Cornerstone West Slidell Baptist Church has seen its way made straight in a manner only God could orchestrate, in His own time. SLIDELL – Cornerstone West Slidell Baptist Church has seen its way made straight in a manner only God could orchestrate, in His own time.  Four years in the making, this church plant is soon to become Thompson Road Baptist  Church, says St. Tammany Baptist Association Director of Missions Lonnie Wascom.  “The devil has done all he can to prevent this work from coming about, but God’s people and their cooperative spirit have kept it alive … It’s a God thing!” wrote Wascom in a recent email.  Indeed, the church has four signs on the highway in front of the nearly completed building declaring the same thing, one word at a time, to drivers who pass by, said Cornerstone’s planter and pastor, Randy Boyett.  When the association probed the area in the late 1990s and discovered that there was no church between Slidell and Lacombe, the next town west of Slidell, Calvary Baptist, where Charles Starnes is pastor, agreed to sponsor a plant in the area, Boyett said.  “Brother Starnes has a heart for missions,” Boyett said. “He’s one of the most mission-minded pastors that I know.” … [Read more...]

Have you ever stood under a night sky and felt small before the expanse of creation? According to a recent New York Times article, cosmologists today would say you don’t know the half of it. Have you ever stood under a night sky and felt small before the expanse of creation? According to a recent New York Times article, cosmologists today would say you don’t know the half of it. One, Lawrence M. Krauss of Case Western Reserve, says, “We’re just a bit of pollution. If you got rid of us, and all the stars and all the galaxies and all the planets and all the aliens and everybody, then the universe would be largely the same. We’re completely irrelevant.” Feel better? The revolutionary insight that prompts Krauss and others to say things like this is the existence of “dark matter” and “dark energy.” I confess I don’t know much about these two things. What disturbs the sleep of astrophysicists today is that they don’t either.  According to the theory, 96 percent of everything in existence is made up of these “dark” things. They are not dark because they are unlighted but because they are inscrutable. In fact, physicists cannot even relate dark matter and dark energy to other types of energy and matter. They … [Read more...]

They were from a small church in another state. The pastor had contacted Rudy French about coming down to First Baptist Norco [New Orleans area] to help them and to stay in their mission center. “We have nine in our team,” he said. Rudy replied, “Come on. We’ll be glad to have you.”  They were from a small church in another state. The pastor had contacted Rudy French about coming down to First Baptist Norco [New Orleans area] to help them and to stay in their mission center. “We have nine in our team,” he said. Rudy replied, “Come on. We’ll be glad to have you.” Rudy shared with our Wednesday pastors group what had happened. “They worked hard all week,” he said, “on our playground. I mean they put in 15 hours a day, and it looks beautiful. Toward the end of the week, I told the pastor we want them to have a better experience than just working on our facility. I told him, ‘We’re about evangelism.’” The pastor asked what Rudy had in mind. “We will buy some plastic laundry baskets,” Rudy said, “for a dollar each. And we’ll fill them with detergents and toiletries and cookies, and go door to door down in St. Bernard Parish and tell people about Jesus.” The pastor said, “We have 300 dollars. How far will that … [Read more...]

My family attended the recent grand opening of the Answers in Genesis and I saw what I expected to see: closed minded propagandists who don’t want any challenge to their narrow view of origins. But they weren’t in the Museum. My family attended the recent grand opening of the Answers in Genesis and I saw what I expected to see: closed minded propagandists who don’t want any challenge to their narrow view of origins. But they weren’t in the Museum. So we drove past the protesters and into a museum whose exhibits constantly reference both sides of the creation/evolution debate. While my boys ran around on a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark and pretended to sword-fight a T-Rex, their mother and I read the displays on ice ages, species development, and differing understandings of radiometric dating. The planetarium inspired awe at the vastness of the universe, bringing to mind the Psalmist’s question “What is man that you are mindful of him?” while answering it as the New Testament does: with the Incarnation and atonement of the Redeemer-Ruler of the cosmos. I was pleasantly surprised that the planetarium exhibit acknowledges problems caused for any biblical historical timeline by the time it … [Read more...]

Paramount Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video recently joined to honor what would have been John Wayne’s 100th birthday. Paramount Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video recently joined to honor what would have been John Wayne’s 100th birthday. The man who became the embodiment of the great American western hero was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, on May 26, 1907. Years later, when the young actor got his first big break in 1930s  The Big Trail, the head of Fox Studios rechristened him John Wayne. His legendary career went on to span five decades, boasting several classic performances, including the Oscar-winning Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. As a kid, I read True Grit by Charles Portis. Even then, I knew no one could play Marshal Rooster J. Cogburn, but John Wayne. And for years I have excitedly awaited the arrival of a “making-of” documentary. At last, it’s here. True Grit: Special Collector’s Edition includes an audio commentary and several fun featurettes. Now, I suspect an endorsement of John Wayne as my screen hero may not sit well with some. After all, he often ended conflict with guns or fisticuffs. But, as a kid, my views on character were reinforced by watching the … [Read more...]

The stage is set in Kansas City, Mo., as thousands of girls prepare to gather for “Blume” – four powerful days of worship, interactive conferences, hands-on missions and ministry projects, concerts, fun nightly activities, and new friends. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The stage is set in Kansas City, Mo., as thousands of girls prepare to gather for “Blume” – four powerful days of worship, interactive conferences, hands-on missions and ministry projects, concerts, fun nightly activities, and new friends. On July 10-13, more than 6,000 girls from across the nation are expected to experience Blume, a missions event designed to challenge girls to recognize their gifts and encourage them to live out their God-given purpose. Blume is the German word for “flower” – representing growth, youth, and new life. The event is open to all girls ages 12 and up, including collegiate young women. “The purpose of Blume will be accomplished in our minds and hearts if girls leave empowered with the realization that God has a plan and purpose for their lives,” said Blume program coordinator Suzanne Reece. “They are each uniquely gifted, and God can use them even now to make a difference in the world and to accomplish His … [Read more...]

This summer, the exhibition hall of the Kansas City Convention Center will be transformed into Blume, the national missions event for teenage girls and collegiate young women, set for July 10–13. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – This summer, the exhibition hall of the Kansas City Convention Center will be transformed into Blume, the national missions event for teenage girls and collegiate young women, set for July 10–13. “The interactive area, called ME, will offer the ultimate opportunity for participants to express themselves and to discover their unique, God-given talents,” said Blume program coordinator Kym Mitchell. “Here, girls will also be challenged physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and socially to look beyond themselves and ‘love their neighbors as themselves.’” Some of the activities to be featured in the interactive exhibit area include: missionary row with IMB and NAMB missionaries; a hair salon to donate hair to Locks of Love; scrapbooking; Hawaiian Christian hula; photojournalism with IMB missionaries; a café and coffee shop; a global marketplace; Christian music; writing letters of support to US troops; fun photo ops; a prayer labyrinth; and much more. In the prayer labyrinth, girls will … [Read more...]

Did you know that $1 can provide one African clean water for one year? BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Did you know that $1 can provide one African clean water for one year? Or that $200 can provide six months of rent at a safe apartment for a woman in Moldova who has been a victim of human trafficking? This summer, students will learn about a variety of opportunities such as these to share the love of Christ through the “5 Ways of Giving” at Blume, July 10–13, in Kansas City, Mo. Blume, a national missions event for teenage girls and collegiate young women, has partnered with five different ministries throughout the world that focus on children and women, including Arab Woman Today (AWT) in Jordan, Beginning of Life Foundation in Moldova, The Ricks Institute in Liberia, Blood:Water Mission in Africa, and Locks of Love. These ministries will be highlighted at Blume as part of the 5 Ways of Giving. According to Blume program coordinator Kym Mitchell, the 5 Ways of Giving is a new approach that expands the act of giving to an experience that will connect with all aspects of the Blume event.  “We hope that students learn about each of the 5 Ways of Giving and plan to give to the ministry(ies) that they feel most … [Read more...]

Even God seems to have His eye, and hand, on St. Tammany, the parish this association calls home. It’s no wonder: where there are people for whom the Savior died, God is undoubtedly interested. ST. TAMMANY BAPTIST ASSOCIATION — Even God seems to have His eye, and hand, on St. Tammany, the parish this association calls home. It’s no wonder: where there are people for whom the Savior died, God is undoubtedly interested.  People are plentiful in St. Tammany Parish, the fifth largest parish in the state, and the fastest growing in the last four decades, nearly tripling it’s population since the 1970s, according to the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation--www.stedf.org/aboutsttammany.  “Our population is poised to exceed 245,000 by 2009,” the foundation stated on its website. “Combine its growth rate with its number eleven ranking in the state for tourism-related revenue … and it’s easy to understand why St. Tammany is garnering so much attention.”  Church planting, of course, is the focus of this association, said Lonnie Wascom, director of missions for this and two other associations on the North Shore.  With no less than five church plants and the same number of missions, the 30 churches … [Read more...]

Lonnie Wascom, Director of Missions for the St. Tammany Baptist Association, isn’t one to shrug off God’s calling. HAMMOND – Lonnie Wascom, Director of Missions for the St. Tammany Baptist Association,  isn’t one to shrug off God’s calling.   Weeks after marrying deacon’s daughter Linda Fay LaCoste – just as devoted to God’s call as her new husband – the couple struck out for California from Louisiana with their few belongings packed in a trailer behind an old Chevrolet. “With no hope of jobs  and no money in our pockets, we really believed it was God’s will,” Wascom said. “We had no other thing to go on except that it was God’s will.” It was the summer of 1970, and the couple, through a series of circumstances that had occurred throughout the previous year, felt led to attend Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, despite the nay-saying of friends and relatives, Wascom said. That choice was confirmed when the dean of students, not long after the Wascoms arrived on campus, stopped Lonnie and offered him two tickets to a Giants game. The Giants were Wascom’s boyhood favorite. “God has a way of confirming things in our hearts that others might not understand,” Wascom said. More … [Read more...]