China’s economy expands, bringing new jobs to your town -– or taking them away. The Japanese yen soars in value, sending world financial markets into a tailspin overnight -– along with your 401k. China’s economy expands, bringing new jobs to your town -– or taking them away. The Japanese yen soars in value, sending world financial markets into a tailspin overnight -– along with your 401k. At home, your kids are playing computer games online with teens living on the other side of the planet -– the same teens they’ll be competing with for careers in the global economy. Globalization is no longer a grand theory. It’s a daily reality. We can either deal with it or deny it, but it isn’t going away. The new global reality is exciting and frightening. Societies, cultures and economies have always mingled or clashed, but never so instantaneously. History is accelerating in ways humanity has never experienced, and we don’t know where it will take us. But God does and He bends history to His purposes. One of His purposes is the globalization of the church. We are seeing it become a reality in our day. “The map of global Christianity that our grandparents knew has been turned upside down,” reported Christopher J.H. Wright in … [Read more...]

This association, covering the parishes of Vermillion, Lafayette, St. Martin, and a portion of Iberia, ministers to a population of nearly 368,000, according to recent U.S. census statistics. EVANGELINE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION – This association, covering the parishes of Vermillion, Lafayette, St. Martin, and a portion of Iberia, ministers to a population of nearly 368,000, according to recent U.S. census statistics.  The 48 churches spread across the heart of this Cajun country serve a mixture of people, said Director of Missions Bert Langley, including educators, professionals, farmers, crawfishers, commercial fishermen and more.  “You name it, we got it here,” he continued. “We’ve got some of the best people in the state of Louisiana in this area – and the best food in the  United States!”  The largest metropolitan area is  Lafayette, home to more than 100,000 people, and surrounded by many smaller communities. The area is rich in festivals, Langley said.  “We’ve got festivals for everything,” he explained, including hogs, frogs, boudin, rice, and, of course, Mardi Gras. “If there’s a festival out there we have a name for it. It’s kind of the atmosphere of the area: ‘Let the good times roll.’”  Tourists come for … [Read more...]

The Lafayette Spanish Mission here refuses to allow a lack of walls, or ill weather for that matter, to hinder its work in Honduras. LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette Spanish Mission here refuses to allow a lack of walls, or ill weather for that matter, to hinder its work in  Honduras.  Last year the mission, as yet without its own building, bought land in  Honduras in order to build a radio station as a way of providing leadership to new church plants and reaching lost souls in remote mountain villages, said Carolyn Adkisson, member at the mission where Sunday morning attendance is about 60. “Sometimes small churches think they can’t do anything, but that’s not true,” said Director of Missions Bert Langley of the work in Honduras. “They can do a lot. A small church can do something, if they’re just sensitive to what God wants them to do.” The mission was begun seven years ago as a Wednesday night Bible study. Two years later Armando Murillo was called as pastor, said Adkisson, who often serves as the church’s communicator. The mission was able to support its new pastor completely, she continued. Now, as Murillo has moved on to continue missionary work in his home country of  Honduras, the mission, again without a pastor, … [Read more...]

Mandisa Hundley, one of last year’s “American Idol” finalists, doesn’t want any regrets. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Mandisa Hundley, one of last year’s “American Idol” finalists, doesn’t want any regrets. And that includes missions. Mandisa (who uses her first name) marvels at how missionaries “work day after day ... that the body of Christ can be built up.” So, she’s ready to do “anything that I can do” for missions -– which is why she readily agreed to host the most recent volume of “Missionary Moments Video Vignettes.” The video missions segments, now in their sixth year, highlight the work of six international and six North American missionaries supported by prayers and Southern Baptists’ gifts through the Cooperative Program. Suggested uses of Missionary Moments Video Vignettes -– each hosted by Mandisa and less than three minutes in length –- include highlighting the Cooperative Program in morning, evening or midweek worship services; during offering times or as sermon illustrations; in Sunday School departments or classes; and for church missions emphases. “I have been hearing about (missions) for years,” ever since going to work at LifeWay Christian Resources after graduating from Fisk University in … [Read more...]

Bert Langley, Director of Missions for the Evangeline Baptist Association, isn’t one to let fear stand in the way of the sacrament of baptism. LAFAYETTE — Bert Langley, Director of Missions for the Evangeline Baptist Association, isn’t one to let fear stand in the way of the sacrament of baptism.    At the time new to pastoring and baptizing, Langley once got all but the head of a new convert under water when she started fighting the water, he said. After bringing her back up, he began debating with himself the theological question of whether she was actually baptized.  “I decided right then in the baptistery that she was not baptized,” so he dunked her again, this time getting all but her nose under the water. “So, there may be a nose-less person in heaven,” he said, chuckling. “You’ll know that’s that teenager.”  Thankful that God has allowed him to pastor four churches and then serve as DOM to both Evangeline and  Gulf Coast associations, Langley counts Evangeline’s new endeavor to build cross-associational mission teams one of his most worthwhile efforts in the ministry, he said.  Evangeline has sent two mission teams to the Ukraine to work in children’s camps and is planning another team trip to Alaska this … [Read more...]

"I’m just a person who believes God didn’t put us here just to occupy space,” says 90-year-old Hazel Amerson of Sisters Baptist Church in Sandersville, Ga. “He put us here to help other people. NATIONAL SNAPSHOTS – "I’m just a person who believes God didn’t put us  here just to occupy space,” says 90-year-old Hazel Amerson of Sisters Baptist Church in  Sandersville, Ga. “He put us here to help other people. “[W]hen I see somebody in need, I feel like we should meet it, and the Cooperative Program helps meet those needs,” Amerson added. “We wouldn’t keep giving to it if it didn’t.” The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ method of supporting missions and ministries of state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention. “I think there’s such a   great need; so many people need to know the Lord,”  Amerson said. “We do what we can; the Cooperative Program takes it from there.” HARRISBURG, Penn.–  For each of the last 15 years, the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania/South Jersey   has increased its giving through  the Cooperative Program. “Part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus is to give yourself away,” Executive Director David Waltz says. “We give to the Cooperative Program because it is the … [Read more...]

Only 5 percent of the 4 million people who live in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, have been evangelized. ALEXANDRIA – Only 5 percent of the 4 million people who live in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, have been evangelized. Louisiana Baptists want to help Southern Baptist missionaries and Brazilian Baptists rectify that. About 160 people are to spend nearly two weeks in the city about seven hours north of Rio de Janerio. They are to be involved July 13-26 in witnessing in the streets, schools, prisons and marketplaces of Belo Horizonte. They also are to lead in vacation Bible school and related activities, soccer and basketball clinics, medical missions and even the building of four churches out of cement blocks. “This is the first time we have gone to Belo Horizonte,” said Wayne Jenkins, evangelism and church growth director for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, who has led the Brazil trip for the last 21 years. “We have served in other cities in the state of Minas Gurias, but this is the largest.” The Louisiana Baptist team will be working with David Bledsoe, an evangelist and church planter missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission  Board. “For the 21 years I have been involved in partnership … [Read more...]

With his shaggy hair, floppy socks and unparalleled flair for showmanship, “Pistol Pete” Maravich set basketball records that may never be broken and did things on the court that may never be duplicated. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – With his shaggy hair, floppy socks and unparalleled flair for showmanship, “Pistol Pete” Maravich set basketball records that may never be broken and did things on the court that may never be duplicated. Ironically, though, he spent the last few years of his life pointing people not to sports, but to Christ. The Pistol was one of the greatest basketball players of all time, but in his final days, he also was probably one of the world’s greatest soul-winners. Maravich died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 40, but interest in his life has made a resurgence lately with two new biographies and a DVD. One book, Maravich, was written by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill in collaboration with Maravich’s widow, Jackie, while the other one, Pistol, was written by Mark Kriegel. The 1990 movie The Pistol is now out on DVD with two versions (a “rebound” and an “inspiration” edition), with the inspirational version including a powerful, 55-minute video of Maravich giving his Christian testimony … [Read more...]

Whether you’re a prison inmate or a police officer, single or senior adult, an off-road enthusiast or on the road to recovery, Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif., has got you covered. EL CAJON, Calif. (BP) – Whether you’re a prison inmate or a police officer, single or senior adult, an off-road enthusiast or on the road to recovery, Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif., has got you covered. With dozens of Bible-based, spiritually centered, evangelistically focused ministries, this Southern Baptist church in the San Diego area hardly misses any demographic slice. It even has its own educational system, from kindergarten to seminary. And when you compare the church to its pastor, David Jeremiah, it’s hard to tell the mirror from the reflection. For the last 15 of his 25 years at Shadow Mountain, Jeremiah has preached at least three and sometimes four times a week at the church and once or twice more at other locales across the U.S. His radio program is broadcast on more than 2,000 stations worldwide, and his sermons are televised via 10 satellites, seven networks and more than 500 individual TV outlets around the world. Best known for his Turning Point radio and television ministry, … [Read more...]

May  2007 1 – LBC Executive Board Meeting, Tall Timbers. Contact David Hankins: 800-622-6549. 1 – State Children’s Bible Drill, First Monroe and Williams Boulevard, Kenner. 3 – State Bible Drill, First Mandeville and Moss Bluff First, Lake Charles. 4 – Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home trustees meeting, time and location TBA. 5 – State Children’s Bible Drill, State Youth Bible Drill, State Speakers’ Tournament, all at Louisiana College. 5 – State Piano Festival, Baptist Building. 6 – Senior Adult Sunday 6-13 – Christian Home Week 7-8 – Baptist Golf Fellowship, Oak Wing Golf Club, Alexandria. Contact: Joanne Brechtel: 800-376-7728. 13 – Mother’s Day 14 – Empowering Kingdom Growth-Louisiana Interpretation, Baptist Temple, Alexandria and Boulevard Baptist, Lake Charles. 15 – Empowering Kingdom Growth-Louisiana Interpretation, Highland Baptist, New Iberia and Temple Baptist , Winnsboro. 15 – Louisiana Baptist Message board meeting, Message conference room, Alexandria. 17    Empowering Kingdom Growth-Louisiana Interpretation, Immanuel Baptist, Hammond, Calvary Baptist Church, Slidell, and University Baptist Church, Thibodaux. 18-19 – Building a small group discipleship ministry retreat, The … [Read more...]