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Trump vows to use military if governors don’t deploy National Guard to stop riots

June 2, 2020

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George Floyd’s brother criticizes violent protesters: ‘Don’t tear up your town’

June 2, 2020

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Governor’s Phase Two opens church gatherings to 50 percent capacity

June 1, 2020

By Message Staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – Nearly three weeks after the state entered Phase One of reopening the economy, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Monday that churches and many other businesses in the state may increase their percentage use of seating when a new order is issued Friday. Under the new guidance from the state fire marshal, Department of Health and Governor’s Office, congregations will be allowed to fill up to 50 percent of a worship center’s capacity, compared to a limit of 25 percent under the current order that ends after Thursday. Louisianans will be under the new order June 5 through June 25. “We are seeing signs of progress,” Edwards said about the fight against the pandemic during his Monday news conference. “Louisiana is headed in the right direction. “We still have work to do,” he continued. “We still have some restrictions that have to be in place. We are not going to be fully back to normal for some time and certainly not likely until we have a vaccine that is safe, effective, mass produced and then administered to some significant percentage of the population. But we are moving in the right direction.” Other businesses that now can open, with the same maximum occupancy limit of 50 … [Read more...]

Chuck Kelley on the state of the SBC (Background)

June 1, 2020

By Dr. Chuck Kelley The year 2000 marked a profound turning point for the Southern Baptist Convention. The beginning of a new century brought a new and unexpected problem to Southern Baptists: prolonged decline. Not noticed at the time, the official SBC statistics from the 2000 church year proved to be a harbinger of things to come. It started with baptisms. Because Jesus identified baptisms as a marker for making disciples in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), the number of baptisms recorded by its churches has always been an important measure of progress for Southern Baptists. For much of SBC history, the proportional growth in the total number of baptisms consistently exceeded growth in the total number of SBC churches. As the number of churches grew, so did the number of baptisms by those churches. However, in the 2000 church year those trend lines crossed. The number of churches continued climbing, but the number of baptisms by those churches began dropping. That year proved to be a sea change, not an anomaly. A new phenomenon in the Southern Baptist story began to unfold. The graph above was prepared by Dr. Bill Day of the Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health at New Orleans … [Read more...]

Chuck Kelley series on the SBC (10 of 10 articles)

June 1, 2020

Article 1: Introduction Article 2: Background Article 3: Origins Article 4: Bully Pulpit Article 5: Evangelism Article 6: Great Commission Resurgence Article 7: Pastors' Task Force Article 8: Evangelism Task Force Article 9: Where We Are Now Article 10: Revival Needed … [Read more...]

Can you see the light?

June 1, 2020

By Stewart Holloway PINEVILLE, La. (LBM) - For over two months now, my oldest son, my mom, and I have spent most Friday mornings at my mom’s clearing overgrown brush. What was planted as a fruit orchard in an open pasture almost thirty years ago has grown into a wilderness of every kind of vine and tree imaginable. How did the orchard get that way? For one, my dad seldom pruned anything. He liked to plant things and watch them grow. Therefore, the fruit trees and grapevines grew too big. That l...ed to the second problem: procrastination. As other trees started to come up among the fruit trees, even though I mowed the area through high school and college, I was not allowed to cut those trees. “We’ll cut them later.” Well, we never did. Daddy said “later” until he died thirteen years ago. When I moved here, mom said, “Sometime we need to cut those trees.” I too said, “Later.” Now, here we are another twelve years later! Guess what? The little trees aren’t so little anymore and now there are a lot more! We have worked hard cutting down trees, pulling vines, and hauling brush to our now three massive piles. We are nowhere near through. However, when we stopped on Friday, we rejoiced because we could see all the way through … [Read more...]

Louisiana Baptist pastor loses home in fire

June 1, 2020

By Message Staff KINDER, La. (LBM) - A Kinder church planter is in need of prayers and financial assistance after a fire destroyed his home Thursday. Trev Talbert, pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Kinder, told the Baptist Message an electrical fire was to blame, but no one was at home when the incident occurred. Talbert, who also is a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserves, was in New York City Thursday providing medical care to those impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Talbert said he is grateful for the financial gifts received. These include monetary donations from the Louisiana Baptist Convention, St. Paul Baptist members, EJ Kemper, pastor of Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in Lake Charles, and others from Carey Baptist Association. “I could never thank the LBC and [Director of Missions] Bruce Baker enough for the love they’ve showered on me since the fire," he said. "This has been one of the most devastating losses I’ve ever had to endure and to have them looking out for me the way they have has definitely made this a bit easier to deal with.” John Hebert, Louisiana Baptists missions and ministry team director, delivered a check from the church planter supplement fund to Talbert … [Read more...]

Most of 23 million immigrant eligible voters live in five states

June 1, 2020

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COVID-19 death toll heaviest in Democrat-controlled congressional districts

June 1, 2020

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27 killed, 92 shot in Chicago weekend gun violence

June 1, 2020

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Editorial

The race of faith: a marathon, not a sprint

When I ran cross country, our training involved running Monday through Friday and, occasionally, optional Saturday runs. We did “easy” days, long-distance days, sprint days (the worst), and more, all to make sure that we were in the best shape possible for our 5k race — a little over three miles — which occurred … Read More

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