By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer
RUSTON – Messengers received a number of entity and ministry reports during the 2018 Louisiana Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, including efforts to reach the next generation.
MISSIONS EDUCATION
Missions education is a vital resource to equip the next generation to make disciples of the nations, Louisiana Baptist state missions staff said during their presentation.
“Our leaders, Dr. Gibbie McMillan and Miss Jess Archer, are deeply committed to this task,” Louisiana Baptists missions and ministries director John Hebert told messengers. “We try to take this serious challenge and mold it into an intensely fun experience with the goal of creating a passion in the next generation for completing the mission of the church in bringing the Gospel to the world.”
Archer, children’s and youth missions strategist, said missions focused camps are a starting point for engaging the next generation. Last summer, 369 children attended Children’s Missions Camp at Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center in Woodworth.
By the end of the camp, 30 children turned to Christ, eight restored fellowship with the Lord and several others responded to a call to missions.
“Our hope is to seed this generation with the missionary call and pray the Spirit will quicken that call in their lives,” McMillan said.
State missions leadership plans to offer material that will be downloadable from its website beginning in January 2019. It will focus on Louisiana Missions and your children will be learn about church planting, disaster relief, compassion ministry, language missions, as well as partnerships with the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board.
“Our hope is that these lessons will inspire a new generation of missionaries,” McMillan said.
SPECIAL NEEDS OUTREACH
Children’s ministry strategist David Anderson told messengers last summer Louisiana Baptists hosted a camp at Tall Timbers to minister to people with special needs. The first-ever Louisiana Baptist summer camp of its kind matched 14 participants with buddies who accompanied them during the event June 25-27 at Tall Timbers. The camp featured games, activities, worship and Bible study designed for children and adults from ages 8 and up who have intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities.
Anderson said many participants enjoyed a camp experience for the first time. He believes families of people with special needs are one of the most unreached people groups.
“In almost every community there are families that have members with special needs,” Anderson said.
“Many of these families have checked out of church because our churches are not ready or able to accommodate their whole family. With some compassion and effort every church can be a lighthouse to share God’s love with all members of our communities, including our special needs friends. This camp is a great start.”
WOMEN’S MISSIONS
Janie Wise, women’s missions and ministry strategist, assisted by A-Team members Cameron Mullins and Lisa Shyne and Cameron Mullins, gave a report on how women in the state are building a leadership network that will better connect with women who lead children, teens and other women in churches throughout Louisiana. Through the A-Teams, each of the 25 team leaders will help establish connectivity with each church, assess leadership development needs, encourage mission giving and mission involvement and share information about upcoming events.
Wise said the women are modeling a lifestyle similar to the biblical character Lydia, who was a well-respected business woman who served the Lord courageously and welcomed the apostles into her home.
“As we seek to connect with the hearts of women, teens and children, will you pray with us, that we would be as Lydia, using our influence and leadership to reach our worlds for Christ?” Wise said.
CHILDREN’S HOME
Perry Hancock, president of the Children’s Home and Family Ministries, thanked messengers for their support as his staff helped impact the lives of more than 4,000 children and others, including 160 who accepted Christ through its various ministries this year.
“When I think of our theme, Imprint, I think of fingerprints, particularly the fingerprints of a potter on a piece of clay,” Hancock said. “I see God using our hands to mold and shape the next generation.”
Hancock noted that more than 300 economically-challenged children in northeast Louisiana received assistance to meet various physical needs, but also were exposed to the Gospel through its newest ministry Compassion for Kids. Monroe is one of the top 10 poorest cities in the U.S., and the poverty rate is almost 57 percent.
Rick Brewer, president of Louisiana College, confidently declared LC is “preparing graduates and transforming lives” and told messengers his faculty is speaking truth into students in a culture that is becoming hostile to absolute moral truth.
LOUISIANA COLLEGE
Rick Brewer, president of Louisiana College, confidently declared LC is “preparing graduates and transforming lives” and told messengers his faculty is speaking truth into students in a culture that is becoming hostile to absolute moral truth.
“The world today is redefining and trying to create truth where there is not truth,” he said. “We seek to serve in the midst of that.”
Even before students step on campus, Brewer said LC is partnering with local churches to help reverse this alarming trend. High school students who complete the workbook “Thinking Like a Christian: Understanding and Living a Biblical Worldview” may qualify for a $2,500 annual scholarship to LC.
“It’s our faith that forms our teaching,” Brewer said. “Our faith drives us to excellence.”
BAPTIST MESSAGE/PUBLIC POLICY
Will Hall, editor of the Baptist Message and director of the Office of Public Policy, presented a combined report to showcase some of the significant storylines of the past year as a means to emphasize the important role of the state newspaper in equipping and informing Louisiana Baptists.
Will Hall, editor of the Baptist Message and director of the Office of Public Policy, presented the Shammah’s Courage Award to Louis (left) Husser, pastor of the Crossgate Church in Robert and David Cranford, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Ponchatoula.
He presented the Shammah’s Courage Award to David Cranford, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Ponchatoula, Louis Husser, pastor of the Crossgate Church in Robert, and, in absentia, Sherman Mack, a deacon of the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Albany and a state representative who chairs the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee. The award recognized the three men’s respective efforts to defeat bills that would have allowed a riverboat casino to move to Tangipahoa Parish.
Hall also honored state Senator Beth Mizell, a member of the First Baptist Church in Franklinton, with the Esther’s Courage Award for her biblically-principled stands in the legislature to protect children and women from sexual exploitation in human trafficking, safeguard young ones from online pornography and prevent minors from obtaining abortions without parental consent.
“Is anyone surprised by the accomplishments of these outstanding Louisiana Baptists?” Hall asked the messengers. “Then you don’t get the Baptist Message.
“If you want to know whether your legislators truly are pro-life and pro-family in how they vote – whether they just talk the talk or actually walk the walk – you need to read the Baptist Message,” he said, referencing a legislative scorecard published in the paper.
Then Hall pointed out key articles and reports that told the story of Louisiana Baptists and informed Louisiana Baptists “to participate in our family of faith in the state and in the extended community of faith known as the Southern Baptist Convention.” He concluded his remarks by urging messengers “to get the Baptist Message and to share the message of the Gospel we carry in our reporting.”
OTHER REPORTS
— Mark Robinson, director of Baptist Collegiate Ministries for the state, asked messengers to join Louisiana Baptist Collegiate Ministries as they pray daily at 10:02 a.m. for revival. He suggested setting a smart phone alarm for that specific time every day to form the habit of praying for God to move on college campuses.
The time for daily prayer was selected as a reminder of Luke 10:2 that “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” and asks God “to send out laborers into His harvest.”
“The Lord is working in the hearts of students all across our state,” Robinson said. “We are encouraging Louisiana Baptists to join us in prayer for spiritual awakening on our campuses, specifically university students that are far from God to be drawn by the Holy Spirit into a saving knowledge of Him and campus ministry volunteers to catch a vision for our community colleges and vocational colleges in our state.”
— Louisiana Baptist Foundation Executive Director Wayne Taylor shared that the entity is celebrating its 75th anniversary in ing its 75th anniversary in 2019, and reminded messengers about the foundation’s continuing mission to help Louisiana Baptists be good stewards of their resources.
As part of his presentation, Taylor underscored how tithing on one’s life accumulation of property and finances could fund Louisiana Baptists’ cooperative missions and ministries long into the future.
“If one person in every Louisiana Baptist congregation would give a tithe (1/10th) of his or her estate to a church or other Baptist ministry, an additional $50 million would be available for ministries throughout the state,” he explained.
