Today’s From the States features items from:
Baptist Message (Louisiana)
Southern Baptist TEXAN
Northwest Baptist Witness
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Hundreds respond
during La. YEC
By Brian Blackwell
LAFAYETTE, La. (Baptist Message) — As the child of two deaf parents, essentially serving as their interpreter to the hearing world, Ed Newton spent his middle school years searching for something to satisfy his soul – from premarital sex to attempted grand theft auto.
Transformed
Then in high school, he encountered Christ. “My life has been changed forever,” Newton told more than 5,700 students at Louisiana Baptists’ annual Youth Evangelism Celebration. “I would not be here if it were not for the divine intervention of Jesus interrupting my life’s story.”
He challenged students not to waste the time they have to make a difference now.
“You are the church right here, right now,” Newton said. “You are current leaders and it’s time to rise up and step up and change the world. But that only happens when you allow God to be a part of your story.”
The 40-year-old pastor of the 27,000-member Community Bible Church in San Antonio, Texas, Newton has served as a youth pastor, faculty member at Student Leadership University in Orlando, Fla., and executive director of the LIFT TOUR, an extension of Student Leadership University in partnership with LifeWay Students.
The largest gathering of Louisiana Baptists each year, YEC 2016, held in the Lafayette Cajundome, Nov. 20-21, featured worship, inspiring messages, fellowship, moments of laughter and much more.
The theme for this year’s gathering was “Stories,” based off 1 John 1:2-3 – The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
Newton cautioned students not to find their value in life by what they do or what they wear, but rather in something eternally satisfying — a relationship with Jesus Christ.
“You were not called to blend in,” Newton said. “You were called to stand out.”
Citing Colossians 3:1-4, Newton told students they should set their minds on things above, not striving to earn the applause of many, but living to please only one — Jesus Christ.
“The world continues to tear us down,” he said. “But you have an identity as being more than conquerors in Jesus Christ.”
Throughout the celebration, Louisiana Baptist teens were challenged to celebrate what Christ had done in their lives and to share their stories of how Christ had changed them.
Participants also enjoyed music by the Museum of Atlanta, Ga., as well as the talents of Pineville-based Kellie and Kristen, and were blessed by drama and comedy performed by Paul May of Springfield, Mo.
YEC 2016 concluded with a time of music led by the Newsboys, a band formed in 1985 which includes former DC Talk vocalist Michael Tait.
Reborn
By the end of the two-day spiritual encounter, 742 students had made some type of faith decision: 136 statements of belief, 347 responses to a call to ministry, 210 acts of repentance to restore fellowship with Christ and 49 other commitments.
Luis Herrera from Iglesia Bautista Trinidad, Lake Charles, said he was thankful he joined with a group of teens to be part of his church’s first visit to YEC. He repented and vowed to live for Jesus, and plans to be baptized as soon as possible.
“I was tired of playing games with God,” Herrera said. “I want to get serious.”
Olivia Ousley from Pine Hill Baptist Church, Leesville, was inspired by Newton’s messages of standing strong for Jesus.
“I learned it’s not all about friends and what they think,” Ousley said. “I need to live my story with Christ at the center of it.”
This year’s event was the fourth YEC attended by Cassidy Martin, a member of Bayou des Glaises Baptist Church, Big Bend.
“This time, I learned that I need a Christian family and that having one will help me grow closer to God,” Martin said. “I need to depend on mine more.”
Charged up
Newton closed the celebration by making a charge to the crowd.
“You and I have filled this place with worship, and our hands have been lifted high,” Newton said. “Going forth from this place may what we do in here fill the streets out there.”
He reminded the students to stand strong, especially after they stumble.
“Perfection is not godliness,” Newton said. “Godliness is pursuing Jesus.
“It’s not if you fall,” he continued. “It’s when you fall and what you do when you fall.”
“All of us in this room are called to live a life that shines a light that makes a difference,” he said. “And one of the things that you have embraced is a message of Jesus.
“It’s going to be costly as we seek, up high, to lift His name, and many of you in here sense His call,” he said, prompting hundreds to respond, including many to commit to vocational ministry.
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This article appeared in the Baptist Message (baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Brian Blackwell is a staff writer for the Baptist Message.
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Looking for bargains,
Texas shoppers find Gospel
By Bonnie Pritchett
VIDOR, Texas (Southern Baptist TEXAN) — Visible through the plate-glass front window of Main Street Thrift Store is the traditional red-bricked, white-steepled edifice of the store’s benefactor, First Baptist Church in Vidor. The view across N. Main Street, either from the vantage point of the church or store, serves to remind the congregation of Christ’s call to go into the world and to care for their neighbors.
Compelled to establish a presence in the community beyond the church walls, FBC Vidor 10 years ago purchased the strip-center store sandwiched between a mom-and-pop drug store and Chef Leo China Bistro. From there the church offered a host of Gospel-infused ministries before deciding to transition the entire space to a thrift store. The store’s success since opening last year speaks to its popularity but not its purpose. With the funds raised by the store, the church will open a women’s shelter to further the Gospel’s influence in Vidor.
Like the volunteers staffing the thrift store, FBC Vidor pastor Terry Wright said he always believed he had a responsibility to care for his community, and he long believed the church’s efforts served that purpose.
“It was effective, to a degree,” he said.
From a small office nestled between the back of Main Street Thrift Store’s tidy shopping area and the store’s receiving and storage area, Wright and Jayson Larson, executive director of Main Street Ministries and FBC Vidor associate pastor, spoke of the store’s success and the future women’s shelter.
Wright said while the church’s benevolence ministries offered assistance for persons in or on the brink of crisis, they only treated the symptoms of deeply ingrained troubles that weekly counseling sessions could not correct.
“We would lead them to Christ,” Wright said, “but the intensity of their discipleship required more than putting them in a Sunday School class.”
Wright and others concluded that only by Christ-centered, long-term care offered through men’s and women’s shelters could real change be effected. But the expense of operating such programs was beyond the means of FBC Vidor or Main Street Ministry, which operates as a separate 501 (c) 3 from the church.
In 2014, SBTC Evangelism Director Nathan Lorick took Wright and a small contingent of like-minded pastors to Florida to visit the Christian Care Center, a ministry founded 30 years ago by First Baptist Church of Leesburg and offers services addressing the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of the community.
During the visit, Wright toured the Christian Care Center’s thrift store and learned the fundamentals of what it would take to duplicate a similar store back home. FBC Vidor hired Larson in February 2015 as an associate pastor and manager of Main Street Ministries, the umbrella non-profit organization for many of FBC Vidor’s existing ministries.
With a heart for ministry evangelism but no experience in operating a store, Larson joked, “There’s no starter kit.”
So he sought advice, culled through the operating manuals of similar ministries, and trusted God’s provision. A year later the store, staffed mainly by FBC Vidor volunteers and two paid employees, is financially self-sustaining and drawing closer to being the funding source for the women’s shelter.
“The Lord’s bringing together a lot of people,” Larson said.
The first provision came in the form of a donated nursing home. The facility, damaged in 2005 by Hurricane Rita and abandoned, was purchased by an area businessman, who donated it along with $60,000 for repairs to Main Street Ministry. Through financial contributions and volunteer assistance, repairs to the facility are 95 percent complete.
With a goal of opening the women’s shelter by summer 2017, the search for staff will begin shortly after the New Year. At a minimum the shelter will need an operating budget of $150,000. Clients will stay for at least three months, Wright said, adding, “We will let them know we are unashamedly working this facility with the Gospel.”
Larson said they set capacity for the shelter at 20 women at a time in order to facilitate the personal, discipleship care they want to provide. He hopes part of the ministry will be the reconciliation of mothers with the children they have abandoned or lost to the custody of Child Protective Services.
“If there is any way for us to make families whole again, we’ll help with that,” Larson said.
That redeeming work is already being seen in small measure at the Main Street Thrift Store, where once-unwanted items are given new purposes. Budget-minded customers can purchase clothes and accessories, kitchen supplies, toys, furniture and even a 19th-century pump organ. Looking for bargains, customers often find much more.
“We hear life stories,” said Karen Davis, a store volunteer. “I’ve stopped in the middle of something and prayed with someone. That’s what they need right then.”
Volunteer Scherrie Nix told of a woman who came to the store in need of a dress to wear to her grandfather’s funeral. But instead of finding her sorting through the rows of women’s clothing, Nix discovered her weeping in front of the toy department.
A gentle inquiry revealed the tears were not for the grandfather she missed but for her six children taken from her by CPS. She desperately wanted them back and the toys only reminded her of their absence.
Nix, who has been a foster parent, understands why children are taken from homes and, more importantly for the woman, how families are reunited. After crying and praying with the mother, Nix encouraged her to do everything CPS officials required of her. That, she said, would help ensure the reconciliation of her family.
Nix recognized the encounter was not a coincidence. She said, “I felt like God let me be here.”
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This article appeared in the Southern Baptist TEXAN (texanonline.net), newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Bonnie Pritchett is a correspondent for the TEXAN.
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Wash. music academy
is gateway to Gospel
By Sheila Allen
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Northwest Baptist Witness) — Strains of music waft throughout the day at Luke 7:37 Mission, a way-station in Olympia, Wash., designed to meet community and spiritual needs through an artistic venue.
Started in 2014 by Sean-David McGoran, the academy is nearing 100 students seeking to become better musicians. Classes are structured in group settings and course offerings include piano, violin, trumpet, brass, woodwind, guitar and more.
“I was a jazz guy and wanted to be a star,” said McGoran, an Auburn, Wash., native, who took a circuitous route to return to Washington after years of musical pursuits. A Berklee College of Music graduate, McGoran met his wife, Jackie, at the school before both were followers of Jesus. “God used our first year of marriage to teach us that we couldn’t do it without him.”
Teaching music in Seattle was followed by a stint in the United States Army, where McGoran played trumpet in the Army band. He enrolled at Liberty University for seminary, while still in the military.
“We found a Bible-believing church while living in Korea and it changed our direction,” McGoran stated. “I was asked to preach occasionally and after another move to Maryland with the Army band, I accepted a position in a Southern Baptist church in Arkansas.
“The idea of the academy was birthed there,” McGoran said. “While serving at a community center, my wife and I taught music at a summer camp and I saw an opportunity for the church to be a beacon of hope in the community.”
Now firmly settled back in the Northwest, McGoran is thrilled to merge his love of music with his spiritual passions. While many of his students are home-schooled, he notes that many in the area who choose homeschooling options are not believers.
“The whole point of the academy is that everyone learns we have music because God created it and that is a gateway to conversation about the source of creativity,” McGoran noted. “There is nothing overt on our website, but everyone who teaches is there to minister to our students and their families’ physical and spiritual needs.
“Our hope is that some families will be led to Christ and as they do can be drawn into the body, do life, study scripture and follow Jesus in this crazy life,” McGoran said. “This means stepping deeper into the relationships and offering classes and lessons based on community needs.”
An expression of “doing life” together is a bi-weekly Sunday afternoon gathering for study of scripture, music and a meal.
“Musicians aren’t morning people and all of our staff are pretty much coming to our services,” McGoran added. “I want to plant a network of churches that are shepherded by the academy, while keeping them separate. I don’t want any of our students to feel forced, but do want the transgender, the adulterer and the drunk to feel welcome.”
McGoran supplements his income by teaching online college courses for several schools. He also preaches at nearby churches when need arises.
“We are connected to the Olympic Baptist Association and I want to be able to give pastors a respite,” McGoran said. “The association has given the academy a monthly stipend and it is just awesome that they understand this unique ministry.”
As the music academy grows, McGoran is on the lookout for more space and would like to take students that can’t afford the tuition and reach ethnic groups in the area through music.
“We try to keep our classes affordable but we need more resources and teachers,” McGoran remarked. “It is important to me that we pay our teachers well. Music in church could be better and should be the best in the world. It would be awesome if more would learn and study to become better musicians.
“I want people to come to Christ because our teachers and students are sharing their faith. Our mission is to be intentional in introducing people to Jesus.”
For more information about the academy, contact McGoran at [email protected].
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This article appeared in the Northwest Baptist Witness (nwbaptist.org), newsjournal of the Northwest Baptist Convention. Sheila Allen is managing editor of the Northwest Baptist Witness.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board’s call to embrace the world’s unengaged, unreached people groups also are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board’s call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. The items appear in Baptist Press as originally published.
