Submitted by philip on Mon, 11/04/2013 - 10:43 LBC President Waylon Bailey will give his President's Commission 2020 report to begin the LBC annual meeting on Monday evening. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA – After nearly a year of countless meetings and planning on a seven-year ministry strategy for Louisiana Baptists, the affirmation of a final report from the President’s 2020 Commission could be just days away. Affirmed during the Louisiana Baptist Executive Board meeting on Sept. 24, the report is aimed at challenging Louisiana Baptists to maximize their effectiveness in Gospel ministry through the year 2020. Messengers to the 2013 Louisiana Baptist Annual Meeting will have the chance to affirm the report during the Monday evening session of the two-day meeting, scheduled for Nov. 11-12 at the Alexandria Riverfront Center. Messengers and others attending the convention will also have the opportunity to learn in-depth about the 2020 Commission plan that will focus on two audiences, four avenues to engage those audiences and 10 actions steps, also referred to as KAIROS (Key Actions in Reaching Our State). As a result of months of research conducted by Louisiana Baptist leaders, the two … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Mon, 11/04/2013 - 10:46 John Hebert (left), the Director of the Missions and Ministry Team for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, congratulates James Jenkins on being named the new Director of Church Planting for the state. Jenkins will officially start his new position in January 2014. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA – When James Jenkins came on board with the Louisiana Baptist Convention as state director of African-American ministries in 1999, he envisioned a day when hundreds of new churches would be planted in the state. That day is almost here, Jenkins believes. From 2014 to 2020, as part of an emphasis on church planting through the President’s 2020 Commission, Louisiana Baptists will seek to start 300 new congregations, including a goal of 230 new churches in South Louisiana, – something Jenkins believes can happen. “This is our hour, this is our time,” said Jenkins, who becomes the LBC’s new Director of Church Planting for the Missions and Ministry Team. He will officially start this position on Jan. 1. “We can do this and we can achieve things that come as an opportunity with the 2020 Commission.” A veteran church planter for 22 years, Jenkins has been a part of … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Mon, 11/04/2013 - 10:47 Sadie Robertson, the daughter of Willie and Korie Robertson, most widely known from the Duck Dynasty television show, will be a special featured guest at this year’s 26th annual Youth Evangelism Conference. By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA – Duck Dynasty fever is coming to this year’s Youth Evangelism Conference. Ducky Dynasty reality television show daughter Sadie Robertson is the featured guest during the Sunday evening session of this year’s Youth Evangelism Conference. The daughter of Willie and Korie Robertson, Sadie will discuss her new devotional series for teenagers, and share about her new line of modesty based prom dresses for girls and living out her faith on a Louisiana high school campus. Also, she will have some fun talking about duck hunting. “We’re thankful to have Sadie joining us at YEC,” said Kevin Boles, youth strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “YEC is about Louisiana teenagers. Sadie is a Louisiana teenager who’s living out her Christianity in very bold ways. She was a last minute addition, due to the complexity of her family’s schedule, and we’re thankful she can be with us.” But YEC will feature more than … [Read more...]

By Staff, World News Magazine PETERSBURG, KY – A Christian foundation recently gave the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., the fossil of a large predatory dinosaur similar to a Tyrannosaurus rex, which offers evidence of the Old Testament global flood. The fossil is believed to be one of the four best-preserved Allosaurus skulls ever discovered, according to a Creation Museum press release. The museum’s new dinosaur, affectionately called Ebenezer, probably stood 10-feet high and 30-feet long and had teeth averaging over four inches. Fifty-three of those teeth are still in place. Unearthed in Colorado, the fossil’s well-preserved condition and the position of the skull and spine suggests it was killed under sudden, catastrophic conditions. It was on its side as though it had been knocked over and rapidly buried in mud. The large layer of sedimentary rock surrounding the fossil indicates dispersion by flood water covering the entire continent, according to Andrew Snelling, a geologist at the Creation Museum. “This is a very remarkable find. It is unique because so far we have found very few complete skulls,” Snelling told World News. Predictably, secular scientists scoff at the idea the skull offers proof of a global flood … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Message Editor The possible physical and psychological scars of one industry are potentially so traumatic that the Washington, D.C., Health Department is proposing regulations designed to protect the health and well-being of its citizens. “We’re making sure when that decision is made that you’re in the right frame of mind, and you don’t wake up in the morning saying, ‘Oh my ... what happened?’” a variety of news reports quoted D.C. Health Department spokesperson Najma Roberts explaining the need for the proposed regulations. What specific industry are the good bureaucrats in our nation’s capital seeking to regulate? Is it the abortion industry? Maybe it’s plastic surgery or vasectomies? Actually it is none of these; it’s tattoo parlors. What is wholly ironic about Washington’s proposals to tightly regulate its body art industry is that no such rules apply to the capital’s abortion industry. Yet the same concerns about physical health and psychological issues apply to abortion as they do to tattoos or piercings, perhaps even more so. Along with regulations establishing standards for hygiene and administrative procedures for tattoo shops, the department is asking that a 24-hour waiting period be instituted for … [Read more...]

By Paul Chitwood, Executive Director of Kentucky Baptist Convention Having read “The Insanity of God” by Nik Ripken (pseudonym), I found the book to be a tremendously impacting account of the Ripken family’s journey as missionaries, researchers and encouragers to persecuted believers throughout the world.   If you’re Southern Baptist and have ever doubted the worth of your investment in the Cooperative Program, please read Ripken’s book, a dramatic and powerful illustration of how God has used the generosity of Southern Baptists to shape a man, his family and his life’s work, and to literally impact the world. Ripken was raised on a Kentucky farm, received a divine call to ministry and attended a Cooperative Program-supported college. God began directing Ripken toward mission work through an encounter with “a real live missionary” who was, in all likelihood, supported by the CP. Ripken continued his ministry preparation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he completed two degrees funded by, you guessed it, the Cooperative Program. The Ripkens went to Africa to share Christ among the nations, their work made possible by Southern Baptists who invested in the CP. I have known the Ripkens for nearly 20 years, … [Read more...]

By Al Mohler, Jr., President of Southern Seminary Fall brings the opening of the new school year, the energy of the season of autumn and, for Southern Baptists, the meetings of the state Baptist conventions. In the fall, most of the state conventions hold their annual meetings. Pastors and laypeople gather from local churches and assemble as a convention of Baptist churches. There is a glory in these meetings, and they affirm our need for the state conventions and their ministries. A younger generation of Southern Baptists may well be unaware of the importance of the state conventions and their work. They would be well-advised to attend their state convention and catch a vision of what the Baptist churches in their states are doing together. Americans are regularly reminded that states matter. Our political system respects the role of the individual states, and most Americans identify not only as citizens of the United States, but as residents of their respective states. This does not make our nation weaker. We are stronger because the states retain an important role in building communities and building the nation. In Southern Baptist life, the same is profoundly true of our state conventions. There is a need for Baptist … [Read more...]

To the Editor Earlier this year, the SBC’s “Calvinism Advisory Committee” released a statement which was praised by Calvinists and non-Calvinists within the SBC for it’s charitable tone and unifying impulse. The statement recognized the theological differences which exist within the SBC while affirming the need for friendly conversation rather than contributing to a spirit of divisiveness. In light of this encouraging statement, I was disappointed to read “Calvinism is not Baptist theology” in the October 10, 2013 edition of Baptist Message. If the letter were merely antagonistic and slighting it could easily be met with a sigh and dismissed. However, the letter contained such basic factual errors that a response is justified lest readers assume its veracity. Even a casual reading of the history of the Southern Baptist Convention makes clear that Calvinism has been present from the very beginning. Calvinist theology was, in fact, strongly influential among the founding leaders of the SBC and predominated for several decades. The Calvinism Advisory Committee celebrated the theological diversity that has existed from the SBC’s very first days citing “theological statesmen such as James P. Boyce and B. H. Carroll” among … [Read more...]