PINEVILLE – Louisiana College is expanding to Shreveport. Summer Grove Baptist Church, which meets in a renovated mall, has offered its facilities to an expansion of LC’s program in the northern part of the state. PINEVILLE – Louisiana College is expanding to Shreveport. Summer Grove Baptist Church, which meets in a renovated mall, has offered its facilities to an expansion of LC’s program in the northern part of the state. “The partnership is a natural one,” said Charles Rey-nolds, church administrator. “We have the same focus on Christian education and are sollidly behind the direction of the college.” The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools gave the go-ahead last March to the college to establish off-campus centers where high school students could get a head start on their college careers. Course objectives and materials are the same as that taught on the LC campus, and faculty have the same credentials as required by SACS in teaching on-campus courses. “Other institutions around the state and nation are doing the same thing,” said Joe Aguillard, LC president. “By instituting this program, we are providing an offering commensurate with other … [Read more...]

NORTH WALES, Pa. (BP) – The stench of rotting fish across the grass and parking lot of First Baptist Church in Slidell, La., somehow was tolerable – even after the rigors of a 24-hour drive. But the tragedy that these Pennsylvania volunteers from metro Philadelphia were seeing was overwhelming. Note: This article appeared Sept. 25, 2005 in Baptist Press. It serves as a stark reminder of the horror people felt in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and breached levees. The Message plans a special Katrina issue to be printed Aug. 31 and a special Rita issue to be printed Sept. 29. Please be sure we have your story in those issues, to encourage each other and to praise God together for all He has done this last year. NORTH WALES, Pa. (BP) – The stench of rotting fish across the grass and parking lot of First Baptist Church in Slidell, La., somehow was tolerable – even after the rigors of a 24-hour drive. But the tragedy that these Pennsylvania volunteers from metro Philadelphia were seeing was overwhelming. Although First Baptist Slidell – two miles from Lake Pontchartrain – sustained four feet of flooding from Hurricane Katrina in some of its facilities, the church was ministering in its stricken community … [Read more...]

This month, we grapple with the riddle of how to increase resources for statewide, national, and international missions. My small grandchildren enjoy watching “Blue’s Clues” on TV. The youthful host and his preschool viewers, with the help of the “Handy Dandy Notebook,” solve riddles by deciphering the rather obvious clues left by the faithful dog “Blue.” Thus, the name of the show. In recent days, we have been analyzing clues to solve the www riddle (not world wide web but world wide witness).  We are trying to fulfill the strategy Jesus gave in Acts 1:8. How can that be done? We’ve noted that Southern Baptists discovered one clue over 80 years ago called cooperative missions giving. The creation of the Cooperative Program has allowed our churches to experience great advance in world wide witness. Through the Cooperative Program, we are able to share the gospel everywhere all the time at the same time. The next riddle we studied concerned how to expand our mission reach from Louisiana to the ends of the earth. We found a clue in a strategy called the “CP Advance Plan” (see last month’s article) which will move fully 50 percent of all future CP increases to our national and international Southern Baptist … [Read more...]

Members of Amite Baptist Church believe in missions because they do missions, pastor Terry Booth says. DENHAM SPRINGS, La. (BP) – Members of Amite Baptist Church believe in missions because they do missions, pastor Terry Booth says. “It is my conviction that we [the Southern Baptist Convention] will not be able to sustain Cooperative Program support without direct involvement,” said Booth, pastor of the Denham Springs, congregation since 1985. “There’s just a difference when people come back from mission trips; it puts a fingerprint on their giving.” Amite Baptist gives 13.5 percent of its undesignated offerings through the Cooperative Program because it’s a loyal Southern Baptist church with a strong belief in missions, Booth added. “The connection is pretty easy for the congregation to grasp,” Booth continued. “As [former Amite member] Derrick Thornton plants churches among Muslims in Atlanta, our CP missions dollars are helping him.... When our members see this, it’s easier for them to digest the concept of giving to missions, and to capture it and support it.” Booth said he returned in 2000 from a mission trip to Thailand with a fresh understanding of the need for personal involvement in … [Read more...]

The frightened, protective Muslim mother finally agreed to let Christian medical workers take her sick 2-year-old daughter to the hospital. BEIRUT (BP) – The frightened, protective Muslim mother finally agreed to let Christian medical workers take her sick 2-year-old daughter to the hospital. “If you send me with one of your people, I am ready to go with her,” the Shiite woman told the Christians at Beirut Baptist School, where she has found shelter for her family from the fighting that raged near her home. Then, from behind the black veil that completely covered her face, she quietly spoke these words: “Please, pray for my daughter.” Amid the darkness and suffering of war, a ray of light is shining in Lebanon. For weeks, Lebanese Baptists and other Christians have been housing, feeding – and loving – hundreds of mostly Shiite Muslim families driven from their homes in Beirut’s southern suburbs and towns farther south by the battles between Hezbollah guerrillas and the Israeli military. During normal times, the two groups might never encounter one another, much less form friendships, in Lebanon’s uneasy mix of religious and ethnic factions. But these aren’t normal … [Read more...]

NEW ORLEANS (BP) – The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary steeple is down, but only for a season. The aluminum-clad steel steeple, which stretched 170 feet above the seminary campus, remained in place during Hurricane Katrina and suffered only minor external damage. But ... NEW ORLEANS (BP) – The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary steeple is down, but only for a season. The aluminum-clad steel steeple, which stretched 170 feet above the seminary campus, remained in place during Hurricane Katrina and suffered only minor external damage. It became a beacon for hope in the devastated city, the only light at night more miles around. During inspection this summer, though, the internal steel structure was found to be damaged beyond repair; seminary officials opted to remove the steeple so it can be replaced. For the next four to six months Leavell Chapel will be without its steeple. Patterned after the steeple of the first Baptist church in America, First Baptist Church of Providence, R.I., the NOBTS steeple was installed atop Leavell Chapel in 1975. Over the years the steeple became a symbol of the seminary’s mission to be a “lighthouse” for the Gospel in the city of New … [Read more...]