By Message Staff BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Chuck Kelley, in his final New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary report to messengers, thanked Southern Baptists for their investment in the institution he served during his 23-year tenure as president. He also voiced gratitude for Southern Baptists’ support through the Cooperative Program, the primary funding channel for SBC cooperative missions and ministries, noting that $172,751,343 has been given to the seminary via this funding mainstay during his time there. “We want to thank you for that and say, ‘Please keep on sacrificing, keep on sending, keep on supporting the preparation of your next generation of ministers,’” Kelley said. “All of us want to see our students graduate without student debt and you can make that possible.” Kelley said the seminary has seen a small increase in enrollment this year, and that $2 million has been given to the seminary’s student scholarship endowment since January. He referenced two scholarship programs that have helped students further the Gospel: the Fred Luter Scholarship has provided, since 2011, more than $1 million in scholarships to African-American students in Atlanta and New Orleans; and, the Caskey Center has awarded annual … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer GOLDEN MEAOW – Gulf Coast Baptist Church recently distributed one ton of pork while also planting Gospel seeds with the residents of Lafourche Parish. Seven members and their children handed out boxes filled with frozen pork loin, a Bible and Gospel tract to more than 100 people at the Gulf Coast campus, May 10. The effort was the first scheduled activity for the church’s newest ministry, “Feeding Lafourche.” Hannah Terrebonne, a GCBC member, said the volunteers followed Jesus’ example in Matthew 14:15-21: “Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ But Jesus said, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘We have only five loaves here and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.” According to the Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans, one in five … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, NOBTS public relations NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- The creation of a new vice president position for enrollment was approved by the executive committee of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's trustees in a June 4 meeting. The vice president for enrollment, a position created to provide oversight for all departments essential for a healthy enrollment, will act as chief strategist and catalyst for enrollment-related matters for NOBTS and its Leavell College. A candidate for the position will be named at a later date. Student services related to recruitment, admissions, advisement, success, retention and completion as well as financial aid and the registrar's services will be included under the vice president for enrollment's oversight. In other action, the board approved the transition of the church history major in the Ph.D. program to a concentration within the theology major. The transition provides students the option of writing a dissertation in either theology or church history. Church history will continue to be offered as a minor and, if needed, can be revived later as a major. Two other majors in the Ph.D. program were "suspended" -- the missions major and the Great Commission studies major. … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer NEW ORLEANS (LBM) – Trustees of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary voted unanimously, June 5, to elect Jamie Dew as the ninth president of the school during a special called meeting on campus. An 11-person search committee recommended Dew, and that trustee panel included several Louisiana Baptists: Waylon Bailey, pastor, First Baptist Church, Covington; John Foster, member, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans; and, Jackie Myers, member, First Baptist Church, Sicily Island. Jack Bell, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Hornbeck also served on the committee but stepped aside for personal reasons in the spring, according to the seminary public relations department. Dew is succeeding Chuck Kelley, who retires July 31. ‘BEST OF EVERYTHING’ During an introductory press conference, Dew said New Orleans offers a unique opportunity for theological education and ministerial preparation. “In this city you have the best of everything - culture, challenge, opportunity for ministry, a religiously plural context that our students could learn in,” he said. “In short, if you can learn to share the Gospel here, if you could learn to minister to the poor, to the broken, to … [Read more...]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Michael Wood, lead pastor of First West church in West Monroe, La., will be nominated for vice president of the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference, Tennessee pastor Jordan Easley has announced. Wood has "a love for the local church and our convention," said Easley, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tenn. "He has a passion for lost people and a personal conviction to preach the Gospel, make disciples and mobilize people to live on mission." Wood has led First West since 2014, serving the congregation as student pastor the previous five years. He served on the 2017-2018 Young Leaders Advisory Council of the SBC Executive Committee, which Easley chaired, and is co-founder of the Louisiana Young Pastors Network. Also in the SBC, he has been a member of the Committee on Committees in 2016 and 2019. Wood additionally is executive director of Multiply NELA, a church multiplication and revitalization initiative in northeast Louisiana. First West, with a total membership of 8,626, recorded 93 baptisms in 2018 and average worship attendance of 2,487, according to the SBC's Annual Church Profile data. The church's Cooperative Program giving of $279,996 was 5.4 percent of … [Read more...]

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today it will not renew a major contract with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to fund research using the body parts of aborted babies. Last November, Trump Administration health officials met with national pro-life leaders, scientists and ethicists in hopes of resolving concerns over the administration's continued funding of medical research using tissue obtained from aborted babies. A statement released by HHS today stated: "The audit and review helped inform the policy process that led to the administration’s decision to let the contract with UCSF expire and to discontinue intramural research – research conducted within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – involving the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortion. Intramural research that requires new acquisition of fetal tissue from elective abortions will not be conducted." In response to the announcement, Louisiana Right to Life Executive Director Benjamin Clapper said: "Louisiana Right to Life applauds the Trump Administration for ending a NIH contract that necessitates the experimentation on the broken bodies of aborted babies. It is a tragedy when an … [Read more...]