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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Couple utilizes coffeehouse to help spread the Gospel

[img_assist|nid=7480|title=Hebert's Coffeehouse|desc=Mark Hebert and his wife Terry – on leave from their responsibilities with the International Mission Board in Central Asia – use Hebert’s Coffeehouse in Baton Rouge both as a means of making money and also as a way of sharing the Gospel with others while providing them with coffee.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=480]By Quinn Lavespere, Message Summer Staff Writer   BATON ROUGE – Mark Hebert and his wife Terry have made the Gospel of Jesus Christ tasteful in more ways than one.   The couple – on leave from their responsibilities with the International Mission Board in Central Asia – use Hebert’s Coffeehouse in Baton Rouge both as a means of making money and also as a way of sharing the Gospel with others while providing them with delicious coffee.   “We want people to come in here and enjoy themselves,” Mark Hebert said.  “At the same time, we feel it necessary to tell them about Jesus.”   The idea for the coffeehouse first occurred to the Heberts about four or five years ago, Mark Hebert said.   “We started thinking about what we’d do once we moved back from overseas,” Hebert said. “About three years ago, I … [Read more...]

First Blanchard plants seeds from its ‘Orchard’

By Quinn Lavespere, Message Summer Staff Writer   BLANCHARD – It doesn’t look like a place that houses a bunch of ministries. Then again, God always did use the humble to bring about the greatest things.   [img_assist|nid=7482|title=First Blanchard's Orchard|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]First Baptist Church of Blanchard’s off-campus ministry “The Orchard” has provided tremendous lifeblood for the church in its drive to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.   “What God has allowed us to do with this building is just incredible,” said First Blanchard pastor Doug Allen. “It’s allowed for so many opportunities for us to minister to others.”   Allen said The Orchard was given to First Blanchard by God after he and his congregation sensed a need to be actively involved in the community.   “God gave us the opportunity to have and renovate a building that someone in the community provided,” the pastor said. “It now houses a coffeeshop that’s open six days a week and gives out free coffee, a clothes closet that provides free clothing and school uniforms to young children, a tutoring service provided free of cost after school to children, a computer … [Read more...]

Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering impacts St. Tammany

By Al Quartemont, Special to the Message   NORTHSHORE – Having a heart for the lost takes some men and women across the world. For others, it brings them home[img_assist|nid=7484|title=Lane Corley|desc=Church planter Lane Corley and his wife Heather live and work in St. Tammany Parish with their two sons: 5-year-old Hudson and 9-year-old Jackson.|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427].   That is the story of Lane and Heather Corley.   Having been raised in LaSalle Parish, upon his graduation from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, Lane and Heather both felt a call to move back to their home state of Louisiana to help plant churches.   After consulting with state strategists from the Louisiana Baptist Convention, the Corleys found themselves in St. Tammany Parish, one of the least “churched” areas in Louisiana, where they are currently working on their second church plant, Bridge Church in Covington.   “We just completed a probe of the Northshore Baptist Association area and found that less than 4 percent of the population are attending Southern Baptist churches on any given Sunday,” Corley said. “We also discovered that the population has grown … [Read more...]

Helpers’ group finds ‘Refuge’ in building church mission house

By Quinn Lavespere, Message Summer Staff Writer   [img_assist|nid=7486|title=Kingdom Builders|desc=Members of Kingdom Builders for the Lord, a non-profit organization, built a mission house called the Refuge Prayer and Care Assembly for the Refuge Baptist Church of Echo.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=480]ECHO – A group whose goal is to expand the Lord’s kingdom found a perfectly named church to do so with.   Led by vice president Randy Ray and building coordinator Buddy Willis, Kingdom Builders for the Lord built a mission house called the Refuge Prayer and Care Assembly for the Refuge Baptist Church of Echo in what was a four-day construction effort.   “It took a lot of collaboration and work,” Ray said. “Since it was for the Lord, it was worth it.”   Kingdom Builders for the Lord is a non-profit organizations consisting of more than 200 volunteers.   Over the last several years they have built churches in Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arkansas and numerous projects in Louisiana.   “At Kingdom Builders, we like to take on anything that we feel is a worthy cause,” Ray said. “We feel that God has blessed us in many an effort.”   The building of Refuge’s … [Read more...]

NOBTS training church leaders on and off the New Orleans Campus

By Jennifer Davis Rash, Special to the Message   NEW ORLEANS – While some Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) seminary leaders are launching new building programs and adding new faculty members, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary officials have found themselves in an opposite position.   Their most recent move was to lay off three professors, move four professors from full-time to part-time status and eliminate six ministry-based faculty positions.   “The core issue we face is that we have more full-time faculty members than our Cooperative Program (CP) income will allow us to support,” New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley told The Alabama Baptist prior to the seminary trustees meeting April 12–13.   “There are two reasons for this,” Kelley said. “First giving to the Cooperative Program is in decline. It has been down for two consecutive years. Indications are it will be down for a third year. … A decline of CP income for the SBC means a smaller CP budget for SBC entities, including New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary,” he explained.   “Second our portion of the SBC operating budget is smaller due to the lingering effect of Hurricane Katrina [which devastated … [Read more...]