By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter [img_assist|nid=5993|title=Jim Louviere, shown with wife Michele, planted a church in Metairie that presents the message in the language of today s culture|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]NEW ORLEANS – If having a good time was the same as being happy, this metro area should be filled with contented people, or so notes the website of Crescent City Rock, a church plant in Metairie with five baptisms since its start in November. To those searching for more, the church offers the hope that “Life rocks when built on The Rock.” The church meets Sunday mornings in a glass-walled sports gym at a YMCA during the center’s operating hours. A relaxed atmosphere and high visibility draws in the curious for interactive meetings. Jim Louviere, lead pastor, said his church uses language today’s culture understands without watering down the message. “The Gospel is the power of salvation and the hope of New Orleans,” Louviere said. “But [the Christian faith] is a whole new world to many and we want to reduce the barriers to coming to Christ.” The church plays off the city’s fervor for the New Orleans Saints football team with small groups called SAINT (Small-Groups Assembled in … [Read more...]

By Quinn Lavespere, Special to the Message [img_assist|nid=5994|title=LC Professor and International Coordinator of Nursing David Sharp spoke on Approaching Spirituality in client care.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]The Louisiana College School of Nursing held a symposium on “Spirituality In Health Care” on Thursday, Jan. 21, in the Granberry Conference Center. LC Professor of Nursing and Dean of School of Nursing and Allied Health, Kimberly Sharp, said that the main goal of the symposium was to teach nursing students and others working in health care about spirituality and how to address the spiritual needs of clients.Sharp said that a full digest of the symposium’s events will be made available through a weblink on the LC nursing website after the symposium is over. “We’re hoping this is going to be part of a rolling series,” said Sharp. “We want to be able to do it every year for students and people who are working in health care professions who have an interest in understanding more about spiritual health and how to address spiritual health care needs.” Presenters at the symposium included distinguished scholar and consultant Irene Alyn, who spoke on “Spirituality and Nursing,” and LC professor and … [Read more...]

By Gary Chapman, Homelife Magazine Although some people enjoy winter sports, I don’t know any couples who enjoy winter marriages. Winter marriages are characterized by coldness, harshness, and bitterness. The dreams of spring are covered with layers of ice, and the forecast calls for freezing rain. Marc has been married for 24 years but says of his marriage, “It’s discouraging. We disagree on everything. We are both bull-headed, and this has created many conflicts. There is a coldness about our relationship.” His wife, Marsha, says, “Marc is so critical. I feel there has been more effort on my part than his. He will not listen and doesn’t care about my feelings. At this stage, we spend little time together and give almost no affirmation or touch.” The Winter Season of Marriage Hurt, anger, disappointment, loneliness, rejection, and sometimes hopelessness are the emotions that couples experience when their marriage is in the winter season. What brings a couple to such an ice age? Rigidity – the unwillingness to consider the other person’s perspective and to work toward a meaningful solution. All couples face difficulties, and all couples have differences. These differences may center on money, in-laws, … [Read more...]

By Michele Louviere, Director of Counseling Celebration Church Metairie [img_assist|nid=5997|title=Michele Louviere, Director of Counseling Celebration Church, Metairie|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=90]Question: I recently became a mother. Since I grew up in a dysfunctional family, I really am unsure about what a healthy family looks like. Can you describe the difference between an unhealthy family and a healthy family? Michele Louviere responds: Of course, the perfect family does not exist. All families have some problems or dysfunctions, but certainly, striving for a healthy family is a great gift for your new baby. Probably, one of the greatest differences between a healthy family and an unhealthy family lies in how family members are valued. In a healthy family, individuals are allowed to talk, to feel, and to trust. Each person is treated as special and unique; while, each person is also loved unconditionally. In an unhealthy family, the opposite occurs. Individuals are not allowed to talk, to feel, or to trust. All individuals are not special and are only loved if that love is earned. In unhealthy families, one or both parents are emotionally or physically absent or abusive. Sometimes, all of the … [Read more...]

By Daniel Clymer, Special to the Message The moving of the waters is a beautiful thing, when it is caused by the new birth of a believer in Jesus Christ. All across New Mexico, baptistries are being filled and the water is being stirred by those who gave their lives to Jesus during last fall’s Native American evangelistic events. “Jesus, Hope For All Nations!” revivals and evangelistic events have brought new hope to 89 Native people who made professions of faith and have brought more than 150 people to a closer relationship and commitment to God through rededications. [img_assist|nid=6009|title=Fruitland Community Church in Farmington NM partnered with Mt. Olive Baptist in Louisiana during a 2009 fall revival.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=71]Nearly 50 congregations from New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma hosted events, and 35 of those were New Mexico Native American congregations. Two others were multi-cultural churches in New Mexico. God moved in amazing ways through these churches and their evangelism partners from Louisiana, Texas and Canada; and the effects of the Holy Spirit moving in New Mexico reached Louisiana, New York, Illinois, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana and … [Read more...]

By Jason Hiles, Professor of Christian Studies Louisiana College [img_assist|nid=6011|title=Jason Hiles Professor of Christian Studies Louisiana College|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=78|height=100]Contrary to popular misconceptions, the gospel message encompasses much more than an answer to the question, “How do you get saved?” While the gospel certainly answers that question, it also bears implications for the whole world and all who live in it. At the start of the twentieth century, the Scottish minister, James Orr, rightly observed that one who, “with his whole heart believes in Jesus as the Son of God is thereby committed to much else besides. He is committed to a view of God, to a view of man, to a view of sin, to a view of Redemption, to a view of human destiny, found only in Christianity.” The aforementioned brief statement about God, his Son, and the essential nature of the world, rooted as it is in a profound faith commitment to Christ, describes what may be called the Christian worldview. Christians are not alone in forming beliefs about the nature of the world in which they live and its origins. All people at all times and in all places have developed foundational understandings concerning the nature of … [Read more...]

By Archie England, PH.D. NOBTS Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew [img_assist|nid=6013|title=Archie England PH D NOBTS Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=73|height=100]QUESTION: Broken by sin, are we? When believers choose to sin rather than to obey, ill effects occur. David’s sin with Bathsheba will help us answer this question (cf., 2 Samuel 11; Psalms 6; 32; and 51). ARCHIE ENGLAND RESPONDS: One more peek . . . , yet King David should just have turned away from that first glimpse of a beauty bathing on the roof top (2 Samuel 11:2). Instead, he lingered. Smitten by lust, David inquired about “her” (11:3) only to discover that Bathsheba was another man’s wife. Undeterred, David had her “invited” to the King’s House (actually, they “took her”). Once there, his lust resulted in adultery: “he lay with her” (11:4), and she became pregnant. Covering up the affair further consumed David, to the point that he devised a sinister plot to have Uriah killed in battle. Joab complied but at the cost of the lives of other valiant men. David’s list of sin here is ghastly: adultery, deception, and murder. What did David’s sin cost him. Well, He didn’t lose his job (though his popularity probably … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor [img_assist|nid=6015|title=VBS Theme: Saddle Ridge Ranch|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=100]ALEXANDRIA –  A horse ranch in northern Colorado was the location of the four videos taken for LifeWay’s 2010 Vacation Bible School curriculum: Saddle Ridge Ranch. Participants at a recent preview of the curriculum, resources, songs (with motions) and games, which took place at the Baptist Building, said they were looking forward to an exciting VBS that was to include some Louisiana Lagniappe. Kevin Roberts, LBC’s childhood ministry strategist, and Danny Nation, media production strategist on the LBC communications team, are working with Janie Wise, women’s missions and ministry strategist on the LBC missions team, to develop a video about a Louisiana cowboy church that churches can use on the fifth night of VBS, if they’d like, to highlight theGeorgia Barnette Offering for State Missions. Cowboy churches in Louisiana are to be included in the 2010 GBO offering, Wise said. A Louisiana cowboy mission church and cowboy church-type missions will be one of the featured state mission works in the 2010 Week of Prayer for State Missions and Georgia Barnette Offering for State … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor [img_assist|nid=6018|title=John Ed Jelks with Jeff Woodrich at Jelks retirement celebration and Baptist Builders Appreciation Dinner|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]LIVONIA – The John Ed Jelks Fund is to be established this year at the Louisiana Baptist Foundation as a Donor Advisor Fund to provide financial support for Mission Service Corps missionaries serving as construction project coordinators with the Louisiana Baptist Mission Builders. MSC missionaries are self-funded people commissioned by their local church, endorsed by the North American Mission Board and assigned by a local church, association or state convention to a missionary assignment. “Self-funded” means they serve without salary. The income of MSC missionaries comes from family, friends, retirement income or other sources. They are counted among NAMB’s 5,000 missionaries serving across the United States because NAMB provides training and funnels the money given by others so the donor is able to claim a tax deduction, among other non-monetary support. “We’ve been working on this for six months,” said Jeff Woodrich, who serves as the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Mission Builder Director. “We’re … [Read more...]

By Al Quartemont, Special to the Message [img_assist|nid=6020|title=Illinois student wins 2010 Smith Scholarship at LC|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=79]PINEVILLE – In a room full of highly-talented and qualified high school seniors vying for the opportunity to have their college experience paid for, one of the 50 students in Louisiana College’s Granberry Conference Center Saturday, Jan. 30, stood out for a simple reason: She was the only one not from Louisiana. But a few moments later, after the names of all the participants were read by LC Director of Enrollment Byron McGee, she would stand out again. Kara Parikh, a home-schooled student from Round Lake Beach, Ill., had become the 2010 Clyde and Elizabeth Smith Memorial Scholarship winner. With that, Parikh will begin the next step in what she believes is a call to become a medical missionary – with all tuition, and room and board paid for, for four years at LC. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but praise God,” Parikh said just moments after learning she had won. “My dad is a bi-vocational pastor. So, there’s not a whole lot of money there for school. What I told the panel (of instructors who conducted the scholarship interview) is the sooner I … [Read more...]