SHREVEPORT – Titus Women at Pinecroft Baptist baked cookies and took them with tracts to the ICU waiting room at Willis Knighton South. This church also has a Youth On Mission group, which meets Wednesday evenings. Joe Ward is youth minister. The church is seeking a music minister. Marty Wright is pastor. BLANCHARD – First Baptist’s Harvest Sunday, set for April 29, is the culmination of three years’ sacrificial giving to reduce the debt on the sanctuary. More than $1 million has been given; a bit more than $1 million remains. A ministry fair is set for April 15, to showcase 25 ministries the church is involved in. An Auction for Missions is set for 6 p.m. May 11 at the pavilion on Poke Salad grounds. On April 1, 335 were in Bible study and 377 in Sunday morning worship. James Hill is pastor. HAUGHTON – The Singles Ministry at First Baptist plans an April 13-15 jaunt to see Texas bluebonnets. Student Ministry has a Weekend Blast set for April 13-15, with Brent Crowe from StudentLeadershipUniversity speaking and the John Gist Band leading in worship. The Saturday  night banquet has a Western theme.A women’s breakfast is set for 7:15 a.m. Sunday, May 6, in the Lodge. Free blood pressure checks are given each … [Read more...]

Seeking staff Pastor needed at Goodwood Baptist, Baton Rouge. Resumes to Pastor Search Committee, 1813 Beechgrove Dr, Baton RougeLA 70806. Worship leader needed at Trinity Franklinton. Resumes to PO Box 743, Franklinton LA 70438 or email trinitystan@bellsouth.net. Full-time minister of education sought by Riverside Watson. Resumes to 36890 La. Hwy., Denham Springs LA 70706 or email rbcsbc@bellsouth.net. Larry Hubbard is pastor. First Farmerville is accepting resumes for pastor. Video tape messages are welcome. Sent to First BaptistChurch, PO Box 296, Farmerville LA 71241. Una George, search committee chairman. Chaplain needed at National Guard Unit. Contact Barry Joyner, Concord-Union DOM, at 318.255.9030. Carey Association pastorless churches: Boulevard, First Cameron, First DeQuincy, Eastern Heights, First Hayes, Johnson Bayou, Sale Street, Temple, First Welsh and Woodlawn. JP Miles is director of missions. Northwest Association pastorless churches: Cypress, Grawood, Gray, Linda Lay, Oil City, Plain Dealing, Providence, Trinity Heights, BanSuk Korean English Pastor. Northwest Association churches wanting ministers of music: Full-time: TrinityHeights. Part-time: … [Read more...]

Prior to the last century, Baptists “practiced church discipline on a large scale” and regarded the practice as a normal part of church life, according to church history professor Greg Wills. Second in a series of three articles on church discipline. Next: Gambler says church discipline saved his life.  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Prior to the last century, Baptists “practiced church discipline on a large scale” and regarded the practice as a normal part of church life, according to church history professor Greg Wills. Between 1781 and 1860, for example, “Baptists excluded more than 40,000 members in Georgia alone,” Wills, director of the Center for the Study of the Southern Baptist Convention at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, noted in a 2001 essay in “Polity: Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life,” edited by Southern Baptist pastor Mark Dever. “Across the nation in this period they excluded between one and two percent of their membership every year. But the number of church trials was yet greater. Only about half of the offenders received excommunication. Baptists on average disciplined between three and four percent of their membership,” Wills wrote. Baptists generally exercised discipline at … [Read more...]

Children’s Honor Choir, an annual event promoted and planned by the Music and Worship office of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, begins at 4 p.m. Friday, April 13, at Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center. ALEXANDRIA – Children’s Honor Choir, an annual event promoted and planned by the Music and Worship office of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, begins at 4 p.m. Friday, April 13, at TallTimbers BaptistConference Center. The event concludes with a 1:30 p.m. concert at the Baptist Building on Saturday, April 14. The children, grades 4-6 were previously selected by their local church children’s choir leaders.  Qualifications for attending the honor choir include the ability to match pitch, enthusiasm and faithful attendance at 90 percent of choir rehearsals. This weekend will host 67 children and 23 adults representing 20 different churches throughout the state. Some of the children are residents of the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home. The children learned five songs over the three weeks prior to this weekend. Directing the rehearsals and concert will be Darryl Ferrington from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The Children’s Honor Choir is partially funded by the generosity of Louisiana Baptist … [Read more...]

SBC President Frank Page has named the members of the Resolutions Committee who will serve during the June 12-13 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. SAN ANTONIO, Texas (BP) – SBC President Frank Page has named the members of the Resolutions Committee who will serve during the June 12-13 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Page, pastor of First BaptistChurch in Taylors, S.C., appointed Gerald Harris of Georgia as committee chairman. Harris is editor of The Christian Index, newsjournal of the Georgia Baptist Convention, and a member of EphesusBaptist Church in Atlanta. Page’s other appointees, in alphabetical order, are: David George, director of missions of Chugach Baptist Association in Anchorage, Alaska, and member of First Baptist Church of Eagle River. Al Gilbert, senior pastor of Calvary BaptistChurch in Winston-Salem, N.C. Robin Hadaway, associate professor of missions at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and member of Pleasant ValleyBaptist Church in Kansas City, Mo. Galen Jones, African American church planting strategist in Tuscaloosa, Ala., under dual appointment of the North American Mission Board and the Alabama Baptist State … [Read more...]

You have the computer in a very public area of your home so you can monitor its use, and you’ve subscribed to the best Internet filtering system available. Think you’ve safeguarded your family against the threat of pornography? Think again. You have the computer in a very public area of your home so you can monitor its use, and you’ve subscribed to the best Internet filtering system available. Think you’ve safeguarded your family against the threat of pornography? Think again. New technology allows users to download material from the Internet directly to wireless handheld devices, such as the new generation of cell phones and iPods. This “third generation” of mobile devices provides access to digital video content including games, real-time news, and entertainment options, among other advanced features. To make this development even more harmful, it is typically young people who are the most technically sophisticated and the prime users of such equipment. The technology itself is not dangerous; the danger is that there are no regulations or safeguards in place to protect children and teens from being exposed to unwanted, explicit pornographic content that is downloadable to these wireless handheld … [Read more...]

What happens when two fires merge? A church on the grassy plains of the Texas panhandle is finding out. PAMPA, Texas (BP) – What happens when two fires merge? A church on the grassy plains of the Texas panhandle is finding out. When First BaptistChurch in Pampa burned to the ground in 1973, the congregation rallied to rebuild -– and found a new energy for reaching out to people in their community and, through the Cooperative Program, around the world. Johnny Funderburg, First Baptist’s pastor since August 2004, was a pastor in Whitesboro, Texas, when his home burned to the ground in 1997. “When you lose everything, it just humbles you,” Funderburg said. “I think God used that opportunity of my being tender, needy, to draw me to Him. A passion for God came out of that ... and what naturally flowed from that was to begin to pray and just trust Him.” First Baptist eagerly embraced Funderburg’s commitment to prayer when they called him as pastor, coupling it with their commitment to reach out with God’s love, including the Cooperative Program channel of combining the efforts and resources of local Southern Baptist churches to make a difference in the lives of people across the nation and around the world. “The … [Read more...]

Kaleidoscope- a time for worship and Bible study for all women is set for April 28 at Calvary Baptist Church here. ALEXANDRIA – Kaleidoscope- a time for worship and Bible study for all women is set for April 28 at Calvary Baptist Church here. Registration is to begin at 8:30 a.m. The program starts at 9 a.m. and is to conclude at 3 p.m. “Walk Worthy" is the theme for the annual women’s event, organizers say. “Paula Hemphill, Women’s mobilization consultant, International Mission Board will lead us through Bible Study and we will explore what it means for us to walk worthy of the Lord,” said Janie Wise, the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s director of women’s missions and ministry. “Joining us to lead worship is Lisa Pierre, a gifted musician who has led worship for Living Proof Live with Beth Moore in Houston, Texas.” In addition to powerful speaking and worship, breakout conferences throughout the day are to feature the following topics: --“Life BC and AD: Before Cancer and After Diagnosis,” --“Building Faith Foundations for Your Children,” --“Stepping Out of Your Past,” --“Meeting God in the Inner Sanctuary,” --“Intentional Living,” --“Lost in My Space,” --“The 25th Hour,” and more. Registration deadline has … [Read more...]

The first steps of a 15-year plan were taken at the Louisiana Baptist Convention building April 12. ALEXANDRIA – The first steps of a 15-year plan were taken at the Louisiana Baptist Convention building April 12. The LBC-elected History Committee strategized the development of its next project, which is to focus on gathering stories from the 2005 hurricanes that pummeled the southern half of the state, and that involved the northern half of the state in relief efforts. “We are building a file to publish a book about the Katrina/Rita experience while it’s still fresh on peoples’ minds,” said Chairman Diane “Pinkie” Reeder, a member at Westlake Baptist, Shreveport. “This is one of the most important events in Louisiana Baptist history – how our cities were hit and how we [Southern Baptists] responded – and we need to record it now.” LBC Executive Director David Hankins would like to see a book that would include the catastrophic events and the relief efforts that followed, published in conjunction with the state convention’s 175th anniversary, which is to be in 2022, Reeder said. “There were so many victories, so many salvations,” said Leon Terrell, a committee member and pastor at Calvary Baptist in … [Read more...]

I am in the gambling business. I don’t like it, and I want to stop. I am in the gambling business. I don’t like it, and I want to stop. But I am a citizen of Louisiana . My state is reaping a financial windfall from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Some of the FEMA checks and insurance money that were given to help our citizens recover are pouring into the state treasury by way of our state-sponsored gambling business. As a citizen of this state, I am prospering in some measure because 200,000 of my fellow citizens have a serious problem with gambling. And I am profiting because the gambling addiction is even more pronounced in the wake of the storms. The fact that Louisiana encourages and sponsors this predatory business makes me sad. I’d rather we paid for state government in some other way. State-sponsored gambling is a regressive tax that funds government largely through the broken dreams and financial distress of our poorest citizens. As citizens of The Bayou State, we promote the financial ruin of vulnerable individuals in times of crisis with alluring television advertisements that promise big rewards for gambling. Most of us know, including the gamblers, that the odds of attaining wealth through … [Read more...]