Comings and Goings --Carey Baptist Association churches without pastors: Boulevard, First Cameron, First DeQuincy, Eastern Heights, First Hayes, Johnson Bayou, Sale Street, Tample and Woodlawn. --First Folsom seeks a part-time minister of music. Send resumes to PO BOx 106, Folsom LA 70437 orfbcfolsom@bellsouth.net. Call Church 985-796-9295 for more information. --First Lafayette Spanish Mission seeks a pastor. Send resumes to First Lafayette PastorSteve.horn@fbclaf.org or call 337-233-1412 for more information. --Tim Crabtree is new as minister of education and school administrator at Calvary Slidell. --Ken Courville is new as pastor at Goodwood Baton Rouge, effective June 17. --East Jena Baptist seeks a full-time minister of students. Send resumes to East Jena Baptist Church, Attn: Minister of Students Search Committee, PO Box 383, Jena LA 71342. Johnny Phillips is interim pastor. Anniversaries, New Starts and more --Unity Cotton Valley, Homecoming: May  20. Services start at 10 a.m. with Chad Lee preaching; lunch to follow. --Emmanuel Oakdale, 50th Anniversary, May 20. 11 a.m. worship; lunch to follow; singing at 2 p.m.; cake at 3:30 p.m. Glen Wagnon is pastor. --Parks Baptist, 20th anniversary, … [Read more...]

The Louisiana Baptist Convention executive board elected a new staff member, authorized funding May 1 for renovation of the Baptist Building in Alexandria and construction of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries building at Northwestern State University, Natchitoches. WOODWORTH – The Louisiana Baptist Convention executive board elected a new staff member, authorized funding May 1 for renovation of the Baptist Building in Alexandria and construction of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries building at Northwestern State University, Natchitoches. Board members also approved several other actions and heard reports from the state missions staff and LBC entities. Bill Robertson, pastor of Temple Baptist Church, Winnsboro, and president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, was elected to serve as the director of LBC pastoral leadership team. Robertson was elected to a second term as the state convention president in Lake Charles in November 2006. His acceptance of the LBC staff position will require that Robertson step down as president. First vice president Scott Thompson, pastor of Oak Grove Baptist Church, Eros, will assume the president’s responsibilities. In his last official address as LBC president, Robertson challenged … [Read more...]

Keeping with its 10-year pattern, Vacation Bible School continues to have the greatest evangelistic impact in the Southern Baptist Convention, with 26 percent of baptisms in SBC churches a direct result of VBS. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Keeping with its 10-year pattern, Vacation Bible School continues to have the greatest evangelistic impact in the Southern Baptist Convention, with 26 percent of baptisms in SBC churches a direct result of VBS. LifeWay Christian Resources recently released VBS statistics for 2006 when two VBS lines, “Arctic Edge: Where Adventure Meets Courage” and “Club VBS: Space Quest,” were utilized. Jerry Wooley, LifeWay’s VBS ministry specialist, explained that totals are based on information provided to LifeWay by churches submitting a VBS report and/or information submitted to the Annual Church Profile (ACP). --Number of SBC congregations reporting VBS – 26,502 --Total VBS enrollment – 2,962,457 --Decisions to receive Christ as Savior – 94,980 --Decisions for church-related activities – 3,022 --Total Sunday School prospects discovered – 280,693 --Prospects enrolled in Sunday School – 39,218 --Prospects added to Sunday School prospect files – 212,108 --Baptisms resulting from … [Read more...]

The few remaining people at Terrace Heights Baptist Church in Yakima, Wash., didn’t want their church to die. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The few remaining people at Terrace Heights Baptist Church in Yakima, Wash., didn’t want their church to die. After attendance had dwindled down to a handful of members, they feared the church would soon shut its doors for good. Something had to change fast. Terrace Heights is one of many churches in the United States that started out strong, stopped growing and then fell into a period of decline. Currently, 70 percent of Southern Baptist churches have either leveled off in growth or are declining. In the new book, “Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too,” authors Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson researched 300 churches among 10 denominations around the country. They mapped out a detailed approach to restoring “plateaued” or declining congregations. The book is published by B&H Publishing Group, the publishing division of LifeWay Christian Resources. According to Leadership Journal, which the authors cite in the book, 340,000 churches are in need of church revitalization. “Over time, most churches plateau, and most eventually decline,” Stetzer writes. … [Read more...]

The woman in the small ice-covered town near Springfield, Mo., was hardened toward the church. She had no good words for it, had lost faith and hope in it, and said she had opted out of it. SHOCCO SPRINGS, Ala. (BP) – The woman in the small ice-covered town near Springfield, Mo., was hardened toward the church. She had no good words for it, had lost faith and hope in it, and said she had opted out of it. But that was up until a cold morning last January when she was surrounded by 15 men – all Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers – who presented her with a Bible, autographed by every man who had worked all day in sub-freezing weather to clear her property of downed trees and limbs after an ice storm. Taking the Bible, she began to cry. “I had given up on the church,” she said. “But I can’t believe how you people came to my house and did all this work. There’s no way I could have ever paid for it.” Becoming emotional as he told the story at this year’s 2007 Disaster Relief Roundtable, Jim Wells, director of missions for the Tri-County Baptist Association in Nixa, Mo., said, “The chainsaw team’s chaplain then asked the woman if anyone had ever shared Christ with her. She dropped her head and said no.” With the … [Read more...]

Woman’s Missionary Union now offers print-on-demand Bible studies to help small groups in churches increase in biblical and missional understanding of their responsibility and opportunities for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP)—Woman’s Missionary Union now offers print-on-demand Bible studies to help small groups in churches increase in biblical and missional understanding of their responsibility and opportunities for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. These Bible studies are offered for all age levels as part of WMU’s new Generation M (M for missions) brand of online products. Generation M products can be easily purchased and instantly downloaded from the WMU online store, www.wmustore.com. Among the Generation M products is a 52-week Bible study based on the Book of Acts. Intended to spark discussion and understanding about present-day missions and missions involvement, the “Christ Followers” series provides an undated lesson plan to be used by small study groups any time of year. The intergenerational series includes four units of 13 sessions designed for the educational needs of preschoolers, children, students/youth and adults. “Christ Followers is general and timeless, making it … [Read more...]

astor Jay Wolf was walking across a parking lot of a local store when a young black man fell in stride beside him. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (BP)--Pastor Jay Wolf was walking across a parking lot of a local store when a young black man fell in stride beside him. Simultaneously, each noticed the matching black and white wristband the other was wearing. “Our eyes met and we smiled the smile of recognition and brotherhood. Then we clasped hands,” Wolf said. “It was as if we had an instant connection as brothers in Christ.” Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., has been wearing that wristband for more than a year. Technically he could have taken it off weeks ago and still been politically correct. But then, he said, he would miss moments like this one. “Racial reconciliation is not something you can collect data on, but there is anecdotal evidence like this that God is at work in Montgomery, in Alabama and in the world,” he said. Wolf’s predominantly white congregation joined forces with a local black church, Fresh Anointing International Church, in December 2005 to launch the ONE Movement, a citywide emphasis on racial unity. The movement, ushered in with the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus … [Read more...]

from Joe McKeever's blog: Our pastors were invited to meet today with Global Maritime Ministries, the work founded by John Vandercook in the early 1960s and now being administered by his son Philip. We toured the new Port Ministry Center at 3635 Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans (www.PortMinistry.com) and learned of the incredible “foreign missions” Philip’s team is accomplishing every day of their lives as they reach out to the crews of the hundreds of international ships arriving at the Port of New Orleans each year. “How did this work get started?” I asked the now-retired Rev. John Vandercook. “Was there a moment you look to as ‘the’ time God started this work?” Brother John was pastoring the Third Street Baptist Church in those days, a small church not far from the docks. One Sunday afternoon he had walked down to the docks – it was all open then; anyone could walk down to the river, as opposed to the high security now – and was watching a huge ship dock. As the vessel maneuvered into place, John became aware of a man onboard who was watching him. When the gangway was lowered, the man was the first one off. He approached Pastor Vandercook and speaking with a strong Dutch accent called out, “Sir, my friends and I … [Read more...]

Southern Baptist Army Chaplain Pete Keough is no stranger to war, the loss it brings, nor even the mysterious ways of God. FORT  POLK – Southern Baptist Army Chaplain Pete Keough is no stranger to war, the loss it brings, nor even the mysterious ways of God. Stationed in Baghdad from October 2005 to September 2006, Keough, a captain with about 1,400 soldiers on 11 bases in a 300-mile radius under his spiritual care, saw not only hundreds of soldiers dedicate their lives to Christ during that period, but also saw soldiers lose their lives, some without the saving grace of Christ, he said. “I would travel all of Northern, Central and Southern Baghdad – visiting soldiers, doing ministry in all those places,” Keough said. “We actually were able to baptize more than 25 in makeshift baptismals that were either large engine containers or old water tubs that we found. We were pretty resourceful. “We also had six soldiers surrender to full time gospel ministry that year too,” he continued. “Two are [now] in seminary.” In addition, Keough led a weekly worship service Wednesday nights on the main base camp. Starting with four soldiers, by the end of his tour, Keough saw the worship service grow to nearly 100 every week. “That … [Read more...]

Church is good for children.  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Church is good for children. That’s the message of a new study that says young children of churchgoing parents fare better behaviorally, emotionally and cognitively than do children of parents who never attend church. In fact, the more often the parents attend, the better off the kids are. The study by sociologist John P. Bartkowski and a team of researchers at Mississippi State University examined data from the nationwide Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which evaluated first-graders by interviewing parents and teachers. In the data Bartkowski used, some 9,500 parents and 8,800 teachers were interviewed. The ECLS study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Examining the ECLS data, Bartkowski and his team concluded it is “quite clear” that religious attendance impacts children positively. His research – which claims to be a “first of its kind” study on the subject using “nationally representative data” – will be published in the journal Social Science Research. “[R]eligion does seem to be good for young children,” the study says. “The religious attendance of parents and a cohesive religious … [Read more...]