PINEVILLE -- The Office of Admissions at Louisiana College will host, Front of the Line, an orientation and pre-registration day on the LC campus Saturday May 10. This even, which is the second of three events planned, allows students the opportunity to meet with professors about degree programs and register for courses. “We had a great turnout this past Saturday and welcomed 92 new students who are planning to join us in the fall,” said Byron McGee, admissions director. “Front of the Line is not only tailored to our new students but for their parents as well so the transition from high school to college is a little easier.” Front of the Line is available for both incoming freshman and transfer students. First time students are not required to attend the event even if they are planning to attend Louisiana College in the fall. “We encourage all incoming freshmen and transferring students to connect with us early and register for classes. Most parents and students aren’t aware of all the financial aid opportunities available to them or what to expect from their degree program,” said Fred Guilbert, vice president of internal institutional advancement. “Students have the opportunity to meet with their professors and get a plan for … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/09/2014 - 09:01 Jay Adkins By Kelly Boggs, Editor A Louisiana College trustee has posted on his personal blog a letter he previously sent to David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, wherein he asks the director to resign or retire. Jay Adkins, LC board member and pastor of First Baptist Church, Westwego, placed on his blog, The Crescent Crier, on April 22, a lengthy letter giving his reasons for calling on Hankins to remove himself from his post as leader of the LBC. The first portion of Adkins’ communique is printed below. The paragraphs have been broken down in order to accommodate newspaper columns and allow for a more accommodating read: “Dr. Hankins, It is with a heavy heart that I contact you today. In the past, I have expressed my concerns to you over the phone, in email and in person. Your actions over the last year have entirely dissolved any vestige of confidence I once had in your leadership. “In particular, I am referring to (1) your extreme bias against an historically rich and respected soteriological tradition, (2) the undue influence you have brought to bear on the Board of Trustees of Louisiana College and (3) your manipulation and … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Mon, 05/19/2014 - 09:27 Dr. Hannah Pounds, director of the Baptist Communities Health Services Clinic, greets patient Barry Sims. The clinic, which will be staffed by full-time, licensed medical personnel, will provide quality family healthcare in New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward. By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS – In New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, blocks from where he grew up in poverty, Fred Luter, Jr., Southern Baptist Convention president and pastor of New Orleans’ Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, spoke at the grand opening of Baptist Communities Health Services, a full-service, primary care health clinic, and for many, a long-in-coming dream come true. “We are here because of our love for Christ,” Luter said. “We are here because of our love for the Lower Ninth Ward community.” Baptist Communities Health Services (BCHS) – staffed by full-time, licensed medical personnel – is providing quality family healthcare in one of New Orleans’ most medically underserved neighborhoods. “Since Hurricane Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward has been the most neglected neighborhood in the city,” Luter said. “One of the reasons we decided to build the clinic here is to let people know, ‘We care … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Mon, 05/19/2014 - 09:31 The Heart Gallery, a display of photographs of Louisiana children available for adoption out of the state foster care system, attracted attention at the “Wait No More” adoption conference held at Istrouma Baptist Church on May 10, in Baton Rouge. By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter BATON ROUGE – More than 300 children in Louisiana state foster care are waiting for adoption and almost that many people attended a “Wait No More” conference to do something about it. Dewayne and Sharon Smith of Slidell want to foster and/or adopt a little girl while Billy and Tessie Grigg of Gonzales want a baby. Buford and Lisa Quick, also of Gonzales, are praying about an older child or a teenager. The Smiths and Griggs and Quicks were just three of more than 100 families and couples who attended the “Wait No More: Finding Families for Louisiana’s Waiting Kids,” conference, sponsored by the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries, Focus on the Family, the Louisiana Family Forum and the state Department of Children and Family Services and hosted May 10 by Istrouma Baptist Church. Testimonies from two women who grew up in foster care, a man who has adopted several children … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist MessageNEW ORLEANS – The Louisiana Supreme Court denied a writ application to review the decisions of the Ninth Judicial District Court and the Third Circuit of Appeals wherein both courts found in favor of Louisiana College in a suit brought against the school by former professors.   The decision by the Supreme Court, rendered on April 8, to not review the case represents the fourth time a court has decided in favor of LC in a lawsuit originally filed in 2005 by Carlton L. Winbery, Fredrick L. Downing, James R. Heath and Connie R. Douglas. The former LC professors filed suit against LC alleging loss of academic freedom and infliction of emotional distress. In the original ruling rendered on March 28, 2012, Judge Mary Lauve Doggett of the Ninth Judicial Court wrote: “Under the establishment Clause, the consideration is whether the issues which the Court will have to resolve will necessarily turn upon competing interpretations of religion, thus resulting in the Court becoming entangled in an ecclesiastical dispute.” The Judge continued, “The ‘Entanglement Doctrine’ provides that a court must decline jurisdiction over a lawsuit when the dispute is so intertwined with matters of religion that a proper … [Read more...]

Pineville – Beginning with the Fall 2014 semester, Louisiana College is partnering with Northwestern State University’s Army ROTC in order to provide LC students the opportunity to serve our country as commissioned United States Army officers. Lt. Col. “Macky” Underwood, professor of military science, said, “ROTC is one of the best leadership courses in the world at preparing young people for long term success. “Present at over 1300 campuses across the nation, it ensures the officers corps of the Army reflects the diversity that makes America great,” he said. “I am thrilled to be able to offer the students of Louisiana College the opportunity to participate in ROTC.” Army ROTC is a cooperative program that allows the student to continue their education at LC while they take one Army ROTC class and lab per semester at NSU, the host ROTC institution. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Louisiana College students. The Army ROTC program is an exceptional program designed to select, train, and produce the future leadership of the United States Army, Army Reserves, or the Army National Guard,” said Andrew Magee, Coordinator for the Criminal Justice Department at Louisiana College. … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer MONROE – The Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home has launched a new tool to help families and churches answer the call to minister to orphans through foster care, adoptions and orphan care ministries. Unveiled at a recent adoption and foster care conference at Istrouma Baptist church in Baton Rouge, Connect 1:27 offers individuals and churches a toolkit to be a “helper to the orphan.” The toolkit includes an orphan ministry guide, the theology of adoption, an orphan care sermon, Bible study and prayer guides, adoption options, a foster care and adoption parent guide and “Fields of the Fatherless” by Tom Davis. Churches will have access to online resources available only to Connect 1:27 Network members and will receive a monthly Connect 1:27 e-newsletter. Connect 1:27 is based on God’s command of James 1:27 – Religion that our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. A day before the conference took place, Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home President and Chief Executive Officer Perry Hancock told trustees that Connect 1:27 is the next phase of the organization’s foster care and … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor ALEXANDRIA – The first products of the Louisiana Baptist Message publishing arm Message Books are finally moving toward publication. Two books will be available by the end of the year, one by Joe McKeever and a second representing contributions by a variety of authors, many from Louisiana, led by Adam Harwood, McFarland Chair of Theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. McKeever, is well known to Louisiana Baptists as a preacher, director of missions and cartoonist. “I am not going to make any excuses but we are not as far along in the process as I would have hoped,” Boggs said. “We had hoped to have both books published by now. But a variety of issues has contributed to the delay.” The Message board unanimously approved the creation of Message Books at its December meeting. “We are lagging a little behind in a few our projections, Boggs said in reference to the financial statement, “but a lot of things can change between now and our next meeting. We want to see what kind of revenue stream these two books produce,” he told the board. “Though costs, such as printing and postage, continue to increase we are committed to navigating the situation before us,” Boggs said. He also … [Read more...]

By David Jeremiah, Pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church Just as a frame of reference for this article, let’s step back from the American cultural forest and identify four distinct varieties of trees that have grown up in post-World War II America: Baby Boomers: born from the mid-1940s to mid-1960s; grew up in a prosperous post-war society; sometimes referred to as the “Me” Generation. Generation X: children of the Baby Boomers, born from the early 1960s to the late 1970s; raised in post-Vietnam, unsettled society; looking to find their way. Generation Y: born from mid-1970s to early 2000s; raised in the early days of the digital-technology revolution; sometimes referred to as the “Millennials.” Generation Z: born from early 1990s to late 2000s; raised with digital tools and toys; live a wholly connected lifestyle that transcends geography; digital information explosion has created awareness of and participation in causes at the local, national and international levels.   … [Read more...]