Sunday morning, I sampled the worship services of our four Southern Baptist churches still operating in Katrina-devastated St. Bernard Parish, just downriver from New Orleans. I started with Celebration-St. Bernard where Craig Ratliff is pastor, then worshiped with the two congregations meeting at Chalmette High School (St. Bernard BC and FBC-Chalmette where Paul Gregoire & John Jeffries pastor), then on to Delacroix-Hope Church down at the jumping off place, James “Boogie” Melerine, pastor, and ended up at Poydras BC where John Galey is the man.
I felt like the fellow who attended the tasting luncheon put on by the various restaurants around town. He sampled a little of this and a little of that, and when he got home he was full but he didn’t know what of.
It was Mother’s Day, and all the churches were honoring these special ladies. At Celebration, Craig had them come to the altar and the leaders crowded around them and prayed. At Delacroix, Boogie gave them gifts. Not sure if the other churches did anything specific for them.
Boogie preached from Matthew 15:21-28 “The Woman of Great Faith,” John Galey preached on Godly Women from I Timothy 2 (more about that later), and Craig’s sermon was “Don’t Throw Momma From the Train”, based on Proverbs 31. Intriguing title. The bulletin from Chalmette High School did not list sermon subjects.
Only one of the four churches is meeting in its original building. That would be Poydras, although they took great damage and extensive renovations were done. Before Katrina, there was no Celebration Church, St. Bernard Campus. In its place stood the FBC of Arabi. The floodwaters ruined the building and scattered the congregation, so they went out of business, bulldozed the structures, and gave the insurance money to Celebration Church of Metairie to begin a new work there. Previously, Craig Ratliff was the student minister.
The two congregations meeting at the high school–St. Bernard Baptist Church and FBC of Chalmette–saw their buildings ruined in Katrina. A new structure is being erected on the site of First Baptist, but St. Bernard’s building was gutted and seems to be standing wide open.
The Delacroix Hope building was completely blown away by Katrina, with nothing left standing except the concrete block pilings. They’re now worshiping in what used to be Creedmore Presbyterian Church on Bayou Road in the community of St. Bernard. Presently, they’re still in the fellowship hall, and it appears there is still much work yet to be done in the sanctuary.
Hopeview Church where Jeffery Friend was pastor has been converted in the volunteer village for church teams coming in to work with Operation NOAH Rebuild. Further downriver, River’s Edge Church is no more.
Our friends (readers) from outside this area who are unfamiliar with New Orleans should be reminded that St. Bernard Parish took the full brunt of the hurricane and almost no structure in the parish was left whole. You can drive down either of the two major east-west thoroughfares–St. Bernard Highway and Judge Perez Drive–and see entire strip malls still boarded up. Most neighborhoods are only sparsely settled.
All of these churches have lost members and all have gained new members who moved here since the storm. Three of the four I attended this morning had from 45 to 60 in attendance. Oddly, the smallest of the four prior to Katrina–Delacroix–now has the largest attendance, perhaps 60 to 70 this morning.
Couple of funnies….
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