By Stewart Holloway PINEVILLE, La. - Do you have hope? Yesterday, I heard a judge say that everyone needs hope. She was right. The hope the judge encouraged was a hope for a better life. Everyone needs a vision for their future, something to look forward to, the feeling that a better day awaits. “To live without hope is to cease to live,” wrote Fyodor Dostoevsky. “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life,” wrote Emil Brunner. While the judge focused on the need for hope, I’d like to focus on the source of hope. You will never have lasting hope without going to the source of hope. That source is Jesus. I recently read, “Many people see only a hopeless end; but with Jesus you can enjoy an endless hope.” More money will not bring lasting hope. Once you get more, you’ll just need even more. That relationship will not bring lasting hope. At some point, that person will disappoint you. That possession will not bring lasting hope. It will get a scratch, break, or grow old. Nothing will bring lasting hope except Jesus. Everything else is a dying hope. Jesus is a living hope. Fix your eyes on Jesus - not your circumstances. He will bring you hope no matter where you are or what you are going … [Read more...]

By John Hebert, Louisiana Baptists missions and ministry team director ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM)--In 1985, I was a happily married father of five and in sales management. I was 30 years old and making a good living. My wife Kitty was a “stay at home” mom, although certified as a high school science teacher. We became involved in Evangelism Explosion, a method of sharing the Gospel with others, through our church, Parkview Baptist in Alexandria. It was the first time we had partnered in a ministry effort. The next year I became convicted that God was calling me to the ministry, coming to that realization clearly on a Sunday morning during the worship service, although I had sensed it for a long time. I knew I would need to go to seminary to prepare for ministry, but I was overwhelmed with questions about the transition: How would I provide for my family? Would Kitty be willing to teach and be the bread winner for our family while also raising the children? Would she make enough to support so large a family? How would all this work? Would she even be willing to give up her comfortable life to take on so much responsibility? After all, the oldest of our, then, five children was 10 and the baby was six months old. These … [Read more...]

By Steve Horn And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. (1 Samuel 23:16 NIV) When I accepted the position of Executive Director for Louisiana Baptists, I made this promise: Pastors will be encouraged. Churches are essential to our work, and spiritually healthy pastors are essential to healthy churches. I have been a pastor of four churches. Each church was a different size and had different strengths and weaknesses, but all required hard work. I want to encourage pastors through public ministry to them and private friendship with them to be all that God has called them to be. This will be my daily prayer, daily goal, and daily evaluation. Years ago, I heard the Christian motivation speaker Zig Ziglar speak. The only thing I remember him saying is, “Who motivates the motivator?” We could adjust the words slightly to say, “Who encourages the encourager?” Who preaches to the preacher?” “Who ministers to the minister?” “Who counsels the counselor?” “Who pastors the pastor?” Your pastor needs all of this. We all need a Jonathan to come alongside of us to help us find strength in God. My friend Scott, at the time a doctoral student at New Orleans Baptist Theological … [Read more...]

By Waylon Bailey I am fascinated with Chick-fil-A. I like the food, the service, the planning to redo their drive up lane, and their business model. What I like best is the commitment of the family to make their business Christ honoring. Recently, I read an article by Jessica Mouser in ChurchLeaders.com about Chick-fil-A (CFA) and the commitment and faithfulness of the founder of the company and his family. While an article about the Cathy family could go in a number of directions (people seem to be fascinated that they don’t open on Sunday), this particular article had to do with the family meeting in 2000 where the children of founder Truett Cathy met with their parents and entered into a covenant. Dan Cathy and his siblings, Bubba and Trudy, promised their parents they would keep Chick-fil-A true to its principles. Specifically, they promised their parents they would never open Chick-fil-A on Sundays, they would continue the companies’ charitable work, and that they would be constant in their commitment to Jesus Christ. “Business Insider” gives the covenant in this way, “We will be faithful to Christ’s lordship in our lives. As committed Christians we will live a life of selfless devotion to His calling in our … [Read more...]

By John Hebert, Louisiana Baptists missions and ministry team director ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM)—You may not consider yourself a “people person,” but if you want to successfully grow your church or church plant you better become one. It is one of the most important skills a leader must develop. One of the masters of being a “people person” also happened to be the individual who launched the phrase, “What would Jesus do?” Charles M. Sheldon was the son of a minister and became one himself in the Congregational Church, starting his ministry in Topeka, Kansas, in 1889. He seemed to see things others could not or would not see and ministered in ways not imagined by others at the time. But his “secret” was that he actually put himself into situations to learn to empathize with others. In an effort to understand and minister to the unemployed, during an economic depression, he put on old clothes and went to every store in town to apply for jobs, learning what it was like to be turned down by everyone. Later, Sheldon noticed a colony of impoverished former slaves who had located near his church and took it upon himself to inspire Topekans to engage in relief projects for them. One of the outcomes of his efforts was the 1893 … [Read more...]