It was just a few years ago that Dora publicly professed faith in Christ and asked to be baptized. Dora (now 56) was one of sixteen children born to the Punch family. Her parents having passed away, Dora had become a key leader in her extended large family. As you would expect, her profession of faith made an impact on several.

We always baptized in the concrete pool in the front yard of the old church building, but since the weather was getting cool and we were almost finished with our new auditorium, Dora and several others decided to wait and be baptized inside. You see, after an eight year effort, we were almost completed with our new building. We were planning to invite everyone on the bayou to a day of celebration, but the focus was not going to be just our building. We would celebrate with the preaching of the Gospel, thanking God for His miraculous provision of a building for our people, and then complete the day with the public testimony of baptism. It would be a great day on our bayou, one that we hoped God would use to open many people's hearts to the Gospel.

But as time went by, we were not able to finish and use our baptistry or building. Now meeting in homes, we baptized in the bayou or in a swimming pool. Still, Dora and several others waited for the day when we could all celebrate, and they could be baptized in our new church building. Well, you know how it goes... delay sometimes multiplies into more delay, and winter came again with Dora, and now two of her sisters, still not baptized.

Then Dora became ill. The doctors prescribed all the usual tests and treatment for cancer. News came a few weeks ago that the cancer had spread, and doctors said there was nothing more they could do. Dora faced the news with calmness and assurance that her life was in the Lord's hands. Attending church meeting became even more important to Dora, and though she felt so sick, she purposed more than ever to set a good example for family members. Last Friday Cindy and I went to visit her. When I mentioned that I was thinking about asking to use a sister church's facility for baptism, Dora eagerly asked if she could be baptized right away. That evening I talked to the pastor of the Grand Calliou Baptist Church and set up the meeting for Sunday afternoon. I called Dora to let her know everything was all set.

What an exciting day for all of us, but especially for Dora! She was beaming as she told me...

Jeremy (our second son) and Nena were married in July. They are now living in Zacatecas, Mexico, where they are involved in evangelism and church planting with the missionary/pastor of a small Baptist church. Looks like we will be grandparents in May. Cindy is excited about that - but not too happy about them being so far away.

Cindy's scans revealed no new tumor growth, so we are thanking the Lord for that. Today she is canning the last of our fall snap beans and baking cakes made with bananas we picked just outside the door. I planted banana trees last year to shade the West end of the trailer, and this year they have multiplied and grown so that you can hardly see that end of the trailer! We have had a very dry fall, but more than enough garden produce anyway. Shrimping has been better than usual for this time of the year. Fishing is terrific, but I haven't taken time to go lately. We didn't even have a hurricane come close this year! That was a change. All our girl goats seem to be healthy and pregnant, and "African Cloud" is sufficiently proud, just like a male goat is supposed to be (AC’s parents were imported from South Africa).

There was no opposing discussion, and with a show of ballots the motion was easily passed. Cindy and I just smiled (actually, Cindy exclaimed "YES!" and clapped). We really did enjoy the convention meetings and were sure glad we decided to go. Later, Cindy met dear old Mrs. Kraus, and she was so very excited. (Brother and Mrs. Kraus served the Lord here on Bayou DuLarge many years ago, and then later moved to Grand Calliou to work in the mission church there. Grand Calliou was a mission sponsored by our church for several years.)

I've heard some folks complain about the differences in opinions voiced at the Convention. Cindy and I may not have agreed with the point of view of everyone who spoke, but we welcomed the discussion and exchange of opinions. We thought things were handled quite well, really. I guess maybe we are just used to people saying what they think and then still loving each other. People on the bayou do tend to be rather frank, but after getting used to this, it's easy to appreciate this honesty... as long as it is not accompanied by hostility.

On behalf of our church, please let me express our sincere gratitude to Rick Henson and the messengers to the 1999 Louisiana Baptist Convention. The gracious way in which our church's historic sixty-three year relationship to the LBC was recognized and our messengers included was very heartwarming and encouraging to our people. We covet the prayers of all our fellow Louisiana Baptists that this may be the beginning of many such restored relationships.

In September the SBC Executive Committee met and discussed the motion that I had made to the Convention in June. WOW, what a commotion that made! Cindy and I sat and watched as the longest debate in many years was orderly but passionately carried out right in front of us among the 80 Executive Committee members. I had earlier been asked to testify in a workgroup session, and twice during the floor debate members asked me for information. In the end, with some members still wanting to speak, discussion was cut off. The Executive Committee voted to approve a compromise motion, and then actually voted to endorse NAMB's involvement with the ecumenical Mission America organization!

Sooooo, we left Nashville on Wednesday and I had a meeting with NAMB leaders on Thursday. I had been asking for such a meeting for some time, and this had been arranged before our going to Nashville. Now, this meeting was one of the most unusual of my entire life... and let me tell you, I have been in on plenty of unusual meetings!

The three NAMB leaders met with me in a private room. They each took turns trying to talk me out of continued opposition to NAMB's ecumenical entanglements. Six ongoing entanglements were brought up by them, and we discussed why I opposed each of them. At the end of the scheduled hour, I thanked the brothers for meeting with me. I told them that I considered their arguments in support of these ecumenical involvements to be contrary to Scripture and to our historic Baptist stance. Thus, I recommended that the brothers either change their course or pray that the Lord show me where I am wrong... otherwise, I have no other option but to oppose these entanglements with ecumenism. The brothers then went on for another half hour until I again brought the meeting to a close. I told them we were not getting anywhere (since they refused to consider any change based upon the facts of the matter compared to Scripture).

Although I was saddened, this was nothing different than I have witnessed before. When Southern Baptists spoke to all our agencies in 1996, clearly opposing ecumenical entanglements, the very same entanglements that NAMB is now involved in were ongoing at that time. Not one thing changed at all as a result of Resolution #13; not one of these HMB involvements changed one iota. This same course of action and these same ecumenical entanglements were all passed down to NAMB, and they have now grown and spread significantly.

Obviously, it will take more than a resolution to get SBC executives to take seriously the stated will of Southern Baptists who pay their salaries. As one leading SBC layman recently wrote, "The more I see of all this, the more I am led to believe we are right back where we were many years ago. No offense meant to brethren in the ministry that I know well and respect - BUT, we are being led by the intellectually elite seminary-trained paid staff, when the people in the pews paying the bills have clearly stated their intents otherwise."

Now, while I don't hold anything personally against any of these brethren in leadership, when I pay someone to do a job for me I expect them to listen to me. Southern Baptists are not ignorant people who must be led by the hand and who must be protected from the facts of what is really going on. As I have said many times to our LBC and SBC leaders, "If what you are doing is worthy of our support, then it is certainly worthy of full disclosure. Why hide the facts from those who foot the bills? Let us gladly support God's work... but if it's not God's work, then change course before you destroy the confidence that Southern Baptists have in our agencies!"

I suppose I will never make it as a politician, huh? Anyway, you would think all this would be enough, but that's not all! Two weeks later I was back at NAMB for their general full Board meeting. NAMB staff seemed cordial, but I think they were surprised to see me again so soon. There was the usual printed schedule of all the committee meetings and general full Board meetings. One new committee had to do with one of the ecumenical entanglements that I had questioned two weeks before. Even though the schedule indicated an open meeting for this committee, just like most other committees usually are, I was told that no one could attend except committee members and selected staff.

That evening the president of NAMB gave his usual speech to the closed-door dinner meeting with trustees. Later, trustees related to me that the president had spent considerable time talking about Jerry Moser, labeling me as a self-appointed guardian of the SBC in ecumenical affairs. He brought up our church's opposition to ECT, our confrontation of Dr. Lewis, and the fact that I had proposed a motion to the SBC for an investigation of NAMB's ecumenical involvements. (The motion is to study ecumenical involvements by all of our SBC entities. It does not single out NAMB.) The tone of his characterizations of me personally led one trustee to suggest to the Board that maybe they ought to bar me from the following day's open sessions!

As I reported some time back, the ecumenical machine is marching on in other countries, invigorated by ECT ecumenists' victories here in the US. Evangelicals and Catholics met in Quito, Ecuador, and crafted a new ecumenical document, proclaiming a common faith at the root of participants' various doctrinal differences (differences like... Biblical faith versus sacramental faith). Here is a short quote from this new document...

December 2, 1999

To find out just how close to home ecumenism hits for you right now, let's just look on the front page of the Baptist Message, December 2, 1999. Whose picture and promotion is there? Yep, good ole well-meaning, ecumenical, ECT-heresy-promoting, Charles Colson himself. (I'm just stating the facts as he and his cohorts have themselves stated them. Colson makes no apologies for his ecumenical work; he is the co-author of the ECT which does promote heresy according to Dr. Larry Lewis, a fellow ECT endorser; and Mr. Colson does promote sacramental faith as a legitimate form of true Christian discipleship.) According to Scripture, the apostle Paul would call Mr. Colson a perverter of doctrine and a divider of the brethren, and he would warn the Lord's people to "stay away from such as these." Wouldn't we have the same approach to Mr. Colson (and to other ECT endorsers) if we were truly following the Word of God like we say we are?

So, what is Charles Colson promoting now, right on the front of the Baptist Message? Well, Mr. Colson organized a conference to promote what he calls his "Christian worldview." The conference was structured around his newest book, "How Now Shall We Live," described in the article as "a 574 page manifesto Colson co-authored on Christian thought." (The article was taken from a Religion Today news posting.)

WORLD magazine describes Colson's newest book as his "Magnum Opus" and offers a free copy to those who enlist five new subscribers to WORLD. But just what does Colson say in this, his "great speech"? For one thing, Colson says that "The most hopeful words from any Christian leader today have come from John Paul II...." And he goes on to say, "ECT's joint statements have emphasized the great truths of the faith we hold in common...." But there is more, "...Catholics and Protestants must stand side by side. ...Then, standing together as the people of God, we must obey the two great commissions: first to win the lost and then to build a culture."

Whoa! there Mr. Colson... "two great commissions"??? The pope trusts in baptismal regeneration to get him to Heaven. We do NOT hold a common faith with Roman Catholicism; we hold to a faith which is totally opposite to Roman Catholicism's sacramental system of religious works. No, Mr. Colson, there is but one great commission, and that commission was given to those who have been regenerated by Christ alone, not to those who have faith in being sacramentally sprinkled with water by a priest. And that one great commission has nothing to do with "building a culture." Jesus never ever talked about "building a culture" ...or even about repairing one, for that matter. His focus was then, and still is now, on a Kingdom that is "not of this world," and we would all do well to follow His example.

Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, an ecumenical gospel is no gospel at all; it can not save. As the apostle Paul said to the Galatian churches, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!"