By Gary Myers  May 21, 2017 Set-up days are necessary, but not necessarily fun. Hours are spent filling sandbags, raising shade cloth, cutting weeds, running electrical wires, installing safety barriers, and preparing each site for excavation. There are no Indiana Joneses on set-up day, just dusty grunts lugging gear and getting the job done. Today was one of at least two set-up days. Sadly, many of those dusty grunts – missing luggage lost by the airlines – had to work in clothes they had not planned to get dirty. As far as set-up days go, this one was a good one. Much work is left for tomorrow, but much work is complete. If all goes well tomorrow, we could be digging new material in some of our locations by Tuesday. The Whirlwind Something weird happened today. The Old Testament often speaks of whirlwinds – Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind and God’s judgment is said to come like a whirlwind. What is the whirlwind in the Bible? A tornado, tempest, or a water spout – maybe. Could it be one of the whirlwinds that we called a “dust devils” in parts of the United States?  This biblical word picture of a fast-moving whirlwind appearing without warning came to life for us today. Just as we were beginning to … [Read more...]

By Message Staff WALKER – Responses to flooding and high winds in the state along with delivery of bottled water to Mississippi has made for a busy May for Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief workers. In late April, 60 and 70 homes, as well as First Baptist Church Mamou, flooded in the southern and western parts of the town. This sparked a response from Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams. For nearly three weeks volunteers assessed and completed mud outs of homes, as well as removed pews and cleaned the carpet inside First Baptist Mamou. Joining the North Eunice Baptist Church and Natchitoches and Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association teams, along with churches from other denominations in the community, was a group from Huntsville, Ala. During that time, Acadia Baptist Center in Eunice provided lodging and area churches provided meals for the disaster relief workers. Meanwhile, 15 members of the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association chainsaw crew spent time in mid-May helping homeowners near Walker clear debris after a powerful storm damaged seven homes near Highway 449 and Courtney Road. The volunteers cut trees that fell in yards and driveways in the clean-up effort. “The homeowners were excited we were there and … [Read more...]

by David Roach and Marilyn Stewart RIDGELAND, Miss. (BP) -- Grady Cothen -- the former chief executive of a state convention, a Southern Baptist university and two Southern Baptist Convention entities -- died May 19 at The Orchard retirement home in Ridgeland, Miss. He was 96. Among his service to Southern Baptists, Cothen was executive secretary of the Southern Baptist General Convention of California (1961-66), president of Oklahoma Baptist University (1966-70), president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (1970-74) and president of the Baptist Sunday School Board (1974-1984). The California convention has since been renamed the California Southern Baptist Convention, and the Sunday School Board has become LifeWay Christian Resources. LEFT A DEEP MARK "Few Southern Baptist leaders have made so deep a mark in so many different places as did Grady Cothen," New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley said in a news release. "He came to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary when it was in a crisis. He brought stability and a foundation upon which our future was built. We thank God for giving our convention such an excellent leader." When Cothen arrived at New Orleans Seminary, it was experiencing "depleted … [Read more...]

PINEVILLE (LCNews) - Louisiana College students will serve for a week this summer among the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Omak, Washington, located in the north central part of the state. Joining the combined ministry efforts of the Twin Bridges and Parkview Baptist Churches of Alexandria,  are LC students Katherine Boswell, sophomore Social Work major; Morgan Carlock, sophomore English major; Jonathan Clark, sophomore and Social Work major and worship leader at Twin Bridges; David Kim, junior Christian Studies major; and John Phillips, junior Christian Studies major and youth minister at Twin Bridges. The June 3-10 mission trip includes 21 people sharing responsibilities in Vacation Bible School, where volunteers will be teaching children songs about Jesus, sharing the Gospel with stories, showing God’s love through creative crafts, and unifying the group through recreational activities. The team will lead a teen Bible study each night. LC students will serve food to the homeless each morning. John Phillips, one of the student leaders of the mission trip, has a heart for those in need of encouragement, saying that the Native Americans in this area “are a people group living in spiritual darkness, … [Read more...]

By Message Staff COUSHATTA – Richard Kaufman values the power of prayer so strongly that he is joining other churches Saturday, May 20, for a prayer walk the day before the Red River Association Crusade begins. By gathering for corporate prayer, Kaufman believes God can use the seven-day crusade to unify the churches and change the parish forever. “We don’t work revival up,” said Kaufman, pastor of Martin Baptist Church in Coushatta. “He sends it down. We’re praying not only for folks to be saved but for people to get involved in evangelism and people to get revived. “The two greatest needs in churches today beside revival are repentance and evangelism,” he continued. “There is no time like the present.” Scheduled for May 21 at Social Springs Baptist Church in Ringgold and May 22-27 at the Red River Parish fairgrounds in Coushatta, the crusade will feature evangelist Sam Moore of Bentonville, Ark., and musical guest Donna Weaver of Tuscaloosa, Ala. A meal will be served at 5:30 p.m., followed by the service at 6:30 p.m. For several months, a team from six churches has worked to bring together the crusade. In addition to three planning meetings, the team has scheduled a prayer walk for 10 a.m. May 20 at the Red … [Read more...]

ALEXANDRIA - The CENLA Pregnancy Center soon will have a permanent home. The official signing of the lease will take place later this week for spaces located at 1254 MacArthur Drive in Alexandria, next to the Louisiana Baptist Building. The 5,660-sq.-ft. center should open sometime in the fall, when spiritual ministry will begin as well as medical and educational services. “We are thrilled to finally have a location,” said Brian Gunter, pastor of First Baptist Church in Pollock. “God did more than we ever expected him to do when we first prayed about this idea. It’s been an amazing display of God’s people coming together.” Gunter said the organization has started a formal search process for a full-time executive director to oversee the day-to-day operations of the center. The center also will employ some part-time workers,and, three pro-life physicians have agreed to volunteer their time to work at the facility. Beginning May 26, the center will be open every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. to accept lightly-used items, with the exception of clothing, that pregnant women and their newborns may use. Donations of furniture also can be dropped off then. Please send financial gifts to 2201 Melrose St., Pineville, La., 71360. … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer JONESBORO – Organizers of the North Central Baptist Association crusade are citing focused prayer gatherings as a key factor for nearly 60 people making spiritual decisions. Held April 30-May 3 at Jonesboro-Hodge High School and Winnfield Middle School, the Real Hope Crusade drew around 700 people each night. By the end of the four-day revival, 25 people made a first-time public profession of faith in Jesus, another 35 recommitted their lives to Christ and two others surrendered to ministry. Leading up to the crusade, churches in the association participated in eight prayer rallies that totaled a combined attendance of around 1,000 at various locations in Jackson and Winn parishes. Many of the association’s 54 churches took part in one of the prayer gatherings that were held from the summer of 2016 until just before the crusade began. Director of missions Marty Black said prayer was a solid foundation for a mighty movement of the God throughout the four-day crusade. “What I have seen these past few months is churches willing to come together to pray,” Black said. “Just watching their desire to do so and then to see barriers come down and spiritual decisions made during … [Read more...]

By Jerry Love, LBF Communications ALEXANDRIA – Positive economic news, a significant increase in assets, continued progress in a software upgrade and a reception for retiring LBF controller Barbara Bell highlighted the quarterly meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Foundation Board of Trustees meeting April 25. INVESTMENT UPDATES E.L. Paulk, trustee from Deville, chaired the morning meeting of the investment committee and had Lee Morris, Investment Consultant with Graystone, give an update on the performance of the LBF portfolio According to Morris, active management is beginning to see traction versus passive management following the 2016 election and thus far in 2017. The overall portfolios are doing well. The expectation is domestic equities along with developed international equity will continue to perform well through the remainder of the year. Fixed income will continue to present a challenge in the current rate environment with this segment of the portfolio performing in line with expectations. The Federal Reserve has indicated it may raise rates two or three times by year end. Alternatives allocation, which includes smaller investment allocations in preferred stock, convertible securities and other types of … [Read more...]