By Staff, Baptist Message   PINEVILLE – In the course of two semesters, Loving Care, a nurse-led clinic open to the community and staffed by nurse practitioners, emerged from nursing faculty conversation to full-blown endeavor at Louisiana College.   [img_assist|nid=7342|title=Ribbon Cutting|desc=Kimberly Sharp, dean of the LC School of Nursing and Allied Health, leads the ribbon-cutting ceremony May 12 for the new Loving Care nurse-led clinic at Louisiana College.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the facility, located in the front portion of the LC Nursing Skills Lab, took place May 12, with Mayor Clarence Fields and the Pineville Chamber of Commerce on hand to mark the occasion.   “This is a gift from Louisiana College to the community,” said LC President Joe Aguillard, in one of his first public appearances since his heart bypass surgery in early April. Looking a bit frail – but exhibiting a burst of resonant energy when it was his time to speak – Aguillard spoke of his appreciation for being part of the Pineville community, and of the benefit the Nurse-led clinic will be to Central Louisiana.   “We’re bringing the world to Pineville,” the LC … [Read more...]

By Staff, NOBTS Communications NEW ORLEANS – After a half century of service to the church and the academy, renowned New Testament scholar Gordon D. Fee has donated his specialized textual studies library to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS). Designated as “The Gordon D. Fee Collection on the New Testament Text,” this significant donation contains books that Fee amassed in his half century of textual studies as well as extensive files with Fee’s notes and data for textual projects realized over the years. An internationally acclaimed textual scholar and passionate evangelical, Fee has contributed significantly to ensuring the accuracy of the New Testament text. His studies led him to oppose various viewpoints in the field that he saw as inadequate for explaining the history of the transmission of the New Testament text. Two such examples were his opposition to those preferring the less well-attested texts and those overplaying the role of theological motivation in explaining the rise of variant readings. His methodological contributions to the study of the New Testament text in the writing of the Church Fathers have paved the way for many advances in that field, and the text-critical notes in his articles and … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   SULPHUR – It’s not just teenagers who are enjoying the new community basketball court at Nahodishgish, N.M. Little kids like it too. So do moms and dads.   [img_assist|nid=7345|title=Play Ball|desc=Members of a prep team from First Baptist Church Sulphur drove 2,200 miles round trip to prepare the ground for a concrete foundation for a basketball court on a Navajo reservation in northern New Mexico in mid-April.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]First Baptist Church of Sulphur, La., made it possible. David Holder is pastor.   “God amazingly provided the right experts in the field at the right time who became available to travel out there with us to donate their time and efforts to do the job with excellence,” said Tom Bruce, who celebrates 10 years with the church May 29. He was minister to youth and families for eight years, and minister of education, missions and outreach the last two.   God also provided a congregation where about 300 participate in Sunday morning worship to give, over and above their regular tithes and offerings, $30,000 over the course of a year – the initial goal was $12,000 – for construction of the … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message   Comings, Goings   Jeremy (wife Melissa) Breaux, new as pastor at Erwinville Baptist, Erwinville.   Charles Rogers MD, new as pastor at St. Clair Baptist in Boyce, from Bogalusa.   Needed/Giving   Oak Hill Baptist Church in Many is looking for a pastor. Send resumes to Russell Peace, PO Box 108, Negreet LA 71460 or email auntcarol53@hotmail.com.   Columbia Heights Baptist Church needs a pastor. Send resumes to PO Box 1627, Columbia LA 71418.   Ferriday First Baptist has a few 10-foot pews for sale at $250. Call 318.757.4524. Pastor: Wayne Gray.   Revivals, Anniversaries   First Converse: Seder supper 4-6 p.m. May 29. Revival May 29 – June 1. Speaker: Reggie Lisemby. Music: Paul Burnitt. Pastor: Weyland Gauntt.   Enon Franklinton: Revival June 5-8. Speaker: Jack Daniels. Pastor: Michael Cooke.   Church events   New Hope Monroe: Testify in concert at 6 p.m. May 29. Love offering. Pastor: Johnny Bunting.   Midway Baptist Church: Fifth Sunday Singing May 29. Pastor: Brad Bunting.   First Hornbeck: 172 people participated in a prayer walk May 5 for the … [Read more...]

By Mark Kelly, Baptist Press   NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – “A Great Commission People with a Great Commandment Heart” will provide the focus for a June 14-15 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix.   A broad range of auxiliary activities also will be held, from Crossover 2011 evangelistic outreach events to the annual Pastors’ Conference and Woman’s Missionary Union annual meeting and missions celebration.   The SBC’s business sessions in the Phoenix Convention Center will include messengers’ consideration of recommendations from the SBC Executive Committee’s review of ethnic church and ethnic church leader participation in the convention.   [img_assist|nid=7348|title=SBC Phoenix|desc=The Phoenix Convention Center will provide the venue for this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix on June 14-15. The SBC’s business sessions in the Phoenix Convention Center will include messengers’ consideration of recommendations from the SBC Executive Committee’s review of ethnic church and ethnic church leader participation in the convention.|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]Bryant Wright, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said last year’s … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Press   LAS VEGAS (BP) – A renewed passion for planting churches in North America and taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth will provide the focus for the 2011 SBC Pastors’ Conference, the president of that organization said.   In a seven-minute video posted at www.sbcpc.net, Vance Pitman, church planter and lead pastor of Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas, Nev., said he is praying 1,000 churches will commit themselves during the conference to plant churches in “pioneer areas” of North America. He also announced that part of the annual offering taken during the gathering will be used to finish translating the JESUS Film into the language of an unreached people group in the Arabian Peninsula.   The conference, which is to take place June 12-13 in Phoenix, Ariz., will meet under the theme of “Aspire: Yearning to join God’s kingdom activity.”   The Pastors’ Conference is an annual two-day experience held prior to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, to provide encouragement, training and networking opportunities for church leaders.   Pitman said in the video that he sees “a renewed sense of urgency [among Southern Baptists], a renewed passion like … [Read more...]

By Sarah Palmer Goff, LifeWay Communications   NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Iranian boy and his family left their home to escape conflict and persecution. They sought a better life in Greece, but it wasn’t the dreamland they envisioned. The family is stuck “living in limbo” -- they can’t leave the country, but are unrecognized by the government.   Lost in the system, illegal citizens with no rights or a way to work, they are “non-persons.” The boy’s parents have no way of gaining income, and he can’t attend a Greek school. He could get an education through a nearby co-op, but his family can’t even buy the basic school supplies needed for that.   Sadly, this boy’s plight is all too common. Children across the globe can’t afford the simplest of supplies needed to attend school. Young girls in the urban slums of Bangladesh. Children in a Turkish orphanage. Poor farmer’s children in the rural Philippines. Poverty and AIDS-stricken young in Botswana. All are underprivileged and from low-income families, and their lack of money for school supplies keeps them from attending school.   They yearn for a better life, but opportunity requires an education -- and the kids can’t get an education without … [Read more...]

By Susie Rain, IMB Communications   ISHINOMAKI, Japan (BP) – The handwritten note practically cries out: “Living here! Please help us!”   The volunteers from Tokyo Baptist Church almost miss the dirty scrap of paper, attached to the battered door. It blends in with the rubble and debris left behind by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.   Major parts of the house are gone, washed away a month ago by the crushing tsunami waves. Not really believing anyone will answer, volunteer Satomi Ono calls out to see if anyone is there.   [img_assist|nid=7352|title=Helping hand|desc=Lucilyn Kaneko (left) traveled to Ishinomaki, Japan, as a part of the Tokyo Baptist Church response in the disaster areas where she met this woman who had been wearing the same clothes since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that struck the area.|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]A young mother cautiously pokes her head around the corner. When she sees the volunteers’ warm smiles, relief rushes over her and she excitedly yells to her father. They are the only two left in their family.   Her two children were swept out of her arms in the tsunami wave. Her mother and husband also died on that fateful … [Read more...]