By Angela Thomas, Courtesy of HomeLife I have a girlfriend who has no peace. She is divorced. Three kids. No job. Never finished college. Completely dependent on child support and alimony. She lives in a city without extended family. Both her parents died when she was a teenager. Her house needs repairs she can’t afford. She wants a new pair of jeans, a long vacation, and somebody to love her. She feels stress. So she takes it out on her teenage kids, and they respond with attitudes that give her more stress. Then she intensifies the pressure, and they disconnect even more. She cries. They feel bad and promise to do better. For the past six years she has been caught in the undertow of hopelessness, being pulled out into the sea of despair. She has no peace. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God. The whole idea of Matthew 5:9 is that you would become a peacemaker. But you can’t become a peacemaker until you have become a peace-possessor. GO TO THE SOURCE You want to be a peacemaker, but you don’t have peace in your life. You try to get up peaceful every day, and you do OK until somebody speaks to you or one of the kids whacks her brother. You realize instantly … [Read more...]

By Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend, Courtesy of Parent Life Maybe it’s just a stage,” Brad said. Brad and his wife, Traci, were having dinner with me (John) and my wife, Barbi. They were concerned with 7-year-old Will, one of their three children. He was a handful, full of energy and life, but also out of control. The school had called them with concerns that Will was too aggressive with friends and that he was not respecting his teachers. [img_assist|nid=6302|title=Marriage is the soil of parenting|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=57|height=100]Traci had taken Will to a doctor, but there was not anything wrong medically. So they were trying to think through what was going on. “It could be a stage,” I said. “But if it is not going away, it is probably something else. What if you looked at Will’s behavior as a reflection of your relationship with each other?” “What do you mean?” they asked. I explained that children depend on their parents’ energy, love, and resources to develop their own. They also are affected by the struggles parents have. If parents are under a lot of stress, they sometimes become disconnected from each other. In turn, this disconnect can influence a child to pull away, feel insecure, or … [Read more...]

Compiled by Joanne Brechtel COMINGS & GOINGS John Hebert, new as interim/transition pastor Sale Street Baptist, Lake Charles. Louis Charrier resigns New Hope Baptist, Jennings going to First Baptist, Cecelia. Marcelle Ronquill, Jr., new as pastor Brownville Baptist, West Monroe. Brian McAllister, new as pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist, Farmerville. Bryant Shaver, new as pastor of Fairbanks Baptist, Fairbanks. Alan Miller resigns as senior pastor of First Baptist, Monroe. Phillip Carroll, new as minister of youth and music at Temple Baptist, Springhill. First Baptist, Woodworth, merges with Calvary Baptist, Alexandria. NEEDED Pastor at Carroll Baptist, Walker; send resumes to Pastor Search Team, PO Box 222, Walker LA 70785 before May 31. Full-time pastor at Foster Road Baptist, Baton Rouge; send resume to Foster Road Baptist Church, Attention: Pastor Search Committee; 11333 Foster Road, Baton Rouge LA 70811. Part-time music minister at New Sarepta Baptist, Sarepta; call 318.847.4520. Northeast Association: Pastor at College Place Baptist, Monroe. Morehouse Association: Pastor at Bethel Baptist, Bastrop; First Baptist, Collinston. Carey Association: Pastors at Boulevard Baptist, Lake Charles; First … [Read more...]

  Thirty-four bi-vocational pastors and their wives attended a bi-vocational retreat at Judson Baptist Center in January. Roddy Conerly, Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge director of missions, and Dennis Allen, BAGBR associate director of missions, along with the Louisiana Baptist Convention, hosted the event that featured a hayride using a 1953 Super C Farmall Tractor (top photo) Some of the attendees included, Charles and Cynthia Marceaux, Broussard Grove, Prairieville; Steve Armstrong and his wife, Westside Fellowship, Plaquemine; Lonnie Budd and his wife, Erwinville, Erwinville; Herman Callais and his wife, Cane Brake, Lottie; Shelby Andre’ and his wife, Courtableu, Port Barre. (left, from left) Allen, LBC Smaller Church Consultant Gary Mitchell, and his wife Elaine.[img_assist|nid=6306|title=Bi-vocational pastors and their wives attended a retreat hosted by the Louisiana Baptist Convention at Judson Baptist Center|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=48] … [Read more...]

By Gary D. Meyers, NOBTS Public Relations NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Sixteen two-bedroom apartments at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary will be ready for student families early this summer – just in time for the 2010-11 school year. Seminary trustees approved the new apartments during their fall meeting in October 2009 and construction began on the $2.7 million project in November. Thanks to good weather and a dedicated construction crew, the project remains on schedule for a June completion. During their spring meeting April 14, seminary trustees toured the construction site to see the progress firsthand. [img_assist|nid=6307|title=Construction on 16 new two-bedroom apartments is nearing completion on the campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=64]“To see these two-bedroom apartments going up is a big relief,” Trustee Chairman Craig Campbell said. “This is the number one need – the kind of housing that is needed to replace the States Apartments. We just say ‘Thanks’ to all the donors, and to the students, we say ‘Come.’” Replacing student housing units has been a top priority for trustees since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when the States Apartments were destroyed. … [Read more...]

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary trustees elected Deok Jae Lee, the seminary's first Korean professor, to serve as assistant professor of Christian ministry at the North Georgia Hub at their April 14 meeting. Dan Warner, an archaeologist, was also elected as assistant professor of Old Testament and archaeology at the Orlando Hub. Lee, who earned master of theology and doctor of ministry degrees at NOBTS, was instrumental in launching the Korean-language program at the seminary’s North Georgia Hub in 2006. The program offers Korean-language ministry training on both undergraduate and graduate levels. Under Lee’s direction, the program has grown from a few students to an enrollment of about 100 in four years. Lee also serves as pastor of Southern Korean Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Ga. “Deok Jae Lee has a greater passion for theological education than anyone I know,” NOBTS Provost Steve Lemke said. “He has taught for us for several years and has done a magnificent job in building up our Korean program in Atlanta. With faculty status, he can become a more integral part of the institution.” NOBTS’ Korean program recently expanded to include online coursework in the Korean language. More … [Read more...]

By Debbie Thurman, Baptist Press LYNCHBURG, Va. (BP) – Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has no illusions about the critical tasks confronting evangelicals in the Third Millennium. Baptists who are “quoting the Bible by the yard and living it by the inch,” he says, are not going to be the people who will get the job done. As one of a cohort of national evangelical leaders speaking April 15-16 at the Freedom Federation’s “The Awakening 2010,” Land helped lay out the mission of a growing, multi-generational, multiethnic coalition of culturetransforming evangelicals. The ERLC’s fourth regional  pastors’ briefing, held in conjunction with “The Awakening” events on the Liberty University/Thomas Road Baptist Church campuses, was one of several sessions in which Land called on Southern Baptists to look beyond old barriers as they focus on being a force for a biblically inspired, prayer-fed cultural reformation. Land cited biblical and historical precedence in reminding those assembled that “revival that starts with God’s people getting right through prayer” is the door to awakening and reformation. “I think there is evidence of revival under the radar all across … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Baptist Message Staff Writer But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 (NIV) OIL CITY – In the last two years, Pastor Chad Mills has led First Baptist Oil City to double its Cooperative Program giving, increase its outreach into the community, and become a more mission-minded church. [img_assist|nid=6311|title=Pastor Chad Mills checks his calendar during the month of March in which he led his church to better understand CP and missions|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=66]And the congregation has responded wholeheartedly. From a Sunday school class raising its own money to help do community projects to the enthusiastic support of foreign missionaries and planting of new churches, Oil City has become a “shining beacon of light.” “Oil City is our Jerusalem. The state is our Judea, and this nation is our Samaria. There is not a need for us to go off to be that beacon of light. This church, these people, can be a shining example right here,” Mills said. Mills, who finished the first phase of EKG (Empowering Kingdom Growth) initiative last May, said the … [Read more...]