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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

More workers needed for flood recovery

By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor ALEXANDRIA – Disaster relief leaders are asking for more workers to volunteer to meet the overwhelming demand for assistance in mud-out and related services caused by historic floods in Louisiana. “Our disaster relief people began working as soon as the floodwaters began to go down,” said John Hebert, Louisiana Baptists State Director of Missions. He added that Louisiana has 1,000 certified disaster relief “yellow shirts” deployed around the state “working eight to 10 hours daily.” “Their numbers have been bolstered by Southern Baptist disaster relief teams from 20 states,” adding about another 1,000 volunteers, Hebert said. But even with help from other faith-based organizations, kids helping from schools and churches organizing their members locally, the 61,000 flooded homes needing restoration far exceed the manpower available now to respond. “We are going to get a big shot in the arm this weekend, but the biggest influx of people will take place Labor Day weekend,” Hebert estimated from reports he’s receiving from around the country. “Louisiana is about to see the biggest mobilization of manpower since Hurricane Katrina.” But he emphasized even more help is needed quickly to … [Read more...]

Longview Baptist answering the call for help

DEVILLE – The phone hasn’t stopped ringing at Longview Baptist Church’s office this week. Complete strangers, desperate for help, are either calling or emailing the church seeking help to mud out their flood-ravaged home. “We sent a 12-person team to Denham Springs last Saturday with Josh Sikes, our minister of youth/education,” said Robby Poole, pastor of Longview Baptist Church in Deville. “We could do only a couple of houses but the people were so grateful. “As a matter of fact, both families want to come here to personally thank our church for helping them out,” said Poole. “In the meantime, other people in the neighborhood saw our van, wrote down the name of our church, Googled it to get our number I would guess, and have been calling non-stop since Monday.” To help as many as he can, Poole took a group of volunteers Thursday (Aug. 25) and will take another 20 Saturday (Aug. 27). He also plans on going the following week. “This [cleanup] is not going to end this week, the next week, next month, or next year,” he said. “These families desperately need our help. We are being the hands and feet of Jesus and the gratitude of these families’ faces speaks louder than words.” From the storm-ravaged areas beginning … [Read more...]

To get more out of social media act like an anthropologist

There is something marketing managers seem to forget about the internet: it was made for people, not for companies and brands. As such, it offers managers a source of insight they never had — social listening. Eavesdropping on consumers’ social-media chatter allows marketers to economically and regularly peer inside people’s lives as they are being lived, without introducing biases through direct interaction. Armed with traces of revealed opinions and behaviors, managers can at long last discover the manifestations and ripple effects of their actions on consumer behavior. Clear indications from marketing science underline how chatter affects sales, brand health, and even stock performance. Social listening competency will be critical to competitive advantage in the digital age. To read the rest of this article, please click here. … [Read more...]

Johns Hopkins University study disputes transgender and homosexual claims

Questions related to sexuality and gender bear on some of the most intimate and personal aspects of human life. In recent years they have also vexed American politics. We offer this report — written by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer, an epidemiologist trained in psychiatry, and Dr. Paul R. McHugh, arguably the most important American psychiatrist of the last half-century — in the hope of improving public understanding of these questions. To read the rest of this article, please click here. … [Read more...]

Obamacare is splitting in two

By Peter Sullivan, The Hill Increasingly, there are two ObamaCares. There’s the one in coastal and northern areas, where the marketplaces include multiple insurers and plans. And there’s the one in southern and rural areas, where there is often little competition, a situation that can lead to higher premiums. To read the rest of this story, please click here. … [Read more...]

ISIS’ lone wolf strategy threatens West

By Barak Mendelsohn, Council on Foreign Relations A string of lone wolf terrorist attacks in France, Germany, the United States and elsewhere suggests that the phenomenon continues to spread and that it is growing increasingly lethal. Between October 2015 and August 2016 radicalized individuals, as well as “wolf packs,” carried out over 20 attacks in response to the Islamic State’s call to indiscriminately kill “nonbeliever” civilians. The lone-wolf strategy benefits the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in several ways. First, it is cheap and relatively easy. It requires no planning on its part or even contact with, or knowledge of, the perpetrators. Second, lone wolves frustrate preventive measures since they cannot be identified ahead of time, given they have no direct connection to ISIS, and in this way, shelters the group’s Western networks from possible exposure. Third, such attacks are damaging to both a nation’s psychology and its leadership, raising fear and inciting alarmism among civilians while making governments appear helpless and even incompetent. And fourth, the worldwide proliferation of lone-wolf terrorism boosts ISIS’ image, demonstrating its reach and appeal to both enemies and sympathizers. To read … [Read more...]

Report: U.S. transfers nukes from Turkish airbase to Romania

By Staff, Haaretz.com The U.S. has started transferring American nuclear weapons stationed at an airbase in southeastern Turkey to Romania, the independent Euractiv website reported on Thursday. The reported move comes after a U.S.-based think tank said on Monday that the stockpile at Incirlik airbase, which consists of some 50 nuclear bombs, was at risk of being captured by "terrorists or other hostile forces." To read the rest of this story, please click here. … [Read more...]

LBC reaching out to help pastors

By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor ALEXANDRIA - The Louisiana Baptist Convention wants churches and pastors to know help is on the way. Disaster relief teams are in place or on their way, incident command centers are up and operating, taking calls and coordinating assistance (more than 1,000 calls a day just at the state command center in Alexandria), and financial aid is being disbursed to pastors. So far, 57 pastors have received $1,000 each to help with expenses, “distributed through the director of missions in each of the affected areas,” according to Bill Robertson, pastoral leadership team leader. “We expect to help even more,” he added. Louisiana Baptists Executive Director David Hankins, who has been touring the regional incident command centers, said he wants pastors to know they are not alone. “Many of the area pastors are working in their communities in addition to tending to their own needs. We want them to know we stand with them during this difficult and demanding time and will do everything we can to assist them in every way possible,” said Hankins. “Louisiana Baptists are again showing their commitment to the Lord and their communities by their quick and sacrificial response to this historical … [Read more...]

Former IMB missionaries ask Southern Baptists for help with flood recovery

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer DENHAM SPRINGS - Patti Higginbotham was at home when her husband Tom walked in with a special delivery from the heavily flood-damaged worship center at Don Avenue Baptist Church. The pews had been destroyed by the current of the Amite River, which ran 6 feet high through the facility, and the pulpit was flipped on its side, she said. But the waters had lifted the Lord’s Supper table and moved it out a side door of the worship center, around a corner in the hallway and turned it 90 degrees against the flow to keep it in place in the back corridor – with the church Bible and offering plates intact. Some might dismiss such a blessing as a coincidence, Higginbotham offered. But she believes it was a symbolic gesture from God. “I just thought of Jesus’ declaration in Matthew, that ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away,” she said. “I immediately sent a text to everyone in the church to encourage them with the news. “I believe it was a way God was telling us He sees us and knows about our situation in this disaster. “He preserves His Word in our hearts,” she said, “but He also saw fit to preserve the tangible Word, the church Bible.” When the … [Read more...]