Week of April 11, 2005 Cooperative Program Gifts through the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program totaled $15.6 million last month, an increase of about $483,000 (3.2 percent) from the previous March. Halfway through the Southern Baptist Convention’s fiscal year, overall receipts total $98.6 million, an increase of $3.1 million (3.3 percent) from the same time last year. In addition, the total stands $7 million (7.7 percent) ahead of budget at this time. Meanwhile, designated receipts totaled almost $26.8 million last month, up $2.4 million (9.9 percent) from the previous March. For the fiscal year, overall designated receipts total $116.5 million, a decrease of a little more than $1.5 million (1.3 percent) from the same time last year. Court decision The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that a lower court was correct in overturning a death sentence for a man who raped and murdered a woman because the jury in his trial read excerpts from the Bible during deliberations. In 1994, Robert Harlan kidnapped a casino waitress on her way home from work. He shot and permanently paralyzed a woman who tried to intervene, and after raping the waitress at gunpoint for two hours, he shot her in the head. Jurors in Harlan’s … [Read more...]
Aim of sermons must be to change lives, prof insists
The aim of every sermon should be to change listeners’ lives, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Hershael York told participants at a recent preaching conference. The aim of every sermon should be to change listeners’ lives, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Hershael York told participants at a recent preaching conference. “When we preach the Word, we want them to have more than merely an experience,” said York, who serves as professor of Christian preaching at the Louisville, Ky., seminary. “We want them to have an encounter with the text that does nothing less than change their life.” To preach life-changing sermons, preachers must begin their preparation by determining how the scriptural text under consideration reveals man’s fallen condition and need for the grace of Christ, York said during the conference held on the seminary campus last month. “The text always shows us that there is something in us that is deficient, that is in need of the grace of God to be applied, ...” he said. “We have to repent. We have to allow the grace of God to be applied to our lives in such a way that we grow in Christ’s likeness.” Gearing sermons toward changed lives also demands that … [Read more...]
Louisiana evangelist announces plans to be nominated for LBC presidency
Louisiana Baptist evangelist Jerry Chaddick of Lake Charles has announced plans to be nominated for state convention president in November. Louisiana Baptist evangelist Jerry Chaddick of Lake Charles has announced plans to be nominated for state convention president in November. “After being asked by several pastors from around the state to allow my name to be placed in nomination for the office of president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention and after receiving endorsement and promise of support from the Louisiana Inerrancy Fellowship and after prayerful consideration, I have agreed to offer myself as a candidate for that position,” Chaddick said. Louisiana Inerrancy Fellowship Chair Leon Hyatt of Pineville confirmed that Chaddick has received unanimous support for the presidency from the group. Chaddick is the first announced nominee for the state convention post, which is open this year. Philip Robertson of Deville is serving his second term as convention president and is ineligible for re-election. A native of DeRidder, Chaddick previously served as pastor of churches in Louisiana and Mississippi. He entered full-time evangelism in February 2004. In announcing plans to allow his … [Read more...]
The church faces key challenges – will it meet them?
Anyone who does not think the church faces incredible challenges has not been reading current books and literature on the subject. Anyone who does not think the church faces incredible challenges has not been reading current books and literature on the subject. Actually, one can be deeply challenged – if not frightened – by current trends addressed by excellent literature. An excellent book, “The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church” by Reggie McNeal contemplates the challenges our society presents the church. McNeal is consultant and church leadership developer for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. In his brief (148 pages) volume, he presents six “New Realities.” Each of these “realities” presents the church with significant challenges, any one of which can cause a church to rethink the way it goes about being church. Readers may not agree with all his premises or the way he believes a church should go about meeting them, but he will stop the reader dead in his/her tracks considering them. Along with this provocative book are the results of Lifeway’s recent survey of ministers. The survey included 1,300 ministers in North America and Europe. The study presented subjects with 3,700 … [Read more...]
LBC leader urges key change for Baptist Message
Louisiana Baptist Message trustees have been asked to consider moving the newspaper back under state Executive Board structure and authority. Louisiana Baptist Message trustees have been asked to consider moving the newspaper back under state Executive Board structure and authority. Louisiana Baptist Convention Executive Director David Hankins presented the proposal to newspaper trustees during a called meeting last week in Alexandria. Baptist Message trustees had called the meeting primarily to hear recommendations from Hankins concerning “possible methods and structures for better cooperation and stewardship” between the convention and the newspaper. During the two-hour session, Hankins presented an idea that would eliminate the Baptist Message board and place the newspaper back within the Executive Board fold. The Baptist Message originally operated within the Executive Board structure until it was authorized as a separate denominational agency in 1963. Hankins proposed returning to those days by designing a new communications division for the state convention. The division would provide “a uniform, conprehensive, coordinated, intentional, efficient and effective communication plan for the … [Read more...]
Yet more gambling may be ahead for Louisiana
As if in a desperate attempt to prove that enough never is enough, Louisiana could be witnessing still more expansion of legalized gambling in the state. As if in a desperate attempt to prove that enough never is enough, Louisiana could be witnessing still more expansion of legalized gambling in the state. The Jena Band of Choctaws has targeted a small Central Louisiana community as a site to open a new casino – and there may be little the state can do to stop it. The Jena tribe has been seeking land to open a casino for years. Efforts failed in Mississippi – and attempts in Louisiana have fallen through as well. In 2002, the tribe had an agreement signed with the state. But that “compact” was rejected by the federal government, partly because the proposed site was too far from the tribe’s ancestral homeland. Now, the tribe has a site near its homeland – the small community of Creola in Grant Parish in Central Louisiana. It is an unlikely site. In 2001, a Jena Band of Choctaws leader even said the tribe never would open a casino in the parish. After all, its residents outlawed video poker in 1996 – and sale of alcohol is banned in most of the parish as well. However, that was before the tribe … [Read more...]
‘Something extraordinary’ stirring in SBC, leader says
Prepare for action – Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch said he is beginning to see the makings of “something extraordinary” in the denomination. Prepare for action – Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch said he is beginning to see the makings of “something extraordinary” in the denomination. The current Everyone Can Kingdom Challenge for Evangelism “is getting the same touch, the same feel about it” of a great revival, Welch said during a recent address to a group of Tennessee Baptist church planters. Welch launched the Everyone Can campaign last year via a nationwide bus tour, traversing the country and urging Southern Baptists to “Win ... Witness … & Baptize 1 MILLION” people from Oct. 1, 2005 to Oct. 1, 2006. He currently is continuing his effort by focusing on the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Nashville, Tenn., set for June 21-22. Welch even has temporarily relocated to Nashville in order to help lay the groundwork for his emphasis. There, he is employing the same approach he used in his nationwide bus tour, during which he spoke in various locations and engaged in one-on-one witnessing. This time, Welch is focusing his evangelistic effort on an … [Read more...]
Showing compassion – Baptists work to offer help and hope following Indonesian disasters (Part One)
Dwayne Rogers says the recent Louisiana Baptist disaster relief missions trip to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, was a miracle in more ways than one. Dwayne Rogers says the recent Louisiana Baptist disaster relief missions trip to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, was a miracle in more ways than one. For three years prior to Dec. 26, 2004, foreign travel to Banda Aceh had been restricted, Southern Baptist International Mission Board officials report. However, after an earthquake and tsunami struck the city that day – killing more than 70,000 there – missions personnel were allowed into Banda Aceh (pronounced bän’dä ä’chā). “When the wheels of our plane touched down in Banda Aceh, I turned to (trip administrator) Curt Iles and said it was a miracle we were invited to a place that was closed to Christians for so long,” explains Rogers, pastor at Sandy Creek Baptist Church in Pride. “It also was a miracle how the Lord took people from all parts of this state with different abilities and used them for his glory.” Rogers and eight other Louisiana Baptists were members of a medical team that ministered March 12-25 in an area that was considered a tropical paradise before the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami devastated Banda … [Read more...]
Showing compassion – Baptists work to offer help and hope following Indonesian disasters (Part Two)
Five days after a major earthquake rocked Nias, Indonesia, Singaporean relief workers recovered a survivor from the rubble in the capital, Gunung Sitoli. Five days after a major earthquake rocked Nias, Indonesia, Singaporean relief workers recovered a survivor from the rubble in the capital, Gunung Sitoli. They were using tools provided by Southern Baptists. Generous giving is allowing Southern Baptists to minister on Nias with effective rescue and recovery tools, a Southern Baptist worker in Gunung Sitoli reported. He recently spoke of the rescued survivor and other recent developments by telephone. More than a week after the earthquake, Southern Baptist and Indonesian workers were in Gunung Sitoli, removing bodies from the rubble and setting up a program to distribute much-needed food to outlying areas. Southern Baptists have provided one ton of food to be distributed through four churches outside Gunung Sitoli. “The people were very grateful,” the worker said. “We’re developing a good name in the areas we’re serving.” Workers recovered a boy’s body from one crumbled house. As they exited the house, the boy’s family expressed appreciation. “No one else has come to help us,” they said. “Thank … [Read more...]
World of religion
Week of April 18, 2005 LC commencement Louisiana College has set its annual commencement ceremony for May 14 on the Pineville campus. About 200 graduates from the Louisiana Baptist school will be honored during the ceremony. The scheduled speaker is W.E. Thorn, president emeritus of Dallas Baptist University in Dallas. The ceremony is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. in Guinn Auditorium. For details, call (318) 487-7401. Louisiana challenge The American Civil Liberties Union has charged that the Louisiana Governor’s Program on Abstinence is continuing to promote religion in defiance of a court order issued three years ago. The program once was cited for giving grants to groups that used them to deliver religious messages. Now, the ACLU says religious materials is being presented on the program’s Web site. ACLU attorneys have asked that the state be held in contempt of court for defying the order of three years ago. They say the abstinence program’s Web site includes experts, articles and skits that unconstitutionally mix religion with the abstinence message. For instance, some materials state that “God’s plan is not for us to be alone” or urge youth who have sex to repent and seek “forgiveness through Jesus.” … [Read more...]