Believers and unbelievers alike often need counseling to overcome life’s hurdles, and Rich Lewis of Pathways Counseling Clinic is devoted to providing that service. DERIDDER— Believers and unbelievers alike often need counseling to overcome life’s hurdles, and Rich Lewis of Pathways Counseling Clinic is devoted to providing that service. Lewis is a counselor for Granberry Counseling Center, a ministry of the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home. Lewis also founded Pathways Counseling Clinic in August 2006, he said. “Pathways is the result of Granberry’s mission to provide affordable, professional, Christian counseling in communities throughout Louisiana,” said Perry Hancock, executive director of LBCH. “Granberry works with young Christian counselors who need experience and clinical supervision in order to complete their training and obtain their license as professional counselors and marriage and family therapists in Louisiana.” The process is working well in Beauregard Association, DOM Don Hunt said. “It’s turning out to be a beautiful ministry,” Hunt said. “Sometimes it’s the first glimpse people in our community have of these people we call Baptists, when they’re directed to Granberry and Pathways.” After … [Read more...]

About 800 World Changers from across the nation arrived June 23 to share the love of Christ by providing free labor to repair about 90 substandard homes. BATON ROUGE — About 800 World Changers from across the nation arrived June 23 to share the love of Christ by providing free labor to repair about 90 substandard homes.  The North American Mission Board’s World Changers unit plugs students into short-term construction-type mission projects throughout the world.  “We have more 88 communities doing World Changers,” said John Bailey, NAMB’s director of student volunteer mobilization, which encompasses World Changers and other student mission groups. “Every [community with which we partner] has a problem with substandard housing. We have a good relationship with all these cities, and they all have a needs list of homeowners at or below poverty level that they’re trying to help with government funds.” Baton Rouge had “a tremendously long list” of homeowners needing assistance when the city first approached him, Bailey said. “We want to do our best to partner with these cities in eliminating substandard housing,” he added. Here’s how it works: a city like Baton Rouge – armed with plans to improve its sub-standard … [Read more...]

The handwriting on the plain piece of typing paper is slanted and cramped, but the words are full of the joy of a new believer. ALEXANDRIA – The handwriting on the plain piece of typing paper is slanted and cramped, but the words are full of the joy of a new believer. “To Brother Herb Dean,” is printed across one section of the paper in large, block letters. Dean was chaplain of a boot camp for teen boys run by the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Department, until he retired July 4. “Thank you for your time and patience with the confused and, at times, very talkative youth of this boot camp,” the letter continued. “We have received the knowledge of God’s Word through you. You answered our questions, and your answers have always seemed to favor the Lord’s Word. Through your prayers and your words, you have given a new meaning of life and saved many of our lives.” That’s 1,335 lives at the boot camp, to be exact, said Dean, who also remembers exactly how long he spent in the Air Force, down to the second: 28 years, three months, three days, 21 hours, 14 minutes and seven seconds. All told, Dean has been blessed to lead 1,382 people in the prayer of salvation, he said. Of all the boys who have come through the boot camp, … [Read more...]

LAKE CHARLES – Carey Baptist Association’s multi-housing ministry expanded recently to include Lake Charles bus stops. Grace Ministries passes out evangelistic tracts and New Testaments, and “cold stuff” provided by the Sale Street Baptist VBS team. BOGALUSA – Westside Emmanuel Baptist, where Marcus Rosa is pastor, hosted two block parties in June, when a large group of students and adults was in from Indiana to rebuild hurricane-damaged homes in the Bogalusa area. Block party activities included two moon bouncers, carnival-type games, sno-cone and popcorn machines, food and drink for several hundred, and much more, according to the Westside Windowchurch newsletter. MONROE – Lakeshore Baptist celebrated Pastor William L. Smith’s 30th anniversary and the church’s 53rd with a joint celebration July 1. A covered dish luncheon was to follow the 10:45 a.m. worship service, during which Vernon Stephenson was to be guest speaker. About 200 people regularly attend Sunday worship at Lakeshore. LAKE CHARLES – First Baptist is to host a “Keenagers” Senior Adult luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, July 19, in the family ministry center fellowship hall. The Blount Sisters are to provide entertainment. Cost: $4/person. BLANCHARD – At … [Read more...]

HOMER – “Our church building is simply the training center for the Christian task force,” PastorJames Simeon tells his congregation in a recent issue of The Evangel newsletter for First Homer. “It is the place where Christian soldiers come together to be trained, strengthened, and briefed in the art of spiritual warfare. The battle is not fought in the church. The battle is in the world, and all meetings at First Baptist Church are intended to prepare us for the attack.” With these words Pastor Simeon was clarifying what he meant in the first paragraphs of his column, when he wrote, “Every believer is a minister.” The church headquarters building is at 406 W. Main, the pastor wrote. “On Sunday our church is at worship; On Tuesday it is scattered everywhere. ... This does not mean that the secular world would automatically become holy because we are in it. But we are called and sent into that world for the purpose of ministry.”   … [Read more...]

Comings, Goings, Available     Carey Baptist Association pastorless churches: Boulevard, First Cameron, First DeQuincy, Eastern Heights, First Elton, First Hayes, Sale Street, Temple and Woodlawn. Jack Gandy is new as pastor at Johnson Bayou. Lathan Hill Jr. is new as pastor at First Welsh. Don Slack is new as pastor at Horseshoe Bastrop. Larry Linson is new as pastor at Highland Park Monroe. Terry Mims is new as pastor at Emmanuel Monroe. Collin Wimberly is new at Parkview Baton Rouge, from First Swartz. Northeast Baptist Association pastorless churches: Clark Springs, Edgewood, Fairbanks, Ouachita, Ridge Avenue. n Morehouse Baptist Association pastorless churches: Antioch, Collinston. Northwest Baptist Association pastorless churches: Cypress, Grawood, Gray, Linda Lay Memorial, Oil City, Plain Dealing, Trinity Heights, BanSuk Korean (English pastor .) Deaths     E. Dudley Rutledge Jr. of Pineville died June 13 at an Alexandria medical facility. He was 73. A member of Esler Baptist Church in Pineville, the Rev. Rutledge was retired as pastor of several central Louisiana and East Texas Baptist churches. Survivors include his wife, Marie, and daughters Joanna Spears and Jill Withers, among others. Memorials may be … [Read more...]

First Ferriday seeks 'illegals' FERRIDAY – First Baptist Church is looking for “illegals,” reports Butch Hosea, Minister of Music. “One of the hottest topics in our nation right now is this illegal alien issue and closing our borders,” Hosea wrote in a recent issue of the church’s newsletter. “I have good news!” Hosea continued. “The choir is perfectly willing to accept ‘illegal’ choir members.” No visas, passports, or green cards are needed to join the choir at First Ferriday, he said. Indeed, now is an especially good time to join, even if you’re an expatriate of the choir. “We are offering full amnesty,” the music minister said. “You are not only wanted back, but are being begged. “Aren’t you glad serving in God’s Kingdom is a lot more cut and dried and a lot less complicated than some government policies?” he added. “God’s policy is the same now as it ever was. All applicants accepted.” First Haughton looks at ‘Planet Earth ‘ HAUGHTON – As a response to the Discovery Channel’s recent documentary Planet Earth – which some say promotes the idea of evolution – Brandon Digilormo, minister to middle school students at First Baptist Haughton, has designed a student summer Bible study series to address questions about the … [Read more...]

James Holsinger, nominated by President Bush to become the 18th U.S. surgeon general, is being slammed by homosexual activist groups because of his outspoken disapproval of homosexual behavior. WASHINGTON (BP) –James Holsinger, nominated by President Bush to become the 18th U.S. surgeon general, is being slammed by homosexual activist groups because of his outspoken disapproval of homosexual behavior. Holsinger, 68, is an accomplished cardiologist from the medical center at the University of Kentucky, a state with one of the country’s largest healthcare systems. However, a scholarly article Holsinger wrote in 1991 — titled “Pathophysiology of Male Sexuality” as part of the United Methodist debate over homosexuality — is diverting media and political attention from his credentials to his faith. In the article, Holsinger wrote that homosexual sex was unnatural and heightened the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. He concluded that injuries and diseases may occur “when the complementarity of the sexes is breached.” Data from the Center for Disease Control indicates that risky homosexual behavior is contributing to dangerous increases in rates of infection for syphilis. The CDC reported an 8 percent … [Read more...]

Wanda Lee, executive director/treasurer of the Woman’s Missionary Union, gave the following talk in Houston June 18, during the opening session of the 26th annual meeting of the Council of Korean Southern Baptist Churches in America. Thank you, Dr. Park, for your very kind invitation to share why I believe that missions, and therefore, WMU is important in the life of our churches. I would also like to thank Angela Kim for her faithful service and partnership with WMU for many years, but especially these past three years as we have sought more intentionally to develop missions advocates and WMU leaders in the Korean Baptist churches.  Her vision for developing missions resources and Korean leadership has been invaluable as we at WMU try to resource all of our Southern Baptist churches. When I visit a church I often ask church leaders two questions: 1. What kind of church do you want to grow? 2. What is it you hope your children will take away from their years of being in your church when they leave for college? Once they share their desires with me, I usually respond by asking them to look at what they are doing at church to see if they are providing what will give them the results they want. It is my hope … [Read more...]

“My father was a rough-necked miner who could cuss the wallpaper off the wall, and the next thing I know he gets saved and called to the ministry.” LONGVIEW, Wash. (BP) – “My father was a rough-necked miner who could cuss the wallpaper off the wall, and the next thing I know he gets saved and called to the ministry.” Kevin White, pastor of First Baptist, credits the salvation of his entire family to the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support of their respective state convention and SBC missions and ministries. “I was born and raised in the western states,” White explained. “If it hadn’t been for a mountain missionary who came to the gold mining town of Crescent, Nev., who knows what my life would be like today. There was no church in the town I lived – not any church. This missionary came out every Thursday night and held worship services, and in the summers, vacation Bible school. That missionary’s salary came from the Cooperative Program,” White said. “The Cooperative Program means something to me personally because it’s directly related to the salvation of not only me, but my mother … [Read more...]