Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/02/2014 - 10:07 Argile Smith, executive vice president at Louisiana College, talks to members of the Louisiana College ArkLaTex chapter. Smith will become interim president of the college on Aug. 1. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer SHREVEPORT – Building trust with Louisiana College alumni and other Louisiana Baptists is key for the state’s only Southern Baptist college to move forward, Louisiana College Executive Vice President Argile Smith recently said.   “We’re not going to be able to do much of this in the interim but if we pray together for God to bring a president who will understand the value of trust and nurturing relationships, eye to eye conversation, who can move on beyond that, that will be most helpful as the school moves on,” Smith told a group of around 50 Louisiana College alumni meeting at the LSU-Shreveport Baptist Collegiate Ministry building.   Smith joined other school administration officials at an April 29 meeting of the Louisiana College ArkLaTex alumni which included a meal, music by the Voices of LC student music group and updates from LC administrators. The other administrators present were Michael Shamblin, Byron McGee, Philip Caples and … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/02/2014 - 10:11 Participants in the State Bible Drill practice before competing. First Baptist Pineville hosted the event which drew students from throughout the state. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff WriterPINEVILLE – Chaz Morgan believes in a day when scandals and cover-ups are too common for elected officials, that adopting biblical qualities such as honesty, humility and prayerfulness could lead to statesmen once again leading the nation.   “Time does not change the Bible and its principles are never out of date,” said Morgan during his speech at the recent state Bible Drill Speakers Tournament. “The need for political leaders to be honest, steadfast, sober, prayerful and humble does not diminish even though leaders increasingly disregard these attitudes. “Statesmen embrace these qualities; politicians ignore them,” he continued. “Who is leading our nation today?” For his speech entitled “Politicians or Statesmen,” Morgan won first place in the recent tournament at First Baptist Pineville. A member at Woodlawn Baptist in Baton Rouge, the 11th grader received a $4,500 annual scholarship to Louisiana College. The other two 11th grade competitors in the speakers tournament both earned … [Read more...]

By Barrett Duke, Vice President of Public Policy and Research at the ERLC “God couldn’t be everywhere, so He made mothers.” While not theologically accurate, this old Jewish saying describes beautifully the significant role mothers have in our lives. Motherhood is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. A loving, committed mother is an indispensable person in our development. Just imagine a world without mothers. It would be a sterile place indeed. Mothers instill powerful social and nurturing characteristics in each generation. It is principally from their mothers that children learn the virtues of sacrifice, sharing, valuing others, compassion, community and a host of other interpersonal values and skills that enable humans to live together in peace. Biologically, women are designed for self-sacrifice. When pregnant, a woman’s body focuses its primary attention to nurturing that new, growing life developing within her. Her body will automatically prioritize the needs of her unborn baby. This inherent gift for self-sacrifice isn’t only biological. After her children are born, a mother will continue to sacrifice herself for the needs of her children. She will do whatever she can to assure her children have what they … [Read more...]

By Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay Christian Resources There are few vocations that can engender burnout like the pastorate. The demands on a pastor’s time, emotions and energy can be overwhelming. When I was a pastor, I often felt at least the symptoms of burnout. I recently spoke with 17 pastors who had experienced burnout, or who felt they came precariously close to burnout. The good news about these pastors is that they moved out of burnout, and now they are re-engaging in exciting and visionary ministries. So I asked them the obvious question: What did you do to reverse the dark spiral of burnout? The question was open-ended, so they could respond with as many answers as they desired. When it was all said and done, I tabulated 12 different responses from the 17 pastors. Obviously, many of them gave similar answers. Here are the 12 responses ranked in order of frequency. Each answer has a representative quote from one of the pastors. 1. Spent more time in prayer and the Word. “Slowly over time, I spent less and less time in the Bible and in prayer. I succumbed to the tyranny of the urgent. When I committed to reversing that pattern, my life and leadership began to renew.” 2. Dreamed again. “When I first arrived at … [Read more...]

By William Perkins, Editor of Mississippi Baptist RecordThe time has long passed when a person could intelligently argue that alcohol advertising and marketing in the U.S. are not really aimed at young people.   With the exception of well-paid toadies beholden to the alcohol industry, virtually no one would today try to explain away television commercials featuring flatulent horses, cute dogs, and beach volleyball games played by nubile youngsters as anything but a naked attempt to draw the underage populace to their product. With the prom season in full swing around the country and many high-schoolers scheming to acquire alcohol, it would behoove us to take a look again at a study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. The study slams the door on the facile argument that alcohol conglomerates don’t aim their advertising at young people. “Alcohol specials, promotions, and advertisements were prevalent in the alcohol outlets around college campuses,” the study’s authors wrote. “Almost three-quarters of on-premise establishments offered specials on weekends, and almost one-half of the on-premise establishments and more than 60% of off-premise establishments … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/02/2014 - 10:23 By Richard Land, President of Southern Evangelical Seminary Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed on April 27. The internationally recognized date comes from the Hebrew calendar and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on that calendar. Each year it marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, where an outnumbered and out-armed remnant of Jews resisted for a time the Germans’ attempts to transport them out of the Polish city to Nazi extermination camps. I have had the sobering privilege of touring the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. To visit the Holocaust Museum is to be changed in important and painful ways. To see, hear and feel the horror of man’s inhumanity to his fellow human beings is to experience in a new and deeper way in one’s soul and spirit the biblical truth that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). It was this same response – magnified greatly by his personal witness of the carnage – that compelled Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, to urge members of Congress and others to travel to Germany to see for themselves … [Read more...]

By Robert Stewart, Director Institute for Christian Apologetics, NOBTS So how do we get our worldview?  Initially we inherit it, we are taught it by our parents, teachers, television, etc. We acquire our worldview without consciously thinking about it.  So long as it works well enough, we will see no reason to change it. This does not mean that worldviews can never change.  Although they are more like computer operating systems than software programs, they are not like Read Only Memory files that can never be changed. They are more like Random Access Memory.  They can be critiqued – and they can be changed.  People do it everyday.   Critiquing Worldviews   How does one critique a worldview?  According to its adequacy.  How does one test a worldview for adequacy?  Several questions must be considered: n Is the worldview coherent?  Does it fit with all or most of what we know, or think we know?  Does it contradict itself? n Does the worldview seem to correspond to our experience of reality?  Does it seem like the world really is the way the worldview says it is? n Is the worldview comprehensive?  Does it account for all the available facts?  Coherency is much more easily attained if one disregards some data, but … [Read more...]