ON THE MOVE Matt Duff resigns as Worship leader at Vidalia First Baptist Church. Taylor Freeland is new as pastor at Tillou Baptist Church, Bastrop. Bill Haley is new as music minister at Clark Springs Baptist Church, Eros. Charles Dupree resigned as pastor at New Chapel Hill Baptist Church, West Monroe. HOMECOMING Cotile Baptist Church, Boyce: 34th Annual Homecoming, March 13, 11 a.m. Speaker: Braden Martin. Paul’s Journey will be in concert at 1:30 p.m. A love offering will be taken. The church is located at 8735 Hwy 1200, Boyce, LA. Pastor: Johnny Miller. Calvary Baptist Church, Slidell: 55th anniversary, March 13, 11 a.m. There will be a luncheon after the services. Pastor: Arron McGuffee. Trinity Baptist Church, Oak Grove: 54th anniversary, March 13. This will also begin our Spring Revival, March 13-16, Sunday, 10:15 a.m.; Sunday evening, 6 p.m., and Monday-Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. Evangelist: Bill Robertson. Music: Ben Waites will provide music Sunday morning while Richard Ainsworth will direct music Sunday evening through Wednesday. Pastor: Rayburn McLarrin. REVIVAL Cotile Baptist Church, Boyce: Revival, March 10-12, 7 p.m. Speaker: Braden Martin. Pastor: Johnny Miller. First Baptist Church, … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, NOBTS Communications NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary preaching professor Dennis Phelps is serving as the 2015-2016 president of the Evangelical Homiletics Society. EHS promotes the exchange of ideas related to instruction in biblical preaching, academic publication in homiletics and the effective communication of the Gospel from a biblical-theological standpoint. Phelps joined the NOBTS faculty in 2006 and occupies the J.D. Grey Chair of Preaching. He has 19 years in theological education, including 10 at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and more than 21 years in pastoral ministry. In addition to his teaching duties, Phelps also leads the alumni relations office at NOBTS. Phelps is a frequent guest presenter at preaching conferences, including a pastors’ preaching and evangelism conference in Belarus, and has appeared regularly at the E-4 Preaching Conference, a collaborative expository preaching conference hosted by the Louisiana Baptist Convention, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans Seminary and Louisiana College. EHS will mark its 20-year anniversary when it convenes in October at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Phelps assumed EHS’ … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message LIVINGSTON – A Louisiana Baptist chainsaw team spent most of their Thursday cutting up trees around homes and removing debris left behind from a tornado that caused massive destruction earlier in the week in Livingston Parish. The team comprised of volunteers from Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association and Baptist Association of Southeast Louisiana worked on five homes three miles northeast of Livingston. David Brown, associational missions coordinator for Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association and a member of the association’s disaster relief team, said the team expects to remain in the area through at least Saturday before possibly moving onto other locations in the parish. Ben Fussell, a member of the Baptist Associations of Southeast Louisiana chainsaw team, said the homeowners they came in contact expressed gratitude. “Everywhere we went we heard ‘thanks for coming, thanks for helping, thanks for working, thanks for caring,’” said Fussell, a member of First Baptist Church in Franklinton. Teams from the National Weather Service out of Slidell spent much of Thursday investigating the damage from the tornadoes and by Thursday evening confirmed that at least 12 tornadoes had set down in … [Read more...]

NEW ORLEANS - A unanimous three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay of the district court's opinion that struck down the state's admitting privileges law. The panel accepted all of the state's arguments that the district court did not follow 5th Circuit precedent; ignored the state's rebutted evidence that more than 90 percent of Louisiana women would still be within 150 miles of a provider; and ignored the secretary's determination that Dr. Doe 2's privileges at Tulane were sufficient. The 5th Circuit in its ruling states that this is a legitimate means to protection for women’s health and safety by granting Louisiana a stay today. It is likely, by granting of this stay, that this law will be ruled constitutional. Louisiana Rep. Katrina Jackson, who authored the legislation, said: "This stay by a unanimous three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit is a victory for the health and safety of women who are harmed by abortion. I am very pleased the Legislature's interest in protecting both women and unborn children is being respected by this court." Dorinda Bordlee, chief counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund who drafted model legislation for the bill, said: "There is no constitutional right … [Read more...]

The Louisiana Baptist Foundation exists to encourage and assist individuals with gifts that support the work and ministry of churches, institutions and organizations affiliated with the Louisiana and Southern Baptist Conventions. “Give A Gift” was developed, with the cooperation of the Baptist Message, to illustrate how the LBF assists Baptists with gifts to Baptist ministries. A submission form for Give A Gift is available in each issue of the Message.  A link to an on-line form is also available below.  Each month the Foundation will draw a name, at random, from the submissions received through the on-line form and submissions received by mail.  The person whose name is selected will have the opportunity to direct a $1000.00 gift from the Foundation to the Louisiana Baptist church, ministry or organization they choose. The name of the ministry receiving the gift will be published in the following issue of the Message. The rules: Completely fill out the form found in the Message (or CLICK lbfinfo.org/give_a_gift/ to fill out the online form.) Mail to: GIVE A GIFT, c/o Louisiana Baptist Foundation, P.O. Box 311, Alexandria, La 71309 A name will be drawn at random from the month’s submissions on the last … [Read more...]

By Jamie Stephens, Regional Reporter BASTROP – Pastor Andy Myrick said his church was excited to be disrupted by a determined cancer patient’s third attempt to be baptized after two previous failed efforts due to his illness last month. “This was the best disruption in our church we have ever had,” Myrick tearfully said, “I was on cloud nine!  When Lee Barnett walked out of our church after his baptism, there was not one dry eye. Satan tried to stop him from accomplishing what he wanted to do the previous two times, which was getting baptized at Oak Hill Baptist Church.” Oak Hill’s pastor shared his beliefs about how prayer, determination, and faith in Christ can defeat Satan’s attempts to destroy the accomplishments of God’s children. Lee accomplished his goal for baptism Jan. 24, then joined the Lord through the gates of Heaven Jan. 27 following a coma from his lengthy battle with cancer. Lee’s funeral was on Feb.1, but he left an important message and testimony for those he loved.  “I want my wife and grandkids to know the Lord,” he told Myrick before he went home. Myrick described Lee to be distant from everyone and that he never attended church since he was a kid.  He said Lee’s wife, Mary, did not attend … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA – Larry Cordaro has achieved at LSU-Alexandria in two seasons what takes some basketball coaches an entire career to accomplish. Since he came on board, he has led the program to its first-ever national tournament appearance, garnered the national coach of the year award and led the Generals to a No. 1 ranking in the polls of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. But even with the success he has experienced on the court, Cordaro knows his mission in life is much more than just winning a national championship. The ultimate prize, Cordaro emphasizes, is influencing the players Christ has entrusted to him – well beyond their basketball careers at LSUA. “It’s more than about winning games,” said Cordaro, a member at Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria. “It’s about winning lives and making better men.” From successful coach to Christ follower A native of Ruston, Cordaro’s coaching career has included stops at LSU in Baton Rouge as director of basketball operations, University of Texas at Arlington as assistant coach and recruiting and player development as assistant coach and later associate head coach at Southeastern Louisiana University in … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA – The leadership of Baptist Temple Church had tried multiple attempts at growth. They resurfaced the parking lot, placed a new roof on its building and made many changes to their facility, along with making staff, and ministry changes to try to propel growth. But despite nearly a decade of efforts to revitalize their church, growth did not happen. “We didn’t have the staff with a vision and we couldn’t replace or hire a staff with the ability to discern how to reach our community that was now a different type of demographic than when we first began as a church,” said Deacon Bob Mellon. “It was obvious to keep this site as one that was reaching others for Christ, we needed the right staff with the right vision in here. “We had been praying for years about this,” he continued. “You could see the slide. Like a lot of churches we had become internally focused. We knew we had to change the way we reach our community but didn’t know how.” At that point in February 2015, the congregation reached out to Bradd Webb, pastor of Family of Grace, another other LBC congregation in the community, at the prompting by Director of Missions Robert Daniel – with the idea of a … [Read more...]