By Staff, Baptist Message EDITOR’S NOTE: In an effort to get to know the men who will be nominated for the position of president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, the Baptist Message continues its practice of allowing them share about themselves in a question and answer format. The Baptist Message has been apprised that Mike Walker and Waylon Bailey will be nominated at the LBC Annual Meeting and they both graciously agreed to participate in the Q & A. Mike Walker, pastor of East Bayour Baptist Church in Lafayette,[img_assist|nid=7703|title=Mike Walker|desc=Pastor East Bayou Baptist Church Lafayette, La.|link=none|align=right|width=425|height=640] Why have you agreed to allow your nomination for convention president? I have a heart to encourage pastors and challenge churches to embrace the call to reach their community with the love of Jesus. If elected, what will be your primary focus as convention president? My focus would be to help churches become more effective in reaching our state with the Gospel. It is important to help churches discover ways to be more active in their own communities and encourage them to think of fresh ways to reach out to the lost and hurting around them. Business as usual in our LBC … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message EDITOR’S NOTE: In an effort to get to know the men who will be nominated for the position of president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, the Baptist Message continues its practice of allowing them share about themselves in a question and answer format. The Baptist Message has been apprised that Mike Walker and Waylon Bailey will be nominated at the LBC Annual Meeting and they both graciously agreed to participate in the Q & A.   [img_assist|nid=7705|title=Waylon Bailey|desc=Senior Pastor First Baptist Church Covington Covington, La.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=511]Waylon Bailey, senior pastor, First Baptist Church Covington, Covington, La. Why have you agreed to allow your nomination for convention president?   Over the last two years, a number of people across the state have encouraged me to do this. At first, I quickly declined but more and more I have been open to the idea. Just recently, I feel that God has “released” me for this responsibility. I love Louisiana and Louisiana Baptists. If our convention asks me to serve, I will do so gladly.   If elected, what will be your primary focus as convention president?   I believe that … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter   [img_assist|nid=7707|title=Bill Glass|desc=Former Cleveland Browns star Bill Glass (speaking) and his Champions for Life Ministry came to New Orleans recently for a Weekend of Champions. The three-day event saw 1,380 decisions.|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]NEW ORLEANS – She’s in prison and she’s a believer. The Bible verses written in toothpaste that cover her cell wall help her stay focused on Jesus.   For one prisoner in an Orleans Parish jail, the recent Bill Glass Weekend of Champions made her know she wasn’t alone.   “She cried when she hugged me goodbye,” said Angela Wolf, member of Woodland Baptist Church, Hammond and a first-time platform singer with the Bill Glass ministry team. “It was the most emotional moment of the weekend for me.”   Louisiana Baptists participated in the recent three-day event that saw 1,380 decisions for Christ, including 771 first-time commitments. One hundred-twenty participants – called  “teammates” – ministered in prisons and jails in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Charles and Iberville Parishes.   Wolf, a wife, mother and lead singer for Soul Salvage Project, performed eleven times during the … [Read more...]

By Tammy Sharp, Special to the Message   [img_assist|nid=7709|title=Morris Goins|desc=Pastor Morris Goins encourages prison ministry volunteers to hang onto a manual published by the Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety on visiting the imprisoned.|link=none|align=right|width=425|height=640]LEESVILLE – The Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety has published a manual just for those who make it their mission to visit the imprisoned, said Pastor Morris Goins, who has been ministering to offenders at the Vernon Parish Jail and the Vernon Correctional Facility since 1981. That’s when he became the chaplain for both facilities.   Goins encourages would-be prison ministry volunteers to keep that manual handy; memorize it if possible. An annual orientation provides him opportunity to share with volunteers wisdom from the manual and from his years of experience.   “I suppose the most important thing is to become a friend to these guys and gals without them taking advantage of us,” said Goins. Some of the offenders try to convince volunteers to do things better left to an attorney. Others might try to run a con.   Being fingerprinted and submitting to background … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Message Staff Writer   [img_assist|nid=7711|title=Rod Masteller|desc=Pastor Rod Masteller says he prayerfully hopes he can get a ‘powerful spiritual movement’ to take place as he presides over his final Louisiana Baptist Convention Annual Meeting.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=427]“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”   Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)       No one believed it could happen, but it did. In the early 1800s, the Mississippi River – for a brief time – actually did flow backwards.   Early on Feb. 7, 1812, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit near New Madrid, Mo., located on a bend in the River. Trees were uprooted, buildings destroyed, the town’s elevation dropped 13 feet, and eyewitnesses reported the Mississippi River flowed backwards for a period of time after the quake.   Riverboat pilots reported the river had been altered to the point that it was barely navigable and unrecognizable.   Two hundred years later, Rod Masteller, outgoing president of the … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   [img_assist|nid=7714|title=Packed Out|desc=Students at last year’s record-setting Youth Evangelism Celebration at the Rapides Parish Coliseum join together for a time of prayer.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=427]ALEXANDRIA – More than 6,000 junior and senior high school students are anticipated to participate in the 2011 Youth Evangelism Celebration.   The annual event is to take place Nov. 20-21 at the Rapides Parish Coliseum, 5600 Coliseum Blvd. in Alexandria.   “We set a record last year with 7,024 in attendance,” said Kevin Boles, youth ministry strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “Our crowd will be large.”   About 40 students from Airline Baptist Church in Bossier City are among the thousands and youth and their leaders making plans to travel to YEC.   “It is an annual tradition for us,” said Lee Myers, Airline’s minister of youth. “It’s gotten bigger every year. Word of mouth is the best publicity. Kids come back raving about it.   “I think it’s important they get exposed to the messages that are preached and the atmosphere of worship,” Myers continued. “It’s just a good event to help energize … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   [img_assist|nid=7716|title=DR Tree Jack|desc=Disaster Relief chain saw teams from across Louisiana met at Dry Creek Baptist Camp to receive tree jacks invented by Mark Robin of Carey Baptist Association and orientation on the devices that enable DR teams to do jobs that without it would require a lifting device such as a crane.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=471]LAKE CHARLES – Responding to Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita, the members of Carey Baptist Association’s Disaster Relief chain saw unit saw a need for a tool that would assist them to remove trees from houses and objects.   Mark Robin of First Baptist Church in Moss Bluff in 2007 built a jack that would enable the team to support the weight of a tree and to eliminate the weight of the tree from a house or object. This “tree jack” enabled jobs to be performed that previously would have needed a lifting device such as a crane, back-hoe or track hoe.   After removing all the weight of the tree’s canopy to expose the portion of the tree that was bearing weight on the house, the jack could then be used to transfer the weight of the tree from the house to the jack, using a 6-ton bottle … [Read more...]

ARRIVALS/DEPATURES   Clyde Lewis: new as pastor of Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church in Lake Charles.   Brandon Oliver: new as pastor of First Baptist Church in Iowa.   Bob Lonadier, new as pastor of Horseshoe Mer Rouge.   Kevin (wife Christy) Nettles, new as youth pastor at First Keithville.   Shane (wife Michelle) Forest, new as associate pastor at North Keithville.   Michelle (husband Shane) Forest, new as youth minister at North Keithville.   Steve (wife Barbara) Pettey, new as pastor of Oak Hill Plain Dealing.   Cindy (husband Jonathan) Hardin, new as youth minister at Westwood Keithville.   Anne (husband Kenneth) Myers, new as music minister at Westwood Keithville.   Keith Payne: new as interim pastor of First Oil City.   Chad Hardbarger: new as pastor of Emmanuel Shreveport, from Plain Dealing.   Tom Cole: new as interim music minister at Shreve City Shreveport.       Needed/Giving   Part time youth/student ministers needed at New Hope Monroe, Oak Grove, Eros, Bayou Oaks. DOM: Jerry Price.   Pastor needed: Faith Bastrop. Send resumes to the … [Read more...]

By Holly Naylor, Baptist Press   WASHINGTON (BP) – Not one Christian church building is left standing in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department. The last such public place of Christian worship was destroyed by its landowner in March 2010.   The U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report, which revealed the destruction of the final Afghan church building, said there was a decrease in religious freedom during the reporting period, which covered July to December of 2010. The decline was a result of the Afghanistan government’s failure to acknowledge mistreatment of Christians and other religious minorities, according to the September report.   “The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom,” the report said.   Afghanistan’s constitution conveys a contradiction that has resulted in the restriction of religious freedom, according to the report. The document states Islam is the “religion of the state” but also declares that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the … [Read more...]

By LBCH Communications   There are at least 145 million orphans around the world today. In the United States, there are over 400,000 children in the foster care system because it is unsafe or impossible for the children to be with their families.   More than 4,500 of those children in foster care live in Louisiana. These needy children are separated from their families and are “modern day” orphans.   Since 1899, Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home & Family Ministries has served some of God’s most vulnerable children through its on-campus residential home.   However, as more and more children have entered the state foster care system, with fewer than half the number of homes needed to care for them, the Children’s Home has established the Louisiana Baptist Foster & Adoption Network         (LBFAN).   The vision of LBFAN is to connect all Louisiana foster children to Christian families and churches and to minister to orphans worldwide.   By recruiting Christian foster and adoptive families and assisting Louisiana Baptist churches in developing foster care, adoption and orphan care support ministries, the Children’s Home is helping churches and families build a … [Read more...]