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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Countdown to September’s state missions offering

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Louisiana Baptists are passionate about missions in North America and around the world, but this fall they will be encouraged to look closer to home for ways to advance the Gospel, according to state leaders. Taken from Mark 1:38, which records Jesus reminding his followers, “We must go to the nearby towns, so that I can tell the good news to those people,” this year’s giving theme is “Nearby – the needs next door.” Louisiana Baptist Executive Director Steve Horn noted this is an important focus. “One of the commitments I made to Louisiana Baptists when I accepted this position was that Louisiana will be evangelized,” Horn said. “Our participation in the Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering plays a critical role in seeing this become a reality.” Some of the missions and ministries dependent upon the Georgia Barnette Offering are church planting; compassion ministries; prison outreach; ministry to victims of sex trafficking; Disaster Relief efforts; Louisiana Baptists’ multi-media outreach strategy, “Here for You”; and Woman’s Missionary Union Scholarships to Louisiana College. “It can be easy to overlook local issues like homelessness … [Read more...]

Back to school praying

By Steve Horn ALEXANDRIA, La. – Since 1975 when I started kindergarten, every August has meant “back to school.” Every August, I have either been a student, the husband of a school teacher, the pastor of a church with a school, or the parent of a student. That is a lot of back-to-school prayers (and a lot of tuition). For those of us with children, I’m convinced that the first day of school marks the beginning of a new year more so than January 1. As we begin another school year, let me give you a couple of reminders about praying for your child and your child’s teachers. When praying for your child’s teachers: Pray for the teacher’s salvation. This is the most important prayer we can offer for anybody. Pray that your relationship with your child’s teacher can lead to spiritual conversations. Pray for a good relationship with that teacher. Pray that you will model Christ in all of your dealings with your child’s teacher. Pray that the teacher will always be fair. This is not always easy, because they, like you, are human. When praying for your child: Pray that your children will learn this school year. After all, learning is the reason they are going to school. Don’t pray that they will make good grades; pray that they … [Read more...]

Louisiana College launches Center for Calling and Career

By Elizabeth Clarke, LC News PINEVILLE, La. (LC News) – Louisiana College has launched the Center for Calling and Career, a one-stop shop for students seeking internships, career advice and information about jobs available in their majors, according to Wildcats press release. The CCC, located on the third floor of the Hixson Student Center, will help students gain an understanding of how their values and spiritual gifts should be assessed to fully know what God is calling them to do in their lives and careers, school officials said. “Students can go online and compare their values to jobs that would be a best fit for them,” Center for Calling and Career Executive Director Meredith Rennier said. “Students enrolled in CC 100 will get to utilize this through our website. CC 100 is a required course of all entering freshmen.” The CCC will host events throughout the academic year to teach resume writing and interview skills and will hold career fairs. Services will be provided to alumni, as well, she said. This year’s theme is ‘I am called,’ which Rennier said will coincide with the Quality Enhancement Plan of service learning that kicks off in the fall. QEP Chair Vanessa Graves, who is an associate professor of social work, said … [Read more...]

Wildcats expected to welcome largest class in LC history Aug. 12

By Elizabeth Clarke, LC News PINEVILLE, La. (LC News) - More Wildcats than ever will be arriving on campus starting Aug. 12 as Louisiana College is expected to welcome its largest class in the institution’s 115-year history, 350 freshmen, according to the school's president, Rick Brewer. “I am so grateful for the favor of the Lord on Louisiana College,” Brewer said. “All our faculty, staff and I are ready to get on campus and meet our new Wildcats and welcome back our returning ones. It’s going to be a blessed year.” Brewer noted in particular that Gage Dowling, the new director of residence life and student engagement  "is roaring to go!" “This will be one of the largest classes in LC’s history; that means it will be more fun than ever,” Dowling said. “Students are very excited and can’t wait to arrive on campus.” Dowling, who began in his position this summer; has worked in residence life for other institutions for six years, and he “can’t wait to serve the Lord here.” His wife, Casey Dowling, is the college’s first director of international student affairs and expects to welcome more than 40 international students this fall - up from eight last year. Incoming freshman Julia Thompson, the youngest of three from … [Read more...]

September 30 is coming!

By Clark Palmer TIOGA, La. (LBM) – For Louisiana Baptist churches, Sept. 30 is “Numbers Day” – that’s the end of the fiscal year and a calendar reminder for our congregations to submit their individual reports to the Annual Church Profile. And these numbers matter. When I became moderator of my local association, I considered setting some goals for increasing attendance and baptisms. My first step was to look at “the data” to create a baseline, and I discovered the numbers were “off.” What I mean is there were no discernible trends. One year we were up, the next down. Even the numbers from a decade ago seemed suspect because of this undulation. As I dug deeper, what I realized is that several churches were not reporting their numbers every year. And it only took a couple to throw off the numbers for the entire association. I’ve since discovered that 15-20 percent of our churches statewide don’t fill out and return the ACP. Importantly, this is a problem for making decisions about cooperative ministries such as where to plant a church and what congregations might need revitalization assistance. Then I began to wonder if this could also account for at least some of the reported overall declines for the SBC in … [Read more...]

Gov. Edwards mandates masks indoors

By Message staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – Ten days after Gov. John Bel Edwards strongly advised Louisianans to wear a mask indoors, he has issued an order requiring them in the fight against COVID-19. Edwards, during a news conference on Monday, Aug. 2, cited a continued rise in new cases of the coronavirus and hospitalizations. The new order, which goes into effect Wednesday, Aug. 4 and is set to expire Sept. 1, applies to those five years of age and older and must be worn in all buildings. The full mandate can be found at https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/Proclamations/2021/137JBE2021StateofEmergency.pdf. “It is heartbreaking,” Edwards said. “Those are not just numbers. Those are our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles. Those are fellow Louisianans who are longer with us. And that is heartbreaking. “It has become extremely clear that our current recommendations on their own are not strong enough to deal with Louisiana’s fourth surge of COVID,” he continued. “In fact, nobody should be laboring under the misapprehension that this is just another surge. We’ve already had three of these. This is the worst one we’ve had thus far.” The Louisiana Department of Health reported, August 2, that there … [Read more...]

It is time!

By Craig Beeman WINNSBORO, La. – I was thinking about writing a sermon on "Time" and may, still, get that done. In the meantime, I have been looking into some questions that are often asked about time and why we are here. Importantly, time was made for man. God lives outside of time. He is, has been and forever will be. According to Scientific American Magazine, “Aristotle, taking the no-beginning side, invoked the principle that out of nothing, nothing comes. Theologians took another point of view. Augustine contended that God exists outside of space and time, able to bring these constructs into existence as surely as he could forge other aspects of our world. When asked, ‘What was God doing before he created the world?’ Augustine answered, "Time itself being part of God's creation, there was simply no before!” I’ll never forget asking my grandmother, “When was God born?” She answered, “He has always been.” That is a hard perspective to get on God and time. We are used to humans, plants and animals having a beginning and end. God has neither. He has set us in a period of time in a timeline of time. Each of us has a certain number of years of life on this earth known only to Him. Why does God give us time? My … [Read more...]