As we close out another year, I want to say thanks to the churches and people of the LBC for making it possible for our state missions staff to serve Jesus and you. As we close out another year, I want to say thanks to the churches and people of the LBC for making it possible for our state missions staff to serve Jesus and you. You have done a remarkable job. Our churches continue to provide the financial resources for our state and world-wide ministry through the Cooperative Program and through our designated mission offerings. In the face of serious economic challenges in parts of our state, in the midst of the ongoing monumental recovery efforts on our coast from New Orleans to Holly Beach, in spite of cultural battles that demand your constant attention, and with all the duties of effective congregational life, Louisiana Baptist churches have increased their giving to the Cooperative Program. Not only is there cause for celebration with the Cooperative Program, our special offerings for state, national and international missions are on track to increase again this year. Like the Macedonians, you gave yourself first to Christ, then to us. You are heeding the challenge of Kingdom-mindedness and reversing a two-decade … [Read more...]

BATON ROUGE – First Baptist requests that mothers and children at Reality House be “adopted” for Christmas by providing gifts. The house was burned by an arsonist several months ago and everything was lost in the fire. Call Debby Cartwright at 225.766.4109 or John Westbrook at 225.678.8863. A Christmas party is to be given by the Beta Club of Dutchtown Elementary School at the break room of the church. Some of the gifts are to go to the needy. Nell Meriwether is ministry evangelism coordinator. Burn Page is pastor. ALEXANDRIA – Emmanuel Baptist has set a Parent’s Afternoon Out from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22. Chris Thacker is pastor. WINNFIELD – First Baptist observed National Children’s Memorial Day the second Sunday in December at its morning worship service in an act of remembrance by lighting a candle for one hour  joining bereaved families around the world to create a virtual 24-hour wave of light around the world. Jerold McBride is interim pastor. MORGAN CITY – Christmas Home Week is set for Dec. 23 through Dec. 29 at First Baptist with a time to focus on Jesus, family and friends. The church’s calendar is cleared to assist in the observance. David Willoughby is pastor. RUSTON – Twenty-one students of … [Read more...]

COMINGS, GOINGS Cecil Gregory, new as pastor at New Light Baptist, Mangham, from Sandel Drive Baptist, Monroe. NEEDED First Baptist, Baton Rouge, needs part-time assistant administrator at the Child Development Center, Call Karen at 225.343.9688 or Sherry at 225.343.0397. First Baptist, Baton Rouge, needs director and teacher at the Parents Day Out Program. Call Sherry at 225.343.0397. New Ramah Baptist, Castor, needs bivocational pastor. Send resume to New Ramah Church, Attention: Pastor Search Committee, 493 New Ramah Road, Castor LA 71016. Woodlawn Baptist, Rayville, needs part-time music minister. Send resume to PO Box 506, Rayville LA 71269, email tim@allenconst.com or fax 318.728.2030. Highland Baptist, needs nursery worker for Sunday evenings only. Call 337.365.6045. GRADUATIONS Robert M. Houston received a Master of Arts in Missiology degree Dec. 7 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Calvary Baptist in Ruston is his home church. AVAILABLE Sweetwater Baptist, Quitman, has a solid oak pulpit and communion table in excellent condition to be given away. Call 318.259.9143 for details. … [Read more...]

What high-profile events like Promise Keepers and wild-game dinners instigate – namely, a push to mature Christian men – Men’s Fraternity facilitates.  GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) – What high-profile events like Promise Keepers and wild-game dinners instigate – namely, a push to mature Christian men – Men’s Fraternity facilitates. The growing local church ministry program available through LifeWay Christian Resources has mapped out a process through which men, whether saved or lost, can discover what biblical manhood is all about and how to put it into practice. In 1990, Robert Lewis, then the teaching pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark., responded to the pleas of the men in his Bible study for a deeper Christian, fraternity-like camaraderie. When Lewis first announced to his church that the Bible study topic would be “discovering manhood,” the group instantly grew from 30-40 men to 300. “I knew then I had stuck my finger into one of these raging spiritual streams Henry Blackaby – author of ‘Experiencing God’ – talks about. God wanted to do something,” Lewis said in a 2004 interview with Baptist Press. The three-year program “Men’s Fraternity” was the result. Also the author of “Raising a Modern-Day … [Read more...]

NEW ORLEANS – When Dr. Steve Lemke was named Provost of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1997, the institution was at a crossroads. The seminary’s enrollment of 1,800 students was on a downward trend, in part because of a delay in filling the presidency after the retirement of Dr. Landrum Leavell. The school’s Doctor of Ministry program was among the smallest in the Southern Baptist Convention. However, Lemke saw much hope. “In many ways, we were Southern Baptists’ best kept secret,” Lemke said. “It was a school that people talked less about. It wasn’t the first choice of a lot of people for seminary training.” A decade later, under the leadership of President Chuck Kelley, Lemke and the faculty, that has changed. Enrollment reached a pre-Katrina high of 3,800 students. The Doctor of Ministry program, once among the Southern Baptist Convention’s smallest, is now its largest. The dramatic increase in enrollment, Lemke said, “is unheard of in seminary life. That’s a small college. We became the largest Southern Baptist seminary before Katrina hit. The storm knocked us back a little bit, but we’re still one of the five largest seminaries in the world.” When Lemke arrived at NOBTS from Southwestern Baptist … [Read more...]

Eighteen months ago the most visible evangelical “witness” in Portage, Wisconsin, was a fellow who stood on a briefcase-turned-soapbox outside the movie theater and screamed at passersby. His message-all hellfire and damnation-wasn’t well-received. Eighteen months ago the most visible evangelical “witness” in Portage, Wisconsin, was a fellow who stood on a briefcase-turned-soapbox outside the movie theater and screamed at passersby. His message-all hellfire and damnation-wasn’t well-received. “People had a bad taste in their mouths for church,” Bob Turner discovered when he began driving the half-hour from his home in Madison in response to God’s call to plant a church in Portage, population 10,000. Portage had no Southern Baptist church. Of the eight churches listed on the town’s website, only three were evangelical. “They were scared to death of church people,” Bob says. “The reaction of some was, ‘You’re not going to scream at us about going to hell are you?’” Bringing the good news  Bob and his wife, Alisha, weren’t deterred by the town’s reticence. “God told me to bring some good news amid the bad,” Bob says. And so he did. River of Life, a church plant of the Central Baptist Association and the Minnesota-Wisconsin … [Read more...]

A small artificial Christmas tree adorned with ornaments and Hershey Kisses sits on the stand next to one patient’s bed. PINEVILLE – A small artificial Christmas tree adorned with ornaments and Hershey Kisses sits on the stand next to one patient’s bed. There are Christmas cards, candy and cookies, a small framed photograph of family, some plaques, as well as other personal items hanging on the wall. Lying to one side of the nightstand is a well-worn Bible. It’s homey, but it is not home for either Vance Stokes or Carl Hudson, both 82. It is a small room in the Extended Care Unit of the Pineville Veterans Administration Hospital, and while the items do provide a little distraction, they cannot hide the machines, tubes, and monitors. “I’m alone a lot of the time,” Stokes said. “My favorite time of day is early in the morning. I am able to look out my window and watch the sunrise.” In the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season – what with the shopping, the parties, the family gatherings – too often men like Stokes and Hudson, both retired World War II Navy veterans, both Southern Baptist, spend their holidays mostly in solitude. These veterans from the WWII generation are dying at an annual rate of 1,300 per … [Read more...]

Lying in a hospital bed overseas in October – for the second time this year – I wondered what I had done to deserve, first, a bout of food poisoning and, now, an aching appendix. RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – Lying in a hospital bed overseas in October – for the second time this year – I wondered what I had done to deserve, first, a bout of food poisoning and, now, an aching appendix. As a writer for the International Mission Board, I have been blessed by the Lord with the privilege of traveling the world in search of stories about Southern Baptist missions. At that moment, however, I winced in pain and groaned as my Colombian doctor prodded my abdomen and asked in broken English, “Does it hurt more here, or here?” Both places hurt – a lot. Several hours (and several syringes of morphine) later, I calmed down enough for the doctors to explain they suspected appendicitis and recommended surgery, slated for 6 a.m. the next day. Nurses wheeled me into a room on the hospital’s maternity ward (I think they were short on space) and said goodnight. A funny thing happened as I lay there in the darkness staring at the room’s puppy-themed wallpaper – I realized how thankful I was. Thankful for a modern hospital and caring, competent … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptists targeted missions in a big way in 2007. STATEWIDE – Louisiana Baptists targeted missions in a big way in 2007. In small towns like Amiable/Kentwood/Oak Grove, in big cities like New Orleans/Bossier City/Shreveport, and across the world – Brazil, Korea, Zimbabwe and more, Louisiana Baptists prayed, gave and went out to do God’s kingdom work last year. “People who go on short-term mission projects usually come back more committed than ever to serve God through their time, talents and tithes at their local church and in their community,” Message Editor Kelly Boggs said. “Churches never lose when they get involved in God’s kingdom work.” A January-to-June recap follows of some of the best stories about Louisiana churches on mission that were covered in the Message the first half of 2007. (See the Jan. 10 issue for the second half.) All the articles remain available at www.baptistmessage.com.  Search by a main word in the headline or article. Example: Barnette to read about the Georgia Barnett Offering for State Missions. January: Louisiana Southern Baptists gave more than $176,000 more than the 2006 goal for the Georgia Barnette Mission Offering. “Wimp” Ballard of First Baptist Livingston … [Read more...]

Louisiana College trustees approved two significant advances and heard a variety of progressive reports at their regularly scheduled December meeting in the Granberry Conference Center. PINEVILLE – Louisiana College trustees approved two significant advances and heard a variety of progressive reports at their regularly scheduled December meeting in the Granberry Conference Center. Trustees accepted the donation  of land  (see Dec. 20 Message)  and voted to begin a transfer of title to LC after a phase one environmental study has been completed. Trustees commended the LC Department of Education for recently acquiring national certification through the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. “We are very excited with the accreditation and the speed with which it happened,” said Mark Sparks, chairman of the board and an engineer with Albemarle Corp. in Baton Rouge. “It shows the department produces outstanding teachers of the highest quality.” The Godbold-Ware Plaza “buy a brick” campaign is building steam, trustees were told. The college is adding a plaza outside the front of the cafeteria that is currently being renovated as a gift from Aramark. Donors have until May 15, 2008, to send in $100 per … [Read more...]