Click to Login or Sign Up

Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Five old innovations for our new day

By Lane Corley It’s a new day. New normals will emerge. Our churches are picking up new technologies and new innovations to help us continue to deliver the gospel. In this season of new, of change, of adaptation, there may also be some OLD innovations that we need to circle back to. As we reset our churches over the coming days, consider resetting these five practices and attitudes: The prayer chain –principle: mobilize prayer for the church and the lost. Growing up Southern Baptist, every church my family was a part of had a prayer chain. The prayer chain was a phone network built to mobilize prayer quickly when need arose in the congregation or community. How can your congregation be more effective at mobilizing prayer for one another, for the lost, for the community? Today, we have technologies available to us that can greatly enhance the impact of prayer mobilization. We all encourage prayer. How can we move from encouraging prayer to mobilizing prayer? What innovative approaches to prayer can we develop in the new normal? Discipleship training – principle: train the faithful to train others. The creativity of churches has grown tremendously over the last 20 years. Graphic design, stage design, sermon series … [Read more...]

Chuck Kelley on the state of the SBC (Pastors’ Task Force)

By Dr. Chuck Kelley In 2013, only three years after the GCR proposals were adopted, Al Gilbert, NAMB Vice President for Evangelism, convened a task force of twelve pastors and five denominational workers to take yet another look at the issue of steadily declining baptisms. The group sought to examine carefully the state of evangelism in Southern Baptist churches, to identify whatever problems might be at play, and to ask how those problems could be addressed. Pastors’ Task Force on SBC Evangelistic Impact and Declining Baptisms (2014) The group assessed key Great Commission statistics, sharing honestly the evidence indicating the regression of evangelism in the SBC. They found clear indications that SBC churches were experiencing a crisis in making an evangelistic impact on their communities. The task force did not refer to the GCR proposals, the God’s Plan for Sharing initiative, or any other previous approach to SBC decline in their report. Without elaborative details, the Task Force concluded that five problems were driving decline in the Southern Baptist Convention: Southern Baptists had a spiritual problem (need for revival), a leadership problem (need to model evangelism), a discipleship problem (lack of intentionality), … [Read more...]

Ebenezer girl became child of God on Mother’s Day

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer HAMMOND, La. (LBM) – The most recent Mother’s Day weekend resulted in an extra celebration for Lachee and Chris Morgan. Their daughter, Bry’Anna, 8, told her parents on May 7 – three days before the holiday – she had declared Jesus as her Savior and wanted to share the decision publicly through baptism. “We prayed together and all cried,” Lachee told the Baptist Message. “As a parent, the only thing you can hope for is your children accept Jesus and that you will all be together for eternity. Eternity is so much bigger than life here and are excited Bry’Anna will join us in Heaven one day.” Bry’Anna, who stirred the baptismal waters at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Hammond, May 24, said her salvation experience evoked an incredible joy and excitement that has not waned. “I was happy and excited then, and am still now,” Bry’Anna said. “My job as a Christian is to tell everyone about Jesus and what He did. I can’t wait to do so much for Him.” PRAYER-FOCUSED RESULTS Pastor Ken Schroeder credits a church committed to pray for a harvest for Bry'Anna's openness and readiness to receive salvation and her subsequent obedience in baptism. Hers was the sixth salvation and baptism … [Read more...]

Chuck Kelley on the state of the SBC (Great Commission Resurgence)

By Dr. Chuck Kelley In 2009, SBC President Johnny Hunt appointed a task force, chaired by Ronnie Floyd, to consider how to generate a Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) in the Southern Baptist Convention. As noted last week, the term “Great Commission Resurgence” was first used at the SBC by NAMB President Geoffrey Hammond in his report to the 2008 Convention as he announced the launch of the National Evangelism Initiative that became God’s Plan for Sharing. There was no connection between that usage of the term and what Dr. Hunt proposed. The GCR name was intended to evoke images of the movement known as the Conservative Resurgence, which produced the most profound changes in SBC history, transforming the theological direction of the SBC and its entities. The Great Commission Resurgence, dealing with SBC decline, bears no resemblance to the Conservative Resurgence in either method or outcome. The Great Commission Resurgence (2010) The Great Commission Resurgence proposal received far more time and attention in Southern Baptist life, both before and during the 2010 Convention meetings, than any of the other approaches to the evangelism crisis, more than all the others combined. There is one simple reason for the dramatic … [Read more...]

Because Christ lives, Ravi Zacharias also lives

By Ron F. Hale It was on Ravi’s seeming death bed in Delhi, India, that a man walked into his hospital room with a little red Gideon New Testament. At the age of seventeen, young Ravi had downed a concoction of poison mixed with water and chemicals. Growing up in a culture of honor and shame, Ravi’s undisciplined life led him to a very dark place. His mother asked the man to leave the room. Holding up the New Testament, the man said, “Your son needs this more than anything else.” She allowed him to turn to the 14th chapter of John. Through the smog of his skepticism, shame, and pain, Ravi tried to listen as the Scriptures were read aloud. Then something happened. “It was like a bolt of lightning in a moment of pitch blackness,” Ravi Zacharias would later say of the moment the Holy Spirit pierced his heart and mind with the pregnant promise of the inspired Word of God. “‘Because I live, you also shall live,’ were the seven words that cracked open my encrusted heart.” He realized that what “live” refers to in John 14:19 was not what his life was about. In an instant, he wanted this new life more than anything in the world. Ravi humbly and honestly prayed, “Jesus, if you are who you claim to be here, I want that life … [Read more...]

State Fire Marshal issues Phase Two rules for churches

By Message Staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) - After the Monday announcement about loosening COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings by Gov. John Bel Edwards, Chief H. “Butch” Browning, the state fire marshal, issued specific guidance today for churches regarding how to conduct in-person worship services during Phase Two of the reopening of the state’s economy. In general, places of worship must continue to adhere to strict mitigation standards for preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, but may make greater use of seating capacity -- up to 50 percent -- while spacing individuals and groups to limit concentrations of people. The complete set of "Open Safely" instructions can be found by clicking here. Changes from Phase One guidance are highlighted in yellow.   … [Read more...]