Click to Login or Sign Up

Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

LBF reports 16-year high short-term fund rate

By Baptist Message staff (LBM) – The Louisiana Baptist Foundation has reached its highest short-term fund rate in more than 16 years. According to LBF Executive Director Jeff Steed, the annualized rate of 4.00 percent is being earned by churches and other ministry accounts all over the state. Like a savings account, the short-term fund allows churches to invest their money with no minimum balance or investment period, limitless and penalty-free withdrawals, deposits and accounts, and daily-earned interest that helps steward funds for Kingdom impact. Steed added that the fund often offers higher interest rates than those provided through a traditional bank while providing access and availability each business day by phone, email, fax, mail or in-person visit to the foundation office inside the Louisiana Baptist Building in Alexandria. “In the last 12 months, over $4 million was generated for short-term fund accounts for churches and other ministries,” Steed told the Baptist Message. “We are very grateful that God is continuing to bless the Foundation’s ministry through maximizing impact for those whom we have the honor to serve.” The short-term fund is one of many ways the foundation partners with Louisiana Baptist … [Read more...]

Deadly storms cause damage, knock out power

By Baptist Message staff LAKE CHARLES, La. (LBM) – Severe storms knocked out power to thousands across Southeast Louisiana and produced multiple tornadoes that caused significant damage and at least two deaths in the state, May 13. According to storm reports from the National Weather Service, tornadoes touched down on the east side of Sulphur and also near the Sasol plant, before moving across Westlake and into Lake Charles. Teams were scheduled to survey the area, May 14. Damage in the area included the sign of a Walmart along with a gas station in its parking lot. Across the street, cars were overturned in a shopping center. A tractor-trailer also overturned on the Interstate 10 bridge in Lake Charles, blocking traffic on Monday evening. In Henderson, Pat’s Fisherman Wharf Restaurant posted on its Facebook page a video of extensive damage to its restaurant. The owners of Pat’s, which opened in 1948, believe possible tornado activity is the cause of the destruction that ripped off roofs and tore through structures on the landmark’s site. The site is a popular tourist attraction located on Bayou Portage just a few miles south of I-10 in Henderson, a small fishing community interconnected by bayous and canals … [Read more...]

Louisiana’s Cannabis Cabal!

By Gene Mills, Louisiana Family Forum president BATON ROUGE, La. (LFF) -- Recently, the Advocate published an article discussing consumable THC (psychoactive drug) available in gas stations and convenience stores throughout Louisiana. Although the author provides a treasure trove of data, he ignores the inherent danger of “gas station heroin,” while glorifying profits to the sellers and the state It has long been the policy of Louisiana and federal law, that THC either in the marijuana or the hemp is a dangerous drug and should not be randomly available. In the last decade, lawmakers have conditionally allowed the controlled growing and dispensing of medicinal marijuana for patients under the supervision of a physician. Recreational marijuana remains illegal in Louisiana and hemp- derived THC entrepreneurs are making a mockery of our law by exploiting a loophole created when hemp farming was approved for industrial use. This industry purports to sell THC-infused products to adults, but they also migrate into the hands of minors. Hemp is extremely low in THC, that’s how the former leadership sold this Cannabis Cabal to the Legislature. So, to remedy naturally-THC-bereft hemp, entrepreneurs use processes which multiply THC … [Read more...]

Rapides Parish School District files federal lawsuit to overturn Title IX changes

By Alliance Defending Freedom ALEXANDRIA, La. (ADF) – On behalf of the Rapides Parish School Board, serving more than 20,000 students, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit April 30 against the Biden administration for what they described as unlawfully rewriting Title IX. Louisiana House Speaker Pro-Tempore Mike Johnson began preparations to file a lawsuit during the summer of 2023, when he heard of possible federal rule changes. In October, he began working with ADF to file the lawsuit as soon as the revisions were enacted. "Our children are our most precious gift from God and our responsibility is to protect them," Johnson, a member of First Baptist Church, Pineville, told the Baptist Message. "This rule change is a direct threat upon our youth and particularly our girls. It presents a danger and a threat to their rights under Title IX and an assault on our values and norms cannot stand." On April 19, the Biden administration announced it would redefine “sex” in Title IX rules to include “gender identity,” requiring schools to ignore the biological distinction between male and female in favor of “an individual’s sense of their gender.” According to ADF, the Department of Education’s … [Read more...]

Louisiana, Rapides Parish sue to stop Biden administration’s ‘radical’ Title IX revisions

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – During a press conference held April 29 in the Capitol, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry introduced the state’s Attorney General Liz Murrill who announced that her office had filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration for rule changes that she said “eviscerate Title IX,” referring to a landmark civil rights law that is best known for the protections it provided women in any school or education program that receives federal funds. “So, here are some of the consequences of the rule,” she explained: -- “Boys and girls will be forced to share bathrooms, locker rooms and perhaps lodging on overnight field trips with members of the opposite sex. -- “They'll be forced to use the preferred pronouns or face punishment. It raises distinct free speech and free exercise problems. -- “Parents may never hear about unapproved, so-called gender-affirming counseling that their children receive, because the rule allows the school to conceal that information from parents in certain circumstances. -- “Teachers and other school administrators are forced to create and carry out employee training programs on the 423-page rule to change school policies and begin … [Read more...]

Blanchard chainsaw team comforts community after storm

By Baptist Message staff BLANCHARD, La. (LBM) – Members of the chainsaw team at First Baptist Church, Blanchard, recently to serve and to share Jesus in the aftermath of an April 28 storm. During one of their stops, the team ministered to a widow who not only had a tree blocking her driveway but had lost her husband in January and her son a month before. In the end, the team left the house “feeling more blessed than we ever thought that we could have been a blessing to her,” according to Craig Bond, unit director for the chainsaw team and task force leader for the Louisiana Baptist Incident Management Team. “She had already received one quote earlier in the morning for a significant amount that she could not afford, and others were circulating through the area handing out cards,” Bond told the Baptist Message. “I told her what we were there to do, and it was going to be no charge to her, just let us handle it. She immediately began to cry, and hugged me, thanking me and saying that she had been standing out there praying for some kind of answer. I told her we were there to bring her hope.” The team also helped a fellow church member remove a large limb hanging from a tree that posed danger to the homeowner and the … [Read more...]

New ministry center to train fishers of men on Toledo Bend

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer ZWOLLE, La. (LBM) – Staff and supporters of Toledo Bend Resort Ministry recently celebrated the dedication and grand opening of a new 4,000-sq.-ft. meeting facility that will allow others not only to grow in their relationship with Christ, but become better equipped to share the Gospel in the area and beyond. Toledo Bend Resort Ministry Director Mary Gore said the new building replaced a meeting facility used since it was built in the early 1970’s. “Just as many of us have dedicated our lives to making Christ known to others, now others can also have that personal relationship with Jesus that you and I enjoy,” Gore told the crowd during the April 28 celebration. “It is for this reason this building was built and is now being dedicated to God and for His service. My prayer is that many will be trained and sent out from this place to share the love of Jesus with individuals and families.” Jerry Crooks, who previously served on the board for 18 years, shared that the resort has been reaching others with the Gospel since its establishment in 1971 on the east side of Toledo Bend Lake in Sabine Parish. The ministry center has seen many souls added to the Kingdom through the … [Read more...]

Louisianans prepare for National Day of Prayer

By Baptist Message staff ALEXANDRIA (LBM) – Louisiana Baptists will gather at churches and other venues across the state, May 2, with the single purpose of calling out to God as part of the National Day of Prayer. Tom Harrison, coordinator for the Louisiana National Day of Prayer Task Force, is anticipating a mighty movement of God throughout the state on this special day. “The mission of the National Day of Payer is centered on the Lord Jesus Christ,” said Harrison, executive pastor of the Broadmoor Baptist Church, Shreveport. “We try to unify the public for prayer for the United States of America.” This year’s National Day of Prayer theme is “Life up the word – light up the world,” based on 2 Samuel 22:29-21. “For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God — his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.” According to the National Day of Prayer websites, numerous events are planned throughout the state including: Highland Baptist Church, New Iberia, 7-8 a.m. Monroe City Hall, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. First Baptist Church, Sterlington, 11 a.m.-2 … [Read more...]

Beech Springs Baptist transformed through prayer, soul winning

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer QUITMAN, La. (LBM) – Shortly after Jason Womack arrived as pastor with Beech Springs Bap­tist Church, he and other members of a men’s prayer group made a “dream list” of prayer concerns and took those requests to the Lord. Fifteen months later, the church has seen God answer those prayers through personal revival, lives transformed and a rise in baptisms, including 16 since January. “There just seems to be true revival taking place in individuals and in the church at large,” Womack told the Baptist Message. “God is moving through this church and in this community just like we are praying about. “I know it’s not me,” he continued. “All I’m doing is preaching the Gospel, loving on people, sharing the Gospel. But I’m not the only one. Others are sharing the Gospel. God is moving through our church, and He is using the church to build His Kingdom.” Womack, now 51, was a member of BSBC until he was 34 years old and returned as pastor in May 2022. When he arrived, the church had baptized just a handful the previous year. He sensed the church’s hunger for growth and believed God had some­thing special in store for BSBC and the commu­nity. “When I met with the pulpit … [Read more...]