By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer LEESVILLE – One Sunday last year, Morris Goins was deeply grieved while preaching at Canaan Baptist Church. He saw a visitor open the front door of the church, either looking for someone or seeing no seats available and left. That’s when he knew the congregation needed a bigger space. “I told them the next Sunday we need to start having our church services in the gym where we have room for everyone who comes,” recalled Goins who was recently honored as Southern Exemplary Bi-vocational and Small Church Pastor of the Year. “Brother Derrell Kay, one of the men of the church said having church in the gym won’t work long, we ought to look at building another building.” Fast forward to mid-November, when the church broke ground for its future new 296-seat worship center. When complete by a target date of May 2016, the new building will include a nursery, office space, a Sunday school classroom for our elderly ladies, a room to hold a children’s church service and a section in the back of the worship center to house sound equipment. Goins said his congregation that averages 125 for Sunday morning worship is excited about how God will use the new facility for ministry to the … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer SHREVEPORT – Shortly after graduating from seminary in early 2013, Greg Shyne found himself at a crossroads in his spiritual life. His pastor had passed away and Shyne was searching for where God wanted him to serve. That’s when a meeting with fellow pastors and with Lane Moore, the Northwest Louisiana Baptist Association director of missions, led to a vision from the Lord--he would join the Southern Baptist Convention and start United Outreach Church. “When I heard the stories in that meeting, the Lord gave me a vision of starting a new work,” said Shyne, recently honored as Northern Exemplary Bi-vocational Pastor of the Year. “God has been so good to us and we pray that He continues to give us the vision of where to go.” United Outreach Church, one of 78 new churches receiving Cooperative Program funding through the Louisiana Baptist Convention, is a congregation on the move. The church was born on Nov. 3, 2013, when 28 people attended the first official worship service in Shyne’s Shreveport home. In a month, to accommodate its growth, the church moved the worship services to a Holiday Inn Express. The church continued to grow so rapidly it needed a new place to worship … [Read more...]

By Ron F. Hale, Minister of Pastoral Care & Senior Adults, West Jackson Baptist Church Looking back, his remark is eerie – part premonition, a pinch of predestination, and a pint of paradox. In 1973, Andy Nuzzo, a reporter for the Beaver County (PA) Times, asked 25 year-old Pete Maravich a question. Pete said, “I don’t want to play 10 years in the NBA and die of a heart attack at 40.” On January 5, 1998, the reported last words of Pete Maravich were, “I feel great!” Maravich, the greatest scorer in NCAA college basketball history, and ten-year veteran of the NBA, was 40 years old when he collapsed to the gym floor. The man with a thousand moves, the Houdini of the hardwood, was dead within seconds. His haunting self-defeating prophecy feeds the mystery. James Dobson of Focus on the Family had flown Maravich to Pasadena, California, to speak on his national radio show. Dobson arranged for a friendly pickup basketball game at Pasadena’s First Church of the Nazarene before the work began. Ralph Drollinger, the 7-foot-2 former UCLA center was also invited to play. Taking a quick break after 40 minutes of play, Dobson and Maravich were talking and walking off the court. Out of the blue Pete fell to the floor like a … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer HAUGHTON – Gevan Spinney knows the challenges that lie before him as the new president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. But despite what the future holds, Spinney believes the best days are yet to come for the 1600 churches that make up the state convention. “I see an opportunity and an open door to build upon that which has been battled for in our past,” said Spinney, pastor of First Baptist Church in Haughton. “There are aspects of this position in which I feel inadequate, but I do know who God calls, He will also equip.  I am excited to see God’s plan unfold.” Spinney is assuming the role that outgoing LBC President Steve Horn held for two terms. During his term, Horn called for several called days of prayer in different areas of the state and spearheaded a pastor-driven campaign to increase Cooperative Program giving through the Pledge. In Horn’s term, messengers adopted the 2020 initiative that seeks to reach every generation and every people group in the state with the Gospel by the year 2020. The 2020 initiative was a collaborative effort of 20 teams made up of 20 members each that began under the leadership of Waylon Bailey, LBC president before Horn. Spinney … [Read more...]