Coping With Life’s Challenges

“I wish our leaders would speak out more on social and moral issues,” one of our pastors said today. “The newspaper calls the Catholics. Why don’t we Baptists have a voice?”

The speaker was quick to admit that he lives out of the area and is not up on the day-to-day events in the city. I told him that one of our leading pastors, David Crosby of the First Baptist Church of New Orleans, is a frequent writer for the op-ed page of the Times-Picayune. His article against gambling ran last week and I forwarded it to the Baptist Press which is running it today on www.bpnews.net. David is an excellent writer and speaks clearly and forcefully on these matters.

I told how I was invited to write for the same page but found it harder to do than I thought and was not able to pull it off. Then the editorial writer called and said she had taken part of one of our blogs and whittled it down to proper size. It ran several weeks ago. The point being, we’re trying.

In presenting Pastor Greg Hand to the Wednesday pastors’ group, I began: “How would you like to pastor in the French Quarter? Everywhere you look, there’s a need. Nothing normal, no residential area as such, no vast green lawns, no children at play. Narrow streets clogged with traffic day and night. And yet that is where Greg and Wren Hand have chosen to live out the Lord’s call upon their lives.”

“Pray for us,” Greg began. “It’s hard.” Vieux Carre’ Baptist Church has been a lighthouse in that dark area for over 40 years, he said. Located one block over from Bourbon Street on Dauphine, the church is equipped to house church teams that come down to minister and witness in the Quarter. “We’re doing outreach to the homeless on Monday and Thursday nights,” Greg said, “and a Bible study Wednesday night. And something new for us–we have a Friday night outreach to the homosexual community. Led by a former member of that group whose life was transformed by Christ.”

“My wife and I are having a tough time,” said Pastor Kenneth Foy. “For one thing, we’re both unemployed.” They’ve just been back in the city a couple of weeks and he’s trying to re-establish his counseling ministry. “African-Americans don’t normally run to psychiatrists for counsel,” he said. “For one thing, there’s the stigma. And the other, is the cost. Instead, they go to the church.” So Kenneth is hoping our pastors will get the word out that he is here and available to help.


Kenneth wants to re-start his church, out of business since Katrina. “We have 28 people who say they want to be a part of it. One said she hasn’t been to church anywhere since the hurricane. She didn’t have a ride.”

He said, “I am so encouraged by these meetings. I want to thank whoever thought of having the pastors meetings every Wednesday, because I’m out here meeting discouragement on every hand during the rest of the week. I find myself anticipating this Wednesday meeting.”

That’s why we continue meeting, going on two years since the hurricane. We had around 45 today, not including a missions class from the seminary and its prof, our Dr. Ken Taylor. This being the first Wednesday of the month, we began with the regular session of our associational Executive Committee and then segued into the pastors meeting after an extended prayer time. See www.bagnola.org for Lynn Gehrmann’s minutes on the meeting.

Don Snipes is living out of an unused office in our associational building. He’s representing the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention which has assumed sponsorship of Zone 2 in our city. He’ll be working with Texas church teams coming our way to help rebuild homes and churches in that area of Mid-City. We’re glad to have this veteran pastor and all-around good guy.

Freddie Arnold and I are unofficially turning in our resignations to be effective sometime in the next two years. So, we are working with our associational administrative committee in planning a self-study and strategic design for the future. Early in 2009 seems a logical time for the association to recover a sense of normalcy and to transition into whatever new directions will be required. We presented a tentative plan to the Executive Committee today that calls for seminary professor Dr. Reggie Ogea to lead this study. The administrative committee is charged with forming a project study team of 12 members and to present to the full Executive Committee in its May 2 meeting. We’re seeking input from local leaders as to who should make up the team.

Joe Williams–our FBI chaplain and NAMB counselor–is filling his dance card. Joe and his wife Linda lead conferences of several hours for our churches to assist our people in dealing with life’s challenges. “We were calling it ‘dealing with life’s losses,'” Joe said, “but decided that ‘challenges’ is more positive.” He explained that with the conference lasting up to four hours, Dr. Paula Stringer and her students at the seminary work with host churches to provide child care. “We suggest that the church provide a meal,” he said. “That’s the only cost. Everything else is free, although some churches give the seminary students a little help with their mileage.”

My wonderful uncle John Chadwick, a policeman who walked a beat in downtown Birmingham in the 40s and 50s, would take me to a clothing store on the final day of my annual two-week visit with his family and suit me out in school clothes. I was thrilled to wear something other than hand-me-downs from Ronnie and Glenn, but would feebly protest, “Johnny, you can’t afford this.” He always answered, “Joe, don’t worry about expenses. We’ve got plenty of them.”

You want challenges? We’ve got plenty of them. But we’re on the cutting edge of the Gospel these days, and there is no better place to live if you happen to believe the Gospel and are committed to sharing it.