Submitted by philip on Thu, 01/31/2013 - 09:26 Grace Baptist Church bivocational pastor Ricky Baker days – and evenings – can be quite full and very different. By Brian Blackwell, Marketing Director MONROE – Ricky Baker’s full-time job as a financial program manager at ARCO, A Community Resource, may end at 4:30 p.m. but many times his day has just begun. Each day is different for this bivocational pastor at Grace Baptist in Monroe. One day he might conduct a funeral in the afternoon and that evening visit with a church member undergoing surgery at the local hospital. The next day Baker may spend his lunch hour visiting several sick church members and that evening could drop in on a prospect who visited the church the Sunday prior, before preparing for his sermon soon after. But Baker doesn’t see the extra work as a burden. He sees it as a high calling that he wouldn’t think twice from stepping aside as a bi-vocational pastor. “I love to be with my people,” Baker said. “Never did I see myself as a bi-vocational pastor before coming here. But God changed my heart and I’m so thankful He did.” A native of West Monroe, Baker felt the call to ministry at age 14 while attending a youth camp … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Thu, 01/31/2013 - 09:30 This is an artist’s conception of the $1.5 million Georgia Barnette Baptist Conference Center, which is to be located at Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center in Woodworth. By Staff, Baptist Message STATEWIDE – Edith Kirkpatrick, 94, made the first donation earlier this year for the $1.5 million Georgia Barnette Baptist Conference Center, to be located at Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center. Kirkpatrick was Louisiana WMU president from 1960-63. She’s the oldest living WMU president. “We’ve got to have it,” she said to her son when she called to tell him to write a check for her, said John Hebert, missions director for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. The need for the 8,400 square foot building was made clear by a recent poll taken in southern Louisiana, Hebert said at Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria, in a called gathering of WMU members from throughout central Louisiana. Hebert made the same presentation at seven locations across the state. The poll showed at least 58 percent of South Louisiana residents responded positively to Baptists coming to their door to invite them to church, and among a clear majority of residents, 64 percent … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Marketing Director PINEVILLE – The key to the very best in life is to do everything with the goal of making God smile, said Eric Thomas to 1,169 pre-teens and their leaders at the mid-January Pre-Teen Invasion. Those who take a step of faith must keep in mind three points when faced with the decision of whether or not to “make the leap” and follow God on faith, Thomas said. • Doing so involves a risk. “Taking a chance is not always fun but is necessary when God commands it,” Thomas said. “We don’t know where we’re going but we know it’s what God wants us to do,” he said. • Could result in tasting the good God offers. “We all need to pay the price, to make God smile,” Thomas said. “We need to take the risk to be different, to show others that this God stuff is for real.” • Involves sharing what God offers. “God does not give me the good so I can keep it for myself,” Thomas said. “He gives me the good so I can share it with others.” Youngsters from 86 churches heard Thomas’ message at the third annual Pre-Teen Invasion, a Cooperative Program-funded ministry of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. The event for fourth-through-sixth graders in LC’s Guinn Auditorium featured games led by Oklahoma … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Thu, 01/31/2013 - 09:34 Joe McKeever, chair of GMM’s debt retirement drive, John Vandercook, founder of Global Maritime Ministries in 1963, Philip Vandercook, GMM executive director, and Larry Pridmore, pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Mansfield, prepare to shred a copy of the “Paid In Full” mortgage as a result of Southside Mansfield’s $254,924.19 gift. By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS – God’s answer was bigger and came earlier than Joe McKeever, debt retirement campaign chair, and team members dared hope for. An unexpected check at Christmas for more than $250,000 cleared Global Maritime Ministries’ building loan debt and met an ambitious goal a full year ahead of campaign schedule. “We are now debt-free,” Philip Vandercook, executive director, said in a surprise announcement at the ministry’s annual meeting recently in New Orleans. Global Maritime Ministries staff and volunteers contacted more than 16,000 seafarers from 120 nations last year at the ministry’s centers at the Port of New Orleans and at the Port of South Louisiana in Reserve, distributing more than 1,200 Bibles in seafarers’ native languages and recording 11 professions of … [Read more...]

By Karen Willoughby, Managing EditorPINEVILLE – Hope was the theme, though suicide and abortion were the topics discussed at the first chapel of the semester at Louisiana College on Jan. 18.   “You are the hope for our lives,” adapted from Romans 8:24-25, was repeated in the worship led by Andy Jordan and the LC Praise Band, in special music presented by Ryan Hess and Juliana Andy, and by a very personal testimony by LC President Joe Aguillard, as well as the chapel service’s special guests. Following a concise sketch of his academic and professional prowess and entertaining slides from “thereifixedit.com,” Aguillard said, “Jesus Christ is the only hope. It’s not in duct tape and it’s not in diplomas.” He couldn’t fix it when his daughter Julie tried to kill herself not once, but four times, he said. “No daddy can fix what only God can do,” Aguillard said. He encouraged his listeners in Guinn Auditorium on the LC campus to “find your hope in Jesus Christ.” Then Julie Aguillard – today a registered nurse in Shreveport – spoke. “Nothing was ever enough,” she said about her life as a teenager. “I always felt ‘less than.’ … I didn’t want you to see what I saw on the inside.” She tried liquor, cocaine, meth, … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Thu, 01/31/2013 - 09:39 LSU student Skylar Hollins peels tile up from a floor in a Staten Island, New York, home severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy’s 20-foot storm surge. Hollins and 42 other students from the LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry joined hundreds of other college students to spend part of their Christmas break “mudding out” and cleaning out damaged homes. By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter Muddy, cold and tired were a few of the words some LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry students used to describe their Christmas break, but they also described their mission trip to Superstorm Sandy-devastated Staten Island, New York, as exhilarating, satisfying and inspiring.   The 42 students and eight volunteers drove non-stop from Baton Rouge to New York the week before Christmas, spent five days mudding out Sandy-flooded homes, slept in tents, then drove non-stop back to get back for Christmas.   “I’m beyond thankful for what the students have done today,” Staten Island homeowner Joe Piazza told trip organizers in a follow-up report. “The work they’ve done would have taken me months by myself and they did it with such joy in their hearts it is … [Read more...]

Arrivals/Departures M. Giles Fort Jr. MD, 89, died Jan. 14 in Baton Rouge. He was a pioneering missionary doctor in Zimbabwe for 35 years. See baptistmessage.com for more. Brandon (wife Chrisie) Gill, new as interim pastor of Calvary Baptist Forest Hill. Jared Little, new as interim pastor of Crews New Salem Baptist. Joshua (wife Rebekah) Timothy, new as youth director of Macedonia Baptist Church Effie; Pastor: Mike Wilkinson. Josh Dickson, resigned as administrative pastor from Kingsville Baptist Pineville; Pastor: Bart Walker. New as discipleship pastor of First Baptist Pontchatoula. Pastor: David Cranford. Deloy Chapman, resigned as minister of music at Amite Baptist Denham Springs. Pastor: Terry Booth. John Avant, resigned as pastor of First Baptist West Monroe. Brandon (wife Candi) Rodgers, resigned as minister of youth and college at Highland Baptist West Monroe. Earnest Little, resigned as pastor of United Baptist Winnfield and is available for interim or supply. 318.663.2770. Dick DeBusk, retiring as pastor of Alpine First Baptist Pineville. Will continue slaughtering pigs as a ministry. Dale (Wife Sadel) Oden, retiring as assistant to the pastor at Temple Baptist … [Read more...]

By World News Magazine (WNS) – According to a survey from LifeWay Research and first reported by Religion News Service, 37 percent of Americans view homosexuality as a sin, down from 44 percent a year earlier. “The culture is clearly shifting on homosexuality and this creates a whole new issue: How will America deal with a minority view, strongly held by evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, and so many others?” said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. The number of Americans who do not believe homosexuality is a sin remained nearly the same, at 43 percent in September 2011 and 45 percent in November 2012. There was an increase in the percentage of those who said they were unsure of what they believe. Those who identify as “born-again, evangelical, or fundamentalist Christian” are the most likely to say that homosexual behavior is a sin (73 percent). Conversely, those who never attend religious services are the most likely to say they do not believe homosexual behavior is a sin (71 percent).   Washington National Cathedral to Allow Same-Sex “Weddings”   (WNS) – Evangelical policy groups are not surprised by the Washington National Cathedral’s announcement Jan. 9 that same-sex … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Thu, 01/31/2013 - 09:48 By Staff, LBC Communications ALEXANDRIA – Opportunity Louisiana: For the Gospel; For Our State; and For this Time is the theme for the President’s 2020 Commission announced during the initial meeting of the Steering Committee on Jan. 15 at Baptist Building in Alexandria. The meeting was directed by Louisiana Baptist Convention President Waylon Bailey of First Baptist Covington and LBC Executive Director David Hankins. “Our theme springs from Ephesians 5:16 where Paul challenges believers to ‘make the most of every opportunity,‘“ Hankins said. “This is our intent, to maximize the opportunities the Lord places before us in Louisiana.” The President’s 2020 Commission was approved by the LBC Executive Board during the annual meeting of the LBC last November in West Monroe. Since November, 20 leaders from around the state were selected to lead 20 subcommittees, which will study and make recommendations regarding 20 different areas of ministry. Each subcommittee includes 20 members, bringing the size of the 2020 Commission to 400 people representing approximately 300 churches. “Our purpose for this exercise is to develop and recommend a seven-year strategy for … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Thu, 01/31/2013 - 13:45 Pictured from left to right: Amanda Whisnant, Paul Whisnant and Charla Knapp By Joey Martin, Special to the Message VIDALIA -- Where in the world is Belize? Charla Knapp of Vidalia can tell you. She's been four times. For the record, Belize, formerly British Honduras, is a country located on the north eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered to the north by Mexico, to the south and west by Guatemala and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. And while Belize Barrier Reef is the second longest in the world and home to more than 100 different kinds of coral and some 500 species of fish, the trips have been anything but a vacation. But they have been just as rewarding for Knapp, a nurse practitioner at Concordia Medical Center. "I made a vow to God to serve in missions," Knapp said. "I started googling international missions and two or three came up. I sent out feelers and the first and only one came from Paul (Whisnant). It felt right and I started raising money and asking friends if they would like to go with me. Four months passed and I couldn't find anybody. I was starting to get cold feet, but God kept telling me to go on and I raised the … [Read more...]