Jake Westbrook has been a model of consistency for the Cleveland Indians. EDITORS’ NOTE: BP Sports columnist Tim Ellsworth recently visited Florida to do a series of stories on spring training as baseball players get ready to begin a new season. WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (BP) – Jake Westbrook has been a model of consistency for the Cleveland Indians. Over the past three seasons, Westbrook has started at least 30 games and pitched more than 210 innings each year. His win totals over the same period have been 14, 15 and 15. Indians manager Eric Wedge knows he can give the ball to Westbrook, who will pitch seven solid innings and give the team a good chance to win most of the time. For Westbrook, that consistency doesn’t stop when he steps off the field. He strives for the same outcome when it comes to his spiritual life as well. “Just like baseball’s a routine, you have that routine in your life where you spend time with Jesus in prayer, in quiet time and in reading the Word,” Westbrook said. “When you do that, everything else starts to fit in place.” Westbrook will be the first to admit he doesn’t always achieve that goal of spending time with the Lord daily, but it’s still something for which he … [Read more...]

Love and respect. That is what was evident when more than 50 fathers took their daughters out for a Date Night at Copeland's restaurant for a special evening sponsored by the Men's Ministries of East Bayou Baptist Church of Lafayette, where Mike Walker is pastor. LAFAYETTE – Love and respect. That is what was evident when more than 50 fathers took their daughters out for a Date Night at Copeland’s restaurant for a special evening sponsored by the Men’s Ministries of East Bayou Baptist Church of Lafayette, where Mike Walker is pastor. Jonathan Moore took his 4-year-old daughter Ashlynn, and later said it was a night the two will remember for a long time. “We made it a big deal,” Moore said of the event. “We got her hair and nails done and I bought her a corsage just like we were going on a date. “When I gave her the corsage, it hit home,” Moore said. “If anything that night, she knew she was important to me.” Jonathan and his wife Heather have been married six years and have two other children. “We wanted to show the daughters how a man is supposed to treat them,” Moore said of the night. Moore heads men’s ministries at East Bayou, where about 1,700 people attend one of three worship services each … [Read more...]

April 2007 1 – Local church Bible drill emphasis 1 – SBC seminaries Sunday 6 – Good Friday 6 – Louisiana Youth Ministry Network Friday Forum. LBC contact: Kevin Boles. 8 – Easter Sunday 13-14 – Children’s Honor Choir, TallTimbers BaptistConference Center. LBC Contact: Judy Fussell 15 – Cooperative Program Sunday 15 – Associational Bible drills 17 – So You Wanna Be Published day-long writer’s conference. Cost: $30/person. Joanne Brechtel: 318-442-7728. 17 – Conflict Coach workshop, Baton Rouge. 17 – EKG Workshop, Alexandria. LBC Contact: Beau Colle. 19 – Associational Bible Drill report deadline. 20 – Youth Ministry Network Friday Forum, BaptistBuilding. 20-21 – Collegiate Leadership Conference, Tall Timbers. 24 – Louisiana Baptist Foundation trustees meeting, Alexandria. Contact Wayne Taylor: 877-523-4636. 28-29 – SBC Bivocational Ministers Convention, Denver, Colo. LBC contact: Gary Mitchell. 23 – Empowering Kingdom Growth-Louisiana Interpretation, Woodridge Baptist, Shreveport, and Jefferson Baptist, Baton Rouge. 24 – Empowering Kingdom Growth-Louisiana Interpretation, District Eight Association Office, Natchitoches. 26 – Empowering Kingdom Growth-Louisiana … [Read more...]

LAKE CHARLES – An associational  Financial Issues Workshop is planned for April 16 at Sale Street Baptist. At 9:30 a.m., “Planning financial support of pastors, other ministers, and church employees,” a workshop for ministers, church committee members and lay leaders. At 1 p.m., a two-hour “Retirement Choice Seminar” for anyone participating in a GuideStone retirement plan. JP Miles, Carey Baptist Association director of missions, is hosting the event, which is sponsored by GuideStone Financial Services and LBC. PINEVILLE – Tioga First Baptist plans a Spring Fling from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 22 at the church for the community. Free Games, Jumpers, Food, Fun. Rain date: Sunday, May 6. The church’s fourth edition of On Eagles Wings cookbooks are now available. Cost: $15 mailed USPS. David Cranford is pastor. WESTLAKE – First Baptist distributed 20 boxes of food to feed 70 people, and “mountains” of clothing March 17, and have plans to do more of the same April 21. Senior adults meet at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays to visit shut-ins. SMAC is new at First Westlake – Sunday Morning After Church fellowships. The first April 1, started by watching youngsters gather Easter eggs. Larry Thompson is … [Read more...]

Staff changes Robert C. Rollins Jr. is new pastor at Harmony Baptist, Glenmora. It is his first pastorate. Kenny Blackwell, new pastor April 15 at Mt. Hope Baptist in Oakdale, from First Baptist, Calion, Ark. James (wife Linda) Tew, new music minister at First Princeton, from laity. Pam (husband Cecil) Marr, new music minister at FirstOilCity. Corey Olivier to New Orleans from NWBA as BCM director. Doug Burnley retired as chaplain at Schumpert. Mark Carroll, new as pastor at Burning Bush, Walker. Steve Jones, new as youth pastor at Emmanuel Denham Springs. James Cowell is pastor. Lonnie Cook, new as youth minister at Hebron Denham Springs. Joe Alain is pastor. Randy Powell, new as education and music minister at Walker Baptist, Walker. Richard Blue is pastor. Jeff Hurst, new as pastor at Grace, Bastrop. Kenny Duchesne, new pastor at Beulah, Farmerville. Revivals and related events Prewitt Chapel, Hornbeck, revival April 15-18. J.D. Brown is interim pastor. Calvary Baptist, Mangham, revival April 15-18 with Alan Miller as guest speaker. Services 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, and 7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. Gerry Courtney is pastor. Topsy Baptist, Lake Charles, revival April 15-18 with Evangelist … [Read more...]

Increasing numbers of Southern Baptists are claiming that church discipline is not merely a relic of the past. Editor’s note: First in a series of three articles NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Increasing numbers of Southern Baptists are claiming that church discipline is not merely a relic of the past. Some churches have instituted a process drawn from Scripture of correcting and, if need be, eventually dismissing unrepentant members for public sins. The ultimate goal of the discipline process is repentance and restoration of sinners, the churches say, citing Baptists of past centuries as examples of how church discipline can benefit individuals and churches. The return to church disciple has been gaining momentum for several years. “The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church,” R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., wrote in a 2001 essay in a book titled “Polity: Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life,” edited by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. “No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself … [Read more...]

The first of several conferences nationwide designed to teach pastors the basics of debt-free living – named “It’s A New Day: How Will You Spend It?” – aims at “liberating people from the bondage of debt,” according to one of its organizers. ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – The first of several conferences nationwide designed to teach pastors the basics of debt-free living – named “It’s A New Day: How Will You Spend It?” – aims at “liberating people from the bondage of debt,” according to one of its organizers. The new focus is not another capital campaign or a new way to raise Cooperative Program funds to support Southern Baptist missions and ministries, added Bob Rodgers, the SBC Executive Committee’s vice president for Cooperative Program and stewardship. Tackling financial bondage will help people “choose who to serve, because if they are in bondage to debt ... they are not free to choose to serve God,” Rodgers said in a panel discussion during the March 22-23 conference in Orlando, Fla. Last year, messengers to the SBC annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., voted to move the ministry assignment for stewardship to the SBC’s Executive Committee from LifeWay Christian Resources. It is a move that Ashley Clayton, the … [Read more...]

At least four Louisiana Baptist associations – Concord Union, Eastern Louisiana, Delta, and Ouachita – recently participated in a LifeBox project to minister to military personnel on duty in the Persian Gulf. At least four Louisiana Baptist associations – Concord Union, Eastern Louisiana, Delta, and Ouachita – recently participated in a LifeBox project to minister to military personnel on duty in the Persian Gulf. They sent at least 680 packages to deployed armed service members. The packages are a ministry born out of  the dream of a Southern Baptist Army officer to provide Christian magazines published by LifeWay Christian Resources to deployed military personnel. The captain, accustomed to receiving LifeWay magazines through his church, wanted to make the same magazines, such as – HomeLife, Stand Firm, Journey and more –  available to the deployed troops. “They wanted to fill their reading hours with spiritually uplifting material that would encourage them to stand firm in their faith,” according to the LifeWay website, www.lifeway.com. LifeWay sent 4,000 pounds of periodicals to churches in the Fort Campbell, Ky. area, to mail to their members who were deployed. Later, LifeWay provided magazines … [Read more...]

A grand opening is set for April 19 at the new Sellers Maternity Home here. BATON ROUGE – A grand opening is set for April 19 at the new Sellers Maternity Home here. It’s an eight-bedroom, eight-bath, two-story, 10,000-square foot, brick home set on 22 acres in the ‘central community’ of Baton Rouge, donated seven years ago to the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home by Stanley and Marlene Cheatham. Also on the property: a smaller house, which is to be used by relief house parents, and an office behind that, for family counseling and intakes. “It’s a gorgeous facility and we have plenty of room for expansion,” said Darrell Washam, director of development and public relations for the children’s home. “It was Mrs. Cheatham’s desire that it be used as a maternity home; she has an interest in teenage pregnancy.” There’s more to it than that. For the last five years the Baton Rouge facility was used as a group home for up to eight youngsters, but trustees determined at their February meeting, after months of trying to find appropriate relief house parents (to give a break to the full-time caregivers,) that the children would have an even more supportive environment if they were part of the rural Monroe … [Read more...]

NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Forget basketball. Check out “march madness” in New Orleans where record numbers of Southern Baptist volunteers from across the nation are rebuilding flooded homes. Volunteers from California to Georgia and as far north as Alaska were part of the most productive month so far. Baptist College Ministries students from New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Maryland and other states were part of the volunteer workforce. “In terms of man-hours of labor, our volunteers produced the equivalent of well over a half million dollars’ worth of work” in March, said Steve Gahagan, NOAH construction manager. “It was an incredibly productive month.” College and high school students on spring break were a large part of the 5,000-plus volunteers working with Operation N.O.A.H. (New Orleans Area Homes) Rebuild – a North American Mission Board partnership with Louisiana Baptists, as well as with Arkansas Baptist Builders and Baptist Crossroads, an initiative of First Baptist Church of New Orleans. Volunteers ranged in age and background. NOAH volunteers hung more than 1,500 sheets of sheetrock in March and worked on a record number of roofing, electrical and plumbing rough-in jobs, Gahagan … [Read more...]