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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Landry declares victory as legal challenge to Louisiana’s pro-life laws dropped

By Baptist Message staff NEW ORLEANS, La. (LBM) – A Shreveport abortion clinic and multiple doctors who perform abortions have voluntarily dropped their lawsuit that challenged the state’s clinic licensing regulations. Hope Medical Group for Women, formerly June Medical Services, originally filed the case in 2016 and sought to invalidate most of the state’s health and safety requirements relating to abortion, including those to ensure informed consent, provide for the reporting of accurate data on abortion complications, require compliance with the sanitary code and require abortion clinic medical staff to meet basic qualifications for competency. The U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals reviewed the case in October and called into question both the plaintiffs' standing to bring the challenge the “cumulative effects” theory they argued. The case had returned to the U.S. Middle District Court in Baton Rouge when it was dismissed, and last week Hope Medical Services and the physicians who perform abortions dropped their challenge to the lawsuit. “The abortion industry's voluntary dismissal of their radical lawsuit aimed at dismantling nearly every one of Louisiana’s health and safety requirements related to abortion is further … [Read more...]

LC ‘Strives’ to provide support for low-income, first-generation students

By LCNews PINEVILLE, La. (LCNews) - Louisiana College has partnered with nonprofit Strive for College to strengthen college opportunities for low-income, first-generation college students. According to LC President Rick Brewer, by becoming a Strive for College Partner, the school has demonstrated a commitment to enrolling and graduating low-income and first-generation college students. Campus programs and support services for students also will be strengthened through Strive’s programs. “Louisiana College has implemented many services in the last several years to assist first-gen students, and we are committed to offering programs to ensure all our students reach their full potential,” Brewer said. “We are very excited to enter this partnership with Strive for College as this is the kind of resource prospective students and families need when considering which college to attend. “LC continues to find ways to make a Christian college education both affordable and accessible for all college students.” The College was ranked fourth highest return on investment (ROI) among private colleges in the state and fifth highest among public schools offering bachelor of arts degrees according to a report released by Georgetown … [Read more...]

Mid-year Cooperative Program report now available

The Louisiana Baptist Convention has released its 2020 mid-year Cooperative Program report, which can be found by clicking here. The Cooperative Program is the Southern Baptist Convention’s method of supporting missions and ministries of state conventions and the SBC. … [Read more...]

Baptisms celebrate son’s, mother’s spiritual bond at Metairie’s Memorial

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer METAIRIE, La. (LBM) - Mateo Alvarez experienced plenty of fun and games at the 2019 CentriKid summer camp, but in the end also came away with something much greater – the gift of salvation. During an evening worship session at Timber Creek Camp in Polanski, Mississippi, Alvarez, who was 10 at the time, realized the need to confess his sins and stepped forward to publicly declare Jesus as Lord. “The decision just made sense,” Alvarez told the Baptist Message. “That evening was something I never will forget because that was the day that I shared with everyone there that I am someone who is a new creation in Christ.” Alvarez had completed the church's foundational course on discipleship and subsequently set a date to be baptized in the spring. But COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings interrupted his plan. Finally, on July 5, Alvarez was able to step down into the baptistery -- with the double blessing to have his mom, Mary, by his side. She had accepted Christ 20 years ago, but was baptized then under another denomination's doctrinal beliefs about baptism. She wanted to follow through in believer's baptism -- an act of obedience symbolizing her faith in a … [Read more...]

Border closure cuts short Louisiana DR mission, puts ‘Bahama Rebuild’ on hold

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer PELICAN POINT, Bahamas (LBM) – An unexpected announcement July 20 that the Bahamian government was closing its border to most travelers from the United States on July 22 forced a Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief team to cut short their mission two days earlier than planned. The 11-man team had arrived at Pelican Point, Bahamas, July 13, to help with rebuilding the 128-year old St. Matthew Baptist Church destroyed by Hurricane Dorian Sept. 2, 2019. The team had planned to mount trusses through Friday for the church’s new worship center. However, out of precaution for any potential travel issues that might arise because of the border closure, the team boarded a ferry to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Wednesday and returned to Louisiana Thursday evening. “When it came to our attention the borders were closing, we began to pray and asked others to pray for options that would allow us to complete our work and still get out of the country,” Louisiana Baptists Disaster Relief Strategist Gibbie McMillan told the Baptist Message. “Our prayers were answered. And it is comforting to know we have prayer partners that we can call upon in our Baptist family.” The order closed the … [Read more...]

Despite canceled season, NOBTS excavation graces cover of BAR summer issue

By Gary D. Myers, NOBTS director of communications NEW ORLEANS, La. (NOBTS) – Archaeologists from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary planned to spend much of June and July excavating at Tel Hadid, the site of a biblical city in Israel. But like so many other events in 2020, their dig season was a casualty of COVID-19. Despite the loss of this summer’s excavation season, the Tel Hadid dig was the featured cover story of the Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) summer issue. The BAR feature, “Tel Hadid: Through the Ages,” was co-authored by NOBTS and Tel Aviv University professors. The popular magazine enjoys broad readership which ranges from members of the general public to professional archaeologists and scholars. “Being on the cover of BAR offers the opportunity for excavations to gain significant notoriety in the field of archaeology,” said Dan Warner, professor of archaeology at NOBTS and co-director of the Tel Hadid Expedition. “Being on the cover also creates an interest factor for excavations to gain volunteers to come join the fun in the dirt. So, it is prized by all excavations.” Tel Hadid is located approximately three miles southeast of the Ben Gurion Airport and nine miles from Tel Aviv. The park … [Read more...]

Louisiana Legacy: Family and Kingdom – providing for family needs and impacting the Kingdom

By Jeffrey Steed ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBF) – Christians are motivated to meet the needs of family members because of our love and loyalty to them. Many have minor children who are understandably heavily dependent on parents for their needs to be met. There are others who have parents depending upon their children because of unforeseen circumstances in life. Some have adult children who have special needs and are financially dependent upon their parents. Others are the legal guardians of grandchildren because of challenging circumstances and those grandchildren are financially dependent upon their grandparents. Life seems to have some unusual circumstances placed before us occasionally. What most individuals have in common is the motivation to step-up and help family members in times of need. The above provides some real life circumstances that occur in the lives of many. There are charitable tools to help address some of these life circumstances as well as impacting the Kingdom one day. Consider the significance of that last statement. You have the ability to meet the needs of family as well as impacting the Kingdom one day! For more information, please contact the Foundation at 877.523.4636. Jeffrey Steed is executive … [Read more...]

Churches’ decisions produce Kingdom decisions at GO TELL camp

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer TOCCOA, Ga. (LBM) - The 2020 GO TELL Camp almost did not happen for two Louisiana Baptist churches, but divine intervention provided a way for the students to experience a mighty movement of God. Like many others around the country, churches who planned on participating in the annual camp organized by GO TELL Ministries faced novel coronavirus pandemic-related challenges. While some opted not to attend, Spring Creek Baptist Church in Kentwood and First Baptist Church in Houma were among seven churches who attended the camp June 25-29 at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, Ga. Spring Creek brought 42 students and 16 adults and First Houma brought 14 students and four adults. By the end of the week, Spring Creek Baptist reported four professions of faith, 19 restorations of fellowship with the Lord and one commitment to Christian vocational ministry. First Houma’s students indicated a number of decisions for personal spiritual renewal. “We are very grateful to GO TELL founder Rick Gage and his camp staff. They could have pulled the plug but they made the decision to make it happen,” Spring Creek student minister Eric Latham told the Baptist Message. “That’s … [Read more...]