Sagemont Church in Houston is the first church in the Southern Baptist Convention to reach the $1 million mark in contributions to the Mission:Dignity ministry of GuideStone Financial Resources that assists retired pastors and their widows who have financial needs. HOUSTON (BP) – Sagemont Church in Houston is the first church in the Southern Baptist Convention to reach the $1 million mark in contributions to the Mission:Dignity ministry of GuideStone Financial Resources that assists retired pastors and their widows who have financial needs. GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins received a check for nearly almost $42,000 at a church-wide celebration on Sunday, March 29, reaching the $1 million mark. “We are on a mission at GuideStone to bring dignity to these precious servants of the Lord in their declining years,” Hawkins said. “We are especially grateful for individuals and churches like Sagemont that support this vital ministry.” John Morgan, Sagemont’s senior pastor for more than 40 years, has always had a heart for preachers and their families across the Southern Baptist Convention. And what touches his heart most is the plight of retired ministers and widows who live near the poverty line. “My father was pastor … [Read more...]

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary honored Tommy French, retired pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., April 7. FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary honored Tommy French, retired pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., April 7. Last year, French and his family proposed a scholarship in honor of his wife Mary, who died from cancer on Jan. 16, 2008. SWBTS President Paige Patterson, who has known French and his family for many years, testified to the “tremendous contribution” Mary French had made “as a wife of a pastor and as a mother of precious children.” The unique scholarship in her honor “is the only one like it,” Patterson added. Named the Mary French Priscilla Scholarship, it will go to the wife of a student preparing for ministry who also desires to further her own education. The French family established an endowment of $100,000 to cover the costs of tuition, fees, books and opportunities to participate in selected conferences, including the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The award recipient also will receive mentoring, most of which will come from Patterson’s wife Dorothy, professor of theology in women’s … [Read more...]

The more First Baptist Church in Chipley, Fla., gives, the more it grows. CHIPLEY, Fla. (BP) – The more First Baptist Church in Chipley, Fla., gives, the more it grows. This is not a recent phenomenon. When the 19 charter members of the church founded in 1887 outgrew the two-room schoolhouse they were meeting in twice a month, they pooled their money until they gathered the $150 needed to purchase land on which to build a church of their own. Even before the building was dedicated in 1902, five women from the church had organized a woman’s missionary society and responded to pleas written them from a Miss Annie Armstrong of Baltimore, Md., for support of a missionary in China, Miss Lottie Moon. And, in the 1950s, First Baptist gave – for several years in a row – a greater percentage to missions through the Cooperative Program than any other church in the state. This despite the fact that the small town in the center of the Florida panhandle – the population of Chipley today is fewer than 4,000 – has a per-person annual income that’s less than half the national average of about $41,000. That being said, many of Chipley’s professionals now call First Baptist their church home. “I’ve been able to see for the last … [Read more...]

Perhaps 200 people – mostly women – gathered in late March for the annual two-day WMU Missions Celebration/Annual Meeting, which took place at McClendon Baptist Church, where Rick Crandall is pastor. WEST MONROE – Perhaps 200 people – mostly women – gathered in late March for the annual two-day WMU Missions Celebration/Annual Meeting, which took place at McClendon Baptist Church, where Rick Crandall is pastor. Under the theme of “Worthy to Love,” participants tackled ministry projects at four sites in Ruston, Monroe, and West Monroe Friday afternoon. Worship sessions Friday evening and late Saturday morning were linked early Saturday morning with a business session that included revision of WMU guidelines to bring them in line with current practices. “WMU is a missions organization for women,” said Kathryn Carpenter in a video tribute to her. Carpenter, executive director of the Louisiana WMU from 1955-86, died last year. It is not a women’s organization that promotes missions, Carpenter continued. That was an important distinction to her. A native of Dubach, La., and now a missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board – unnamed in print or on the internet for security reasons – brought … [Read more...]

An informal “partnering” has developed in recent days between Southern Baptists in Louisiana and in New Mexico. STATEWIDE – An informal “partnering” has developed in recent days between Southern Baptists in Louisiana and in New Mexico. Short-term missionaries from Louisiana are joining Oct. 13-15 in simultaneous revivals in the 33 Southern Baptist churches that are on the Navajo and Pueblo Indian lands in New Mexico, and those SBC-affiliated Apache church. “From the beginning we connected with the vision of the revival meetings and are facilitating the strategy to help accomplish the vision,” said Wayne Sheppard, Louisiana Baptist Convention partnership missions mobilization strategist. “We are meeting with the leadership team. We are aiding communication between New Mexico … and all the Louisiana partners.” LBC partnership missions mobilization also plans to aid in bringing the New Mexico leadership team to Louisiana for cross-cultural training, and in helping Louisiana teams take vision tours this summer to Native American towns in New Mexico. “Ventures like this are all for the Kingdom,” the partnerships strategist said. “They are possible because of the Cooperative Program and the cooperative partnership of … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – When it was explained, it made sense. This was the sentiment from Southern Baptist seminary students across the nation who recently chimed in with their observations about the Cooperative Program. “I have increased my personal giving to missions since I was introduced to the Cooperative Program,” said Issa Haddad, a Jordanian student at Southern California Seminary, which is affiliated with Shadow Mountain Community Church, a San Diego-area Southern Baptist congregation. “I had no background on the Cooperative Program whatsoever, but when it was explained to me, it made sense. “At first I thought the SBC received all of this money from churches [and] probably the money is being used in administrative costs,” Haddad said. “But learning that only a small amount goes to administrative work, and the rest goes to the different ministries that the SBC supports – missionaries, seminaries, planting churches.... – I see the impact of the CP. And the extent of the CP reach is far more than we can imagine, or than one or a group of churches can do or can imagine to do.” The rolling conversation started with a group of students from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Southern California Seminary … [Read more...]

Crockett Point Baptist Church, located nine miles northeast of Winnsboro, near Crowville, plans a three-day, non-Sunday, Evangelism Extravaganza evening June 1-3 specifically for pastors and those they invite, as well as for people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. DEER CREEK BAPTIST ASSOCIATION – Crockett Point Baptist Church, located nine miles northeast of Winnsboro, near Crowville, plans a three-day, non-Sunday, Evangelism Extravaganza evening June 1-3 specifically for pastors and those they invite, as well as for people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. Guest speakers will be members of the Louisiana chapter of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists – COSBE. “We’re doing this to give pastors an opportunity to meet these guys one-on-one,” said Joe Senn, pastor of Crockett Point and a pastoral adviser to Louisiana’s COSBE. “I think there are a lot of pastors who are afraid they cannot afford a full-time evangelist,” Senn continued. “They don’t know most all of them will come for a love offering. I think sometimes we pastors fail to remember that there is a gift of evangelism and we need to use these guys.” In addition to services that are to start at 6:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday at … [Read more...]

Moody Adams     Baton Rouge     225.272.2925 Joe Aulds *    Ruston      318.255.0047     318.514.9360    Carl Carrigan *    Princeton      318.949.4837  Chaz Churchwell     New Orleans     469.363.6040   Michael Courtney *    Garland, Texas     214.738.8004     972.226.4634  Jack David Daniels *    Heflin     318.894.9202 David Daniels     Heflin     318.894.9202 Gary Dardar    Iota    337.368.5621 Roy Davis *    Shreveport     318.226.2521     318.423.1088  Kevin Dunn     Tickfaw      504.567.5474 Nathaniel Dutton      Alexandria      318.445.7379 Todd Foster     Praireville     225.673.9717 Al Gist *    Longville      337.725.3766 David Hanna *    Coushatta      318.932.3433    318.286.7520 Price Harris *    Shreveport      318.687.0384 Monte Holnd     Clinton      225.683.8389 Sonny Holnd     Clinton      225.683.8389 Casey Johnson *    Crowville      318.355.0157 Jack Jones     DeRidder      337.825.8447 Bobby Krantz *    Dubach      318.777.3052    318.245.6586 Mike Krumholt     Prairieville     225.939.2023 Mark Lanier *    Ball      318.641.0673 Lyndon Longoria *    DeRidder      337.462.1290 Alan McDowell     Rhinehart      318.992.6014 Bruce McGee  … [Read more...]

A news report from the Netherlands points to a form of theological insanity that is spreading far beyond the Dutch. Ecumenical News International reports that church authorities in the Netherlands have decided not to take action against a Dutch pastor who openly declares himself to be an atheist. A news report from the Netherlands points to a form of theological insanity that is spreading far beyond the Dutch. Ecumenical News International reports that church authorities in the Netherlands have decided not to take action against a Dutch pastor who openly declares himself to be an atheist. The pastor, Klaas Hendrikse, serves a congregation of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. In 2007 he published a book described as a “manifesto of an atheist pastor.” In the book Hendrikse argues for the non-existence of God, but he insists that he does believe in God as a concept. As Ecumenical News International reports: “In his book, Hendrikse recounts how his conviction that God does not exist has become stronger over the years. “The non-existence of God is for me not an obstacle but a precondition to believing in God. I am an atheist believer,’ Hendrikse writes in the book. ‘God is for me not a being but a word for what … [Read more...]

I’m afraid I’m not the most popular pastor with the 10- to 14-year-old demographic in my church right now. I took on an issue, parenthetically, last month that caused frenzied looks and agape mouths. I dared to question the theology of text-messaging. I’m afraid I’m not the most popular pastor with the 10- to 14-year-old demographic in my church right now. I took on an issue, parenthetically, last month that caused frenzied looks and agape mouths. I dared to question the theology of text-messaging. Rifling through some things, I had found some church bulletins from my home congregation from the 1980s. All over the back of them I can see my teenage handwriting, interspersed with that of my youth group friends. There’s some tic-tac-toe there, and some plans being made for after-church Capture the Flag games, and so on. I realized that the pre-teens and teenagers in my congregation won’t ever have such things, not because they’re too holy to ever pass a note in church, but because cell-phone technology has made it as easy, and as temporal, as a text-message. Text-messaging is easy, and can easily break the boredom of a classroom or a family dinner, and it can put one in touch with people one’s parents never know one is … [Read more...]