By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor PLAIN DEALING – The over-wide door of what might be the oldest standing church structure in Louisiana is just for looks, these days.[img_assist|nid=7516|title=Salem Plain Dealing|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=425|height=640] Time was when it was the main entrance to Salem, which is located in Red Land, some seven rural miles northeast of Plain Dealing. The church building “was completed in 1878, and its foundation with hand-hewn walls and ceilings are yet intact,” according to a May 1946 article in The Shreveport Journal. “Plans are under way to have the old building wired with electricity, now that the REA is establishing power lines throughout all of north Bossier parish,” the article concludes. Salem, which never changed its name, celebrated its 167th homecoming July 10, with former Pastor Bob Phillips preacher, and the Blake Brothers singing. Eddy Taylor is pastor. The present church structure was built around the old. 0 … [Read more...]

By Jeff Ingram, Louisiana Baptist Convention   Months of preparation, effort, energy, time and money has been expended in getting ready for Vacation Bible School.   Now it’s Friday, the children are gone, and the workers are finishing taking down decorations and cleaning up their rooms.   Maybe there’s the closing VBS Celebration Sunday night, but for all practical purposes, VBS is over for another year.  Or is it?   Why do we have VBS? To have an intensive week of Bible studies, mission stories, upbeat music, recreation and snacks? Yes to all of the above.   But the main reason we have VBS is to discover prospects: boys and girls and their parents in our communities who are not involved in a church or Bible study; people who need the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.   VBS is not over when the last child leaves, the last decoration is packed away, or the closing night celebration ends. VBS is not over until every child and parent in the community has come to Christ.   Do you remember those enrollment/registration cards you had each child fill out during VBS?   Please don’t put a rubber band around the cards and set them on a shelf in the … [Read more...]

By Staff, NOBTS Communications   NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) President Chuck Kelley recently announced two new scholarships – one for bi-vocational ministers and another for African-American students. Money for the scholarships was donated by a Louisiana-based family foundation.   To qualify for the bi-vocational minister’s scholarship, a student must be serving a church and have employment outside the church. The scholarship is available to both full- and part-time students at NOBTS. Kelley said the new bi-vocational scholarship will help meet a crucial need.   “One of the least known facts in Southern Baptist life is how many bi-vocational ministers are serving in our churches.  We are thrilled at the opportunity to make theological training more accessible for those who are fulfilling such an important role in Southern Baptist life,” Kelley said.   The other scholarship is open to any African-American student, whether full- or part-time status. Kelley hopes the scholarship will help more African-American ministers attend NOBTS, something he believes will benefit both the seminary community and local churches.   “Southern Baptists have a … [Read more...]

By Phil Boatwright, Baptist Press   KANSAS CITY, Kan. (BP) – I love movies. They combine the essence of all the other art forms, enabling storytellers to express joy and sadness, nobility and fear, love and hate, passion and romance, and hope and faith, sometimes all in the same film.   But while they are modern man’s medium for relating parables to the masses, these parables are being treated with an ever-increasing dose of secularism. Movies over the decades have reflected changes in the society, but they have also influenced those changes, often proving the adage “Not all change is progress.”   Let’s take a look at the history of what I call the “seven deadly movie sins.”   – Acceptance of profanity.   We begin with the film that managed to break social and media taboos in the areas of sexuality, marriage and verbal irreverence toward God. Never before had there been a more searing portrait of an unhappy marriage than “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” This 1966 dramatic vehicle for husband and wife Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor brought marital upheaval into the open. The language barrier also went down, with Burton and Taylor profaning God’s name nearly as often as … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   CARSON CITY, Nev. (BP) – Home mortgages are underwater by $60,000 or more for many members, but giving to North American missions at First Baptist Church in Carson City, Nev., is on solid footing.   The church, which runs about 85 in worship each Sunday, gave $59.85 per person in 2010 through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering – and a total of $5,087.06.   Per-person giving to Annie across the Southern Baptist Convention is $14.78, according to the North American Mission Board.   “We give to Annie to support family and friends who are like family,” pastor Thomas Chandler said. “It’s purely by the grace of God that people have responded so well in an area that’s been so hard-hit by the economy.   “We give to Annie Armstrong to impact people eternally,” Chandler continued. Referencing 1 John 1:3-4, he added, “The greatest joy we know is seeing others find the same joy. It’s a joy made complete in seeing others come to find the joy in Jesus we have found.”   First Baptist’s story shows the interconnectedness of Southern Baptists, and how Southern Baptist missions commitment strengthens individuals, churches, state conventions, … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor LORANGER/HAMMOND – For more than a month now, donated round bales of hay have been making their way via donated transportation and donated dollars for fuel from Southeast Louisiana to drought-stricken Texas.[img_assist|nid=7522|title=Hale Bales headed out|desc=About 17 round bales of hay weighing about 800 pounds each, fit on a gooseneck trailer, bound from Loranger, La., to Texas, for drought relief.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=480] It’s a mission project started by a member of Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond. He’s retired from his job with the Louisiana Department of Transportation, but not from the small spread he farms near Loranger, on which graze about 20 head of beef cattle. “I was at home, watching the news, and you could see how bad it [the drought] was out there [in Texas,]” the mission project catalyst said. “I love missions and wanted to help. Then I left my house and as I was driving I saw left-over hay from last year in a barn. That’s when it hit me: Why don’t I find out how many barns have left-over hay they’d donate?” Most everybody did, he found out. “From there it just took off. I started calling Baptist churches in Texas to see who had … [Read more...]

By Quinn Lavespere, Message Staff Writer   SHREVEPORT – A successful church merger isn’t easy to pull off, but Kingston Road Baptist Church seems to be close to accomplishing that goal.[img_assist|nid=7524|title=Successful Merger|desc=Pastors Trey Lewis and Woody Janise of Kingston Road Baptist Church and Southern Hills stand in front of Kingston Baptist Church. The two Shreveport churches are completing a successful merger.|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]   Under the leadership of Pastor Morris “Trey” Lewis III and Associate Pastor Woody Janise, Kingston Road has used its merger with Southern Hills Baptist Church to bring about greater opportunities to lead people to Christ.   “It’s not just this area that we want to focus on,” Lewis said. “We want to use and equip this ministry to spread the gospel to other parts of the world.”   As he was being interviewed, the Kingston Road’s pastor showed a great burden and passion for his church and others. He recounted why and how his church merged with Southern Hills.   “We had already experienced a successful merger with Ingleside Church,” Lewis said. “Over the last five years we have welcomed congregants from several of … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Message Editor   The “27 Club” is not an en vogue New York City venue where the rich and famous gather to party. Rather, it is a designation given to a collection of music artists, primarily those of the rock ‘n’ roll genre, who all have died at the age of 27.   The most recent inductee into the inauspicious club took place on July 23 when British singing sensation Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment. While the cause of death for the multiple Grammy Award winner is yet unknown, her untimely demise came as no surprise to family, friends or fans.   Winehouse’s lifestyle had for some time been out of control. Dominated by alcohol, drugs and eating disorders, she had been in and out of rehab. So destructive was Winehouse’s lifestyle a website appeared in 2007 asking people to predict when she would die.   No doubt Winehouse’s untimely death is tragic, especially to her family. However, it is intriguing to note that she died, as have so many other rock performers, at the young age of 27.   In fact, so prominent is the number of singers and musicians that have died at the age of 27 a book was published in 2009 exploring the subject. Written by Eric … [Read more...]

By Charles Quarles, Dean of Louisiana College Caskey School of Divinity   Southern Baptists are a scrappy bunch. We have never been ones to walk away from a good fight.   The problem with being scrappy is that we are sometimes a little too eager to jump into the fray. I fear that Southern Baptists are about to step into a battle without properly calculating whether the conflict is wise.   The looming conflict to which I refer is the battle over Calvinism. Like any battle this conflict could potentially escalate into an all-out war. Even as I write, battle lines are being contemplated.   Many fear that this battle has the potential to divide our national convention, fragment state conventions, and split local churches. While war has not yet been declared, the distinct sound of sabers rattling can be heard.   Before Baptists enter this conflict, I want to urge caution. Battles are not to be entered lightly.   In the 5th and 6th century BC, the Chinese military strategist and philosopher, Sun Tzu, wrote The Art of War. The book explained military strategies that still guide the American military today.   Sun Tzu’s is perhaps best known for this wise advice: … [Read more...]

By Jason Hiles, Chair of Christian Studies at Louisiana College   Baptist churches sometimes dedicate large quantities of resources and energy to building projects that facilitate corporate gatherings, discipleship classes, and other church functions.   Goals are carefully considered, plans are prayerfully drawn up, and resources are marshaled for the sake of raising a building that will enable God’s people to carry out the ministries of the church.   But as every good Baptist knows, no physical building that is raised up through the efforts of architects and contractors actually is the church.   Physical buildings simply house the church, which in reality is the assembly of believers redeemed by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.   While constructing physical buildings is sometimes necessary, the New Testament teaches that building up the body of believers is always necessary.   Thus it comes as no surprise that Paul uses a building metaphor in 1 Timothy 3 to teach Timothy how Christians ought to behave within God’s household.   What does come as something of a surprise, however, is just how closely the apostle connects the health of the church that … [Read more...]