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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Mike Johnson offers pro-bono defense to LSU’s football chaplaincy program

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer BATON ROUGE – In the wake of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s claims that the chaplaincy program at Louisiana State University is unconstitutional, Mike Johnson, chief counsel of Freedom Guard, has offered to defend the school pro-bono. Officials from FFRF released a report on Aug. 17 entitled “Pray To Play: Christian coaches and chaplains are converting football fields into mission fields.” In the 25-page report, which was followed by a letter sent to LSU and other schools including several in the Southeastern Conference, the organization that focuses on separation of church and state said public universities and their employees are forbidden from endorsing, promoting or favoring religion. “Yet, many football coaches at public universities bring in chaplains—often from their own church or even members of their own family—to prey on and pray with students, with no regard for the rights of those students or the Constitution,” the report said. “These coaches are converting playing fields into mission fields and public universities are doing nothing to halt this breach of trust. They are failing their student athletes. The purpose of this report is to expose this … [Read more...]

Janet Huckabee discusses prayer, the state of America during visit to Baptist Building, LC

By Message Staff ALEXANDRIA/PINEVILLE – The wife of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited Central Louisiana today, sharing her thoughts on the need for prayer, the condition of America and her husband’s bid for the highest elected office in the United States. Janet Huckabee’s Wednesday morning began early as she did a radio interview at a local station, attended the prayer meeting at the Louisiana Baptist Building in Alexandria and ending her morning by talking to a group of students and pastors at Louisiana College in Pineville. During her message at the Baptist Building, Huckabee said if everyone in the room had a chance to sit at the table with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Jesus Christ and discuss the state of the country, what would they say to them. “Would you be able to say anything at all and would we be able to honestly say we are doing everything in our power to give our children and ,yes, our grandchildren back a better America then where we grew up,” said Huckabee, a native of Lake Charles. “I think I would probably say we might not be able to do that.” Later, Huckabee shared the importance of having a team of 10 ladies praying for her on a daily basis. This team prays for such requests … [Read more...]

Louisiana Notables

ON THE MOVE Harry, wife Brooke, Brown is the new pastor at First Baptist Church, Ringgold. Justin Hardin is the new minister of youth at Beulah Land Baptist Church, Haughton. Brandon, wife Lacey, Lewis is new minister of youth at First Baptist Church, Haughton. Tom Descant is the new associate pastor to families at Hillcrest Baptist Church, Franklinton. Scott Teutsch is the new interim pastor at Plain Dealing Baptist Church, Plain Dealing. Tom Cole is the new music minister at Shreve City, Shreveport. Jeff Triplett is the new youth minister at First Baptist Church, Haynesville. Joe Bob Alexander is the new interim pastor at Ferry Lake Baptist Church, Oil City. Mark Caruso is the new associate pastor/youth minister at Pine Grove Baptist Church, Livingston. HOMECOMING Red River Baptist Church, Benton: 166th anniversary and homecoming celebration, Aug. 30, 10:45 a.m. Speaker: Wayne Dubose. Morning worship celebration will be followed by dinner on the grounds. All former members, pastors and staff are welcome to attend. Pastor: Josh Cagle. Bethel Baptist Church, Colfax: Homecoming, Sunday, Aug. 30, 10:45 a.m. Following the morning service there will be covered-dish dinner and fellowship in the Family Life Center. … [Read more...]

Southern Baptists undertook monumental task of helping New Orleans rebuild

Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS -- After 196 continuous days of response along the Gulf Coast, Southern Baptist leaders knew the third phase of disaster relief – rebuilding -- would take an effort bigger than anything ever attempted before, said Mickey Caison, the North American Mission Board disaster relief coordinator in 2005. In the New Orleans area alone, an estimated 100,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed. Responding in kind, Southern Baptists gave through the North American Mission Board and state conventions the largest disaster relief offering ever collected, Caison said. After a record-breaking disaster relief response, Southern Baptists were ready to mobilize to rebuild. The result was unprecedented, said Freddie Arnold, church planter strategist for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans in 2005. “It was probably the most impressive thing Southern Baptists ever did. The churches came together and stood together, and it was a long-term relationship,” Arnold said. “We’d never seen anything like that before.” A letter to the editor printed Mar. 1, 2007 in The Times-Picayune, the New Orleans newspaper, showed the impact Southern Baptist volunteers had made. Frustrated at the … [Read more...]

GBO provides needed support for missions and ministries

By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer In the midst of challenging economic times, supporting missions and ministries in the state can prove difficult. However, over the last 10 years Louisiana Baptists have demonstrated a strong commitment to state missions by their growing support of the Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering. The offering has gone from approximately $1.2 million in 2005 to just under $2 million in 2013 [thanks in part to a large one-time gift], and $1.6 million in 2014. “Louisiana Baptists want to be a part of reaching the world and North America,” said David Hankins, executive director for Louisiana Baptists. “But when it comes to reaching those living inside our borders, it becomes personal. They want to do whatever needs to be done to reach the estimated 2 million people who don’t know Jesus.” “Be Something” taken from Ephesians 5:1, where Paul encourages the believers living in Ephesus to “be imitators of Christ,” is the theme for this year’s offering. The offering is named after Georgia Barnette, the first elected and paid WMU executive director/treasurer in the state. She would travel by boat, pirogue, horse and buggy, and train from her home in New Orleans to other areas of Louisiana to visit … [Read more...]

600 Katrina evacuees found shelter at Istrouma Baptist in Baton Rouge

By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter BATON ROUGE - When  Ron Lambe, now-retired administrative pastor of Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, recalls Hurricane Katrina he can’t help but quote Charles Dickens, “it was the best of times and the worst of times.” “It was the worst of times due to how grossly ill-prepared our entire state government, the Red Cross, our church and even our nation was for a natural disaster of this proportion and the grueling 16 hour days our staff and volunteers put in each day,” Lambe recalled. “It was the best of times because it allowed our church members to learn quickly to love those who are less fortunate than us and to demonstrate true sacrificial love to those displaced by the floods.” Istrouma is the largest SBC/LBC church in Baton Rouge and had previously made an agreement with the Red Cross to be a shelter the year before Katrina made landfall. A small group of Loyola University students evacuating from New Orleans after summer sessions were the first to “camp out” in the church’s Bain Building, a two-story building of classrooms centered around a gym. Then the flood hit, New Orleans nearly emptied out and more than 600 distressed people ended up sleeping on cots and the gym … [Read more...]

Baptist response warms hearts to the Gospel

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter Raw emotions bubbled to the surface as people struggled to process the losses brought about by Hurricane Katrina. As Southern Baptists faithfully offered care to those suffering from the storm, hearts warmed to the Gospel. The power of relationship When the local news warned that those remaining behind must write their social security numbers on their arms so bodies could be identified later, Kelli and George Esler knew it was time to leave. The couple went to Grenada, Miss., where John and Candy Saxon, a couple who had befriended them the previous year, found them a place to stay. John was a New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary student. Candy taught school in Chalmette with Kelli. When the news of the devastation in Chalmette reached them, Kelli realized her perfect life was over. “Living on the floor of some lady’s house, in a city I’d never heard of, in a state I’d never visited, that was the breaking point,” Kelli said. “I knew how out of control all of this was.” Kelli saw how far downward they had fallen when her husband, George, a computer programmer, took a job sweeping the floor of a sawmill. As George worked alongside John at the mill, he came to faith in … [Read more...]

Offering multisite as a strategy for church revitalization

By Ken Schroeder, Pastor, First Baptist Mandeville What I’m offering today may not set well with many, but I believe it must be said. I’m a pastor who is becoming increasingly frustrated. I’m not frustrated in my ministry. In fact, God has privileged me to serve in a gracious fellowship of believers that affords me the opportunities to preach and to lead the congregation to fulfill its particular mission in our community and beyond. So why am I frustrated? I am frustrated because all around me I hear of the increasing number of declining and dying churches that represent only a portion of the churches in the Southern Baptist Convention have stopped growing. To be sure, some churches will decline because the communities in which they are have declined in population. However, this is not the case for most of the ones I know. And if something does not change within these churches that they will continue to decline and will eventually cease to exist. This grieves our Lord, and it should grieve all believers. Recently our denomination has focused much attention on church revitalization, and I am glad that we have done so. However, some have the mistaken idea that if we can infuse a declining church with some financial aid, some … [Read more...]

In wake of videos, Louisiana, two other states, defund Planned Parenthood

By Staff, Baptist Message BATON ROUGE – Louisiana is among three states that have eliminated state funding for Planned Parenthood. After Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals was canceling its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast as of Aug. 3, Alabama and New Hampshire followed just a few days later. New Hampshire’s Executive Council made its decision to terminate the state’s contract on Aug. 5 while Alabama ended its Medicaid agreement with Planned Parenthood on Aug. 6. While some states have canceled contracts with Planned Parenthood, supporters of defunding in the U.S. Senate fell short in their attempt Aug. 3. Senators voted 53-46 to bring to the floor a bill to eliminate federal funds for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its affiliates. While a majority of senators favored consideration of the proposal, the attempt to invoke cloture, as it is known, fell short of the 60 votes needed to begin debate on the legislation and establish a path to its passage. “In recent weeks, it has been shocking to see reports of the alleged activities taking place at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country,” Jindal said in a news release. … [Read more...]

Baton Rouge Baptist Churches provided shelter, food, clothing

By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter BATON ROUGE - It only took a few days after Hurricane Katrina for the majority of Baptist churches in the Baton Rouge area to coordinate their efforts and begin helping thousands of evacuees that filled the Capitol City. Of the 85 or so churches and missions of the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge, then called the Judson Baptist Association, more than 50 churches are included on a September 2005, list outlining which church provided what kind of goods or services to the response effort. Nine churches provided direct shelter for hundreds of evacuees on their campuses and many of the others provided food, clothing, transportation, telephone service, showers, counseling and whatever else was needed, according to an October 2005 “Good News” newsletter that BAGBR office manager Jan Terral found in her files. BAGBR also served as an organizational hub for emergency responders, such as Red Cross and military and law enforcement, and found housing for them in dozens of area Baptist’s homes, including this correspondent’s house where several military officers stayed during the crisis. “The churches of the Judson Baptist Association have shown the world how Christian people … [Read more...]