COMINGS, GOINGS Cecil Gregory, new as pastor at New Light Baptist, Mangham, from Sandel Drive Baptist, Monroe. NEEDED First Baptist, Baton Rouge, needs part-time assistant administrator at the Child Development Center, Call Karen at 225.343.9688 or Sherry at 225.343.0397. First Baptist, Baton Rouge, needs director and teacher at the Parents Day Out Program. Call Sherry at 225.343.0397. New Ramah Baptist, Castor, needs bivocational pastor. Send resume to New Ramah Church, Attention: Pastor Search Committee, 493 New Ramah Road, Castor LA 71016. Woodlawn Baptist, Rayville, needs part-time music minister. Send resume to PO Box 506, Rayville LA 71269, email tim@allenconst.com or fax 318.728.2030. Highland Baptist, needs nursery worker for Sunday evenings only. Call 337.365.6045. GRADUATIONS Robert M. Houston received a Master of Arts in Missiology degree Dec. 7 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Calvary Baptist in Ruston is his home church. AVAILABLE Sweetwater Baptist, Quitman, has a solid oak pulpit and communion table in excellent condition to be given away. Call 318.259.9143 for details. … [Read more...]

What high-profile events like Promise Keepers and wild-game dinners instigate – namely, a push to mature Christian men – Men’s Fraternity facilitates.  GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) – What high-profile events like Promise Keepers and wild-game dinners instigate – namely, a push to mature Christian men – Men’s Fraternity facilitates. The growing local church ministry program available through LifeWay Christian Resources has mapped out a process through which men, whether saved or lost, can discover what biblical manhood is all about and how to put it into practice. In 1990, Robert Lewis, then the teaching pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark., responded to the pleas of the men in his Bible study for a deeper Christian, fraternity-like camaraderie. When Lewis first announced to his church that the Bible study topic would be “discovering manhood,” the group instantly grew from 30-40 men to 300. “I knew then I had stuck my finger into one of these raging spiritual streams Henry Blackaby – author of ‘Experiencing God’ – talks about. God wanted to do something,” Lewis said in a 2004 interview with Baptist Press. The three-year program “Men’s Fraternity” was the result. Also the author of “Raising a Modern-Day … [Read more...]

NEW ORLEANS – When Dr. Steve Lemke was named Provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1997, the institution was at a crossroads. The seminary’s enrollment of 1,800 students was on a downward trend, in part because of a delay in filling the presidency after the retirement of Dr. Landrum Leavell. The school’s Doctor of Ministry program was among the smallest in the Southern Baptist Convention. However, Lemke saw much hope. “In many ways, we were Southern Baptists’ best kept secret,” Lemke said. “It was a school that people talked less about. It wasn’t the first choice of a lot of people for seminary training.” A decade later, under the leadership of President Chuck Kelley, Lemke and the faculty, that has changed. Enrollment reached a pre-Katrina high of 3,800 students. The Doctor of Ministry program, once among the Southern Baptist Convention’s smallest, is now its largest. The dramatic increase in enrollment, Lemke said, “is unheard of in seminary life. That’s a small college. We became the largest Southern Baptist seminary before Katrina hit. The storm knocked us back a little bit, but we’re still one of the five largest seminaries in the world.” When Lemke arrived at NOBTS from Southwestern Baptist … [Read more...]

Eighteen months ago the most visible evangelical “witness” in Portage, Wisconsin, was a fellow who stood on a briefcase-turned-soapbox outside the movie theater and screamed at passersby. His message-all hellfire and damnation-wasn’t well-received. Eighteen months ago the most visible evangelical “witness” in Portage, Wisconsin, was a fellow who stood on a briefcase-turned-soapbox outside the movie theater and screamed at passersby. His message-all hellfire and damnation-wasn’t well-received. “People had a bad taste in their mouths for church,” Bob Turner discovered when he began driving the half-hour from his home in Madison in response to God’s call to plant a church in Portage, population 10,000. Portage had no Southern Baptist church. Of the eight churches listed on the town’s website, only three were evangelical. “They were scared to death of church people,” Bob says. “The reaction of some was, ‘You’re not going to scream at us about going to hell are you?’” Bringing the good news  Bob and his wife, Alisha, weren’t deterred by the town’s reticence. “God told me to bring some good news amid the bad,” Bob says. And so he did. River of Life, a church plant of the Central Baptist Association and the Minnesota-Wisconsin … [Read more...]

A small artificial Christmas tree adorned with ornaments and Hershey Kisses sits on the stand next to one patient’s bed. PINEVILLE – A small artificial Christmas tree adorned with ornaments and Hershey Kisses sits on the stand next to one patient’s bed. There are Christmas cards, candy and cookies, a small framed photograph of family, some plaques, as well as other personal items hanging on the wall. Lying to one side of the nightstand is a well-worn Bible. It’s homey, but it is not home for either Vance Stokes or Carl Hudson, both 82. It is a small room in the Extended Care Unit of the Pineville Veterans Administration Hospital, and while the items do provide a little distraction, they cannot hide the machines, tubes, and monitors. “I’m alone a lot of the time,” Stokes said. “My favorite time of day is early in the morning. I am able to look out my window and watch the sunrise.” In the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season – what with the shopping, the parties, the family gatherings – too often men like Stokes and Hudson, both retired World War II Navy veterans, both Southern Baptist, spend their holidays mostly in solitude. These veterans from the WWII generation are dying at an annual rate of 1,300 per … [Read more...]

Lying in a hospital bed overseas in October – for the second time this year – I wondered what I had done to deserve, first, a bout of food poisoning and, now, an aching appendix. RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – Lying in a hospital bed overseas in October – for the second time this year – I wondered what I had done to deserve, first, a bout of food poisoning and, now, an aching appendix. As a writer for the International Mission Board, I have been blessed by the Lord with the privilege of traveling the world in search of stories about Southern Baptist missions. At that moment, however, I winced in pain and groaned as my Colombian doctor prodded my abdomen and asked in broken English, “Does it hurt more here, or here?” Both places hurt – a lot. Several hours (and several syringes of morphine) later, I calmed down enough for the doctors to explain they suspected appendicitis and recommended surgery, slated for 6 a.m. the next day. Nurses wheeled me into a room on the hospital’s maternity ward (I think they were short on space) and said goodnight. A funny thing happened as I lay there in the darkness staring at the room’s puppy-themed wallpaper – I realized how thankful I was. Thankful for a modern hospital and caring, competent … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptists targeted missions in a big way in 2007. STATEWIDE – Louisiana Baptists targeted missions in a big way in 2007. In small towns like Amiable/Kentwood/Oak Grove, in big cities like New Orleans/Bossier City/Shreveport, and across the world – Brazil, Korea, Zimbabwe and more, Louisiana Baptists prayed, gave and went out to do God’s kingdom work last year. “People who go on short-term mission projects usually come back more committed than ever to serve God through their time, talents and tithes at their local church and in their community,” Message Editor Kelly Boggs said. “Churches never lose when they get involved in God’s kingdom work.” A January-to-June recap follows of some of the best stories about Louisiana churches on mission that were covered in the Message the first half of 2007. (See the Jan. 10 issue for the second half.) All the articles remain available at www.baptistmessage.com.  Search by a main word in the headline or article. Example: Barnette to read about the Georgia Barnett Offering for State Missions. January: Louisiana Southern Baptists gave more than $176,000 more than the 2006 goal for the Georgia Barnette Mission Offering. “Wimp” Ballard of First Baptist Livingston … [Read more...]

Louisiana College trustees approved two significant advances and heard a variety of progressive reports at their regularly scheduled December meeting in the Granberry Conference Center. PINEVILLE – Louisiana College trustees approved two significant advances and heard a variety of progressive reports at their regularly scheduled December meeting in the Granberry Conference Center. Trustees accepted the donation  of land  (see Dec. 20 Message)  and voted to begin a transfer of title to LC after a phase one environmental study has been completed. Trustees commended the LC Department of Education for recently acquiring national certification through the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. “We are very excited with the accreditation and the speed with which it happened,” said Mark Sparks, chairman of the board and an engineer with Albemarle Corp. in Baton Rouge. “It shows the department produces outstanding teachers of the highest quality.” The Godbold-Ware Plaza “buy a brick” campaign is building steam, trustees were told. The college is adding a plaza outside the front of the cafeteria that is currently being renovated as a gift from Aramark. Donors have until May 15, 2008, to send in $100 per … [Read more...]

This time of year we enjoy two of the best holidays that cause us to think about gifts and giving. At Thanksgiving we focus on what we have and the One that provides all of it. When we actually stop to be thankful, we realize how much we are truly blessed. This time of year we enjoy two of the best holidays that cause us to think about gifts and giving.  At Thanksgiving we focus on what we have and the One that provides all of it.  When we actually stop to be thankful, we realize how much we are truly blessed. At Christmas we focus on Jesus, the gift of God that provides forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  We also think about what gifts we want to bless others with. The Louisiana Baptist Foundation exists to help facilitate giving.  Here are some thoughts and ideas about giving. Start by assessing how God has blessed you and decide what needs God would have you meet now and /or in the future.  Giving this late in the year can be tricky.  If you want the contribution to be deductible on your 2007 income taxes there are some deadlines to meet before Monday, Dec. 31.  The basic concept is that a charitable contribution is not complete until the donor has irrevocably given up possession and control of the gift.  The … [Read more...]

The Life Clock was a device sold through The Sharper Image stores a few years ago. It was no ordinary timepiece. The Life Clock was a device sold through The Sharper Image stores a few years ago. It was no ordinary timepiece. Triangular in shape with a digital display, it had a unique feature whereby the owner of the clock would enter his or her date of birth. A computer chip would then calculate, based on actuarial tables, how much time remained in the owner’s average life expectancy. You then could literally watch the seconds of your life ticking down. The Life Clock never was a big seller. It became apparent that few people were interested in watching their life count down before their very eyes. Even though we begin the process of dying at the very moment we are born, it seems no one wants to be reminded of this fact. In researching The Life Clock, I came across a web site that will perform the same calculations. I entered my birthday and learned that, at the time, the clock speculated that there were 25 years, 10 months, 23 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes, and 22 seconds left of my life. Of course, there is no way to know with certainty how much time any of us really have left in life. Anything can happen on any … [Read more...]