By Clark Palmer TIOGA, La. - Information matters. Numbers matter. I want my doctor to get and record the right numbers on my blood pressure, temperature, cholesterol and more. I want my banker to get and record accurate numbers on my deposits and withdrawals. I want the right number in my checkbook or money management app. I want the scoreboard to be accurate so that I can know how my team is doing. You get the idea. Numbers aren’t everything but they do matter.  Leaders on the associational and state level are helped by those numbers. Do we need to plant a new church in our community? Accurate numbers will help us see the real picture. Are there struggling churches who need to make some decisions about their future? Real numbers can help us move toward a wise path forward. Can we afford to start new programs and hire new leaders? And in what areas are they most needed?  What about fair representation? The number of messengers to national and state conventions are based on reported numbers.   As the new moderator for our association looking for a sense of where we are, I discovered that I’m not sure where we are because a lot of the information seems to be missing. I’ve since discovered that one-third of our churches … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBC) - This year has brought about more challenges and cancellations than any of us care to recount. For those meetings and events that were scheduled, more times than not, they happened virtually rather than in person. This has been true for us as Louisiana Baptists. Therefore, I am excited to meet in person for the annual meeting of Louisiana Baptists. We have made significant changes to the format to streamline our business while complying with COVID considerations, but our plans are to gather in person for this important, once-a-year event. So please join us on Tuesday, November 10, in Guinn Auditorium on the campus of Louisiana College in Pineville. Registration will open at 11 a.m. and the meeting will begin at 12:45 with worship led by Ricky Draper, worship pastor at First Baptist in New Orleans. We will conduct business, hear reports and celebrate God’s faithfulness amidst the great challenges of 2020. The meeting will conclude about 5 p.m. following a message from Steve McAlister, pastor of Westside Baptist, in Natchitoches. Resilient will be our theme – certainly appropriate for this year. We realize it may require resiliency to make it to this year’s annual meeting, but we do … [Read more...]

By Waylon Bailey COVINGTON, La. – “What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!” I learned to sing the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” as a child and teenager in church. I have never forgotten the words, especially these words, “What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.” It is a privilege to pray–both to take our personal needs to God and to pray for others. As I write this, I have just had the privilege to join with one of the men of our church in praying for his wife. Prayer for others is a great privilege. It is also a Christian obligation. While we certainly pray for ourselves and for those close to us, we also have a responsibility to pray for the church and its mission around the world. Paul told the church to pray for all the saints, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). Paul asked the church at Colossae to pray for him and his work. “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn Lord, we are weary! Especially your people in Louisiana. First, it was COVID-19. We spent weeks leading the nation in cases per capita. We went home. The economic impact of that is still being felt. When people went home, gas prices plummeted. So many of our people who make their living in the oil and gas industry suffered. Some were retired before they planned to retire. Others were not so fortunate. They are just unemployed. We are weary. Then hurricane season arrived. Six times we have been in the “cone of uncertainty.” The “cone of uncertainty” became the “certainty of catastrophe” with Hurricane Laura. We. Are. Weary. We are weary of blue tarps, if there is even something left to tarp. We are weary of FEMA. We are weary of the hum of the generator. And yes, we are tired of our new guest Jim Cantore. We are weary from all that has been lost. We are weary of the debris that is piled up at the road waiting to be removed. Like Elijah of old, some days we want to find a tree to sit under to pray, “Lord, I’ve had enough.” But Lord, and I’m laughing to keep from crying, the tree was blown down by Hurricane Laura. And now, comes Delta. Dear Lord, we’ve run out of names this year and have turned to the … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – It’s a presidential election year, Louisiana has suffered another devastating natural disaster, and as Yogi Berra has said, “It's déjà vu all over again." In 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump came to Louisiana just days after the August floods (at that time, the worst natural disaster in the nation since Hurricane Sandy hit the United States four years earlier), and he even made a personal donation to the relief effort. However, his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued with her fundraising soirees in the tony Hamptons of New York, sending a social media note, instead, that she was “closely monitoring” the situation. Her campaign promised she would visit the victims “at a time when the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response.” But Louisianans are still waiting. Now President Trump, running for reelection, has again prioritized getting help to the state, visiting just two days after Hurricane Laura’s landfall. Meanwhile, his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, has issued a statement saying, “we will come back and we will be there to help you build back better.” Biden had campaigned in … [Read more...]

By Clark Stewart COVINGTON, La. – I have had the privilege over the past two years to be the pastor advisor for the Louisiana Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists. It has been a real blessing for me to get to know these men and women personally. Their love for the Lord and their passion for the unsaved has touched my life. I have used many of these quality evangelists in my church and every time, God has tremendously blessed. In May, we had the president of LACOSBE, Brother Gary Bowlin, preach a Harvest Day Sunday for us. With COVID-19 restrictions still being observed, we had a “drive-in” service where people listen on their vehicle radios. Brother Gary preached with passion in an outside service and extended God’s invitation to come to Christ. At 10:30 that morning, he preached inside our auditorium and had five public professions of faith. Evangelists are a God given gift to His churches (Ephesians 4:11). I would encourage every pastor to use these gifted evangelists in their churches. God desires and delights in the lost being saved. Using these evangelists who are gifted in “drawing the net” will help fulfill God’s desire that “none perish but that all come to repentance.” Clark Stewart is pastor of New … [Read more...]

By Stewart Holloway PINEVILLE, La. - On Aug. 26, 1992, Hurricane Andrew slammed into Louisiana after ripping through Southern Florida a couple of days before. I was a junior in high school more interested about getting a few days out of school than anything else. I had no idea how transformational that week would become for me. My home church agreed to become a hurricane shelter, and people flooded in, primarily from Franklin, LA, many from the same African American church. People found places to sleep everywhere throughout the church from the pews to Sunday School classrooms. One family was even in the pastor’s office because we were without a pastor at the time. Many of our church members worked tirelessly feeding and caring for the evacuees. The transformational moment for me happened the night Andrew made landfall. The evacuees and our church gathered for a time of worship. The Franklin church’s choir filled our choir loft, and their organist sat down at our organ. As the praise and worship began, I experienced a joy and hope like I had seldom seen. In the midst of uncertainty and with a hurricane blasting through their town, those people worshiped. They had faith in God in the midst of the storm. For 28 years now, … [Read more...]