NATCHITOTCHES - Christmas has come and gone, but the impact some Louisiana Baptists made in the city is eternal. A group gathers one Saturday each year during the annual Festival of Lights in Natchitoches to distribute Bibles to those attending the event. Below is a video recap of the 2015 See the Light Bible distribution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-7AbBcAbdg … [Read more...]

The Message is preparing to launch a special feature on its website to celebrate every baptism of Louisiana Baptists by publishing a picture or brief video clip of each one on www.BaptistMessage.com as a kind of yearbook of evangelism within the Louisiana Baptist Convention. “Our aim in celebrating each walk of faith into the baptismal waters is that it will inspire Louisiana Baptists to be even bolder in proclaiming the Gospel and lead to even greater harvests of souls,” said Will Hall, editor of the Baptist Message. March 1 is the target start date for the initiative and The Message is asking churches as well as individual Louisiana Baptists to email a 10-15 second video clip or a high resolution photo file to brian@baptistmessage.com and include the baptized person’s name, pastor’s name, church name and date of baptism.​ … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS (BP) - The need for Christian apologetics -- the clearing of obstacles to faith -- has never been greater, attendees were told throughout the annual Defend the Faith conference, Jan. 4-8, at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary "Every age presents unique challenges to the Christian faith," said Defend the Faith director Rhyne Putman, NOBTS assistant professor of theology and culture. "We face moral shifts in our culture, religious pluralism, other competing worldviews and assaults on religious liberty." Sponsored by the seminary's Institute for Christian Apologetics, the event was attended by more than 200 people, one-third of whom were college students from various states. Plenary sessions were streamed via the Internet for the event and its messages to have an even wider reach. One current missionary in East Asia who watched the live-streamed sessions emailed one speaker to thank him for his candid portrayal of the difficulties facing those who engage a non-Christian culture. Featured among more than two-dozen speakers were Douglas Groothuis, professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary; teaching fellow Jana Harmon with the C.S. Lewis Institute; resurrection … [Read more...]

By Message Staff ALEXANDRIA - Surrounded by family and Louisiana Baptist state missions services team members, six church planters were commissioned on Jan. 20 during the first-ever service of its kind for church planters in the state. The church planter commissioning service on Wednesday was for those who started a church since October 2015. Since then, 11 churches have been started in the state, including five in January. The goal for 2016 is to plant 30 churches in Louisiana, keeping in step with the goal to plant 300 churches by 2020. To reach that goal, 170 more churches will have to be planted between now and 2020. John Hebert, missions and ministry team leader for Louisiana Baptists, said his team is engaged in partnering with churches, associations and other Southern Baptist entities to plant healthy, culturally relevant, biblically sound, multiplying churches that seek to fulfill the Great Commission. “At the spearhead of this effort is the work of our Church planters,” he said during the commissioning service. “Today these church planters have come before this assembly to receive the blessing and commissioning and commitment of Louisiana Baptists’ support. God has called them to serve in places across our … [Read more...]

By Message Staff In the Dec. 17, 2015 issue of the Baptist Message, we introduced you to a Louisiana Baptist couple in Covington who coordinates and delivers shipping containers to children in the Ukraine at Christmas. Each container has clothes, food, much needed medicine, building material, mattresses and vitamins. The shipping containers are 40-ft-long, 8-ft wide and 9-ft high. Most of the containers are delivered to southern Romania where living conditions are much worse than other parts of the country. Johnny Huffman, who along with his wife Sissie spearheads the project, e-mailed the Message on Jan. 19 with an update on the project. The couple’s ministry is Fairhaven Hope Ministries, located just 10 miles outside of Covington in rural southeast Louisiana. “I sometimes think of the old song ‘I Stand Amazed in His Presence’ for I see Him working His presence in so many ways each day,” he wrote. “Attached you see a few of the pictures that I received from Romania of children receiving some of the Christmas boxes that many of you had a part in. As I was looking at the pictures, I was thinking ‘Only Jesus could have put together all the people it took to accomplish these children having these gifts’. It was His presence … [Read more...]