On Page Nine of this week’s Baptist Message, a full-page advertisement appears, courtesy of a Southern Baptist layperson.   It is the same advertisement the man is placing in every single Baptist newspaper in the Southern Baptist Convention - a plea for pastors and laypersons to be more decision-oriented in their witness.   He is paying for the ads personally, which raises an obvious question.   Why? On Page Nine of this week’s Baptist Message, a full-page advertisement appears, courtesy of a Southern Baptist layperson.   It is the same advertisement the man is placing in every single Baptist newspaper in the Southern Baptist Convention - a plea for pastors and laypersons to be more decision-oriented in their witness.   He is paying for the ads personally, which raises an obvious question.   Why?   Why would a layperson spend tens of thousands of dollars of his own money to urge persons in their witness?   The answer is just as obvious as the question - simply because he believes it needs to be done.   "We’re not asking for decisions out there," explains W.M. Gurley, an 79-year-old businessman and longtime Southern … [Read more...]

Kay Bennett understands hopelessness. As director of the Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, she has seen plenty of it firsthand.   She has seen it in the homeless women who live day-to-day, in the abandoned mothers struggling to care for children, in the desperate women who do not have the skills needed to find a job, in the frantic woman who just needs a pair of shoes she can wear to a job she finally has found. Kay Bennett understands hopelessness. As director of the Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, she has seen plenty of it firsthand.   She has seen it in the homeless women who live day-to-day, in the abandoned mothers struggling to care for children, in the desperate women who do not have the skills needed to find a job, in the frantic woman who just needs a pair of shoes she can wear to a job she finally has found.   Yes, Kay Bennett understands hopelessness.   However, because of that, she also knows hope when she sees it - and these days, she sees it in the Christian Women’s Job Corp program sponsored by the Southern Baptist Woman’s Missionary Union.   "This is one of the best programs Woman’s Missionary Union has ever done," Bennett says. … [Read more...]

Nine Louisiana Baptists have been nominated or appointed to serve on various Southern Baptist Convention boards and committees.   The nominations and appointments recently were released in anticipation of the annual Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, set for June 11-12. Nine Louisiana Baptists have been nominated or appointed to serve on various Southern Baptist Convention boards and committees.   The nominations and appointments recently were released in anticipation of the annual Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, set for June 11-12.   Each year, the convention president is responsible for appointing persons to serve on various committees, including the Committee on Committees.   This year, SBC President James Merritt named a pair of Louisianians to serve on the latter committee.   The Committee on Committees is comprised of a pastor and layperson from each qualified state convention. The committee exists only during the annual meeting each June and is responsible for nominating persons to serve on the next year’s Committee on Nominations.   Louisiana’s representatives on this year’s Committee on Committee’s are:   • Thomas … [Read more...]

A national Southern Baptist consultant is convinced Christian Women’s Job Corps can change the face of America — and Pam Lockwood is convinced there is no better place to start than in Louisiana. A national Southern Baptist consultant is convinced Christian Women’s Job Corps can change the face of America — and Pam Lockwood is convinced there is no better place to start than in Louisiana.   "So many women here don’t have hope, and they don’t have the hope of Jesus Christ in their hearts," notes Lockwood, associate director of women’s missions and ministry for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. "Look at our state — about 50 percent of the people lost, a high percentage of women living in poverty. What are we doing about it?"   For Lockwood and others, the obvious answer is Christian Women’s Job Corps, a Southern Baptist Woman’s Missionary Union program designed to help women in need escape the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. The program seeks to help women develop life and job skills and become self-sufficient. (See accompanying article)   Three Christian Women’s Job Corps sites exist in Louisiana - in New Orleans at the Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, in Slidell through … [Read more...]

Come to St. Louis and share the gospel during Crossover St. Louis 2002. Seven associations in the metropolitan St. Louis area are working together to conduct Crossover evangelistic events prior to the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. We have a great need for volunteers to help us in Kindness Explosion, block parties, door-to-door surveys and street evangelism. Come to St. Louis and share the gospel during Crossover St. Louis 2002. Seven associations in the metropolitan St. Louis area are working together to conduct Crossover evangelistic events prior to the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. We have a great need for volunteers to help us in Kindness Explosion, block parties, door-to-door surveys and street evangelism.   We invite anyone who is coming to the Southern Baptist Convention to come early and help our churches reach their area for Jesus. Training will be done on the evening of June 7 and all evangelistic events will take place on Saturday, June 8. We can use individuals and groups of people from the churches to help us. All volunteers will be sent a letter of assignment after we receive their registration.   If you are already coming to St. Louis for the … [Read more...]

For the week of May 9, 2002 Potpourri   • MINDEN - Evergreen Union church: Gene Howard, John Wayne impersonator, featured speaker; May 11, 7:30 p.m.; pot luck supper at 6:30 p.m.; will also lead Sunday school class and worship service on May 12, 10 a.m.; David Bazer, pastor.   • ALEXANDRIA - Riverview church: Calvary Singers in concert; May 11, 6:30 p.m.; Paul Roney, pastor.   • HAYNESVILLE - First church: Ladies Missions Celebration; May 18, 10:30 a.m.; Betty Jordan, guest speaker; Julie Everett, music; $5 per ticket/includes salad lunch; Shelby Cowling, pastor.   • BATON ROUGE - Istrouma church: Body Life Seminar, sponsored by Judson Association; May 16, 6-9:30 p.m.; John Powers and Gail Motley, seminar leaders; $60 per church; $4 per workbook; call Judson Association at (225) 274-8600 for information; Forrest Pollock, pastor.   • POLLOCK - Pleasant Hill church: Ed Enoch & Golden Covenant, The Southern Plainsmen and Mark Lanier in concert; May 17, 7 p.m.; Lyndon Marcotte, pastor.   • BATON ROUGE - Istrouma church: Public invited to grand opening of worship center; May 12, 9:45 and 11 a.m. worship services; NewSong in concert, 6:30 p.m.; Forrest … [Read more...]

Despite the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down parts of a child pornography law, the fight against porn is continuing.   Indeed, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security took its first steps to respond to the recent court decision. Despite the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down parts of a child pornography law, the fight against porn is continuing.   Indeed, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security took its first steps to respond to the recent court decision.   In its April action, the nation’s high court invalidated two portions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act — a portion that banned visual depictions (including computer-generated images) that appear to be of minors engaged in sex and a portion that prohibited sexually-explicit images promoted or presented as involving children.   Under the ruling, law enforcement agencies would have to be able positively to identify a child depicted in a photograph or video, as well as conclusively prove that the individual was underage.   Witnesses at the recent House subcommittee hearings decried the … [Read more...]

Armed militants rampaged through a predominantly Christian village in Indonesia’s Maluku province during the early morning hours of April 28, killing 14 people and prompting fears a peace deal reached in February may be dead.   A 6-month-old baby and 4-year-old child were among those killed. Victims were either stabbed, shot or burned to death. Locals say they believe the attackers were Muslims. Armed militants rampaged through a predominantly Christian village in Indonesia’s Maluku province during the early morning hours of April 28, killing 14 people and prompting fears a peace deal reached in February may be dead.   A 6-month-old baby and 4-year-old child were among those killed. Victims were either stabbed, shot or burned to death. Locals say they believe the attackers were Muslims.   Eyewitnesses said the men were masked, dressed in black and armed with firearms and knives when they stormed Soya village, near the provinival capital of Ambon.   A church and some 30 homes were torched in the raid.   Some villagers said a number of the attackers wore Indonesian military uniforms and carried M-16 rifles with bayonets attached. However, an Army spokesman … [Read more...]

Based upon surveys by various groups, approximately 100 Southern Baptist ministers (one assumes the number is limited to pastors) are terminated each month. The surveys do not include the number of pastors who leave under pressure, or who are given no choice but to go to another pastorate. Based upon surveys by various groups, approximately 100 Southern Baptist ministers (one assumes the number is limited to pastors) are terminated each month. The surveys do not include the number of pastors who leave under pressure, or who are given no choice but to go to another pastorate. Perhaps there is no way to know how that number would compare percentage-wise with other professions. Regardless, the termination of a minister always leaves scars on the church that terminates the minister, its witness in the community and the minister and his family.   Why are ministers terminated?   Bob Sheffield, pastoral ministry specialists, Conflict Management/Mediation Division of Life Way Church Resources, recently shared what he thinks, according to his experience, the "Top Five Reasons for Forced Termination in the Southern Baptist Convention."   They are:   1. "Who’s going to control the … [Read more...]

Providing love: In an isolated South Louisiana town, a group of Baptists are engaged in a caring ministry that is touching just about every single child in the community   Grand Isle, Louisiana sits on the end - or the beginning - of State Highway 1, depending upon which way one is headed. Providing love: In an isolated South Louisiana town, a group of Baptists are engaged in a caring ministry that is touching just about every single child in the community   Grand Isle, Louisiana sits on the end - or the beginning - of State Highway 1, depending upon which way one is headed.   Surrounded by gulf marshes, the pancake-flat island is home of a United States Coast Guard station, a state park filled with rabbits and commercial and sports fishing outfits.   There is an oil company outpost, some restaurants, a couple of convenience and bait stores, five churches and eight bars, plus 1,500 permanent residents.   There is not a lot to do for the children and young people who live on the one-mile wide, five-mile long strip of land surrounded by "water, water everywhere."   The closest Wal-Mart is 45 minutes away, and the nearest movie theater takes an hour to … [Read more...]