I wish you could know Rudy and Rose French. They moved here from Canada just after Katrina, convinced the Lord wanted them to minister to our people and assist in the rebuilding of this city. At first, they served at Williams Boulevard Baptist Church, feeding highway patrolmen from all over the country, then with Delacroix Hope Baptist Church taking baskets of goodies door to door in FEMA trailer parks and ministering in any way that presented itself, and now they’re leading the First Baptist Church of Norco.

I’ll not repeat the account of their call to that church and Rudy’s insistence that they become a mission center and stop doing the same things they’d been doing for years, things no longer working. When they moved into the parsonage, change became the order of the day.

This morning–Thursday–Rudy gave me the grand tour of the church. Volunteer workers from French Camp, Mississippi were all over, gutting out the building in places and rebuilding in others. Tearing out the ancient, worn woodwork and the threadbare carpet, installing a new kitchen, filling two former classrooms with bunk beds, enough to sleep ten people in each. Painting, scrubbing, nailing.

“There used to be a wall here,” Rudy said. “But we needed to open up this space, so I told them to tear it out.” With a twinkle in his eye he said, “One of our seniors came in and said ‘What happened to our wall?’ I told her, ‘It wasn’t our wall. It was God’s. And I was talking to Him and He said He wanted that wall down. So we tore it down.'” He added, “I smiled real big and she did too.”

“You should have seen the library,” he said. “Old stuff that should have been thrown out ages ago. Why would anyone keep telephone directories for ten years? We cleaned it out.”

“In this room, there was junk. Clutter. We cleaned it out and threw it away. See that dumpster out back? We filled it up three times with stuff we threw away.” He said, “I do not understand why church members haven’t cleaned all this out ages ago.”

I said, “I do. Church members are afraid of offending someone. Throw it away and it will turn out that someone’s mama paid for that and now they’re all upset. So, it’s just easier to stick it in a closet and let the next generation deal with it.”

“They needed leadership, Rudy,” I said, “and you’re providing it.” He said, “I’m doing what we do in the business world. You see a problem and you tackle it.”

That attitude is so refreshing. Many pastors, I fear, are afraid of what someone will think, of the criticism they’ll get for acting boldly and decisively. So some never do anything. Not all, thank the Lord, but far too many.

Freddie Arnold and I keep waiting for an eruption of church members rebelling against what this terrific, visionary man of God is doing. It’s not that we want it to happen–far from it–and it’s certainly not that we know anyone in this precious little church who is upset. I suppose it’s just that we know Baptists.

That’s one reason I wanted to go out and see the progress. I told him, “Rudy, these are exciting days for your congregation. But they are also scary days. They’ve never been where you are taking them. So, be patient. Don’t try to get it all done by sundown.” He smiled and said, “I am. They’re great people and they’re responding wonderfully.”

Rose met us at the door of the parsonage and ushered us into the dining room where she had a basket of blueberry muffins and the coffee pot waiting. Outside, the garage is filled with pews to be installed in the wings of the sanctuary as soon as the renovations are complete. Inside, the house is filled with lovely new furniture. But wait a minute. That house was bare when the church called Rudy as pastor. And he and Rose have been living in a furnished apartment in Baton Rouge. So where did all the furniture come from?

“A wonderful Christian man in north Mississippi sent down a semi-trailer load of new household furniture,” Rudy said. “You remember I told you about it. We had more fun giving it away to people who had lost everything.” He added, “But before we gave any away, we furnished this house with it.” Rose pointed out the two lovely guest bedrooms, ready and waiting for visiting preachers.

Rudy had a story about that furniture. “Those pews outside came from a church on the Northshore. The pastor said his people have been insisting that they sell them, that they cannot give them away. But he just felt God wanted us to have them and brought them down. When he got here, he took a look at all the furniture we were unloading from that trailer and thought of the people in his church who had lost everything. When he drove away, he had in his truck furniture worth ten times what they would have gotten from those pews. The preacher said, ‘I can’t wait til Sunday. My people are going to hear a sermon about how God does things!'”

If you keep up with news of our denomination through the Baptist Press–that’s www.bpnews.net–you’ve read of a project called Unlimited Partnership. Bill Taylor, formerly the leader in Christian education for our denomination through Lifeway Christian Resources, and now a consultant for the North American Mission Board, had this wonderful idea some months ago on one of his trips into this area.

What if we matched up some of these struggling New Orleans churches with some sharp seminary students who would come in and spend up to two years as their minister of education and get their discipleship ministries going? And what if we enlisted some large churches around the country to fund this, one church to take responsibility for the salary of one student for the duration of the project? What if we nurtured the students and the churches and poured ideas and resources into them?

That’s the project. Tonight–Thursday–Bill Taylor was meeting with seven of our pastors whose churches will be the pilot congregations, and with the seven seminarians who have accepted this assignment. Mike Canady from our Louisiana Baptist Convention was there, along with Freddie Arnold and Alberto Rivera from our offices.

In recent days, Bill has spoken to Prestonwood Church and the FBC of Dallas about “Unlimited Partnership” and they are signing on to sponsor a student intern. The plan is for the pastors and the interns to meet with Bill one Monday a month, all day long, and for us to bring in an educational minister from a sponsoring church to teach and inspire.

Great idea. We’re all excited, and we expect wonderful results from this.

By the way, did I tell you that Rudy and Rose French are expecting you at FBC of Norco on Saturday, March 3, at 11 am, for the dedication of their “new” church? Rudy said, “I’ve learned you can’t just send out a letter and expect guests to come. And e-mails don’t do it either. So I spent all day Tuesday calling people–denominational leaders, other pastors, special friends we want to share the joy of that day. Gibbie McMillan of our LBC volunteer mobilization office will speak.”

I regret I’ll have to miss the fun. I’ll be speaking at something our women and girls’ mission teams call “M-Jam” at Louisiana College. We’ll have fun of our own, I betcha!

Tomorrow–Friday–I’m spending the morning with the senior adults at Gulfport’s New Hope Baptist Church where Durwood “Dee” Broughton is pastor. And Sunday evening, I’m doing the Valentine banquet for the French Corner Baptist Church in Ponchatoula where Eric Hattaway is pastor. I’ll speak, tell my stories, open up some scriptural insights, and draw a few cartoons along the way.

This is not a diversion, in case anyone wonders. Laughing with the family of God is as healthy and God-honoring as the best gospel song every raised.

I treasure the little line from Psalm 4: “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine increased.” Three kinds of joy there. Grain represents money (ask any farmer), and that brings artificial joy. New wine produces a certain kind of joy, but it’s superficial. But the joy of the Lord–that’s the truly beneficial kind.

Sitting in a hospital waiting room with Billy and Ruth Graham (how’s that for name-dropping?), I asked the evangelist, “What is your favorite Bible verse?” He said, “Psalm 16:11. ‘In thy presence there is fullness of joy. At thy right hand, there are pleasures forever more.'”

They tell me that in England, Queen Elizabeth has a personal flag that is hoisted above whatever castle she happens to be residing in at any given time. Someone has pointed out that “Joy is the flag flown from the castle of our heart to show the King is in residence.”

Nothing betrays the inner presence of the Spirit like joy.

It’s a God thing.