Several of our churches are going through major and exciting changes this week.
Woodmere Baptist Church of Harvey is no more. As of this Sunday, Christ Baptist Church – Harvey comes into existence, meeting at 3000 Manhattan Boulevard. Their previous building in the Woodmere section of this New Orleans suburb now belongs to New Covenant Baptist Church. Meanwhile, this Sunday, Faith Baptist Church will be voting to acquire its first piece of property in its 7 year history.
Christ Baptist is pastored by Dr. Harold Mosley, professor at our seminary and recently pastor of Airline Baptist of Metairie. They’ll be doing lots of renovations to their new site which was formerly the House of Prayer Lutheran Church. Jerry Hamby is Associate Pastor and Bob Darcey is the interim Minister of Music. They’re without pews, so Sunday they’ll bring in the folding chairs for Sunday School at 9 am and worship at 10 am and 6 pm. We wish them well.
New Covenant is pastored by their founding shepherd, Thomas “Chip” Glover. He reported to our Wednesday pastors meeting that the church voted this week to purchase cots, sheets, toiletries, etc., in order to house volunteers coming to help rebuild the city and witness in the community. Thomas went into detail explaining the circumstances of their being able to acquire this church site, and rather than try to remember it all here, I plan to ask him to write it out and we’ll post it on this site. It’s a fascinating story of the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Here’s a hint: the property was appraised for $885,000 and they bought it for $325,000.
Faith Baptist Church was formed several years ago when the First Baptist Church of New Orleans voted to relocate from its St. Charles Avenue location. The charter members of Faith felt the Uptown section of the city needed to have a continued witness, so they formed a church and made arrangements to share the facility of First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans on South Claiborne Street. To date, they still have not called a permanent pastor, but have been led by various interims. Professor (and former missionary) Tim Searcy is their present interim pastor. When Hurricane Katrina damaged the Presbyterian sanctuary, Faith moved to St. Charles Avenue and began renting space from Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church, where they continue to meet at 12:30 pm. Katrina sliced Faith’s numbers exactly down the middle, leaving them running 40 to 50 on Sunday mornings.
This Sunday they are voting on purchasing a plant formerly used by a Christian Science congregation. In the absence of Dr. Searcy–who is on a trip to the Holy Land with his son–they’ve asked me to preside at the Sunday afternoon business meeting.
I’ll be preaching Sunday morning at First Baptist Church of St. Rose as this congregation honors its one and only pastor from 1959 to 2005–Rev. W. O. Cottingham–in his retirement. This service had to be postponed due to last year’s hurricane.
In the Wednesday meeting, Cherry Blackwell promoted the Christmas Banquet for all our ministers and spouses, to be held on Tuesday evening, December 12, at 6:30 pm at the Ormond Plantation on River Road in Destrehan, a few miles west of Kenner. Child care will be provided at the First Baptist Church of Kenner from 6 pm on. (FBC Kenner is located at 1400 Williams Boulevard, with the educational building in the block behind the sanctuary.) Jim Chester who is an illusionist, story-teller, and preacher will be the evening entertainment. (Please note that “ministers and spouses” means all pastors and other church staff members, male and female.)
James “Boogie” Melerine reported on the block party at their church last Saturday, provided by the people of Calvary Baptist Church. With 150 registering their attendance, Boogie believes 200 came.
Tom Pewitt of Memorial, Metairie, reports they now have a minister for children and youth as well as an educational minister. They received $20,000 from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.
Oscar Williams, Good News Church, reported on the plans for their new church building. They’re meeting on Sunday afternoons at FBC Destrehan and last Sunday, using the association’s portable baptistry, baptized 10 new believers.
David Rhymes, our evangelism strategist, reported on his and wife Jamie’s vacation last week in Miami, her father’s home. “No sightseeing,” he said, “we just hung out.” They were both so exhausted, and this was their first vacation in over a year.
Jerry Darby, One Faith, leads a Wednesday night session in New Orleans for his members–the ones he can find; he drives over from Alvin, Texas–and he gave us his insights on Romans 8:28. “There is a difference between thinking and knowing. Paul did not say ‘we think.’ He said, ‘We know that all things work together for the good of them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.'”
Jerry quoted this from John P. Kee:
“If there be anyone that’s going through
We have the answer for you:
Trust and obey and never give in.
Only the strong shall survive and win.
Ask the question and the answer shall come;
Exercise your faith and know He’s the one.
If there is no sign,
Keep this in mind:
He’ll show up on time.”
Last night a massive storm system moved through the metro New Orleans area–and about half the USA–and much of the area was under tornado watches and warnings throughout the night. Ann and Steve Corbin are living in a trailer and she reported to the pastors that she was very frightened. The television advisories were telling people in FEMA trailers to get out and go into their gutted homes for safety. “We didn’t have anywhere to go,” Ann said. So they prayed, asking God to calm the storm. “And He did.”
Ann reported that she and Steve recently made friends with a seafarer named James who was supposed to have been near Japan at the time of the earthquake this week. “We learned to look at world events in a whole new way,” she said. A friend in danger drives you to your knees in prayer. “We prayed for him and a North Carolina church group that was here did too. He came through fine.”
Ann and Steve are volunteers down here working with Global Maritime Ministries, going on board ships and working as chaplains. In January, they will get their first cruise. “We’ll be working as chaplains,” she said. Good timing: it’s their 25th wedding anniversary and her 50th birthday.
The Convoy of Hope is a massive ministry coming up this Saturday, and we have previously reported on it here. Hy McEnery urged pastors to send volunteers to assist.
At the Celebration Church of St. Bernard (on the site of the now-gone FBC of Arabi), Craig Ratliff reports building supplies will arrive on the 17th. Contractors arrive this weekend. They expect to have the building up by Christmas. Six hundred local residents have signed up for Thanksgiving festivities this weekend, and Craig is hoping for far more than that.
Alberto Rivera, the missions strategist for the state convention, is seeking churches to sponsor new church starts in our area, particularly for a Vietnamese church in East New Orleans and an Anglo church in Gretna. He said, “People ask me why we are pushing church planting when we have so many churches needing help. I tell them, ‘Do you realize reproduction is a fundamental principle of all known life. We are not trying to replace churches with new church plants. We’re trying to provide an avenue for them to reproduce themselves. If we don’t help churches to reproduce, we’re doing a great harm to them.”
Our attendance was down this morning, as the rain pelted against the outside of the building, but the spirit was great. “I love these meetings,” one said. “I get pumped up just hearing what God is doing in some of your churches.”
Thursday afternoon, I plan to meet and hear Andy Rooney of CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes” and an equally veteran CBS reporter Richard C. Hottelet. They will be featured at the International Conference on World War II taking place Thursday through Sunday at our National World War II Museum on Magazine Street. Wednesday’s Times-Picayune ran a brief description of Hottelet and an interview with him. He was originally hired during WWII by Edward R. Murrow to help cover the European theater of the war and report back to the USA. He flew over the Normandy beaches on D-Day and then back in London delivered the first eyewitness account of the invasion.
After describing some of the other historic events he covered throughout the war, Hottelet reflects that even as a young man he recognized the significance of the events he witnessed. “It wasn’t like I thought, ‘I am now in the middle of history’,” he said. “But it was quite clear that what was happening was terribly important.”
In the middle of history.
Someone once told me that every miracle begins with a major problem. Check the scriptures and you’ll see they all began with a death, a sickness, a hunger, something. The problem was the first half of the miracle, and the Lord’s work provided the second. Someone going through a tough time remarked, “Well, I have half a miracle.”
That’s the starting place. Which means that all of us down here are slap dab in the middle of a miracle. Only when it’s all over will we be able to look back and see the handiwork of God, to see what He has done.
Right now–in the middle (and the muddle!)–is the time for faith, for obedience, for hard work, for perseverance.
When it’s all over, we want what Balaam said to Israel to be said of New Orleans, “Look there–God did that!” (My rather free but absolutely faithful translation of Numbers 23:23!)