Baptists will communicate. They will either communicate through reliable channels
or communicate through rumors and innuendo. And solid communication is part
of the fuel that moves Baptists to do their best.
Baptists will communicate. They will either communicate through reliable channels
or communicate through rumors and innuendo. And solid communication is part
of the fuel that moves Baptists to do their best.
For more than 100 years, the Baptist Message has worked to be a reliable, trustworthy
channel of communication among Louisiana Baptists. In spite of pressures, sometimes
subtle and sometimes not so subtle, to do otherwise, the Baptist Message has
tried to remain true to the purposes and the people of the Louisiana Baptist
Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.
Unfortunately, some people judge a state Baptist paper totally on how the paper
reports a controversy, especially if the paper covers the controversy with a
“slant” that agrees with that readers. While controversies have
sometimes dominated the thinking – even the actions – of some Louisiana
and Southern Baptists, those controversies have never been the purposes of the
conventions. A convention – and the news and information it generates –
is far more than its controversies.
The purposes of the state and national conventions have been to provide a means
for Baptists to support missions, evangelism, charitable efforts and education
beyond what they could do by themselves and beyond their local ministries. The
Baptist Message, while reporting on other activities pertaining to the convention,
such as controversies, focuses on the conventions purposes and ongoing
work.
When the Baptist Message reports on convention and convention agencies
actions, readers have a right to expect accurate reporting so they can form
an opinion based upon fact, not interpretation. The statement “Tell the
truth and trust the people” continues to be a splendid guideline for all
information released to Louisiana and Southern Baptists by their agencies and
institutions and published by the Baptist Message.
Through the decades of Southern and Louisiana Baptist life, this one truth
remains steadfast: When Baptists know the truth, they will do the right thing.
Every Louisiana Baptist has the right to know and the obligation to know.
The Baptist Message staff believes that truth also is inspiring, especially
when it is the truth about what Southern Baptists and Louisiana Baptists are
doing within their purposes of missions, evangelism, charitable work and education.
We believe this because it has been demonstrated to be true again and again.
Just about every week that we publish a paper and tens of thousands of Louisiana
Baptists read it, reports come in of someone reading an article and taking definite
ministry action in response to that article. Missionaries have been called through
articles; students have enrolled in school because of articles; support has
poured into an evangelistic or mission effort; volunteers have been called to
a myriad of projects because they read about them in the Baptist Message. Ministers
and churches have come in contact with one another and formed productive unions
through information shared in the pages of the Baptist Message.
Hardly a week goes by without the Baptist Message staff receiving a call, letter
or e-mail saying: “You folks ran an article on. … Could you please send
me a copy? I misplaced mine and our church really needs the information that
was in that article.”
We ask that your Louisiana Baptist church remembers your state Baptist paper
particularly on September 19. We need your prayers and support, and Louisiana
Baptists need a strong state paper ministry. Just as a phone line that simply
dangles disconnected off a pole is useless to people who need to communicate
with others, a state Baptist paper that does not go into the homes of Louisiana
Baptists is useless to the people who need it the most.