By Karen L. Willoughby OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (BP) – When Grant Lovejoy was a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a student’s comment led him to the conclusion that two-thirds of the world’s population would not understand a clear gospel presentation even if it were given to them in their language. [img_assist|nid=7164|title=Grant Lovejoy|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=67|height=100]“It was an ‘aha’ moment,” Lovejoy said at The Gathering for Spiritual Awakening, which took place at Southern Hills Baptist Church March 2-4 for Native Peoples from across North America. The title of his two-hour keynote address: Bible Storying. It was a concept particularly interesting to his Native American listeners, who come from an oral culture and thought, rather than the abstract thinking of gospel-spreading Westerners. “We have spent most of the time imposing our oppressive and culturally destructive ways on tribal people,” Lovejoy said. “We’re like King Saul, who said, ‘Wear my armor’ to David. David used what God gave him, and that was more than enough in the hand of God.” The Bible is basically a story of God relating to His people, Lovejoy said. “If the Bible is a story, why is a sermon a list? Let’s reclaim the … [Read more...]

By Quinn Lavespere, Message Intern Writer   COLFAX – There was a time when it looked like David Smith’s life would end early.  Today, though, the Grant Parish School Board worker is living better than ever.   [img_assist|nid=7166|title=David Smith|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=72]Having triumphed in a life-or-death battle with esophageal cancer, Smith gratefully repays the Lord today through ministries that aim at giving encouragement to others and bringing salvation to the unsaved.   “My aim is to show kindness to others and let the love of Jesus shine through my behavior,” Smith said.  “After what the Lord has done for me, I feel obligated to repay Him the best ways I can.”   Smith said he works in the technology department at the Grant Parish School Board and is the media specialist for the Grant Parish school system.   “My role in that is I support the teachers as they integrate technology into the classrooms,” Smith said.   Smith talked about the ministries he is involved in and God’s role in these ministries.   “Probably the most important ministry I do is my devotional ministry,” Smith said.  “In 2007, I was diagnosed with esophageal … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Editor   PINEVILLE – The Town Talk, the daily newspaper of Alexandria, La., reported Feb. 20 on portions of a draft document that is part of a study being assembled by Louisiana College to assess the status of its infrastructure.   According to The Town Talk, the draft document produced by Aramark Higher Educationindicates the LC infrastructure has some significant needs.   “One portion of a project, commissioned by Louisiana College in 2010 to study the status of its infrastructure, was intercepted and stolen from the college,” said Tim Johnson, Vice President for Institutional Advancement at LC. “Evidently working with the person or persons who stole the ‘in process’ study, The Town Talk ran an article in an apparent effort to damage the college,” Johnson added.   “The first time I saw some of the specific pieces of the report were on the front page of The Town Talk. The attack on the college was unbelievable, especially using unconfirmed and stolen information.” Joe Aguillard, president of LC, said. “At this point, there is probably nothing that The Town Talk can do to make us think any less of them.”   Aguillard added, “There is a great spiritual battle … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Editor   PINEVILLE – Louisiana College announced on Feb. 14 the college’s agreement to purchase and renovate the former Joe D. Waggonner Federal Building in Shreveport to serve as the home of LC’s Judge Paul Pressler School of Law.   [img_assist|nid=7169|title=LC Law School|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]“We are delighted to announce this decision,” said LC President Joe Aguillard. “The Federal Building offers all the space we will need to serve our students and provide a superior program of legal education.”   One of Shreveport’s largest landmarks, the building that will house the law school is situated near the Northern Louisiana city’s main business district.   Adjacent to the Shreveport Convention Center, the building is also located near the U.S. District Court for the Western District of La., and the La. Second Circuit Court of Appeal, LC indicated in a press release.   Original plans had the law school being housed in the CBN/United Mercantile Building, also located in downtown Shreveport. On Sept. 1, 2010, LC announced that $3.1 million of the historic building’s purchase price would be donated to the college by the building’s … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Message Staff Writer   RAYNE – Just two weeks after attending a regional Disaster Relief training session at Acadian Baptist Center, the 10 from First Baptist Church Rayne who participated found themselves putting that training to use.   [img_assist|nid=7172|title=Rayne Tornado|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]On Saturday, March 5, an EF-2 tornado, packing 130 mile-per-hour winds, cut a swath of destruction five miles long and three football fields wide through the northwest corner of Rayne, a small southwest Louisiana town west of Lafayette.   According to the state Fire Marshal’s office, 42 houses were destroyed, 48 sustained major damage, 79 sustained minor to moderate damage and another 514 some damage – primarily the loss of shingles or other roofing materials.   The savage storm also took the life of 21-year-old Jalisa Granger – who was protecting her child when a tree fell on her house – and injured 11 others.   [img_assist|nid=7173|title=Rayne Tornado|desc=The sign leading to Rayne High School was one of the many structures damaged by an EF-2 tornado packing 130 mile-per-hour winds that hit the southwest Louisiana town Saturday, March … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   CROWVILLE – Fellowship wasn’t a problem. Neither were finances. But Crockett Point wasn’t growing, baptisms last year were down by 25 percent or more, and Pastor Joe Senn had grown complacent, he now admits.   [img_assist|nid=7175|title=Crockett Point|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]“I was not hearing from God like I had been,” Senn said. “My personal relationship with God was not where it needed to be, same with my wife and everybody else. I had really grown cold, indifferent.”   He didn’t realize this, however, until he read a book he received at the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s annual meeting last November, Senn said. The book: Returning to Holiness, by Gregory R. Frizzell of Oklahoma.   “It talked about Solemn Assemblies and how to do one,” Senn said. “I kept saying, ‘This would be good for my church,’ but then it came to me, ‘This would be good for me.’ I was just dry, complacent. I had gotten to that place where you are content with the status quo.”   Perhaps a dozen churches across Louisiana have held a Solemn Assembly this year, some in response to Southern Baptist Convention president Bryant Wright’s call to … [Read more...]

By David E. Hankins, Executive Director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention   As Cooperative Program Day (April 11) approaches, the CP has been receiving high profile attention by Southern Baptists. We have been asking about the future of this 85 year-old missions funding network.   The good news is that the SBC in adopting the Great Commission Resurgence Report last June once again affirmed the CP as the primary means for supporting our common missions work as Louisiana Baptists and as Southern Baptists. The bad news is that we have not yet managed to reverse the rapid 25-year decline in the average percentage of church receipts forwarded to missions through the Cooperative Program (from 10.5 percent in 1984 to under 6 percent in 2009).   This decline represents the strategic Cooperative Program Challenge. The churches that make up our state and national conventions are the only ones who can successfully meet the challenge.   [img_assist|nid=7177|title=The CP Squeeze|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=464]What steps must be taken by the churches?   1. Southern Baptist churches must re-value our common ministries. Southern Baptist churches, by definition, are those … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Editor Louisiana Baptist Message I recently read an Associated Press report concerning the comedian Gallagher. The prop comic had been hospitalized after collapsing during a performance in Rochester, Minn. Gallagher’s manager, Craig Marquardo, indicated that his client was in stable condition. Marquardo also said that he did not know why the comic collapsed. The final paragraph in the report said, “Gallagher, whose real name is Leo Anthony Gallagher, is best known for smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer.” As I read the words “best known for smashing watermelons with a sledge hammer,” I thought to myself, “What a way to be remembered.” I can only imagine Mr. Gallagher’s future funeral. “We have gathered here to pay our last respects to our friend and our dear family member,” the minister might say. “We shall never forget his mastery at mashing melons.” At the grave site we might be greeted by a beautifully carved headstone reading: “Gallagher was his name, whacking watermelons was his game.” As I pondered the last line in the report on Gallagher’s health plight, I asked myself, “How do I want to be remembered?” The truth is that how we live is how we will be remembered. If you want to be thought kind, … [Read more...]

By Ed Steele, Professor of Music Leavell College at NOBTS   How are songs written? How do these things happen? Is there a magic spell that comes on someone, or do angels deliver words and music? What is this thing called “inspiration” from which some of the great songs are born?   Some songs were written through new insights of the Scripture, like Thomas Chisholm’s “Great is Thy Faithfulness, ” as he was reading Lamentations 3:22-23.   Sometimes when we hear words, God illuminates them and new meaning seems to jump out at us. It is like hearing them for the first time. Sometimes just emphasizing different words does this.   Take for example I Kings 19, when Elijah is fleeing from Jezebel and is hiding in a cave at Horeb. Twice God asks him, “Why are you here, Elijah?” More than just to repeat a question, it might be that God was emphasizing different words each time he asked. For example: Read the statement emphasizing this way: “Why are you here, Elijah?” “Why are you here, Elijah?” or even, “Why are you here, Elijah?”  Such happenings provide new understanding and help us gain new insights into what God might have been trying to say to the prophet.  New insights and understandings are … [Read more...]