Submitted by philip on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 09:23 Ed Stetzer By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer SHREVEPORT – Today, 75 percent of Southern Baptist churches in Louisiana are either plateaued or declining. While this may look like grim news, hope is on the horizon with RESET: a Revitalization Conference, which is the theme of next month’s Louisiana Baptist Evangelism Conference. Organizers are hoping this conference will help those churches find encouragement and some solutions to grow. “Pastors and staff should load up a van or bus with leaders to come hear speakers and seminar leaders who will instruct and encourage a church that needs to be revitalized,” said Wayne Jenkins, Louisiana Baptist Evangelism and Church Growth Team Director. The two-day event, which takes place at Summer Grove Baptist Church on Jan. 26-27, will feature inspiring messages by speakers from Louisiana and beyond. Headlining the list is Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research in Nashville, Tenn.; Leroy Fountain, church health strategist for New Orleans Baptist Association; Gary McIntosh , president of Church Growth Network in Mirada, Calif.; Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.; and Don Wilton, pastor … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 09:34 Working with the Baptist Union of Bulgaria, Cedar Crest Baptist Church of West Monroe and Blackaby Ministries teamed up to put on a national conference for 127 Bulgarian pastors and leaders in Bulgaria. Among the group making the conference happen were (from left) Tom Blackaby of Blackaby Ministries, Cedar Crest Baptist Administrative Pastor Lynn Wilson, Richard Blackaby of Blackaby Ministries, Senior pastor Greg Clark, and Cedar Crest’s Mission Pastor David Moreland. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer WEST MONROE – A Louisiana Baptist church has obtained the exclusive publishing rights to the Experiencing God book in the nation of Bulgaria. And by doing so, Cedar Crest Baptist Church in West Monroe hopes this is just the beginning of many changed lives in this East European country. Cedar Crest has been working in partnership with the Baptist Union of Bulgaria and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention since 2009. The church has taken teams to Bulgaria to conduct pastor training and leadership development, VBS style events for children and sports camps for all ages. The idea to translate Experiencing God into Bulgarian began in 2010 … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Message Editor America’s slow slide toward secularism has been taking place for some time now. I would argue for at least three decades and the Christmas season has been a clear indicator of our country’s penchant for secular style over traditional substance. The essence of Christmas, the reason for the season, is the birth of Jesus Christ, nothing more and nothing less. It is distinctly and exclusively a religious holiday – a time when Christians around the world commemorate the birth of their Savior, the very reason for their faith. However, in American popular culture the reality of Christmas has not just been lost; it has been discarded like ripped wrapping paper. Christ’s birth is no longer the focus. All things secular trump the sacred as Americans celebrate Christmas in name only. A case in point involved the music popular during the Christmas season. A culture’s music reflects its values. Examine the tunes that are popular and you have a pretty good idea of the orientation of a society’s moral compass. The easiest way to sample a culture’s musical tastes is via the radio. Some radio stations dedicate their entire programming to Christmas-themed music during the month of December. And almost all … [Read more...]

By Trey Graham, Pastor First Baptist Church in Melissa, Texas In 1991, Andrew did what dozens of pastors and scholars only hoped to do. My friend Andrew, with no theological training or philosophical expertise, unwittingly but unmistakably showed me the true meaning of Christmas. After Andrew and I returned to college from our winter break, he asked me what presents I had received for Christmas. I began to tell him about the new clothes, the best-selling books, the popular running shoes and all the other items on the list of precious gifts given me by family and friends. He seemed somewhat impressed, pleased at my apparent holiday windfall. “So, Andrew, what did you get for Christmas?” I asked. Expecting to hear his wonderful list of presents, my roommate instead replied silently, holding up but one small item, an alarm clock that probably cost less than $5 at the thrift shop. “That’s nice”, I answered, thinking that I was sure glad I hadn’t received such a present, seemingly so small and insignificant. Later, as roommates often do during late nights of academic studies interspersed with stories about home, I would tease Andrew by pretending to throw that clock into the air and then catch it right before it hit the ground, … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 09:46 By Joe McKeever, Pastor, Author, Cartoonist I’ve been to Bethlehem. It’s fairly indistinguishable from many other Judean towns, except for the Church of the Nativity built over the traditional site of Jesus’ birth. Bethlehem is located on a ridge some 2500 feet above sea level, and five or six miles southwest of Jerusalem. Why, with all the grand locations in the world to choose from, did God choose for His Son to be born in Bethlehem? I can think of three good reasons. TO FULFILL PROPHECY Seven hundred years earlier the prophet Micah quoted God: “As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah...from you One will go forth from Me to be ruler in Israel, His goings forth are from long ago, from days of eternity.” Now, some Messianic prophecies are cryptic – they are identified and understood only after the event has occurred. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 must have perplexed readers for hundreds of years as to their meaning. Only after the Savior went to the cross did the followers of Jesus realize how the first seems to be the thoughts of the Lord on the cross, and the second an eyewitness description of that event. God placed such prophecies in the Bible so that when they happened, His … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 09:50 Select rating Give it 1/5 Give it 2/5 Give it 3/5 Give it 4/5 Give it 5/5 Give it 1/5 Give it 2/5 Give it 3/5 Give it 4/5 Give it 5/5   … [Read more...]

By Jimmy Draper, President Emeritus LifeWay Christian Resources Joseph, the husband of Mary, is the forgotten man of Christmas. He never speaks a word in the biblical record. He is Joseph the silent. He ranks only slightly higher than an extra in the cast. Although 15 U.S. cities are named for Joseph, he remains the forgotten man of the Christmas story. But Joseph deserves more than that. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.” Of Joseph we might say, “What he did speaks so loudly that there was no need for him to say anything.” Joseph is remarkably simple, but he also is simply remarkable. It would be difficult to imagine a more complicated and devastating situation than the one in which Joseph found himself. He had a bride who was pregnant because of a strange involvement with God. Joseph bore the condemnation and pressure of a community that would not and could not possibly understand. He was a northern Palestinian cabinetmaker who was told by God to go to Bethlehem and then suddenly instructed to flee to Egypt. Joseph’s response can be stated in a single, simple word: obedience. He obeyed God immediately. God spoke and Joseph married Mary. He obeyed God in painful … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 09:55 By Bob Nigh, Managing Editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention Baptist Messenger “O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blatter! Du grunst nicht nur zur Sommer-zeit, nein auch in Winter, wenn es schenit.” For those of you who don’t speak German, the English equivalent of the lyrics of this familiar Christmas carol basically say, “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how steadfast are your branches! Your boughs are green in summer’s clime, and through the snows of wintertime.” One of the most widely recognized symbols of Christmas is the tree – for both the secular and the sacred world. For non-believers, the tree is just something that holds ornate decorations and strings of bright lights, something under which gifts for loved ones and friends are placed. For Christians, however, the tree is more than just a seasonal decoration which serves as a roost for tiny lace angels, plastic drummer boys, felt stockings, balsa wood reindeer and orbs of plastic or shiny blown glass or maybe popcorn on a string. Christmas at the Nigh household is a celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior. My wife, Glenda, delights in her collection of nativities, and we have at … [Read more...]

By Eric Hankins, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Oxford, Miss. For years, I have loved re-reading Dylan Thomas “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” during this time of the year. It opens with a line so evocative of my memories of Christmas: “One Christmas was so much like another in those years around the sea-town corner, now and out of all sound, except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.” As adults, we spend a great deal of energy trying to solve the puzzle of our longing for the past, trying to recapture wholly those experiences that return to us only as a fleeting glimpse or a whisper just between our waking and sleeping. For me, these moments of “homesickness” are never more acute than at Christmas.  I believe the reason for this is that these memories are uniquely imbued with the reality of my ultimate home, heaven. Christmas in a Christian home weaves the best of life (faith, hope and love) around the deep reality of the gospel:  God in Christ for us. Thomas closes his poem with these words: “looking through my bedroom window, … [Read more...]