Not As Easy As We Thought It Would Be

Before this season started, Saints fans thought this might be the year. After last year’s excellent achievements under new coach Sean Payton and his all-star cast of players, starting with quarterback Drew Brees and running back Reggie Bush, this year looked to be a cinch. Even the prognosticators agreed. The talk shows were saturated with Super Bowl talk.

Alas, then the season started. The Indianapolis Colts handed us our head on that Thursday night before a national TV audience. We licked our wounds, picked ourselves up off the mat, and said, “Well, after all, that’s Payton Manning and the world champions; they’re supposed to be good.” Bring on the next opponent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The last few years, the Saints have not had a lot of trouble handling the Bucs. “To get to the Super Bowl,” the radio guys said today, “You have to be able to win games such as these.” And we certainly have the talent to do it. Not to say the will; we have that in spades.

I turned the game off three-fourths of the way through. It was pitiful. Our guys were dropping balls they should have caught, fumbling balls they should have held onto, and missing assignments like a bunch of rookies. Final score, Tampa Bay 31, Saints 14. But it wasn’t even that close. We got whupped.

The only good thing about dropping the first two games of the year is that it will end the noise about going to the Super Bowl. From now on, I suggest we have a rule that no one down here can even mention the Super Bowl until the season is half over and we have won 2/3 of our games.

Fans will recall that former coach Jim Haslett had a great first year too, just like Sean Payton, with both rookie coaches being named NFL coach of the year, and everyone making stellar predictions. Alas, it was all downhill from there.

The overwhelming thought that lingers with me is: “If going to the Super Bowl was as easy as we were expecting, everyone would be doing it, and we’d have accomplished it before now.”

But how about them Bengal Tigers. LSU appears to be the real thing. Next Saturday’s contest against Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks will answer a lot of questions.

Sunday morning, I called on three of our churches: the First Baptist Churches of St. Rose, Norco, and LaPlace. None of them are having an easy time of things.


The pastor of the St. Rose church has resigned, effective in a couple of weeks. This has never been a big church numbers-wise, and since founding pastor W. O. Cottingham retired 2 years ago, the numbers have gone South. Pastor Larry Pittman said to me this morning, “Some days we have 8 or 10. And every time I have tried to move over here”–he lives in Slidell–“something has happened to frustrate it.” He has decided it would be best for the church for him to leave and the small congregation to get a seminary student as pastor.

Rudy and Rose French have just returned to the Norco church after an absence of 6 weeks. I have mentioned here the heart surgery he was having in Canada, and the rest which the doctors absolutely ordered before he went back to work. He looked great this morning. He said, “On our way South, we ran by the First Baptist Church of Paris, Tennessee, where your friend Jerry Massey is pastor. They asked me to speak Wednesday night.” He explained that the Paris church has been active in helping to rebuild New Orleans, and he wanted to thank them.

Rose said, “We have been isolated in Canada where we’ve been resting, so it felt strange to be in a church with so many people. But they were so wonderful and so good for us.”

I had to tell them about Pastor Jerry Massey. Over 20 years ago, he served the FBC of Amory, Mississippi, while I led the FBC of Columbus, a half hour down the highway. In late 1984, our church had given Margaret and me a trip to the Holy Land on our 10th anniversary at the church. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel on top of the Mount of Olives, which is still incredible just to remember. One morning our group was standing in front of the hotel waiting for our tour bus to arrive when this guy goes by on a camel. He calls, “Hi Joe.” It was Jerry Massey from Amory. What are the chances?

Knowing Rudy, he will jump back into the work now with both feet, but he sure needs to pace himself. That church has internal issues to deal with, and any pastor knows how taxing and stressful that can be.

Don Snipes is the interim pastor of the LaPlace church. Don is here on assignment from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, planning and coordinating the volunteer work of their church teams coming in to help rebuild our city. He works out of our associational offices. He and wife Amparo–she’s a lovely brunette from Mexico–and their children Abigail and Nathaniel have bought a house in LaPlace and become residents. Don is an excellent preacher with a warm heart and a great attitude, and I find myself hoping that when his one year assignment with the SBTC ends, one of our churches will capture him and name him their pastor.

The LaPlace church’s pastor, Bobby Burt, left several months ago for another congregation in Alabama. Meanwhile, the church is proceeding with the construction of another educational building, and today they were in the middle of a stewardship campaign. Attendance was down a little since the last time I visited, but that happens when a church is pastorless. The same decline has happened to many of our churches in the two years since Katrina as businesses relocate and people choose to move to safer areas.

Every church in this part of the world is learning that business as usual is not going to do the job. Pastors and other leaders have to be visionary in their directions, aggressive in their motivation, and focused in their personal lives. They have to live on the field and become a vital part of the community they are trying to influence for Christ.

Nothing about the work down here is easy these days. I’ll ask our readers to lift these three churches–the FBC of Norco, St. Rose, and LaPlace–to the Father, asking for His power and strength and blessings upon them.

Here is a quick scan of some of the stories the Times-Picayune was covering in the Sunday edition….

After the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge a few weeks ago, inspections have been conducted all over the country and we’ve learned that a number of the ubiquitous bridges around New Orleans are considered unsafe. A Slidell commuter says he takes old U.S. Highway 11 across Lake Pontchartrain, even though that bridge is considered the worst of the lot. “It survived the hurricane,” he laughs. For him, that means it’s stronger than all the newer bridges. Hard to argue with that…. The candidates for governor are putting the rebuilding of this portion of the state far down the list of their priorities. Bobby Jindal says his number one issue is reversing the state’s reputation for corruption…. Fire stations in a number of New Orleans neighborhoods sit almost untouched since Katrina. And yet, the city is sitting on $9 million donated by FEMA for repairs. What repairs have been done were accomplished by volunteers. The mayor says he is bound by the city charter to have all the money for repairs in hand before signing a contract for a job. FEMA says it will not give any more money until contracts are signed and plans are complete….. Many homeowners are having mortgage problems. Interest rates and insurance payments are climbing, meaning homeowners are frequently shelling out hundreds of dollars a month more than pre-Katrina. Some are grieving that the homes they are rebuilding, they will be losing. Bankers keep saying, “We do not want to repossess a partially-rebuilt home in a damaged neighborhood. We will work with you….”

The son of former Governor Edwin Edwards has been released from the Texas prison where he was serving a seven-year sentence for racketeering, into a halfway house in Baton Rouge. Former Governor Dave Treen admits he is working behind the scenes to get Gov. Edwards released from the federal facility in Oakdale, LA. He’s scheduled to be released in 2011. Treen is asking President Bush to pardon the ex-gov, saying he’s old now, he’s served five years of his sentence, and that’s enough. When the newspaper mentions Edwards, it always draws a number of letters to the editors, some urging the president to keep out of this, reminding everyone of the slimy shenanigans of Edwards who almost singlehandedly built this state’s reputation for corruption. Others write to urge compassion, saying the governor has learned his lesson. No one says what lesson he has learned, and there’s no indication of remorse from Oakdale’s most celebrated guest.

Early in February of 2004, federal agents used a battering ram to bust into the offices of Jacques Morial, the brother of our former mayor, Marc Morial who now heads the Urban League in New York City. It appeared to be one of many busts of higher-ups in that administration, several of whom were later sent to jail and some are still awaiting trial. Anyway, after the investigation of Jacques chugged along for over 3 years, the feds announced last week that they are charging him with misdemeanors for failing to file his taxes for three years. That’s all. His attorney says he will plead guilty. How does that line go about the mountain straining and finally bringing forth a mouse?

A nice lady in Montana sent our office an email this week. She’s a senior adult, she says, and doesn’t have a lot of money to send our way to help churches rebuild. However, she does have a big house, and she’d love to have some displaced woman from our city–someone unable to move back home–share the space with her. She said she lives in a lovely part of the Big Sky country.

I’m seriously thinking of asking if she has room for both Margaret and me.

4 thoughts on “Not As Easy As We Thought It Would Be

  1. Joe don’t feel bad about the Saints. Just substitutes the name Panthers for the Saints and you have the same story to the letter. Your guys and ours will probably struggle to an 8 & 8 season along with half the other teams.

    Have you noticed the sermons are shorter during the NFL season?

  2. I’m so sorry we missed you at church this past Sunday. We had Moira’s 5th birthday party on Saturday and on Sunday morning, Moira woke up sick and now today, David’s sick. We are teaching our girls to share, but this is ridiculous. Please do encourage people to pray for FBC LaPlace, we believe in the power of prayer.

    Love,

    Ginger

  3. Iam god fearing from India lecturer in hotel mamagement college also working as a evenglical worker in churches of Agra with the youth and children. My father is a pastor only preaching for second coming of christ.Iam realy thankful to you for sharing the word of god.May god bless you

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