president

by Barbara Denman, Baptist Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd was reelected without opposition to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention June 16 during the SBC annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Registered messengers totaled 5,277 messengers at the time. Floyd was nominated by North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear, who said, "God's hand has been upon Brother Ronnie. I believe he is the man God has raised up to lead us for another year." All other SBC officers for the coming year also were elected without opposition. Kansas pastor Steve Dighton, senior pastoral adviser at the Kansas City-area Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kan., was elected as first vice president, nominated by Texas pastor and former SBC president Jack Graham. Elected as second vice president was Chad Keck, senior pastor of the Dayton-area First Baptist Church of Kettering since December 2010, nominated by David Starry of Vandalia, Ohio. John L. Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention since 2011, was reelected to a 19th term as recording secretary, nominated by Joshua Hedger of Kansas City, while Jim Wells, strategic partners team leader for the Missouri Baptist Convention, was … [Read more...]

ERLC to open Mideast office, honors embattled florist

By Art Toalston & Erin Roach, Baptist Press COLUMBUS (BP) -- An international religious freedom office in the Mideast will be opened by the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore announced at the SBC annual meeting June 17. Moore, the ERLC's president, told messengers, "We must contend for religious freedom for our brothers and sisters in Christ and for everyone else wherever they are on the globe." He added, "We will not stand idly by while those with whom we will share eternity are being led to the slaughter." Also during the ERLC report, Barronelle Stutzman, the Washington state florist punished for refusing to participate in a same-sex wedding, received a standing ovation by messengers at the convention in Columbus, Ohio. "Mrs. Stutzman knew that the truth is not up for sale and the Gospel doesn't bend to the highest bidder," Moore said, "and faithful Christians do not stow away their convictions in a blind trust when they enter the public square." International religious freedom The ERLC announced the appointment of Travis Wussow of Austin, Texas, as ERLC director of international justice and religious liberty in a news release, also on June 17. Through … [Read more...]

SBC panel: Value love, Gospel with LGBT community

By Tom Strode, Baptist Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Christians should not undervalue the effect of love or the Gospel in relating to gays and lesbians, recognizing, however, that faithfulness to the biblical definition of marriage will prove costly, members of a special panel told messengers at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention. During the Wednesday afternoon session (June 17), five panelists answered questions from SBC President Ronnie Floyd about how churches and pastors can minister in an American culture that increasingly approves of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The discussion occurred about two weeks before an expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could result in gay marriage's legalization nationwide. Same-sex marriage already is legal in 37 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, the conversation came on the same day Floyd and 16 former SBC presidents released a statement saying they will not perform and the churches they pastor will not host same-sex ceremonies. Rosaria Butterfield, an author who has chronicled her journey from lesbianism to Christ, told messengers not to "deny the power of the Gospel to change lives and to travel at the grass-roots level. Your friendships … [Read more...]

ERLC to open Mideast office, honors embattled florist

By Art Toalston and Erin Roach, Baptist Press COLUMBUS (BP) - An international religious freedom office in the Mideast will be opened by the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore announced at the SBC annual meeting June 17. Moore, the ERLC's president, told messengers, "We must contend for religious freedom for our brothers and sisters in Christ and for everyone else wherever they are on the globe." He added, "We will not stand idly by while those with whom we will share eternity are being led to the slaughter." Also during the ERLC report, Barronelle Stutzman, the Washington state florist punished for refusing to participate in a same-sex wedding, received a standing ovation by messengers at the convention in Columbus, Ohio. "Mrs. Stutzman knew that the truth is not up for sale and the Gospel doesn't bend to the highest bidder," Moore said, "and faithful Christians do not stow away their convictions in a blind trust when they enter the public square." International religious freedom The ERLC announced the appointment of Travis Wussow of Austin, Texas, as ERLC director of international justice and religious liberty in a news release, also on June 17. Through its … [Read more...]