By Julie Cupples, LBCH Communications Our LBC 2020 Commission recently asked the question, “Who are the people in Louisiana who need to be reached?” The research clearly indicated that reaching the “next generation” must be a priority if we are to reverse the current declining trends and see our children, teens, and young adults truly follow Christ. Your Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home is in its 115th year of reaching and restoring the next generation! Thank you for helping us fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as we provide love, care, and hope in Christ to children and families in need. We are so grateful for your partnership in this life-changing ministry! –Dr. Perry Hancock, President & CEO   MONROE – The Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries continually strives to minister to the changing needs of children and families in our state. Currently there are hundreds of families facing crises, which place their children at risk. Crises might include financial problems, unemployment and homelessness. In other cases, children come from families in which the parent needs time to heal physically or emotionally, or is recovering from an alcohol or drug addiction. Other families … [Read more...]

Children’s Home Sunday Annual Offering June 8, 2014 Because We Care Because We Care is this year’s theme, based on…"Casting all your care upon Him, because He cares about you." 1 Peter 5:7 Gifts through the Children’s Home Sunday Offering will help us continue to demonstrate Christ’s compassion and concern for the children who come our way. … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/30/2014 - 11:31 “Religion that our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans… in their distress…” James 1:27   Churches! Join our CONNECT 1:27 NETWORK and receive a FREE Orphan Care Tool Kit!!   Connect 1:27 is helping families and churches across Louisiana to answer God’s call to minister to orphans through Foster Care, Adoption, and Orphan Care ministries. Over 4,500 children are in Louisiana’s foster care system. More than 300 of these children are lingering in foster care because they have no adoptive family. Many of these precious children are in our own back yards. All of these children are our modern-day orphans. God has given clear commands in His Word for Christians to take care of orphans. Churches joining the Connect 1:27 Network receive a FREE Orphan Care Tool Kit that includes: Orphan Care Ministry Guide, The Theology of Adoption, Orphan Care Sermon, Bible Study & Prayer Guides, Adoption Options, Foster Care & Adoptive Parent Guide, and Fields of the Fatherless by Tom Davis. In addition, churches will have access to online resources available only to Connect 1:27 Network members and will receive a monthly Connect 1:27 … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/30/2014 - 11:34 BALTIMORE (BP) -- Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd, as one of three pastors to be nominated for SBC president in June, responded to six questions Baptist Press posed to each candidate. Floyd's nomination was announced Feb. 20 by R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Floyd has led Cross Church in northwest Arkansas for 27 years, now with campuses in Springdale, Rogers and Fayetteville. Among Floyd's leadership roles in the Southern Baptist Convention, he chaired the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force (2009-10) that set forth wide-ranging recommendations for expanding the SBC's missions outreach. Earlier, he served as chairman of the SBC Executive Committee and was a member of the mid-1990s SBC's Program and Structure Task Force that produced The Covenant for a New Century restructuring and refocusing of the SBC's entities. Floyd has been a key organizer of two pastor/leader prayer gatherings that each drew participants from nearly 30 states in recent months -- a Jan. 13-14 meeting in Atlanta attended by 400 pastors and leaders and a Sept. 30-Oct. 1 meeting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area attended by 175-plus … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/30/2014 - 11:37 BALTIMORE (BP) -- Kentucky pastor Jared Moore, as one of three pastors to be nominated for SBC president in June, responded to six questions Baptist Press posed to each candidate. Moore's nomination was announced May 7. Bennie Smith, a deacon at New Salem Baptist Church in Hustonville, Ky., where Moore is pastor, will nominate him. Paul Sanchez, pastor of Willow Baptist Church in Brooksville, Ky., was originally announced as the nominator but said he will not be making the nomination. Moore has led New Salem for the past four years, serving previously as a pastor and youth pastor in Tennessee. Moore is the current second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He has served as a teaching assistant at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and an online adjunct professor at Mid-Continent University in Mayfield, Ky. Moore is a regular contributor to the SBC Voices website and is the author of "10 Sacred Cows in Christianity that Need to Be Tipped" and "The Harry Potter Bible Study: Enjoying God Through the Final Four Harry Potter Movies." Moore holds a bachelor of arts from Trinity College of the Bible, a master of arts in religion from … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/30/2014 - 11:38 BALTIMORE (BP) -- Maryland pastor Dennis Manpoong Kim, one of three people to be nominated for SBC president in June, responded to six questions Baptist Press posed to each candidate. Kim's nomination was announced May 20 by Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Kim has led Global Mission Church of Greater Washington in Silver Spring, Md., for 23 years. The congregation, which has a predominantly Korean membership, is the largest church in the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. Global Mission Church has produced more than 50 International Mission Board career missionaries and has planted churches in four U.S. states and South Korea. Among Kim's leadership roles in the SBC, he is a member of the Pastors' Task Force on Evangelistic Impact and Declining Baptisms, a national task force convened by the North American Mission Board to address the continued decrease in baptisms among Southern Baptist churches. He also served on the SBC Resolutions Committee in 2012 and 2013 and has taught courses at Southern, New Orleans and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminaries. He is the author of "Pulpit Counseling," "Answer with the Bible!" … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/30/2014 - 11:39 NASHVILLE (BP) -- For the past 25 years, Southern Baptists have begun each annual meeting by celebrating hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of new souls won for Christ. This celebration is the result of Crossover, the evangelistic outreach initiative preceding the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Each year, North American Mission Board partners with state conventions, associations and local churches to saturate the host city of the Convention with evangelistic events. Volunteers from across the country arrive in the city a few days prior to the annual convention to participate alongside local church members. Last year, Crossover Houston marked the 25th year of outreach. In 1983, when messengers approved Las Vegas as the 1989 SBC annual meeting site, they adopted a recommendation to add "a strong evangelistic emphasis in connection with the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1989." The week prior to the Convention's annual meeting in Las Vegas, more than two thousand volunteers participated in door-to-door witnessing campaigns and revival services. They visited more than 100,000 homes and led approximately 470 people to Christ. The … [Read more...]

By David Roach, Baptist Press BALTIMORE (BP) -- Through hearing a diverse array of speakers -- both in terms of race and age -- Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference President Bruce Frank hopes pastors will attain a clearer vision of God's glory. Hence the theme of this year's gathering: "Show Us Your glory." "You don't want to miss any of it," Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., said. "By going and getting coffee or skipping a speaker, you very well could miss exactly what God wants to say to you right then." The June 8-9 Pastors' Conference will feature preaching, worship and prayer to undergird the ministry of pastors and their wives. The sessions at the Baltimore Convention Center will be held prior to the Southern Baptist Convention's June 10-11 annual meeting there. "What I did as I thought about the speakers and the theme was to have guys that have a heart to pour into pastors," Frank said. Speakers for Sunday evening (June 8) at the Pastors' Conference will include Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga.; H.B. Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.; and David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala. Monday morning … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer MONTES CLAROS, Brazil – In 1984, Wayne Jenkins sensed God calling him to take a team of 10 for street evangelism in Brazil. Never did he imagine 30 years later the vision would grow into one of the largest Louisiana Baptist-led partnership evangelism efforts. Today, Jenkins continues to lead a Louisiana Baptist mission team to Brazil, but on a much larger scale. “It started with a commitment that I sensed God’s leadership to do something internationally,” said Jenkins, who serves as Louisiana Baptist Convention evangelism and church growth director. “The Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) asked if I would consider doing partnership evangelism. “That’s where it started,” he continued. “I thought it meant me and a few others. Now, it has grown to one of the largest international trips in Louisiana.” The team will leave for Brazil on July 18 and return on July 28. Most of the team’s work will take place in Montes Claros, a city of 450,000 in the state of Minas Gerias. While there, the team will participate in street evangelism, Vacation Bible Schools, drama, medical, dental and eye clinics, cooking demonstration classes, sports clinics, deaf work and construction of … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Fri, 05/30/2014 - 11:45 Paige Patterson By Kelly Boggs, Editor FT. WORTH, TEXAS – Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson recently acknowledged the seminary has permitted a Palestinian Muslim to enroll in the school’s Ph.D. program in archaeology. A statement concerning the student in question was posted on the seminary’s  website on May 16. Following is the entire statement: “Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson responded to recent questions regarding a Muslim student studying at the seminary. He acknowledged that a Palestinian Muslim man was allowed to enroll in the school’s Ph.D. program in archaeology. “For several years, Southwestern Seminary has operated a dig at Tel Gezer in Israel,” Patterson said. “During that time we have been joined in the effort by around 20 of our own students and about 60 students from secular schools and religious schools. We have had both Israelis and Muslims. “One of these young men from a Muslim background loved our people and asked to study with us. He accepted the necessity of abiding by our moral code of conduct. He is a man of peace, and we agreed to admit him into the archeology … [Read more...]