Have something to sell? Is your church looking for a new pastor, youth or music minister, have a special event or let the Louisiana Baptist Message help you reach the state. All you need to do is to contact advertising director Violet Adams at 318.623.7700, 800.376.7728 or email her at violet@baptistmessage.com. … [Read more...]

By Alex Doukas, BGR Communications EDITOR’S NOTE: World Hunger Sunday is Oct. 10. For information concerning the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund, visit www.worldhungerfund.com/FAQ.html. WEST AFRICA (BP) – They volunteered to die. The elderly men and women in this famine-wracked West African community knew there was simply not enough food to go around. Unwilling to watch their families starve to death, some made a choice: They would not eat so that their children and grandchildren might live. Some have already wasted away and perished – the price, they believed, of preserving the future. The babies, of course, did not volunteer to die, and their mothers were trying desperately to save them. As local government officials handed out pans of grain, the women swarmed the site, knowing there was not enough for everyone. They pressed into each other under the blistering sun, their infants tied to their backs. [img_assist|nid=6546|title=Every year 15 million children die of hunger|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=67|height=100]“Three babies died that day from suffocation and heat,” said Kate Gibbs*, a Southern Baptist field partner for Baptist Global Response, an international relief and development organization. “I … [Read more...]

In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called “absolute poverty.” Every year 15 million children die of hunger. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed, and  one-third is starving. Since you’ve begun reading this article, at least 200 people have died of starvation. More than 4 million will die this year. One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world’s hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40 percent, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world. Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished. Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide – a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death. About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age. To satisfy the world’s sanitation and food requirements would cost $13 billion – what the people of the United … [Read more...]

By Communications Staff, LifeWay Christian Resources NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Compensation for full-time Southern Baptist pastors is rising slightly faster than inflation, but the mounting cost of benefits is forcing churches to provide fewer pastors with medical insurance. These and other findings are part of the SBC Church Compensation Study, a survey of 11,674 staff positions in Southern Baptist churches. LifeWay Research conducted the survey in cooperation with GuideStone Financial Resources and Baptist state conventions through June 2010. All the data acquired by the study has been compiled into a Web-based tool (www.lifeway.com/compensationsurvey) that can help churches as they begin planning staff compensation packages for their 2011 budgets. COMPENSATION Adjusting for church size (see Methodology below), the average full-time Southern Baptist senior pastor’s compensation (salary and housing) rose 0.78 percent between 2008 and 2010. That rate of change was only slightly higher than the compounded 0.67 percent inflation rate for the same two-year period, according to figures supplied by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index. With no adjustments for church size, compensation for other … [Read more...]

By Sam House, LifeWay Communications NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Join God where He is working. That simple premise hasn’t changed during the two-decade history of “Experiencing God,” an interactive Bible study first published in 1990 that taught a radically God-centered way of life. Initially written by Henry Blackaby and Claude King, the material was revised and expanded in 2007 by Richard Blackaby, Henry Blackaby’s son. Now, 20 years since its debut, the workbook is available in more than 45 languages and has sold 7 million copies. Internationally, reader testimonials describe deeper and more intimate understandings of God’s desire for relationships with them that will change their lives forever. On a larger scale, Experiencing God has affected entire organizations, many of which credit the study with helping turn bad situations into good and bringing hope to tragic circumstances. [img_assist|nid=6550|title=Experiencing God|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=67|height=100] IN PRISON In 1995, Burl Cain became the new warden at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, arguably the most violent and dangerous prison in America. Knowing how God had used Experiencing God in his own life and believing that real change … [Read more...]

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – International Mission Board trustees moved toward the future while honoring the past during their July 20-21 meeting in Richmond, Va. Trustees formally recognized Jerry Rankin for 40 years of service, and voted unanimously to recommend modifying the IMB's primary ministry assignment to reach people groups globally, including North America. This was Rankin’s final board meeting as IMB president. Trustees awarded Rankin the title of president emeritus and paid tribute to his 23 years on the mission field and 17 years as IMB president during a banquet in his honor. At the meeting, trustees took action on recommendations from the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (GCRTF) report, which was approved by messengers at the SBC annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., in June. Trustees voted unanimously to recommend that the SBC’s Executive Committee modify the IMB’s primary ministry assignment, removing wording that excludes the organization from working with people groups in North America. “The world continues to change, and unreached people groups aren't defined by geographic boundaries,” said Gordon Fort, IMB vice president for global strategy. “Our strategies and structures must also change if we want … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP) – At a garbage dump on the northern outskirts of Port-au-Prince, gaunt and weary-looking Haitians formed two lines to wait in the searing sun for Buckets of Hope to be unloaded from a truck near Eglise Baptiste Canaan. The church, named for the Promised Land, ironically is planted at the garbage dump where a makeshift city of displaced Haitians has sprung up since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The Buckets of Hope were among the thousands that had been languishing in the capital city’s port for two months before Haitian customs officials, overwhelmed by the processing of other shipments of supplies since the earthquake, would release the shipping containers transporting the buckets. Five containers filled with 6,750 buckets have been released by government officials as of June 25. Thirteen more await release. At the garbage dump, Moreno Robert, pastor of Eglise Baptiste Canaan, coordinated the food distribution to the tent city. “Normally we don’t ask strangers to give food to our families,” he said through a translator. “But since Jan. 12 there is little work so there is little food. We are obliged.” … [Read more...]

MELDER/ALEXANDRIA – When the Women’s Missionary Union group at Pine Ridge Baptist Church learned at their monthly May meeting that the woman they were studying that month was sick, they decided to make her a quilt. Hand-tied lap quilts are one of several ongoing ministries of this WMU group. With each of 60 or more ties per lapquilt, a prayer is given for the recipient. [img_assist|nid=6554|title=Hand-tied lap quilts are one of several ongoing ministries of Pine Ridge Baptist WMU|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]“I have just the fabric – it’s angels,” said Callie Lance when the suggestion was made to make a quilt for Cindy Boney, who is a missionary with multiple sclerosis now serving with her director of missions/church starter strategist husband, Joe Boney, in Tongass Baptist Association, southeastern Alaska. “The quilt is just beautiful,” Cindy Boney said in a telephone conversation on July 26. “It came just when I needed it the most as far as physical strength and just moving to a new place, leaving our children and grandchildren. The realization was setting in how far away we were from family. “The scripture they sent with it – Isaiah 41:10 – along with them saying they prayed for me with each tie, … [Read more...]