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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Currence to be renominated as SBC registration secretary

By Staff ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) -- Associate Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Louisiana Baptist Convention Dale Lingenfelter announced today that he plans to nominate Don Currence for the office of Southern Baptist Conventionregistration secretary. “It is an honor and a joy to nominate my friend Don Currence for registration secretary during the 2024 Annual Meeting in Indianapolis,” said Lingenfelter, an SBC registration volunteer for the past 23 consecutive years. “I have witnessed firsthand Don’s servant heart and leadership for many years. He truly has a passion for this work,” heexplained. “He humbly carries out his assigned duties with the highest standard of integrity while seeking to make the registration process as painless and efficient as possible. Southern Baptists should take confidence knowing someone of Don’s character is overseeing our registration and teller’s work.” If elected, Currence will begin his sixth term as registration secretary. Before being elected to this role, he had assisted longtime Registration Secretary Jim Wells for 12 years. Currence is the administrative pastor with First Baptist Church, Ozark, Missouri, having served the congregation for 30 years. In 2023 he … [Read more...]

Change allows SBC messengers to submit resolutions earlier

By Baptist Message staff INDIANAPOLIS (LBM) – Messengers to the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting now will have the opportunity to submit resolutions 14 days earlier than in previous years under a change approved during last year’s SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Resolutions can be submitted between April 1 and May 22. Additionally, the resolutions committee will meet in late May and release their initial report no later than 10 days before the start of the first session. Previously, resolutions could be submitted as early as April 15 and as late as 15 days before the start of the annual meeting. The committee then met a few days before the annual meeting to go over submitted resolutions. In “The Road to Indy” video released on March 26, SBC Committee on Resolutions Chair Kristen Ferguson outlined the changes. Ferguson, associate dean of educational effectiveness and director of online education at Gateway Seminary, said the change will allow messengers more time to consider each resolution. “This year, we still do have two-and-a-half days of in-person work time,” she said. “But then we have almost a week afterwards to publish the preliminary report. So the thing that I think that does is we get … [Read more...]

World Hunger Offering gift helps meet physical, spiritual needs

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer NEW ORLEANS (LBM) – Two teams recently lined up inside a Walmart for an unusual Kingdom-minded shopping challenge, the Baptist Message has learned. Using a $1,000 grant from the Louisiana World Hunger Offering, the student teams from Miner Baptist Church, Sikeston, Missouri, split the money and went on a shopping spree to each fill 25 boxes that were then distributed to needy families in New Orleans, Jan. 4. Jacob Crawford, executive director of City Life NOLA and pastor of City Life Church, New Orleans, said the effort met basic physical needs of the recipients and provided opportunities to pray with and share the Gospel with individuals with whom his church was trying to develop relationships. Each box contained food, a blanket and hygiene items. “This not only built excitement among the teams, but it gave us an opportunity to further relationships with individuals who previously were homeless and had recently moved into a rental unit,” Crawford told the Baptist Message. “These boxes provide access for us to meet people we usually wouldn’t.” Adult leader Pam Lowe was amazed at how the appreciation expressed by each recipient. “One lady that we gave a meal to told … [Read more...]

‘Superman killed God’ topic of LCU’s final C3 for spring

By LCU Media PINEVILLE, La. (LCU Media) -- Renton Rathun, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, will be the speaker for the final Christ, Church, Culture event of the spring 2024 semester. The C3 will be held April 8, at 6:30 p.m. in Guinn Auditorium and is free to the public. His topic will be “How Superman Killed God: the Twenty-First Century Mind.” He will also be the Chapel speaker on April 9 at 11 a.m., speaking from Ephesians 2:1-9 on “Why I am a Christian.” Rathbun is committed to developing a biblical worldview in faculty, staff, and students which begins in the heart, is refined by the mind, and leads to service for others. As the director of BJU’s Center for Biblical Worldview, Renton works to support the mission of the university by helping align the entire organization with one unified vision of biblical worldview. He has been a college professor for more than 20 years teaching in both public and Christian colleges and universities. He is a national speaker on biblical worldview. Rathbun holds a B.S. in English education and an M.A. in interpretative speech from BJU. He has an M.F.A. in creative writing from Minnesota State … [Read more...]

UPDATE: Louisiana Reach Haiti celebrates safe return of staff members

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer CAP HAITIEN, Haiti (LBM) – Four weeks after they became trapped in Port-au-Prince, two staff members of Louisiana Reach Haiti have made it safely to the ministry’s Children’s Village in Cap Haitien. Darrin Badon, president of Louisiana Reach Haiti, said the women left on a bus from the capital city early March 26 and took the eight-hour bus ride for a long-awaited reunion with the children and staff at the Children’s Village. They had been living in a relative’s home since March 4, when gang activity forced them to remain inside the house. Badon expressed gratitude for the many prayers on the behalf of the women and the children and other staff of Louisiana Reach Haiti, a partnership between the Louisiana Baptist Convention, Haiti Baptist Convention, Louisiana Baptist churches and the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home & Family Ministries. The Baptist Message published an article on March 16 regarding Badon’s plea for prayers on behalf of the staff members. “God protected them while they were there with family,” Badon told the Baptist Message. “By His grace, we got them out of there today. The kids and staff were elated to see them. Lots of hugs were exchanged and we … [Read more...]

Colyell goes all-in on discipleship, experiences revival

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer LIVINGSTON, La. (LBM) – Colyell Baptist Church was seeing people saved and baptized each year, but their spiritual journeys seemed to stop just beyond the baptis­tery, according to Pastor Jer­emy Glascock and his wife, Amanda, who both realized the church had to get serious about discipleship. Since the first disciple­ship group began meeting in September 2022, 30 women and 18 men have become involved. Additionally, Sun­day worship has increased from 146 in September 2022 to 245 in February 2024, and the church has celebrated 44 baptisms during that time. “One of the biggest things we missed in church all these years was discipleship,” Glascock told the Baptist Message. “We baptized all these people, and we didn’t do much else after with them except put them in a Sunday school class. “But when we began liv­ing life with people in small groups, things changed,” he continued. “It has started a culture change. We used to revolve around just meeting together in church on Sun­day mornings, but now we revolve around discipleship, too.” BACKGROUND Since Glascock arrived in 2017, 178 new believers have been baptized by CBC. Dur­ing that time, he noticed that those who … [Read more...]