Week of November 21, 2005 Bible study cartoons As in previous years, Joe McKeever has announced availability of cartoons to accompany the upcoming Southern Baptist Winter Bible Study on the Old Testament Book of Nehemiah. A total of 30 cartoons are available, said McKeever, director of missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans. The cartoons may be accessed by visiting www.joemckeever.com. At the Web site, persons should click on “Cartoons by Joe McKeever” on the righthand side of the page. On the subsequent page, persons should click on “The Book of Nehemiah.” The cartoons may be used free of charge by anyone teaching the study. Many teachers reproduce the cartoons on transparencies for overhead projection or scan them into computers for display on screens, McKeever said. Committee elections Louisiana Baptist Convention messengers approved reports of the state Committee on Committees and Committee on Nominations without change or challenge last week. Messengers easily passed the reports during the opening session of the annual meeting. In doing so, a total of 85 persons were elected to first or second terms of service on various convention committees and boards. Did you notice I? The … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptist Convention messengers approved a reduced Cooperative Program budget for 2006 – after changing two allocation percentages. Louisiana Baptist Convention messengers approved a reduced Cooperative Program budget for 2006 – after changing two allocation percentages. Messengers approved the $21 million budget – down from $22 million this year – after voting to restore a proposed $52,500 cut for the Louisiana Baptist Message newspaper. The budget action was one of three matters presented to messengers by the LBC Executive Board. It was the only one of the proposals to draw debate. The proposed budget marked a reduction of $1 million (4.5 percent) from the current year. Leaders explained the reduction was needed due to the expected impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. More than 150 churches were affected by the storms in some fashion and dozens still are unable to hold services or receive offerings. State leaders already are expecting the storms will cost the state from $500,000 to $1 million this year. As proposed, all line items but two shared equally in the reduction, maintaining the same allocation percentages as in this year’s Cooperative Program budget. However, the Baptist … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptist Convention messengers elected Bill Robertson of Winnsboro as president last week in decidedly easy fashion. Louisiana Baptist Convention messengers elected Bill Robertson of Winnsboro as president last week in decidedly easy fashion. Robertson was elected to the state convention office on a vote of 792 (59.5 percent) to 540 (40.5 percent) against Jerry Chaddick, an evangelist from DeQuincy. Robertson is pastor at Temple Baptist Church in Winnsboro. The election marked the first time a presidential candidate endorsed by the Louisiana Inerrancy Fellowship had not been elected. By the end of the convention, only one of three candidates endorsed by the group had been elected – Collin Wimberly of Swartz, who was chosen as second vice president. Wayne DuBose of Minden was elected first vice president. The inerrancy group had endorsed presidential candidates since 1999, proving successful in electing a trio of pastors who served two one-year terms each. However, this year, some supporters of the group differed on who should be elected as the state leader. Both announced nominees affirmed their view of biblical inerrancy and emphasized the importance of taking the gospel to all of Louisiana … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptists were challenged last week to touch their world – beginning with the most basic gospel task. Louisiana Baptists were challenged last week to touch their world – beginning with the most basic gospel task. “You want to touch your world,” Tom Elliff asked messengers in the first of three Bible studies at last week’s annual Louisiana Baptist Convention in West Monroe. “Here’s where it starts – be a soul winner for Jesus.” Elliff focused his three Bible studies on the convention theme – “Louisiana Baptists touching the world.” In addition to urging a focus on soul winning, he called on persons to pray for their families and maintain a lifelong commitment to the work of the gospel. Elliff is a former missionary and longtime pastor who recently was elected senior vice president for spiritual renewal and church relations for the Southern Baptist International Board. In the first study, Elliff cited four reasons persons should be soul winners: • There is a compelling reality one must acknowledge. “The compelling reality is this – people who do not know Jesus will spend an eternity in hell separated from God, ...” Elliff said. “They are hopelessly lost. They are staggering to slaughter. … [Read more...]

During considerations of the proposal to put the operation and publication of the Baptist Message under the Executive Board’s staff, this editor has remained publicly silent. What to do about where the paper’s operation and publication was a Baptist Message Board, Executive Board and Louisiana Baptist Convention decision. While I had strong thoughts and feelings about the matter, I did not feel a departing editor should try to sway opinions and actions for the future. During considerations of the proposal to put the operation and publication of the Baptist Message under the Executive Board’s staff, this editor has remained publicly silent. What to do about where the paper’s operation and publication was a Baptist Message Board, Executive Board and Louisiana Baptist Convention decision. While I had strong thoughts and feelings about the matter, I did not feel a departing editor should try to sway opinions and actions for the future. But messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention last week spoke clearly to the matter on two points. The first was when messengers voted to alter the 2006 budget proposed by the Executive Board. All agencies of the convention were reduced, but the Baptist Message allocation was … [Read more...]

My wife Leah has endured much at the hands of her husband, especially when traveling in my trusty (?)1997 two-door, four-wheel drive, 168,000 mile Tahoe becomes involved. She has been stuck in snow, stuck in a ditch, stranded more than once in the truck with a bass boat attached (twice in exactly the same place), stuck beside an interstate with a broken fuel pump, out of gas and stopped dead by a faulty battery cable connection. She has endured this peacefully, but now, when I ask if she would like to go somewhere with me, she asks skeptically, “In what?” My wife Leah has endured much at the hands of her husband, especially when traveling in my trusty (?)1997 two-door, four-wheel drive, 168,000 mile Tahoe becomes involved. She has been stuck in snow, stuck in a ditch, stranded more than once in the truck with a bass boat attached (twice in exactly the same place), stuck beside an interstate with a broken fuel pump, out of gas and stopped dead by a faulty battery cable connection. She has endured this peacefully, but now, when I ask if she would like to go somewhere with me, she asks skeptically, “In what?” She tells folks, “I identify travel disaster with Lynn’s green monster.” Not long ago, she went on a trip … [Read more...]

The Louisiana Baptist Message will continue to operate under a separate board of trustees after a proposal to move the newspaper within the state convention structure was soundly rejected last week. The Louisiana Baptist Message will continue to operate under a separate board of trustees after a proposal to move the newspaper within the state convention structure was soundly rejected last week. The proposal to change the newspaper structure easily was rejected during a called business session at last week’s annual Louisiana Baptist Convention. The vote was at least two-to-one against the idea on a show-of-ballots vote. Approval of the move would have required a two-thirds vote in favor. The action capped business at the annual meeting and sent a Baptist Message search committee back to the drawing board to find a replacement for retiring Editor Lynn P. Clayton. Clayton has announced plans to conclude more than 27 years as editor at the end of 2005. His service of almost three decades was honored last week during the annual report of the newspaper to the convention. A pair of former Baptist Message trustee chairs offered words of reflection. “It’s my pleasure to tell you a little something about my … [Read more...]

Just as the believers of the early Christian church were known for changing their world for Christ, Louisiana Baptists should have the same reputation, Fred Luter said. By Brian Blackwell LBM Newswriter Just as the believers of the early Christian church were known for changing their world for Christ, Louisiana Baptists should have the same reputation, Fred Luter said. “When people see (Louisiana Baptists), they’ll say ‘there they are,’” Luter said during the Louisiana Baptist Pastors’ Conference at McClendon Baptist Church in West Monroe last week. “They’ll say ‘there are those people who are turning this community upside down.’” Luter, who serves as pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, was one of six speakers at the conference, held prior to last week’s annual Louisiana Baptist Convention. In his sermon, Luter cited Acts 1, which chronicled how a small number of believers rapidly expanded the early Christian church. Luter said the passage reveals three  things that occur when a believer is empowered by the Holy spirit. They are: • First, a Christian becomes a new person. “These were the same believers who just a few days earlier were running scared,” Luter said of … [Read more...]

Weekly announcements Potpourri START – Start church: Casey Johnson, guest speaker; Dec. 4, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.; Jeff Smart, pastor. GONZALES – Central church: Bible Conference; Dec. 5-7, 7-9 p.m.; Usama Dakdok, featured speaker; conferences are free; Jay Avance, pastor. MANSFIELD – First church: Stephen and Jane Milam, IMB missionaries, guest speakers; Dec. 4, 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.; Roy “Thumper” Miller, pastor. JENA – First church: Ladies Ensemble and The Men’s Quartet in concert; Dec. 4, 6 p.m.; Dominick C. DiCarlo Jr., pastor. DEQUINCY – First church: Suzanne Kelly, accompanied by Matt Dixon on guitar and Sharon Graham on piano, in concert; Dec. 4, 6:30 p.m.; Mike Paris, interim pastor. PINEVILLE – Louisiana College: Baptismal Rally, sponsored by North Rapides Association; Nov. 27, 6 p.m. in the Granberry Conference Center; Herb Dickerson and Joe Aguillard, guest speakers; Jason and Tina McCorvey, worship leaders; Herb Dickerson, director of missions; Joe Aguillard, president. Youth BATON ROUGE – Woodlawn church:  Christmas program presented by the preschool choir; Dec. 4, 6 p.m.; Adam Holcomb, minister of music; Tommy G. Middleton, pastor. WEST MONROE – New Chapel Hill church: … [Read more...]

When the bells chimed at 10 a.m. Nov. 6, Sandy Creek Baptist Church near Liberty, N.C, inaugurated its 250th year in ministry. When the bells chimed at 10 a.m. Nov. 6, Sandy Creek Baptist Church near Liberty, N.C, inaugurated its 250th year in ministry. Inside the white country church, pastor Travis Brock and guests from as far away as Georgia, Texas and Illinois exchanged greetings and waited in anticipation of the event, a full year in the making. The congregation and choir sang old standards such as “Amazing Grace” and “I Love to Tell the Story” with both smiles and tears. “It is humbling to think what God has done in this place,” Brock said before the celebration. “One pastor I spoke with said that God had done more through this church than through any other since Pentecost.” When the Sandy Creek church was founded, the United States did not exist. The year was 1755, and two recent converts to the Baptist faith made their way into a very rural and isolated Randolph County. There, with 16 others, they founded the first Separate Baptist Church in the South. Shubal Stearns and Daniel Marshall both believed that they would be well received among the settlers in North Carolina who favored emotional, … [Read more...]