By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer NEW ORLEANS (LBM) – Two teams recently lined up inside a Walmart for an unusual Kingdom-minded shopping challenge, the Baptist Message has learned. Using a $1,000 grant from the Louisiana World Hunger Offering, the student teams from Miner Baptist Church, Sikeston, Missouri, split the money and went on a shopping spree to each fill 25 boxes that were then distributed to needy families in New Orleans, Jan. 4. Jacob Crawford, executive director of City Life NOLA and pastor of City Life Church, New Orleans, said the effort met basic physical needs of the recipients and provided opportunities to pray with and share the Gospel with individuals with whom his church was trying to develop relationships. Each box contained food, a blanket and hygiene items. “This not only built excitement among the teams, but it gave us an opportunity to further relationships with individuals who previously were homeless and had recently moved into a rental unit,” Crawford told the Baptist Message. “These boxes provide access for us to meet people we usually wouldn’t.” Adult leader Pam Lowe was amazed at how the appreciation expressed by each recipient. “One lady that we gave a meal to told … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer CAP HAITIEN, Haiti (LBM) – Four weeks after they became trapped in Port-au-Prince, two staff members of Louisiana Reach Haiti have made it safely to the ministry’s Children’s Village in Cap Haitien. Darrin Badon, president of Louisiana Reach Haiti, said the women left on a bus from the capital city early March 26 and took the eight-hour bus ride for a long-awaited reunion with the children and staff at the Children’s Village. They had been living in a relative’s home since March 4, when gang activity forced them to remain inside the house. Badon expressed gratitude for the many prayers on the behalf of the women and the children and other staff of Louisiana Reach Haiti, a partnership between the Louisiana Baptist Convention, Haiti Baptist Convention, Louisiana Baptist churches and the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home & Family Ministries. The Baptist Message published an article on March 16 regarding Badon’s plea for prayers on behalf of the staff members. “God protected them while they were there with family,” Badon told the Baptist Message. “By His grace, we got them out of there today. The kids and staff were elated to see them. Lots of hugs were exchanged and we … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer LIVINGSTON, La. (LBM) – Colyell Baptist Church was seeing people saved and baptized each year, but their spiritual journeys seemed to stop just beyond the baptis­tery, according to Pastor Jer­emy Glascock and his wife, Amanda, who both realized the church had to get serious about discipleship. Since the first disciple­ship group began meeting in September 2022, 30 women and 18 men have become involved. Additionally, Sun­day worship has increased from 146 in September 2022 to 245 in February 2024, and the church has celebrated 44 baptisms during that time. “One of the biggest things we missed in church all these years was discipleship,” Glascock told the Baptist Message. “We baptized all these people, and we didn’t do much else after with them except put them in a Sunday school class. “But when we began liv­ing life with people in small groups, things changed,” he continued. “It has started a culture change. We used to revolve around just meeting together in church on Sun­day mornings, but now we revolve around discipleship, too.” BACKGROUND Since Glascock arrived in 2017, 178 new believers have been baptized by CBC. Dur­ing that time, he noticed that those who … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer NEW IBERIA, La. (LBM) – At the beginning of the school year, Bible teacher Geran Maples challenged his eleventh-grade students at Highland Baptist Christian School to prayerfully consider if following Christ was worth everything. The answer he got, based on Nik Ripken’s book “The Insanity of God”, not only surprised him but led the entire class of 27 members to start a weekly Bible study called Juniors for Jesus, led by the students. Subsequently, three of the juniors have surrendered their hearts to Christ. “All of a sudden you have this grass roots movement of kids trying to add faith-based applications to their lives all the while saying they have sin in their own lives that they want to address,” Maples told the Baptist Message. “It started with the students really getting honest with the question Nik Ripken asked about, ‘If it’s all worth it?’ They have seen that they truly represent Christ in this world. “Detentions have dropped, and other discipline issues have really lessened,” he added. “I credit all of this to the kids focusing on their walks with Christ.” DISCIPLESHIP MOVEMENT Since Juniors for Jesus began, a discipleship movement has grown throughout … [Read more...]

By Baptist Message staff ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Louisiana Baptist Foundation trustees and staff celebrated the entity’s 80th anniversary during the March 5 board meeting. LBF Executive Director Jeff Steed offered thanks for how God has allowed the foundation to partner in ministry with Louisiana Baptists to build the Kingdom “one dollar at a time, one ministry at a time, one life at a time.” Throughout the year, the LBF plans to celebrate its anniversary by providing an additional $80 to each gift provided by donors to Louisiana Baptist churches and ministry given through the Foundation, and an additional $80 to each new account opened (availability of one per church), while funds are available for both offers. Also, the foundation will be posting monthly updates on its social media pages about its history and how God has blessed it since inception. Steed noted the ministry, which was chartered in 1944, has helped Louisiana Baptists have a return of $15.70 for every dollar of Cooperative Program funds received. “It’s pretty astounding to know God has taken the foundation from $0 to over $250 million in assets since its beginning,” Steed told the Baptist Message. “And what’s exciting is that it is not our money, but … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer MONROE, La. (LBM) – The Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries’ campus is bustling with activity lately, including decisions for Christ, continued construction of a center that will serve the impoverished and times of celebration for its 125th year of ministry. “Everything the Children’s Home does should be pointing people to the Lord,” LBCHFM President and CEO Perry Hancock told the Baptist Message after the entity’s Feb. 23 board meeting. “We share God’s love and we share God’s love and we share the message of the Gospel. Then we allow the Lord to work in their hearts. “We do a lot of planting. We do a lot of watering, And we often get to see the harvest,” he continued. “And so that's so exciting because that’s the foundation of our ministry. It’s a biblically based ministry where we're trying to share in word and deed, God’s love and the message of Christ.” Hancock said the children and mothers who turned to Christ have been baptized by area churches and are discipled by their respective cottage parents. COMPASSION CENTER   Trustees were reminded that construction of the Compassion Center continues, and that the facility should be operational … [Read more...]

By Baptist Message staff NEW ORLEANS (LBM) - Louisiana Baptist women will be challenged to embrace joy as they celebrate, April 19-20, during a special anniversary conference hosted by the First Baptist Church, New Orleans. “At this year’s Embrace conference, we will highlight 125 years of WMU in our state and reflect upon the Kingdom impact Louisiana Baptist women have had through their service and support of missions,” Louisiana Baptist Women’s Mission & Ministry Strategist Christine Gill told the Baptist Message. “The location of this anniversary celebration was intentional. The pastor of First Baptist New Orleans called Georgia Barnette in 1901 to serve as a missionary to New Orleans. We wanted to commemorate the calling of Georgia Barnette, who held the first full time position with Louisiana WMU, to Louisiana.” Embrace kicks off with check-in on Friday, April 19, at 4 p.m., and the first session will begin at 6 p.m. Messages will be presented by keynote speaker, Julie Busler, Oklahoma WMU president, author of “Joyful Sorrow: Breaking Through the Darkness of Mental Illness.” Special guests at Embrace will be Sandy Wisdom-Martin, National WMU executive director/treasurer, and Faith Grosshans, Lifeway women’s … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer VIOLET, La. (LBM) – Pastor David Gonzalez is thankful for the gift of life he recently received a through a new kidney from a stranger-turned-best-friend. Gonzalez, who is pastor with Celebration Church’s Lower St. Bernard campus in Violet, in 2020 was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare form of blood cancer. Since then, Gonzalez has battled a myriad of emotions and has seen God move through others’ encouragement, prayer and His healing power. “The Lord keeps reminding me that to get through anything you have to be the one to encourage yourself in the Lord -- like King David had to do when nobody was around,” Gonzalez told the Baptist Message. “I said ‘Lord, help me to learn apart from hustle and bustle how to try to encourage myself.’” Since his diagnosis, Gonzalez has spent time at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans and at home as he underwent extensive hospital stays, kidney biopsies, bone marrow biopsies, chemotherapy, infusions, blood transfusions, plasmapheresis, a stem cell transplant, dialysis and most recently a kidney transplant, Dec. 1, 2023. “At one point I had lost my will to continue and remember thinking that all hope was lost,” he recalled. “It … [Read more...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Baptist Message provides churches an opportunity to share with other Louisiana Baptists an upcoming revival, homecoming, new pastor, new staff member, a community outreach, or a concert in Louisiana Notables. To place your event in the paper, send your information (who, what, where, when, time) to philip@baptistmessage.com or call 318.449.4345. Please submit your information four weeks prior to the event to insure placement in the Message. ON THE MOVE Larry Linson is the new pastor at New Hope Baptist Church, Monroe. Linson will share pastoral responsibilities at Highland Park and New Hope. Clay Corley is the new student pastor at Cheniere Baptist Church. Katie Gordy is the new children’s minister at North Church, Bastrop. REVIVAL Summerfield Baptist Church, Colfax: Guest Speaker Robert Dukes. March 24. Pastor: Jeremy Brister. Clarks Baptist Church, Clarks: Spring Revival, March 24-27. Guest speaker: Scotty McDowell. Pastor: Kyle Bryan. Temple Baptist Church, DeRidder: Revival – Refresh Week, March 24-27, Sunday 10:45 a.m. Monday – Wednesday 6 p.m. Pastor: Quincy Gill Reeves Bible Church, Reeves: Revival, March 24-27. Evangelist: Mackey Willis. Mackey preaching. Pastor: Charlie … [Read more...]