“This team has been a witness in our community,” New Orleans pastor Fred Luter said after 120 volunteers ventured earlier this summer to the still-stricken city from Georgia’s African-American Fellowship and Sisters on Mission. NEW ORLEANS (BP) – “This team has been a witness in our community,” New Orleans pastor Fred Luter said after 120 volunteers ventured earlier this summer to the still-stricken city from Georgia’s African-American Fellowship and Sisters on Mission. “Our outreach ministry is at work in the neighborhood even though the community is sparse and we have not yet returned to our own facility,” said Luter, pastor of the 6,000-member Franklin Avenue Baptist Church that was dispersed by flooding from Hurricane Katrina and now meets in three different locations. John Mason, pastor of Providence Community Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., led the team of 120 construction and evangelism volunteers from eight Georgia churches. Regardless of the challenge they faced, Mason said the Georgia churches would be blessed by their ministry in New Orleans. “A mission-minded church,” he noted, “has fewer problems on the inside when they are ministering on the outside.” Mason cited the testimonies by Luter and other … [Read more...]

A man was beaten to death by an undetermined number of people after the car he had been riding in hit and injured a 2-year-old. A man was beaten to death by an undetermined number of people after the car he had been riding in hit and injured a 2-year-old. According to reports, the June 19 attack on David Morales in Austin, Texas, occurred when he went to check on the child that was hit. Ironically, the child was not seriously injured. More than a year ago, police arrested three members of the Duke University lacrosse team after they were accused of raping an exotic dancer at a fraternity party. The Durham County District Attorney moved quickley to charge the players with rape. In his mind, there was do doubt  concerning their  guilt. Many members of the Duke faculty circulated a letter condemning the accused students and asked that they be suspended. Ironically, all charges against the players were eventually dropped because there was no evidence that a sexual assault ever took place. The accuser, it seems, was less than truthful. What do the recent beating in Austin and the Duke rape case have in common? In both cases individuals jumped to conclusions and hurdled over the concept of presumed innocent until … [Read more...]

Parenting expert Ann Douglas calls them “Generation Stress.” She is referring to American teens and their growing battle with the pressures of 21st Century living. Parenting expert Ann Douglas calls them “Generation Stress.” She is referring to American teens and their growing battle with the pressures of 21st Century living. A recent study by Reuters Health shows that stress among teens is on the rise. One third of US teens say they feel stressed-out on a daily basis. The study, conducted at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, also found that nearly two thirds of teens feel the results of stress at least once a week. Stress, of course, is a normal part of life and can actually help us deal with various challenges we face. Positive stress can help teens give their best performances in music or sports. Good stress can also help young people meet tough situations with focus and determination. Too much stress, however, can lead to physical, emotional, and even spiritual problems for teens.  Why are our teens so stressed out? Rochelle Levy suggests that society is putting pressure on our young people from every direction. Stress comes from family situations. Parents may add to their teen’s stress level with … [Read more...]

A pastor talks to his congregation. In most churches there is about an hour and a half each week designated for that purpose. In healthy churches, congregations talk to their pastors, perhaps not as formally as the preaching services, but at least as much on a more frequent schedule. A pastor talks to his congregation. In most churches there is about an hour and a half each week designated for that purpose. In healthy churches, congregations talk to their pastors, perhaps not as formally as the preaching services, but at least as much on a more frequent schedule. But in 17 years of serving as director of missions for Cimarron Baptist Association in Oklahoma, I have never found conflict in a church of any kind that didn’t have a major component of a breakdown of people talking to their pastor. Granted, in a few cases, the pastors weren’t listening when people did talk, but even there, some key, respected leaders of the church just didn’t have a “sit down chat” with their pastor over problems that were brewing. When NOT to talk to your pastor It sounds strange, but good communication with your pastor means respecting some times when he shouldn’t have to listen to members of the congregation. Before and after … [Read more...]

Bedico Baptist Church, where Leo Miller has been pastor for about 12 years, is waiting on a man of God. PONCHATOULA—Bedico Baptist Church, where Leo Miller has been pastor for about 12 years, is waiting on a man of God. With about $21,000 in the bank ready to begin the West St. Tammany Church, Bedico hopes to more than double that amount for a church plant in the middle of an upscale area of St. Tammany Parish. “Bedico Baptist is praying for God to send the right church planter to lead in this strategic outreach,” Miller said. “We are also praying for God to begin the process of calling out some of our leaders to commit to serving as the core group to this plant.” Right on the line between St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes, Bedico also sits very close to Lake Pontchartrain, yet came out of Hurricane Katrina virtually unscathed, said Lonnie Wascom, director of missions for both the Chappapeela Association, where Bedico is located, and the St. Tammany Association, where the church plant is set to be located. After the storm, the church made itself available immediately for groups to come in for relief and recovery, while at the same time providing shelter for displaced people, Wascom said. “They really threw … [Read more...]

Chappapeela Baptist Association – Located in the lower portion of Tangipahoa Parish in Southeast Louisiana, this association – CBA – with its 27 churches and three missions, seeks to serve. Chappapeela Baptist Association – Located in the lower portion of Tangipahoa Parish in Southeast Louisiana, this association – CBA – with its 27 churches and three missions, seeks to serve. Through church plants and missions, CBA is reaching out to a growing population for Christ. “The churches are everything from extremely rural and bivocational to urban and large,” said Lonnie Wascom, director of missions for this as well as La Tangi and St. Tammany Baptist Associations. Hammond and Pontchatoula are the two largest cities in the parish, with Hammond being the third or fourth largest in the region and home to Southeastern University where about 16,000 students attend. There, John Schaffner is the BCM director, Wascom said. “John has a strong commitment to reaching Southeastern’s student body with the gospel,” Wascom added. “His enthusiasm for evangelism is contagious.” Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond, one of the largest churches in the association, is a fine, strong missions church, and a major giver to the … [Read more...]

If not for his mother, his wife, and a host of Women’s Missionary Union members, perhaps Lonnie Wascom would not be where he is today, he said. HAMMOND – If not for his mother, his wife, and a host of Women’s Missionary Union members, perhaps Lonnie Wascom would not be where he is today, he said. Wascom, who says he grew up hearing about missions his whole life, remembered how the women of the church would gather at his parents’ house to quilt. “The kids would play underneath the quilt with empty thread spools,” he said. “And the women talked about missions work while they quilted. I couldn’t help but know about missions because it was all around me. “My mother led me to faith in Christ when I was a little boy,” Wascom continued. “I was nine years old. We had nothing to keep us entertained except country living, and the Lord started working on my heart. My mother took me through the Bible, and I was baptized at New Bethlehem Baptist Church in Denham Springs, a church my parents helped to start.” The Wascoms left that part of the world, moving down to Walker, when Lonnie was 12, he said. There, they joined Judson Baptist Church, which is where he became aware of God’s call on his life to the ministry. But it … [Read more...]

First Baptist here has put a whole new twist on the summer of love, and they’re calling it “Summer of Missions.” SULPHUR— First Baptist here has put a whole new twist on the summer of love, and they’re calling it “Summer of Missions.” Inspired by Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Community, David Holder, pastor at Sulphur First, along with his staff, decided one way to get their people more involved in missions was to focus an entire summer on the idea. “What has come through is the missionaries’ passion for what they do,” Holder  said about the 12-week study he and his staff created. “To see the passion and their heart for missions, the sacrifices they make and strategies they develop, is very inspiring.” James Bailey, minister of education, agreed. Bailey was responsible for creating the dozen DVDs for the study, each of which focused on one missionary. “Every time I walked out of one of the interviews, I was ready to sign up with them,” Bailey said. “I’m praying that God will allow that same passion to flow out of the DVDs, into the hearts and minds of our people.” The 20-minute DVDs, which feature international, state, and local missionaries talking about the work they do, are part of the 12-week study. In all Bailey … [Read more...]

”I was an agnostic during college.” RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – ”I was an agnostic during college.” After years of trying to disprove God’s existence, Henry Clary realized God is someone you must accept by faith. He was saved in 1995 and just over a year later felt the call to missions in Uruguay. Clary and his wife, Tasha, were among 84 men and women appointed to the mission field July 17 during a service at Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. Before a crowd of approximately 1,100 people, they committed to join more than 5,100 other International Mission Board missionaries. “I had not ever thought about Uruguay,” Clary remembers. “I knew where it was on the map and I knew they spoke Spanish there. But other than that, I had never given the place a second thought.” He began to question whether he had understood God’s calling correctly. But God reassured him. “The Lord showed me Uruguay on a map in my mind and repeated, ‘Go!’” Clary and his wife moved to Texas for him to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1997. “Two degrees and 10 years later [God] seems to be opening up a door of opportunity for me to go to Uruguay … the most atheistic country in South America.” Other new missionaries also … [Read more...]

Scott Lehman has always been passionate about golf, beginning at age 8 with a shortened 7-iron golf club on a backyard course marked by six buried clay flowerpots. RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP) – Scott Lehman has always been passionate about golf, beginning at age 8 with a shortened 7-iron golf club on a backyard course marked by six buried clay flowerpots. Later, as a golf teaching professional and sports apparel salesman, Lehman was caught up in the pursuit of wealth, travel and hiding financial difficulties from his wife of two years, Leslie. Leslie saw their lives drifting apart and told Lehman she couldn’t continue in the marriage. Lehman looked for answers in a shopping mall. “There was a Christian bookstore. I had never been in a Christian bookstore before,” he said. “I turned in and found a little book called In His Grip [by Jim Sheard and Wally Armstrong]. It was a golf devotional book. I never knew they existed. I bought it, looked inside and didn’t know that there were Scriptures in there. I asked Leslie if we had a Bible and she said ‘On the bookshelf. You will have to dust it off.’ “In golf, the most important key fundamental is the grip and how your hands are placed on the club,” Lehman said. “The book started … [Read more...]