By Message Staff HAUGHTON, La. (LBM) – Gevan Spinney woke up early Saturday, Jan. 11, to a howling wind from a  powerful storm system making its way through Haughton. A short time later he walked outside to find 60 downed trees across his lawn but miraculously with no damage to his house. Spinney, pastor of First Baptist Church in Haughton, credits God for sparing his life and home. “Once the sun came up I found my wife, Andrea, in the front yard weeping,” Spinney told the Baptist Message. “It became real obvious the Lord had His hand on our house and protected us. We had this overwhelming feeling come over us. Our family was so very grateful for the Lord’s protection.” While Spinney’s home escaped destruction, others in his area were not as fortunate. His house was located along the path of a storm that produced an EF2 tornado, whose winds reached 135 mph and caused widespread damage and three fatalities in the state. The tornado touched down before 1:30 a.m. south of Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier Parish and ended around 2:05 a.m. five miles north of Arcadia. According to the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office, Jerry W. Franks, 79, and Mary Sue Franks, 65, of Haughton died when the tornado destroyed their … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer LAFAYETTE, La. (LBM) -- One week after a shooter gunned down 26 people attending a worship service Nov. 5, 2017, at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Pastor Frank Pomeroy, whose daughter, Annabelle, was killed, too, stood before the remaining congregants and other guests and presented a message of hope found in Christ. “We have the freedom to choose, and rather than choose darkness like the young man did that day we choose the light,” Pomeroy said in his message under a tent on the church grounds. Two years later, Pomeroy told the Baptist Message that a day does not pass when he fails to remember that fateful morning. But instead of focusing on the tragedy, which took the life of his 14-yearold daughter (there are five surviving Pomeroy children) and killed close friends in his congregation, Pomeroy stressed how the faith community around the world comforted and strengthened his family, the church and the small Texas town they serve. Prayers of support and donations poured in following the shooting, and the North American Mission Board funded construction, through the Cooperative Program and other gifts, of the church’s new multi-purpose facility. … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA (LBM) -- Pastor Jeff Ginn stood before Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge in March and challenged every member to pray for and share Christ with one person in 2019. His congregation wholeheartedly responded to and embraced the “Who’s Your One?” evangelistic strategy and, by the end of the year, saw many come to a relationship with Christ, including more than 90 who were baptized, an all-time single-year high for the 100-year-old congregation that averages around 2,000 in Sunday morning worship attendance. Ginn hopes to equip others with resources to carry out the initiative when Istrouma Baptist hosts the Who’s Your One Tour and evangelism training, Jan. 26-27. The training precedes the annual Louisiana Baptist Evangelism Conference (ECON), Jan. 27-28, which will be held at the First Baptist Church in Lafayette. “We are so excited about hosting this event,” Ginn told the Baptist Message. “I know that God will challenge us all to be more intentional in praying for others and sharing the Good News with them. We implemented the ‘Who’s Your One’ strategy at Istrouma and, to my knowledge, we baptized more people in 2019 than in any other year of our … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer TERRYTOWN (LBM) – A sense of anxiety overcame Pastor Dennis Watson as he stepped into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on June 19, 2019, to offer words of forgiveness to Todd Williams, who three days earlier had driven his vehicle into an embankment of the Westbank Expressway and subsequently caused the death of Claude Williams, a beloved pastor of the Celebration Church Westbank campus. The two Williamses are not related. Miraculously, Todd Williams received forgiveness during the meeting with Watson, lead pastor of Celebration Church with 10 campuses in the New Orleans area and the Northshore, on behalf of the congregation and Claude Williams’s wife, Twila; and, he also gave his life to Christ. “He wept as I prayed for him and then told me that he needed God in his life,” Watson told the Baptist Message. “That’s when I led him to pray for salvation. “In the months that followed, I kept up with what was happening with Todd Williams in prison, and visited with him again,” he continued. “He shared with me that he feels as though his life has really changed, and now he’s telling others in prison about how the Lord can forgive people and free them from their struggles … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer WEST MONROE (LBM) —The First Baptist Church in West Monroe witnessed more than 90 people make some type of decision for Christ during its 2019 Christmas show, and also raised enough revenue from ticket sales and donations to pay off $3.5 million in medical bills for hundreds of residents in Ouachita Parish. The congregation’s annual Northeast Louisiana Christmas Celebration consisted of three 90-minute performances attended by 4,500 people from Dec. 20-22. “This was a great opportunity to show the community we care about them,” Michael Wood, pastor of First West, told the Baptist Message. “The people who will have their medical debt taken care of will experience the blessing of not having bondage to debt. But more importantly, they will see that they also can have freedom from their sins through a relationship with Christ.” Church members will follow-up on each decision made during the performances -- preparing new converts for baptism and connecting everyone who made any decision with discipleship classes to further their spiritual growth. “This is greater than one weekend,” Worship Pastor Brad Jett said. “It will benefit our area for years to come. What’s validating is … [Read more...]

By Craig Franklin, Special to the Message JENA (LBM) -- When L&A Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Jimmy Ray Young moved back to Jena from Detroit, Michigan, in 2007, he found his hometown preoccupied in what would become known as the Jena Six case, which involved six black high school students who severely beat a white classmate. The “L&A” in the name is a tribute to the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway that donated the land for the site of the church’s building. “I was not the pastor of L&A when I first moved back but I was concerned about what was going on,” said Young, who is African American. “I started attending meetings and other events to see how I could help and during that time I met some lifelong friends from the white community.” Prior to a massive event on September 20, 2007, where thousands of out-of-town protestors flocked to the town in LaSalle Parish, area pastors organized a community prayer event at First Baptist Church in Jena (a predominately white congregation but includes members of multiple races). “During the prayer service, we were divided up into smaller groups to pray,” Young said. “It was in that small prayer group I first met Pastor Jimmy Keene.” Keene, the White pastor … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer PELICAN POINT, East Grand Bahamas (LBM) -- In early December, Louisiana Baptists began a mission to rebuild the 128-year-old St. Matthew Baptist Church that was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian Sept. 2, 2019, and the ongoing effort is expected to continue for at least six more months. According to Gibbie McMillan, Louisiana Baptists’ disaster relief strategist, a team of 13 people from the Louisiana and Mississippi Baptist state conventions worked from Dec. 4-10, 2019, to establish a base camp for future teams that will rebuild the church in Pelican Point on the East Grand Bahamas Island. The team built a portable shower and bathroom facilities; constructed a floor for a tent used for lodging; installed electrical lines that provide power from a generator (lent by Philadelphia Louisiana Baptist; and, set up a washing machine, refrigerator, stove, freezer and griddle other teams will use at the base camp. The crew also brought 60 cots and 80 blankets that were donated by the American Red Cross. “We are providing a place of worship for the first church established on the Grand Bahama Island,” McMillan told the Baptist Message. “We are taking part in building back the oldest church in … [Read more...]