Compiled by Joanne Brechtel COMINGS & GOINGS Ben Jordan Jr., retires as pastor of Evergreen Baptist, Doyline. NEEDED Part-time Children’s Minister: 1st through 6th grade, 25 hours per week; send resume toclayton@fbcruston.org or First Baptist Church, 200 South Trenton St., Ruston LA 71270. Music Director: Send resumes to Trinity Baptist Church Music Director Search Committee, Attention: Stan Skoug, PO Box 748, Oakdale LA 71463. RETIREMENTS DOYLINE – Evergreen Baptist: Ben Jordan Jr. retires from pastoral ministry after 51 years and is available for pulpit supply; call 318.745.2339. ANNIVERSARIES CLIFTON – Clifton Baptist: 100th Anniversary Celebration reception 6 p.m. Saturday, May 1; 9:30 a.m. Sunday, May 2; Tony Hicks, pastor. REVIVALS MANGHAM - Calvary Baptist: 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday, April 25; 7 p.m. Monday, through Wednesday, April 28; Alan Miller, evangelist; Gerry Courtney, pastor. ERWINVILLE – Erwinville Baptist: 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 16-17; 11 a.m. Sunday, April, 18; Dennis Allen, evangelist; Hunter Erwin, music; Lonnie Budd, interim pastor. DERIDDER – Westview Baptist: “At the Feet of Jesus” 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 18; 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 19 … [Read more...]

By Joanne Brechtel, Administrative Editor SHREVEPORT – Summer Grove Baptist students shared a caring message of hope and love with low-income residents of several Shreveport and Bossier City neighborhoods in partnership with Community Renewal International in March. The volunteers made and delivered gift baskets. They also participated in clean-up projects. The outreach was part of the Disciple Now weekend at the church.  Rod Masteller is pastor. SIMPSON – Several Simpson Baptist members participated in the recent Vernon Baptist Association Oklahoma Mission trip. The group shared through Vacation Bible School and Bible studies at the Yardeka Baptist Church. Fundraising events for the purpose of buying building supplies for the trip included a donation-only gumbo meal. Another fundraiser lunch is planned for Sunday, April 18, for a mission trip to Haiti. Jeremy Blocker is pastor. HOUMA – Bayou Baptist Association collected “Buckets of Hope for Haiti” during the month of March. Joe Arnold is director of missions. WINNFIELD – The Rent-A-Kid service project of the First Baptist student ministry is to provide assistance in the areas of yard work, babysitting, furniture moving, etc. for residents of the community during the … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor BOGALUSA – Washington Parish, which borders the state of Mississippi on the north and the east, was mostly a dense forest of longleaf yellow pine when Washington broke off from its southern border, St. Tammany Parish, in 1819. But Andrew Jackson had slashed a road for his military troops from Nashville, Tenn., to New Orleans before the 1814 Battle of New Orleans, and settlers followed – enough, by 1855, for far-flung neighbors – who hunted, trapped, fished, and sold the extras to New Orleans, some 70 miles downriver, as they scraped together a living – to start Union Church for Baptists and Methodists. Ten years later, the year the Civil War ended, eight members of the congregation broke off to start Lee’s Creek Baptist Church on a tributary of the Pearl River. There was much work to be done, starting with the construction of a church house. It burned. So did a second. So did a third. But 70 years ago, in 1936, a building was constructed that has not burned, and in 1989 an educational building was annexed for the church that was officially chartered in 1871. “However, in the last few years the 70-year-old sanctuary, exhibiting structural problems, compounded by damage inflicted … [Read more...]

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – Heavy rain may be the next disaster for Haiti. One example: a windy 20-minute downpour left a half-foot of water inside makeshift tents on the sloping golf course of the Petionville Club, now a tarp-and-tent neighborhood of about 45,000 people, according to an Associated Press report. SLIDELL – The start of the rainy season is a reason for a major push of housebuilding, said Larry McEwen, pastor of Northshore Baptist Church in Slidell. McEwen has a 20-year relationship with Haiti, and Northshore is leading in an effort to build houses for Haitian families. A friend of the pastor’s, Stefan Vervloet, “is retooling his factory to build pre-fab houses for the people of Haiti,” McEwen wrote on a recent blog. “At this time it looks like a complete two-room, 200 square foot home, wood framed, and on a slab, will be available for $2,000. However, the Dutch government, where Vervloet is from, is involved in this new effort and for now, we can get two for the price of one! So that makes these houses only a thousand dollars each. “The other exciting thing about this is that once the slab has been poured, it will only take a few tools, like a hammer, crow bar, and ratchets, to put these prefabbed homes … [Read more...]

By Gary D. Meyers, NOBTS Communications NEW ORLEANS – Avery Willis, retired senior vice president of the International Mission Board and creator of the MasterLife discipleship series, is beating leukemia. After only one month of treatment, his cancer is in remission. [img_assist|nid=6248|title=Avery Willis, retired senior vice president of IMB to launch DNA at NOBTS in April|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=71|height=100]The 75-year-old was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease on Jan. 7. Willis surprised his doctors and family members with a quicker-than-expected remission in February. With his health improving, Willis is turning his attention to the illness facing the church –  a lack of discipleship. He sees many parallels between the church’s problem and leukemia. “Leukemia is exactly what the church has,” Willis said. Normally, bone marrow in the human body produces red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, he explained. Red cells carry oxygen while white cells fight viruses and bacteria. The platelets help the blood to coagulate. “What happens in leukemia is an abnormal development in the DNA so that the body produces large numbers of immature cells that do not do their function,” Willis … [Read more...]

By Jerry Love, Director of Planned Giving Louisiana Baptist Foundation [img_assist|nid=6266|title=Jerry Love, Director of Planned Giving Louisiana Baptist Foundation|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=75|height=100]Imagine for a minute that it is early on the morning of Christmas Eve.  Your spouse has a fever. Your infant son is also ill and in need of medical care. You’re in an unfamiliar country and you don’t speak the language. This is where Elizabeth Keene found herself some 14 years ago. She and her husband, Randy, had traveled to Paraguay to finalize the adoption of their son John. With Randy running a fever and John’s lungs rattling, she set out to find medical care for her new 1-year-old son. During her journey she met an angry cab driver who spoke no English, an American Embassy Marine guard who directed them to a hospital, and finally a crowded, noisy emergency room. At the point where Elizabeth despaired that adequate care was not available for John, she was approached by a tall, fair skinned gentleman who simply asked, “May I help you?” in perfect English.  He introduced himself as Dr. Tom Kent, a medical missionary from Louisiana and Director of Emergency. At this time Dr. Kent and his wife, Judi, had … [Read more...]

[img_assist|nid=6251|title=Baptist encampments offer plenty of summertime fun like sliding in the mud on a hot day.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]     [img_assist|nid=6252|title=Learning how and playing a game of softball|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=76]       Harris Baptist Assembly Mike Latham, Director 2800 Harris Road Minden, LA 71055 318.927.3706 mail@harrisbaptist.com www.harrisbaptist.com Camp Bethany[img_assist|nid=6254|title=Learning how to work with others on the ropes course|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=82] Robert Cole, Director 9766 Hwy. 679 PO Box 250 Bethany, LA 71007 318.938.1221 www.campbethany.com campbethany@aol.com Friendship Baptist Camp[img_assist|nid=6253|title=Holding a retreat for your church or for your church staff in special cabins|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67] 16507 Highway 4 Beinville, LA 71008 318.259.9369   Clara Springs Baptist Encampment Jack Mills, Director 4420 Hwy 177 Pelican, LA 71063 clarasprings@cp-tel.net www.clarasprings.com Tall Timbers Conference Center Sam White, Director 10218 Hwy 165 South Forest Hill, LA … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor FERRIDAY – It was more a “no-brainer” than it was a “clever idea,” says Chase Weeks, family minister at First Baptist and founding director of REAL Ministries. “Teenagers text; that’s what they do,” Weeks said after a late-winter Youth Blast that drew perhaps 250 area youth and 50 leaders to the church for a concert by the Alexandria-based, Christian heavy-metal band Altar’d, and preaching by Weeks. In addition to the deafening sound of the band, t-shirts being thrown out like nerf balls and a variety of other high-energy hi-jinks designed to appeal to the under-18 crowd, the teens were given the opportunity to win an I-pod. All they had to do was to come to the front of the worship center and correctly – without any punctuation or letter error – key into their cell phones the scripture displayed on an overhead screen. About 12 teens at a time could text from the platform, but dozens were doing the same from the pews they were sitting in, and nearly everyone was reading the words displayed on the screen. The competition was a bit like a formalized, twenty-first century Bible drill, which as a bonus included time for contemplation by the congregation of several texts straight … [Read more...]

By Mickey Noah and Karen L. Willoughby STATEWIDE – Baptists stepped forward to forego their normal Saturdays in March in order to blanket their communities with the Gospel and with an invitation to be in church Easter Sunday. [img_assist|nid=6257|title=A young boy places a Find It Here packet on a front door as part of Southern Baptists God s Plan for Sharing campaign|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=73|height=100]Wayne DuBose, director of missions for the Northwest Baptist Association in Shreveport, was at the Southern Baptist Convention in 2008 when NAMB announced GPS. “I was excited then and I’m excited and proud now that we have some folks who are really fired up about GPS,” Dubose said. The Louisiana Baptist Convention tweaked the GPS name to includethe state’s theme of “Sharing the Peace of Jesus.” The Northwest association, which covers Caddo and Bossier parishes, includes 120 churches and missions and is the largest association in Louisiana. While Dubose ordered 6,000 door-hangers for the association, many local pastors ordered their own materials. Louisiana churches – large or small – customized the GPS program for their particular church’s use. Lighthouse Church in Shreveport, pastored by Tommy Allen, may … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor SLIDELL – The Louisiana Baptist Mission Builders recently turned half of an old grocery store into a new church house for Northshore Baptist, where Larry McEwen is pastor. The congregation met in it for the first time for worship on Palm Sunday. “This is the third building we’ve built up,” McEwen said. “And, it’s the third time it has worked out that we’re ready to go in it on Palm Sunday. That’s amazing!” [img_assist|nid=6259|title=Congregation of Northshore Baptist Church in Slidell moved to its third building in nine years all three on Palm Sunday|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75] Northshore’s building history is as interesting as is its missions involvement. The church started in 2001 as a core group of 17 members meeting for weekly Bible studies in the pastor’s home. Its first official home was an old gymnastics building in Old Town Slidell that members renovated and moved into on Palm Sunday 2002. “We grew to about 230 in that building, in two services,” McEwen said. “Outgrew that and moved into 16,000 square feet of the old Factory Outlet Mall. The week before Hurricane Katrina, we had 393 in worship, in two services.” The storm left more than five … [Read more...]