Submitted by philip on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 01:00 Street Witnessing: Street witnessing teams, sports/prison teams, in-home visiting teams and others lead to people making professions of faith in Jesus.   By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor MONTES CLAROS, Minas Gerias, Brazil – Two women pawing through the garbage late one night found more than something to eat, said Gene Jenkins of Greenwell Springs Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. Jenkins, brother of LBC Evangelism/Church Growth Director Wayne Jenkins, was one of 145 people to participate in this year’s Brazil mission trip. Gene Jenkins was standing outside the hotel the mission team was staying at about 11 p.m. when he saw the women searching for food. “I asked them about God, and they said they were searching for Him, too, but they hadn’t found Him,” Jenkins said. “They both found Him that night, and they came back the next day to say thank you.” An apparently homeless man hovered each night around the hotel, but skittered away when anyone tried to talk with him, until the night Jenkins got his attention. (Jenkins has a variety of hand tricks and small toys he uses to draw a crowd.) Jenkins led the disheveled man to the Lord too. Praising … [Read more...]

  By Kelly Boggs, Baptist Message Editor PINEVILLE – Some clarification is needed for a report that appeared in the July 19 issue of the Baptist Message with the headline “LC denied first attempt at accreditation for law school.” The report in question indicated Louisiana College had been denied in its first attempt to gain accreditation for the juris doctorate degree to be offered at the school’s Pressler School of Law. A more precise report would have been that LC had been denied its first attempt to gain a Level V status with the SACS.  A more accurate headline would have been “LC denied first attempt at Level V accreditation.” A more precise report would have had the first two paragraphs reading as follows: In its initial attempt to gain recognition at Level V, which would allow Louisiana College to offer terminal degrees, LC was denied by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, according to a recent report on the SACS website. LC sought to move from a Level III accrediting status to Level V in order to offer degrees at the doctoral level.  The first of those degrees will be the juris doctorate and will be offered at the college’s Pressler School of Law, located in Shreveport, which … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 01:00 Political Correctness   By Kelly Boggs, Baptist Message Editor It was recently revealed that the University of Louisiana at Lafayette began offering a Minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender Studies during the spring semester. The new course of study was outed by Gene Mills, president of the Louisiana Family Forum via an e-mail to supporters. One of the purposes of the LGBT Minor, according to the ULL website (as of July 24), is as follows: “Through their studies, students will be challenged to investigate cultural traditions that have shaped our current understanding of sexuality and gender, permitting them to confront these traditions and generate new theoretical and ideological paradigms.” According to the ULL website the new course of study is “Louisiana’s first opportunity to obtain a minor in LGBT Studies.” As might be expected, many folks throughout conservative Louisiana are less than enthused about ULL’s new minor. Chief among those objecting has been U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia. In a Letter to the Editor recently published in the Lafayette Advertiser, the congressman criticized the minor for failing to provide an academic … [Read more...]

  By Owen Strachan, Boyce College Professor There’s been a lot of talk about evangelicals opting out of the culture wars recently. Some of that could be good. Few of us want to identify the church with the Republican Party, or to act as if anything is more needful than the promotion of the Gospel. But some of this discussion has been deeply harmful. Why? Because there is a desperate need for the church to be the church in this fallen world. Now is not the time to back off from a robust cultural ethic. Now is the time to engage. Some still think that they have the luxury of sitting out the national debate over homosexuality. They think, “Well, the battle over marriage is for those frothy-mouthed Christians who send out the weird newsletters and are always sounding the doomsday bell. I don’t really have the stomach for that; I don’t want, after all, to be weird, or un-liked. Nope. No thank you.” Others are more biblical in their convictions, but still think they can opt out of the conflict over marriage and homosexuality. They think, “I don’t want my Christianity to be political. The church should do what the church does. I’ll sit this one out and trust in a sovereign God.” Both positions suffer from a common flaw: lack … [Read more...]

By Joesph Backholm, Executive Director of Family Policy Institute Editor’s note: Joseph Backholm is executive director of a pro-traditional marriage organization in Washington state, where citizens will vote on the definition of marriage in November. According to the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers held certain truths to be self-evident. By my understanding, that means there are some things we agree are true even if millions of dollars are not spent to study the subject. For many of us, that list would include the idea that drugs are bad, nice people have more friends, and that it’s a good thing for kids to have a mom and dad. Curiously, what used to be self-evident is apparently quite controversial. In March I was part of a forum during which I was accused of bearing false witness for saying it is preferable for kids to have a mom and a dad. On one hand it concerns me that otherwise intelligent adults would argue that it isn’t at least desirable for kids to be connected to their mother and father. But as someone interested in winning a public debate on the marriage issue, it encourages me when the other side forced to defend the absurd. The other side counters the idea that kids should have … [Read more...]

  By Charles Quarles, Dean of the Caskey School of Divinity at Louisiana College Even though it was written in 1779, John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace” remains a favorite of Christians everywhere. It has aptly been called the “Anthem of Southern Baptists” because of its powerful and poetic expression of the truths of the gospel that Baptists hold dear. Unfortunately, when we sing the old familiar hymns, we may mouth the words without reflecting on the great truths that they express. Let’s think for a moment about one of the great doctrines that the hymn articulates: The hymn opens with the exclamation: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. The verse offers a vivid description of the helpless state of the lost sinner. He is a “wretch,” an utterly despicable person. The words “I once was lost, but now am found” evoke memories of the parable of the loving father and lost son in Luke 15 and remind us that we were all prodigals who were completely unworthy of the Father’s love. Newton did not stop there. He reminded us that we wretches, we prodigals, were blind to the truths of the gospel until God’s amazing grace gave us sight. The … [Read more...]

  By Bill Warren, NOBTS Question: What do we know about the Apostle Paul, one of my favorite Bible characters? Bill Warren responds: Paul, what a giant of a Christian! Paul wrote a large portion of the New Testament, was a major Christian leader in Acts, and has continued to impact Christianity throughout the centuries. “Paul” was his Greco-Roman name, while “Saul” was his Jewish name. He was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37-38), having been born in Tarsus, a major center of learning in the Roman world. His education may have included training there, but the evidence is not sufficient to be certain. The norm, however, was for young boys to finish their primary training before shifting often to a different setting for secondary training, so perhaps Paul studied in Tarsus before moving to Jerusalem to study under the leading Rabbi of the time, Gamaliel. Paul knew Greek well, understood the non-Jewish world and its customs, and interacted easily with non-Jewish people, so regardless of how and where, he was well educated by both Greco-Roman and Jewish standards. God used this training as Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, was used to open the door fully for non-Jews to become followers of Jesus without converting to Judaism (a … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 01:00 Orphans Ministry: Rooms filled with babies might not receive all the love and attention they might like. This LBCH group fills their lack.   By Staff, LBCH Communications MONROE – Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home & Family Ministries sponsored its first international orphan care mission trip in June. Sixty Louisiana Baptists, representing 16 LBC churches, bonded into an awesome mission team. They ministered to 75 medically-needy infants and children residing at a malnutrition center in San Juan, Guatemala. The LBCH mission team ranged in age from 15 to 72 and tackled a variety of assignments during the week. Some provided direct daily care for the children including bathing, feeding, changing diapers, rocking babies, and stacking blocks with toddlers. Others sorted and organized the contents of 40 suitcases of clothes and supplies donated by our Louisiana churches. Some provided worship times for the children with a daily puppet show, story time, balloon animals, and Bible songs in Spanish. Others assisted staff with daily cleaning and sanitizing the children’s rooms, bedding, and bath areas.  Missionaries also helped with daily meal … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 01:00 Life Changing Experience: Seventeen-year-old Claire holds one of the babies she cared for while on mission in Guatemala.   y Claire, Louisiana Baptist Children's Home Editor’s Note: Claire is a 17-year-old of Love Cottage at the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home. Here is her account of a mission trip to Guatemala. MONROE – The day we left for our adventure in Guatemala was an exciting, thrilling, loving, crazy-filled day. There were nine of us who traveled together to the airport in our jam-packed van. When we arrived at the airport, words can not describe the wonder and amazement I felt. Of course, I was scared to death because this was my first time to fly and my first time to leave the country. God really did take care of me. With the help of Children’s Home staffers Beth Green, Kathy Lacaze, and Shawna Baugh, along with some new friends I made along the trip, I got through the airplane ride, tears and all. The minute we landed, I began to realize that I was actually in a new world. This was not the Louisiana small town I knew. I was more excited than ever to see the wonders God had in store for me. As soon as everyone landed, we got down to … [Read more...]

  By Brian Blackwell, Marketing Director PINEVILLE – The recent relocation of Cenla Christian Academy to the campus of Trinity Baptist Church is like a marriage, with the same goal in mind, leaders say. “The school and church are united with the common goal to serve God,” said Gerald Crooks, principal of the school. “The environment is so warm and welcome that you can’t help but feel good about it. You can feel the love of God putting these two entities together.” Cenla Christian Academy officials learned at the end of the spring semester they would have to find another home. Crooks said leaders at the Journey Church campus, where Cenla Christian Academy had been holding classes since its founding in 2006, notified the school at the end of May that the school did not fit into its long-term plans. Crooks and others affiliated with the school then inquired about moving to Esler Baptist Church in Pineville.  But Crooks said when school leaders determined the space was too small to accommodate the more than 100 junior and senior high students, Esler Baptist Church Pastor Mark Breland suggested they contact Darryl Hoychick, pastor of Trinity Baptist. Within three weeks members of Trinity Baptist voted 133-1 to approve the … [Read more...]