By Mark H. Hunter, Special to the Message   [img_assist|nid=7218|title=A lasting memory|desc=Fifty Students from more than a dozen countries were able to participate in an event hosted by the LSU BCM. Among the activities they got to experience was to fish.|link=none|align=left|width=75|height=100]BATON ROUGE – Food, fun, fishing and friendship were on the agenda when more than 50 International college students from across the state met Feb. 25-26 at the LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry.   The idea behind the International Student Retreat was to introduce the foreign students to American culture beyond what they usually experience on the campuses of LSU, McNeese State and Tulane University.   “The goal for the retreat was cultural exchange and friendship,” said Steve Masters, LSU BCM director. “This is an incredible opportunity to reach out to them and show them the love of God.”   The students, from more than a dozen countries, met host families on Friday evening for dinner, then went to the BCM for an evening fellowship. They returned late Friday night to the host homes where they spent the night, many for the first time in an American house.   On Saturday they attended … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   STATEWIDE – Churches and associations across Louisiana are spreading the news: VBS this summer is about children on a “Big Apple Adventure.”   Set in the city known as the crossroads of the world, VBS organizers at the SBC’s LifeWay Christian Resources say kids this year will discover adventure on every corner.   Using the sights and sounds of New York – with set locations such as Times Square and Grand Central Station – they will hear Bible stories about people who stepped out in faith and connected with Jesus.   Through these stories, they will find out that they, too, can step out in faith, beginning with a relationship with Jesus and moving on to connect with a life of faith that lets them share the message of Jesus with the world.   “I think this is possibly the most evangelistic VBS we’ve ever offered,” said Jerry Wooley, LifeWay’s VBS specialist. “All of them keep the name of Jesus at the forefront, of course; the goal of each VBS is to draw kids into a relationship with Jesus, but this one lets them know how important it is to share that message with other people.”   Each day’s Bible story focuses on someone having … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   BOSSIER CITY – “The hardest things about military life today is the deployments, the uncertainty, the not knowing what’s happening next,” says Sara Horn, military wife and speaker of two military-related conferences in early April.   [img_assist|nid=7221|title=Sara Horn|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=144|height=120]A faith-based conference for wives of active duty, National Guard and Reserve military personnel is to be offered at Barksdale Air Force Base Saturday, April 9.   A conference to equip churches to effectively minister to military families is to take place the previous evening, April 8, at Airline Baptist Church in Bossier City.   “The timing couldn’t be more perfect for this,” said Faye Scott, children’s minister at Airline Bossier City and one of the organizers of Horn’s visit. “There’s talk of a huge deployment in the next couple of weeks.”   Horn, newly arrived in the Baton Rouge area with her 10-year-old son Caleb to live near her deployed husband’s family, is an experienced journalist and author who has traveled twice to Iraq to write about Christians serving in the military. Her latest books include GOD Strong: A … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Press   DENHAM SPRINGS – For the 25th year, Amite Baptist Church is producing an Easter Spectacular that every year is surprisingly different from the previous year’s 300-person production, though it tells the same story each year of God’s gift to each person who accepts His love.   As its gift to the greater Denham Springs/Baton Rouge populace, Amite’s Easter Drama continues to be free, but tickets are essential to assure seating at the six-day event that routinely edges very close to the maximum seating allowed by the fire department.   This year the dates are April 5-10, with performances at 7 p.m., plus 2:30 p.m. weekend matinees. Call the church office at 225.665.2762 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays only, or go online at www.amitechurch.organytime, to reserve tickets.   Previous productions have had the titles “The Lamb” (2010) and “A Message of Hope (2008),” plus 22 others. This year it’s “Chains: A Dramatic Musical of the Life of Christ,” referring to Psalm 107:14: He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains .... The question “What are your chains?” appears in promotional materials.   An interpreter for the … [Read more...]

[img_assist|nid=7224|title=Central Louisiana History Days|desc=Linda Yeager, a member at First Pineville, was among several Southern Baptists at the recent Central Louisiana History Days displaying their knowledge of early-American crafts. Here she shows the soap she makes by pouring water over ashes to make lye, which she mixes with glycerine and sweet-smelling flowers and herbs. Among other Southern Baptists at the first-ever event, R.V. Couch, pastor of Kidron Baptist Church in Harrisonburg, displayed his handcrafted violins and similar stringed instruments. Harold Griffith of Trinity Pineville showed how to make corn husk brooms. The two-day springtime event is to be repeated March 9-10 next year, said organizer Red Holsomback of Colfax.|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427] … [Read more...]

COMINGS & GOINGS   Marcelle Ronquille, new as interim pastor, Pleasant Hill Ruston.   Steve (wife Lizzie) Mears, new as minister to students, Kingsville Pineville. Pastor: Bart Walker.   Andy Prince, new as interim pastor at Calvary Homer.   Roy Strother, new as interim pastor at Calvary Springhill.   Doyle Hales, new as pastor at Midway Serepta.   Marty Wright, new as interim pastor at New Serepta.   L.B. Canterbury retired in March from Old Union in Shongaloo.   Jerry Elgin, new as interim pastor at Westlake Doyline.   Josh De Loach, new as interim pastor at New Ramah in Castor.   Beau (Olivia) Guidry, new as pastor at First Milton, from First Longville.   Loyd Sowers resigns as pastor of Kaplan Baptist.   Sam (wife Donisha) West, new as pastor, Main Street Mission, Pineville.       NEEDED & GIVING   Pastorless churches in Bayou Macon and Madison Baptist Associations. First Oak Grove, Warsaw Baptist near Delhi, Mound Baptist, Unity Oak Grove, New Hope Monticello, Elmwood near Lake Providence. DOM: Jay Morgan.   Pastorless churches in … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   EDITOR'S NOTE: Each Easter season, the Southern Baptist Convention observed an annual Week of Prayer for North American Missions in conjunction with the 2011 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, with a goal of $70 million to help pay the salaries and ministry support of 5,000-plus missionaries serving in North America under the SBC's North American Mission Board. For more information, go to www.anniearmstrong.com.   COUSHATTA -- A look at an oil shale map of Louisiana shows that rural Coushatta is on the southeast edge of one of the largest discoveries of natural gas in the history of the Ark-La-Tex, the region connecting Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.   Landowners' mineral rights for the Haynesville Shale discovery have been sold at successively higher prices to wildcatting companies since word leaked out in 2008, and Fairview Baptist Church near Coushatta has received the tithes and offerings of people who want to bless the Lord as He has blessed them, pastor Matt Endris said.   With this financial windfall, Fairview gave $106,090 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions in 2009, making it the largest giver to the offering … [Read more...]

By Bill Warren, Professor of New Testament and Greek at NOBTS   Question: In the passage about a spear being stabbed into Jesus’ side, what is the significance of that act?   Bill Warren responds: John 19:34 mentions that “one of the soldiers stabbed his side with his spear, and blood and water immediately came out.”   The context has Pilate ordering the speeding up of the deaths of the crucified men by breaking their legs, thereby taking away their ability to sustain their bodies and breath. When the soldiers came to Jesus, however, he was already dead and so they didn’t break his legs, thus fulfilling Scripture (see verse 36).   Instead, a soldier stabbed Jesus in the side, with blood and water coming out, most likely due to Jesus’ lung being pierced (also a Scripture fulfillment, see verse 37).   The spear piercing also showed that Jesus was clearly dead, a truth that had become more controversial by the time John was writing.   Some were denying the humanity of Jesus in the late first century, a belief known as Docetism (Jesus only seemed to be human). John notes in 1 John 4:2, however, that belief in the humanity of Jesus is essential, and in 2 John 7 he warns … [Read more...]