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….

One of the churches had this as a bulletin insert: “SUGGESTION FOR ECONOMY STIMULUS CHECK ALLOCATION: As you may have heard, each of us will be getting a tax rebate check to stimulate the economy.”

“If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China. If we spend it on gasoline, it will go to the Arabs. If we purchase a computer, it will go to India. If we purchase fruits and vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. If we buy a good car, it will go to Japan. If we purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.”

“We need to keept that money here in America. The only way to keep that money at home is to spend it at YARD SALES, since those are the only businesses still in the U.S.!”

(I’m confident it was a tease, y’all. But funny.)

I mentioned John Galey’s sermon on the passage in I Timothy chapter 2 where Paul tells the ladies not to wear makeup or jewelry and to be quiet in church. Certainly one of my wife’s favorite passages, I’ll tell you that. In the margin of my Bible, I have scribbled: “Just something else Paul is going to have to answer for when we meet up!”

Anyway! John was talking about how women should dress, not only in church but everywhere else, and calling for modesty. And he told this story. He gave the name of a local pastor he got it from and blamed it on him, but I don’t think I’ll mention it here. Lawsuits, and all that sort of thing.

John said, “My preacher friend said he was horrified at how some of the women in his church dress. They come in wearing these short skirts and when they sit down, the hem slides up to here. And the low necklines. He said, ‘I think sometimes I’m in Popeye’s Fried Chicken because all I can see are legs and thighs and breasts.'”

That’s what he said.

I heard a teacher of preachers say once that if a pastor is in doubt as to whether to tell a certain story from the pulpit, he ought to tell it. “Don’t be so fearful,” he said. “Take some risks. Your people are bored stiff by your playing it so safe.”

No one can accuse Brother Galey of playing it safe.

Pray for the churches of St. Bernard Parish. They have a huge job before them.

The newspaper this Sunday morning has a big feature on “grading” Mayor C. Ray Nagin mid-way through his second term. I can’t get the heart to dig very deeply into the article however. I’ll believe he’s doing a great job when streets start getting paved and more and more homes rebuilt and occupied. It’s like grading a preacher: let’s see what he has done and that will speak for itself.

Happy Mother’s Day.