Sojourn, the new start-up church directed toward post-moderns, holds its first worship service on Magazine Street this Sunday at 5 pm. James and Amy Welch came down from Louisville, Kentucky, some months ago to begin this ministry which is being sponsored by First Baptist of Kenner.
Saturday morning at 10 am, the board of Global Maritime Ministries on Tchoupitoulas Street is holding its annual meeting. That afternoon at 1:30, they’ll be dedicating their new Port Ministry Center. Everyone is invited. Check out their website.
And also that afternoon, at 2 pm, the First Baptist Church of Chalmette (St. Bernard Parish), will be holding ground-breaking and dedication services for its new buildings. Freddie Arnold will be at Global Maritime and I’ll be at Chalmette. Two grand occasions, long-awaited.
Steve Gahagan reports that since Operation NOAH Rebuild (the North American Mission Board’s presence in our city) has been in operation, they have hosted 5,997 church volunteers from across America. They have 1,293 homes on their list still to be worked on. The volunteers have reported 123 professions of faith.
On a similar note, our Arkansas Baptist friends working out of Gentilly Baptist Church headquarters report having completed 52 houses with 1420 volunteers, who report 82 professions of faith.
Those figures–123 and 82 professions of faith–are wonderful, each one precious to the Lord and to us, but only a small fraction of the total number. Several of our churches have had extensive evangelistic outreaches over the 16 months since Katrina, with many hundreds of people indicating they prayed to receive Christ.
The total number as always is: God knows. And rest assured, He does. He alone knows.
Corey Olivier will be arriving in mid-February to take the leadership of our Baptist Collegiate Ministries for metro New Orleans, headquartered out of our BCM building at Tulane. We welcomed Corey to our Wednesday pastors meeting, and are looking forward to his ministry. When he told his wife (they’re serving a church near Shreveport) that God was leading them to New Orleans for this work, she said, “Well, you’re good at rebuilding.”
Good thing. That’s what we’re about these days.
Mike Sibley works with St. Catherine’s Hospice program out of LaPlace and addressed the pastors, asking for volunteers to visit and work with patients in their care.
Joe and Linda Williams have returned to the city following a month back at their Oklahoma home. Dick Randels told how he traveled to Oklahoma Baptist University’s homecoming recently, only to find that they were awarding a “distinguished service” recognition to Joe Williams. Naturally, he told Joe he’d driven that far just to be there for the event. Joe is leading seminars in our churches to help our people adjust to their new realities.
We had around 40 at our pastors meeting Wednesday and were able to hand out envelopes containing checks to a number of the ministers, thanks to the generosity of some churches in the Houston area. The remaining checks will be mailed to the pastors. Freddie, another minister, and I went over our list of pastors who could use some assistance and encouragement and came up with 60 which we painstakingly pared down to 37, then divided that into the total amount and Lynn started printing the checks.
My favorite thing to do.
Several recipients slipped up quietly after the meeting to say “thank you.” One said simply, “I’m learning not to miss this meeting.”
Along with the checks, I had written a note telling the ministers where the money had come from and whom to thank. I emphasized, “No need to thank Freddie and me. We’re just the middle guys, glad to give away what God has sent our way.”
Middle guys. That’s all of us, incidentally. When the Lord gives to us, He does not intend that we use it all on ourselves or hoard it, but to generously bless those around us with it.
“Freely you have received,” Jesus said. “Now freely give.” (Matthew 10:8)
Sounds like a deal, doesn’t it.
When our wonderful 12-year-old grandson was about 7, he had learned to love money. A family trait, you say. Anyway, Grant was in my bedroom and spotted the plastic cup inside the armoire into which I dumped spare change at the end of the day. I could see the dollar signs going off in his eyes. Normally I empty the contents into a paper bag and drop off at the church to be given to the missions offerings, but this one time, I thought, we could do something special.
I said, “Grant, I think I’ll give you that money.” Wow. He thought that would be wonderful. “But first,” I said, “you have to have a conversation with your parents over what you will do with it. Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll bring it over.”
He called me the next day and said, “I’m ready for that money, Grandpa.”
They decided to put part of the money into his savings bank, give ten percent to the church, and drop the rest into a jar to spend as he liked, within limits. He and his dad emptied the cup on the floor and counted it out. It came to around 30 dollars. They did the math, and I happened by the door to his room just as he was picking up coins from the carpet and dropping into the jar marked “church.”
Every time he dropped a coin into the church jar, he said in the saddest voice you’ve ever heard, “Bye bye. Bye-bye.” It was all I could do not to break out into laughter. This was human nature on display as purely as you will ever see it.
Everything in that jar was given to him. Previously, he had none of it. He had not done anything to get it other than be loved by his grandfather. All he had to do was set aside one-tenth for the Lord. And yet it pained him terribly to give that small amount.
I love the story of the man who covenanted with his pastor that he would give one-tenth of his income to the Lord. He did so and his business prospered. One day he went to see the pastor. “I have a problem,” he confessed. “When we made this agreement, my income was very small and giving 10 percent was no problem. But now, I’m making so much money, a tithe is a huge amount. And I was just wondering if we could agree to end the covenant so I don’t have to give that much.”
The pastor said, “I will not agree to that, but I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll pray the Lord will reduce your income to the point where you can start tithing again.”
You and I talk a good game. We love the Lord. We believe in biblical values. We want the world to come to Jesus. And yet.
Nothing tells the story about your faith in God like your checkbook. Everything else is just so much talk.