LAKE CHARLES – An associational Financial Issues Workshop is planned for April 16 at Sale Street Baptist. At 9:30 a.m., “Planning financial support of pastors, other ministers, and church employees,” a workshop for ministers, church committee members and lay leaders. At 1 p.m., a two-hour “Retirement Choice Seminar” for anyone participating in a GuideStone retirement plan. JP Miles, Carey Baptist Association director of missions, is hosting the event, which is sponsored by GuideStone Financial Services and LBC. PINEVILLE – Tioga First Baptist plans a Spring Fling from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 22 at the church for the community. Free Games, Jumpers, Food, Fun. Rain date: Sunday, May 6. The church’s fourth edition of On Eagles Wings cookbooks are now available. Cost: $15 mailed USPS. David Cranford is pastor. WESTLAKE – First Baptist distributed 20 boxes of food to feed 70 people, and “mountains” of clothing March 17, and have plans to do more of the same April 21. Senior adults meet at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays to visit shut-ins. SMAC is new at First Westlake – Sunday Morning After Church fellowships. The first April 1, started by watching youngsters gather Easter eggs. Larry Thompson is … [Read more...]
Milestones
Staff changes Robert C. Rollins Jr. is new pastor at Harmony Baptist, Glenmora. It is his first pastorate. Kenny Blackwell, new pastor April 15 at Mt. Hope Baptist in Oakdale, from First Baptist, Calion, Ark. James (wife Linda) Tew, new music minister at First Princeton, from laity. Pam (husband Cecil) Marr, new music minister at FirstOilCity. Corey Olivier to New Orleans from NWBA as BCM director. Doug Burnley retired as chaplain at Schumpert. Mark Carroll, new as pastor at Burning Bush, Walker. Steve Jones, new as youth pastor at Emmanuel Denham Springs. James Cowell is pastor. Lonnie Cook, new as youth minister at Hebron Denham Springs. Joe Alain is pastor. Randy Powell, new as education and music minister at Walker Baptist, Walker. Richard Blue is pastor. Jeff Hurst, new as pastor at Grace, Bastrop. Kenny Duchesne, new pastor at Beulah, Farmerville. Revivals and related events Prewitt Chapel, Hornbeck, revival April 15-18. J.D. Brown is interim pastor. Calvary Baptist, Mangham, revival April 15-18 with Alan Miller as guest speaker. Services 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, and 7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. Gerry Courtney is pastor. Topsy Baptist, Lake Charles, revival April 15-18 with Evangelist … [Read more...]
Church discipline on the rise
Increasing numbers of Southern Baptists are claiming that church discipline is not merely a relic of the past. Editor’s note: First in a series of three articles NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – Increasing numbers of Southern Baptists are claiming that church discipline is not merely a relic of the past. Some churches have instituted a process drawn from Scripture of correcting and, if need be, eventually dismissing unrepentant members for public sins. The ultimate goal of the discipline process is repentance and restoration of sinners, the churches say, citing Baptists of past centuries as examples of how church discipline can benefit individuals and churches. The return to church disciple has been gaining momentum for several years. “The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church,” R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., wrote in a 2001 essay in a book titled “Polity: Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life,” edited by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. “No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself … [Read more...]
Debt-free living removes bondage
The first of several conferences nationwide designed to teach pastors the basics of debt-free living – named “It’s A New Day: How Will You Spend It?” – aims at “liberating people from the bondage of debt,” according to one of its organizers. ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – The first of several conferences nationwide designed to teach pastors the basics of debt-free living – named “It’s A New Day: How Will You Spend It?” – aims at “liberating people from the bondage of debt,” according to one of its organizers. The new focus is not another capital campaign or a new way to raise Cooperative Program funds to support Southern Baptist missions and ministries, added Bob Rodgers, the SBC Executive Committee’s vice president for Cooperative Program and stewardship. Tackling financial bondage will help people “choose who to serve, because if they are in bondage to debt ... they are not free to choose to serve God,” Rodgers said in a panel discussion during the March 22-23 conference in Orlando, Fla. Last year, messengers to the SBC annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., voted to move the ministry assignment for stewardship to the SBC’s Executive Committee from LifeWay Christian Resources. It is a move that Ashley Clayton, the … [Read more...]
Associations target military
At least four Louisiana Baptist associations – Concord Union, Eastern Louisiana, Delta, and Ouachita – recently participated in a LifeBox project to minister to military personnel on duty in the Persian Gulf. At least four Louisiana Baptist associations – Concord Union, Eastern Louisiana, Delta, and Ouachita – recently participated in a LifeBox project to minister to military personnel on duty in the Persian Gulf. They sent at least 680 packages to deployed armed service members. The packages are a ministry born out of the dream of a Southern Baptist Army officer to provide Christian magazines published by LifeWay Christian Resources to deployed military personnel. The captain, accustomed to receiving LifeWay magazines through his church, wanted to make the same magazines, such as – HomeLife, Stand Firm, Journey and more – available to the deployed troops. “They wanted to fill their reading hours with spiritually uplifting material that would encourage them to stand firm in their faith,” according to the LifeWay website, www.lifeway.com. LifeWay sent 4,000 pounds of periodicals to churches in the Fort Campbell, Ky. area, to mail to their members who were deployed. Later, LifeWay provided magazines … [Read more...]
Sellers opens in Baton Rouge
A grand opening is set for April 19 at the new Sellers Maternity Home here. BATON ROUGE – A grand opening is set for April 19 at the new Sellers Maternity Home here. It’s an eight-bedroom, eight-bath, two-story, 10,000-square foot, brick home set on 22 acres in the ‘central community’ of Baton Rouge, donated seven years ago to the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home by Stanley and Marlene Cheatham. Also on the property: a smaller house, which is to be used by relief house parents, and an office behind that, for family counseling and intakes. “It’s a gorgeous facility and we have plenty of room for expansion,” said Darrell Washam, director of development and public relations for the children’s home. “It was Mrs. Cheatham’s desire that it be used as a maternity home; she has an interest in teenage pregnancy.” There’s more to it than that. For the last five years the Baton Rouge facility was used as a group home for up to eight youngsters, but trustees determined at their February meeting, after months of trying to find appropriate relief house parents (to give a break to the full-time caregivers,) that the children would have an even more supportive environment if they were part of the rural Monroe … [Read more...]
New Orleans volunteers set record
NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Forget basketball. Check out “march madness” in New Orleans where record numbers of Southern Baptist volunteers from across the nation are rebuilding flooded homes. Volunteers from California to Georgia and as far north as Alaska were part of the most productive month so far. Baptist College Ministries students from New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Maryland and other states were part of the volunteer workforce. “In terms of man-hours of labor, our volunteers produced the equivalent of well over a half million dollars’ worth of work” in March, said Steve Gahagan, NOAH construction manager. “It was an incredibly productive month.” College and high school students on spring break were a large part of the 5,000-plus volunteers working with Operation N.O.A.H. (New Orleans Area Homes) Rebuild – a North American Mission Board partnership with Louisiana Baptists, as well as with Arkansas Baptist Builders and Baptist Crossroads, an initiative of First Baptist Church of New Orleans. Volunteers ranged in age and background. NOAH volunteers hung more than 1,500 sheets of sheetrock in March and worked on a record number of roofing, electrical and plumbing rough-in jobs, Gahagan … [Read more...]
Africa Mercy Ship needs teachers
The world’s largest charity hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, will deploy to the West African nation of Liberia in June. Mercy Ships is urgently seeking volunteer Christian educators to teach in the ship’s onboard Academy. LIBERIA, West Africa – The world’s largest charity hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, will deploy to the West African nation of Liberia in June. Mercy Ships is urgently seeking volunteer Christian educators to teach in the ship’s onboard Academy. “Living and teaching aboard the Africa Mercy will be challenging, but also extremely rewarding,” says Academy Director Brian Blackburn. “We’re looking for teachers qualified to work with students from Kindergarten through high school. We’re especially interested in teachers with specialties in math, science, English, French, Bible and art.” The 16,572-ton Africa Mercy is the newest Mercy Ship. An all-volunteer crew of nearly 500 from more than 30 nations will live and serve onboard, including about 60 children. The hospital ship will provide free world-class medical care to Africa’s forgotten poor using six onboard operating rooms and a 78-patient bed recovery ward. Applicants should be certified, have at least two years experience, and able to … [Read more...]
Louisiana celebrates Easter
In preparation for “Plan A,” I recently bought a copy of Mel Gibson’s 2004 theatrical release The Passion of the Christ. In preparation for “Plan A,” I recently bought a copy of Mel Gibson’s 2004 theatrical release The Passion of the Christ. I saw it when it was first released, and once was more than enough. The images still are vivid in my mind. But I was impressed – as I read newsletters from Louisiana churches for a month before Easter – with the seriousness of this season. Easter isn’t jelly beans and fuzzy bunnies. The days leading up to Easter mark betrayal by a close friend, rejection by people who five days previously were singing praises, mistreatment by people giddy with the excitement of “getting to” yell at, spit on, and beat up someone they don’t know or care about. Pastors kept writing about this, and the words from a hundred or more newsletters, week in and week out, piled up in my mind. One newsletter reported that The Passion would be shown on Good Friday evening, and that sounded to me like a good way of contemplating afresh what it cost Jesus to pay for my sins. My “Plan A” was to establish a tradition of watching the film every Good Friday, so I bought it, but God began to … [Read more...]
Profanity often unnecessarily slashes script
Recently several of us who review films from a Christian perspective were the subject of a news article. The piece was written fairly and found its way into several religious and entertainment sections of papers across the land. Recently several of us who review films from a Christian perspective were the subject of a news article. The piece was written fairly and found its way into several religious and entertainment sections of papers across the land. Surprising to me, the warning of objectionable language in my critiques became a source of contention, not for Robert Butler, the author of the story, but by a fellow critic who said of his organization, “We like to think we’re a little more open-minded than to spend our time counting F-bombs and S-words.” Some Christians consider the signaling of vulgarity in upcoming films to be helpful when movie-choosing, while evidently others think pointing out such language is silly, or worse, pious. Normally I wouldn’t take up this space or your time defending my approach, but unbridled word abuse in movies is now going unchallenged by nearly every film analyst. Since the MPAA rating system began allowing for more invective speech back in the late 1960s, obscenity … [Read more...]
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