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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

LC, South Korea OK exchange agreement

By Karen L. Willougby, Managing Editor   [img_assist|nid=7970|title=Listening to the good news|desc=A group of South Korean students listen intently as Man Chai Chang, governor of education in southwest South Korea, explains the benefit of a good education. “To be leader you have to have a good and right mind,” Chang told them in Korean. He later translated his own words for the Baptist Message.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=427]PINEVILLE – Soccer stars David Kam and Youngsup “Ron” Soh until recently were the only South Korean students at Louisiana College.   But in early February they were joined by 18 high school students and three teachers from South Korea, on campus for three weeks to practice their English and experience an American college.   On Feb. 13, they were joined by Man Chai Chang, governor of education in southwest South Korea.   “It was in God’s plan for these students to be here at the same time as the South Korean education governor,” said Justin McCain, LC’s director of international students. “It brought about a great opportunity for these [Korean] students to meet and talk with Dr. Chang. They had never met him before.”   It also showed the … [Read more...]

Churches reconcile, bless lake community

By Staff, Baptist Press   [img_assist|nid=7972|title=Lake St. John Community Church|desc=Lakeshore Baptist Church and Lake St. John Community Church, reconciling after a 35-year split, are symbolically burying a hatchet in concrete during the 10:45 a.m. worship service March 4. Both congregations will meet as one in Lake St. John’s building, seen above.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=480]DELTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION – Less than one mile but a lot of bad blood separated the members of Lakeshore Baptist Church, started in 1957,  and Lake St. John Community Church, started in 1982.   Yet the cause for two churches dividing 35 years ago has been lost to  history, and the two congregations are again becoming one.   A special ceremony during the 10:45 a.m. service March 4 at Lake St. John will include the burying in concrete of an actual hatchet, bought specially for the occasion.   “Reconciliation is always better than division,” says Mark Richardson, pastor for the last 11 years of the Lakeshore church. “Love and joy and peace and longsuffering is always better than wrath and bitterness.   “I just don’t believe it’s God’s will for God’s people to be divided,” the pastor … [Read more...]

Hankins to chair state execs NAMB study committee

By Tim Yarbrough, Baptist Press   SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (BP) – David E.  Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, was named chair of a special committee to evaluate relations with the North America Mission Board.   The committee was appointed by state convention executive directors during the mid-February annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., of the Fellowship of State Executive Directors. State executive directors meet each year for fellowship and to discuss issues related to Baptist state convention work.   The name of the state executives’ special committee is “A Study Committee on Implementation of NAMB Initiatives with State Conventions.”   Emil Turner, executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention and president of the fellowship for 2011-12, said the committee was established “to evaluate how state conventions and NAMB can maximize cooperation during the transition process of implementing the new NAMB initiatives.”   Announced in 2011, NAMB’s Send North America strategy focuses heavily on church planting and shifting funds to the field for church planting.   Members of the committee are David Hankins, chairman, executive … [Read more...]

Church surmounts crisis, emerges as a CP leader

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor [img_assist|nid=7975|title=First Baptist Black Forest|desc=First Baptist Church in Black Forest, Colo., on the cusp of Colorado Springs’ urban sprawl, is a growing church, as pastor Bob Bender puts it, committed to do “what non-growing churches refuse to do: Pray and work hard.”|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=511]BLACK FOREST, Colo. (BP) – A church that dwindled to 10 families in the 1990s then rebounded by prayer, faith and diligence has become a perennial leader in Cooperative Program giving in Colorado. “Growing churches do what non-growing churches refuse to do: Pray and work hard,” said Bob Bender, pastor of First Baptist Church in Black Forest, located on the cusp of Colorado Springs’ urban sprawl. “We strive to make evangelism [and] missions the point of the spear in penetrating the lostness of Colorado.” In a state where missions researchers say 86 percent of the population is unchurched, Bender noted that “you have to be highly relational. You pretty much have to earn the right to talk with someone about their faith. “Our people are excited about their church and invite others regularly. Most we reach are attending our church as a result of a personal visit.” Horse … [Read more...]

Louisiana Milestones

By Staff, Baptist Message   Arrivals/Departures   Richard (wife Norma) Arceneaux is new as pastor of Bellevue Jena.   Jay Miller, new as pastor of Hopewell DeRidder.   Jackie (wife Joanie) Gestes, new as pastor of First Many.   Jeffrey A. Raines, new as pastor of First Shreveport.   Roger (wife Carolyn) Whittington, new as transitional pastor at Pine Grove Jena.   Preston (wife Kathy) Allen, new as music minister at Emmanuel Monroe. Pastor Terry Mims.   Robert (wife Sheyanne) Dukes, new as pastor of Castor Leesville.   Needed/Giving   Crossroads Community (SBC) Church in Kenner seeks new pastor. Please submit resume via email tomjzsoutherland@yahoo.com.   Goodwill Baptist located in West Carroll Parish near Oak Grove needs part-time music director. Email:dougsims1@inetsouth.com or call 318.428.4962.   Plain Dealing Baptist seeks Pastor. Send resumes to Plain Dealing Baptist Church, PO Box 543, Plain Dealing LA 71064 or Email bethburkes@hotmail.com.   Kerry Lex Gerald available for interim or supply in East or West Baton Rouge or Livingston Parishes. Call: … [Read more...]

Louisiana College confers degrees to 117

By Al Quartemont, Special to the Message [img_assist|nid=7834|title=Happy grads|desc=Members of LC’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates for 2011 take time to celebrate their accomplishment. Louisiana College conferred degrees on 117 graduates.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=567]PINEVILLE – For Louisiana College Theater Arts major Chris McDowell of Deville, graduation meant one thing. “It means adulthood is here,” he said. “I’m a grown- up now.” McDowell and 42 other undergraduate and 74 graduate students in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at LC began that next stage of life Saturday, Dec. 10, when the college hosted its 151st commencement ceremony. “These students have exalted Almighty God through their academic pursuits,” LC president Joe Aguillard told the audience of family and friends gathered at Guinn Auditorium. “This marks a new beginning – an avenue to change the world for Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.” LC’s graduating class for this semester, 117 in all, came from 10 states and one foreign country. The ceremony included the giving of the Invocation by Christian Studies major Kristen Fuselier of Alexandria. Kristen also accompanied on the piano her sister Kellie, a Social Work … [Read more...]

Four new year assumptions

By Kelly Boggs, Baptist Message Editor While researching the subject of New Year’s resolutions I came across the following quote: “He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool.” The person from who made this quote is obviously as much a pessimist as a cynic when it comes to making a fresh start on Jan. 1. G.K. Chesterton had a different take on the making of resolutions. “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes,” wrote the English author. “Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.” In recent years, the making of New Year’s resolutions – or rather the breaking of them – has become fodder for late-night comics. That said, I agree with Chesterton that there is something noble about seeking to better oneself with the making of resolutions. Once a person reaches the point that he or she sees no value in seeking to become better by resolving to change, that person has given up on living life and has settled on simply existing. This, if you think about it, is in and … [Read more...]

You shouldn’t be fooled by those high interest rate ads

By Wayne Taylor, Executive Director Louisiana Baptist Foundation   I recently opened a checking account for my son, and we looked at the interest rates being paid by the bank.   They offered 0.01 percent on checking accounts and .25 percent on a one-year CD.   I explained to my son that for many years the common passbook savings rate was 5.25 percent, and rates were higher if your money was locked in for a period of time. I explained to him that people save money all their lives in order to retire and live off the interest or earnings from their investments.   Today due to a poor economy and low interest rates, some retired folks are beginning to “eat” their principle and are hoping they don’t outlive their money.   In this low interest rate environment, everyone is searching for higher interest rates, but desperation and greed can cause people to be fooled by a bad deal or unscrupulous people.   I have seen advertisements showing rates as high as 7 percent, 8 percent, and 11 percent.   My fear is that individuals who have been hurt by low interest rates will be hurt more by investing with companies offering  interest rates that are “too high” in this low … [Read more...]

THE PASSION OF PERPETUA

By Rex Butler, Professor of Church History and Pastristics at NOBTS   “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.”   These famous words were written around 200 A.D. by Tertullian, an early church father who lived in Carthage, North Africa. This adage proved true over and over during the first centuries of the church as Christians demonstrated their faith in Christ by delivering the ultimate witness: their martyrdom. In fact, the word “martyr” comes from the Greek word martus, which means “witness.”   When many of those living in the Roman Empire saw that Christians were willing to die rather than renounce Jesus Christ as Lord, they ceased jeering and began seeking after such a faith that could change their own lives.   In A.D. 203, some new believers and their teacher were martyred in the arena in Carthage. Their story is preserved in The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, a document that includes Perpetua’s diary (the earliest existing writing by a Christian woman), a vision of heaven recorded by the teacher named Saturus, and an eyewitness account of the martyrs’ deaths.   In 202, the year before these martyrdoms, the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus desired to restore … [Read more...]

Questions we’ve pondered

By Bill Warren, Professor of New Testament and Greek at NOBTS   Question: What Do We Know About Jesus’ Family? What happened to them after Jesus was born and later after he was crucified?   Bill Warren responds: You’ve asked a question that Christians have puzzled over from the second century onward. Unfortunately, we don’t know as much as our curiosity desires, but there is some information in the New Testament and other early sources.   In the New Testament, Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:56 mention Mary as Jesus’ mother, Jesus’ sisters (not named) and brothers James, Joses, Jude (or Judas), and Simon. The most natural reading of this text is that these are actual brothers and sisters, not simply “cousins,” and no indication is given that they are children of only Joseph and not Mary.   Matthew 13:56 also notes that Joseph was a carpenter, with Mark 6:3 noting that Jesus was also a carpenter. Of course, the son generally followed in his father’s trade, so we should expect the same trade for both Joseph and Jesus.   Regarding Jesus’ parents, his father is not mentioned as being alive during Jesus’ ministry, so most likely Joseph died between when Jesus was 12 years old and when his … [Read more...]