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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Pray for these flood-damaged churches

Please pray for these churches damaged by flooding in south Louisiana.  Amite Baptist Church, Denham Springs Bethel Baptist Church, Franklinton Bethel Baptist Church, Jennings Blood River Baptist Church, Albany Carroll Baptist Church, Walker Church of Life, Baton Rouge Comite Baptist Church, Baton Rouge Cross Creek Cowboy Church, Zachary Crossroads Baptist Church, Amite Don Avenue Baptist Church, Denham Springs Eastside Baptist Church, Zachary Ebenezer Baptist Church, Hammond Emmanuel Baptist Church, Denham Springs Faith Baptist Church, Baker Fellowship Baptist Church, Central First Baptist Church, Baker First Baptist Church, Broussard First Baptist Church, Crossgate First Baptist Church, Denham Springs First Baptist Church, French Settlement First Baptist Church, Eunice First Baptist Church, Greensburg First Baptist Church, Head of Island First Baptist Church, Kaplan/parsonage First Baptist Church, Lake Arthur First Baptist Church, Lydia French Corner Baptist Church, Ponchatoula Friendship Baptist Church, Central Glen Oaks Baptist Church, Baton Rouge Gracepoint Church, Simmesport Grays Creek Baptist Church, Denham Springs Greenwell Springs … [Read more...]

Celebrating through service

Steve Masters celebrated a milestone Aug. 15 as director of the LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry. “Having my 25th anniversary during a major disaster reminds me the most important things in life are God, family, church, friends and serving others,” Masters said. “Material goods that get flooded can be replaced. You cannot replace God!” He was joined by 20 LSU BCM students, who later helped clean out six homes in the area. Associate Director Sarah Farley challenged believers to react positively to “one of the worst disasters to hit our state. This is a great time to be the Global Church,” she proclaimed.” To be the tangible hands and feet of Jesus! Join us!” The BCM is hosting volunteer groups Aug. 26-28, Sept. 2-5 and Sept. 9-11, with housing provided at Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. For information about partnering with them, contact sfarley@bcmlsu.net or lsubcm@eatel.net. … [Read more...]

Steve Gaines’ vision for the SBC: soul-winning

Soul-winning is a passion of SBC Presidential candidate Steve Gaines. The pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., Gaines shares more in a short video. "People still get saved when we share the Gospel with them," Gaines said. … [Read more...]

Is America too far gone ever to be redeemed?

"The church is too far gone ever to be redeemed," wrote John Marshall (chief justice of the United States Supreme Court) in a letter to Bishop James Madison, in the early 1800s. Is America too far gone ever to be redeemed? After the end of the Revolutionary War, in 1783, Christianity plummeted in America. The effects of The First Great Awakening were still seen as late as the 1770s when as much as 40 to 50 percent...of the population attended church. But by the 1790s only 5 to 10 percent of the adult population were church members. Christianity hit an all time low in 1794 in America. In the same year missionaries from six different denominations were welcomed into the Cherokee Nation for the first time. The overall situation seemed so hopeless that a friend wrote to George Washington in 1796, near the end of his two terms as president, "Our affairs seem to lead to some crisis, some revolution; something that I can not foresee or conjecture. I am more uneasy than during the war. " Washington replied, "Your sentiment...accords with mine. What will be is beyond my foresight." The Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, wrote to Bishop Madison of Virginia and said, "The church is too far gone ever to be redeemed." The … [Read more...]

Canaan Baptist celebrates six consecutive Sundays of baptisms

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...]

United Outreach Church a church on the move

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...]

“Pistol” Pete Maravich: the man, the mystery and the miracle

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...]