The Apostle Paul was the church’s premier international missionary. Nearly every Bible I own has maps of Paul’s missionary journeys that trace his steps from one country to another. He was always looking outward to unreached territories where he would not duplicate another’s gospel work already in progress. He was keenly aware of his special calling. Even though he had a Jewish heritage, he was the apostle to the Gentiles. 

None of these facts, however, should cause us to conclude that Paul was not vitally interested in the salvation of those close to home. He writes, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race.” (Rom. 9:2-3, NIV). I believe, as Paul penned these words, he was thinking of real people with real names and faces; people from his childhood: relatives and friends, classmates and co-workers, leaders and heroes of the Jewish community. He desired that they be reached with the gospel. I think Paul would insist that reaching to other peoples did not preclude reaching his own people. It was not a case of either/or but both/and.

Louisiana Baptists are missionary people. We know our commission is to be witnesses to the ends of the earth and we gladly sacrifice to get the gospel beyond our own parishes. However, Louisiana is our special strategic mission. Like Paul, we have relatives and friends, classmates and co-workers, leaders and heroes in Louisiana that need the Lord.

Our most recent demographic studies show that we have over 900,000 people residing in the greater New Orleans area. Another 900,000 border the I-12 corridor from Baton Rouge to the Mississippi line. The vast majority of these Louisianans do not go to anyone’s church. Our LBC membership is only a few percentage points of this vast population.  While our work is stronger along our northern interstate as a percentage of the population, there are still 100s of 1000s of Louisianans without Christ in this region as well.  The Lord has many people in Louisiana yet to be reached.

We are making progress. Early reports indicate baptisms among LBC churches will be up for the second year in a row. Some of our churches in the south are experiencing record highs in baptisms. Also, our Louisiana College has just announced Shreveport as the location of its new Paul Pressler School of Law. This school will have tremendous gospel implication for our entire state and the Arklatex region. We are also revamping our LBC church planting process to make it more fruitful in starting successful evangelistic new churches across our state. Space limits me from sharing with you the progress our other cooperative ministries are making in our state.

But we do have some challenges. The economy continues to repress incomes which reduces our income as well. We are thankful for all the faithful financial support. However, if Louisiana Baptists are going to fulfill the Great Commission in our own state, we must aggressively and sacrificially increase Cooperative Program giving.

Then, there is another significant change that could negatively affect our cooperative work. The SBC is urging Louisiana and all Southern states to relinquish the financial mission partnership we have had for decades though the North American Mission Board (formerly, HMB). This means an annual loss of over 800,000 mission dollars in Louisiana over the next several years. The reason for the change is to free these resources for use in the population centers in the Northern USA where Baptist work is much weaker than the South.

We in Louisiana are being asked to take care of the gospel work in our state by ourselves. I believe we want to do it and can do it. It will require us to be more generous as individuals through our churches and churches more generous in mission giving to Louisiana causes.

One of the best places to start is the Georgia Barnette State Mission Offering. This offering is used exclusively for cooperative missions work in Louisiana. It makes a great impact every year. We could not do what we do if it were not for Louisiana Baptists generosity through this offering. Now, we need to give more to make up for the NAMB shortfall.

I am challenging the LBC churches who have not been receiving a Georgia Barnette Offering to begin this month. I also challenge every church to make this year your best offering. Louisiana Baptists must reach Louisiana. Let’s commit ourselves to do it.