“We think it may have been a tornado that hit Memorial Baptist Church,” a member told me Tuesday morning. We reported here a couple of days ago that when Gustav blew through our area of the world, the storm did only minor damage to the city and our churches with the exception of roof damage at Williams Boulevard and Memorial Baptist churches, two congregations no more than a mile apart.

Some of my pastor friends report they’ve visited with Memorial pastor Jackie Gestes and they are amazed at how upbeat he is. He had just transported his ministry library of 2,000 books to his church office–and then the storm drenched the offices and sanctuary. We stand in amazement at the fortitude of this brother—and so many others further west, who are picking up the pieces of their own storm-battered lives.

All this reminds me of two friends—Pastor Jose Mathews and my grandchildren’s cat Lizzie, and what they endured from Katrina.

In Jose’s case, his church–Discipleship Baptist in east New Orleans–was drowned and ruined and the congregation scattered from one end of the USA to the other. He lost his home due to the flooding, and he and his wife relocated to the Baton Rouge area. Inside the next year, Jose had a stroke, his mother died, and his only son, age 22, was shot down on the streets of Houston, Texas.

The hits just kept on coming.

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Politics aside, each of us needs to have a “little John McCain” inside us, that maverick quality that refuses to go along with something just because everyone else is doing it, that looks for what may have been overlooked when consensus arrived too swiftly, that speaks up when others around are too timid or intimidated to express themselves.

Senator Ted Kennedy used this line at the funeral of his brother Bobby in 1968, and consequently, everyone thinks Bobby said it, but it’s a line from a George Bernard Shaw play: “Some see things as they are and ask why; I see things that never were and ask ‘why not?'”

That’s a maverick, one who sees what isn’t there but ought to be.

Nurture the maverick in your church. Every leader needs several–but at least one–in his group of closest advisors who can put the brakes on his enthusiasm, who can ask the hard questions, and who refuses to go along with the easy answers.

Mavericks put grey hairs in the heads of leaders. There are times when we want the earth to open up and swallow them and give us some peace, but those moments of despair pass and we realize how desperately we need them.

They keep us honest and make us stronger.

A maverick is what Kenneth Lay needed at Enron and did not have until it was too late.

A maverick is what Jim Bakker needed at PTL and for want of one, lost his entire ministry.

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Yesterday–Friday–I had three contacts from our people in the offices of the Louisiana Baptist Convention in Alexandria asking if any of our churches suffered and if any pastor/staffer needs their assistance. Pretty great of them to do that.

We’ve not checked with all the churches and pastors, but so far the news is mixed. The churches we anticipated being hit the hardest–Port Sulphur Baptist Church way downriver in Plaquemines Parish, for instance–came through just fine, as did Poydras Baptist Church and FBC Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish. So, I was starting to feel great, and then….

I’m on my way out of the city, driving to the Tupelo, Mississippi, area for the revival at FBC Fulton. Since my home computer is down, I ran by the associational offices to check my email. A friend at FBC Kenner wrote, “I’m sure you already know this, but Memorial Baptist Church in Metairie lost their roof again.”

Oh no. Not that.

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We received word early Thursday morning that electrical power had been restored on our block in River Ridge, so I drove home. As soon as the word also came that the sewers were malfunctioning due to massive power outages that could not easily be restored, Margaret decided to stay behind with my sister Carolyn in Jasper, Alabama. I’ll pick her up on my way South after the revival at Fulton, MS, this Sunday-Wednesday.

I dreaded the drive back to New Orleans, anticipating that the clogged highways for evacuating would be repeated for returning. Traffic was heavy but not congested, and moved along at 70 mph. The New Orleans radio station reported that the city was still getting rain, the last remnants of Hurricane Gustav.

To the friends who have called, asking if we need help with our churches, etc., we have answered that thus far, it appears Baton Rouge was hit much worse than us and that the heaviest damage seems to have been in the parishes of Terrebone and Lafourche (that would be Houma and down-below Raceland areas). I’m certain many of those churches will be needing our help. Joe Arnold is the director of missions there (Bayou Baptist Assn, Houma). To contact him, send an email to Mike Canady, the director of missions and ministries for the Louisiana Baptist Convention (Mike.Canady@lbc.org; the phone is 800-622-6549). His secretary can put you in touch with Joe in Houma, or with the director of missions for Baton Rouge, Roddy Conerly (Baptist Assn of Greater Baton Rouge).

Returning to New Orleans, I took the Causeway across Lake Pontchartrain, just as we had done returning from Katrina’s evacuation. I bought a few groceries on the Northshore since all reports were that long lines at grocers here made shopping difficult. Even in Covington and Slidell, the stores were crowded and many shelves were bare. In Metairie, some of our favorite shopping places were still boarded up. So reminiscent of Katrina.

No damage in my neighborhood, other than the occasional downed tree. Limbs everywhere, but we can clean that up.

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We’re grateful to be alive and well and reporting that God has taken care of New Orleans, our people, our homes, and our churches.

Talked to John Faull, pastor of Kenner’s Williams Boulevard Baptist Chrurch, this morning. He’s back in town. He discovered their buildings have taken some roof damage, especially over the office area and somewhat over the sanctuary. After Katrina, their church served as a hospitality center for law enforcement people all over the country since Troop B of the Highway Patrol is across the street. That was the plan this time, but John says Baton Rouge took far more damage than New Orleans, so the law enforcers are gravitating to that area and working out of it this time.

No power, John reports. They will have a 10 am service this Sunday, and nothing else. No power in LaPlace where the Faulls live either, although his home had no damage (in contrast to the neighbors’ homes which all lost shingles).

John says as people think of coming home, the absence of electrical power is only one consideration. Only one service station is open in that part of the world, he said. The one in St. Rose has lines extending a mile. Mayor Nagin rushed the invitation for people to re-enter the city, John believes, and residents should bide their time.

Jim Caldwell, pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in River Ridge–a mile from where I live–drove back into town on Monday after depositing Susan and the kids in Atlanta. “How were you allowed to enter?” I asked. He laughed. “The storm was so bad, no one was on the highways to stop me.” Jim has a passion for ministry and “had” to be back at the church to help people.

He drove around my home and reported no damage anywhere, for which we give thanks.

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Thursday evening, I was waiting in the local CVS for my prescription and took a seat. Two chairs over sat a young woman who looked beyond tired. I said, “Hard day?” She answered, “Stress.”

I probably should have left it there, but said, “Stress at work or Gustav stress?” She said, “Gustav. It’s all everyone at work is thinking about and no one has a clue what it’s going to do or what we need to do.”

The very definition of stress for my money.

We don’t know where the hurricane is going, we don’t know how big or how strong it will be, we don’t know whether we should leave or stay, and if we leave, we aren’t decided on where we should go or what to take with us.

If that’s where I am, I guarantee it’s where a half-million of us are.

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By David E. Crosby, Pastor

First Baptist New Orleans

The cancelations are rolling in. Formal Katrina remembrances are being replaced by an unstoppable barrage of unwanted, terrifying memories. Productive work is now on hold. All eyes are on the Gulf of Mexico and the unseeing, unfeeling specter of Hurricane Gustav.

He has me churning already. His powerful winds and deadly aim at New Orleans are dredging up suppressed memories of midnight runs, stranded plans, and emotional partings.

An emergency meeting to batten down the hatches turned into a torrent of tormented remembrances. Pets are a problem. The elderly need help. Temporary office accommodations are available in Montgomery, Alabama.

The post-Katrina newcomers are staring at me, maybe a little mystified. I am waving my arms too much. My voice is strained, and my animation seems bigger than the situation calls for.

Someone voices the “no evacuation” sentiment. A Katrina survivor who fished his loved ones out of the flood jumps back in his chair, shaking his head violently. “No, sir! I’m not staying.” No one knows how to escape this gaping fissure running through our collective lives.

Lunch is now the hour of dark speculation and ominous prediction. “If we flood again, that’s the end for New Orleans. No one will come to help us.”

Everything in me resists. I don’t want to do this, not even think this.

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1) Borrow.

In the secular world, this is called plagiarism. But we pastors know “God richly gives us all good things to share” or something like that. Fortunately, your people don’t read other preachers’ sermon books anyway, so they’ll never know. (Disadvantage: if the written sermon bombed, chances are yours will, too.)

2) Repeat.

Everyone knows repetition is a proven learning technique. Warning: do not call these sermons ‘repeats’ or ‘re-runs.’ “Previously preached’ is also verboten. If you have to put a label on them, try ‘Back by popular demand.’ It sounds better.(Disadvantage: some little sister in the church writes in the margins of her Bible every time you have preached a particular text, so you’ll need to vary your Scripture even if it’s the same sermon.)

3) Confess.

Tell a story out of your childhood and turn it into a microcosm of the universe, or at least of the gospel. Didn’t Phillips Brooks call preaching ‘truth through personality’? The advantages are that you are the authority on yourself, no one can contradict you, and very little study time is required. (Disadvantage: if nothing dramatic has happened to you, this can get boring quickly.)

4) Obvious.

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The internet news headline says the people of New Orleans are “nervous” about Hurricane Gustav which at this moment is battering Haiti, but is headed toward Jamaica and the Caymans and then into the Gulf. After that, who knows?

Well sir, all the prognosticators we check with show the storm coming this way. They’ll say that, then turn right around and say, “But no one knows; it’s too early.”

Local radio talk shows today are dealing with 90 percent Gustav and 10 percent the Democratic convention. They “take you live” to a briefing by the city, the parish, the highway patrol, this emergency board or that one, and they all say the same thing: “Too early to say where Gustav is coming, but it’s not too early for citizens to begin preparing to leave. Better start planning your exit and your destination.”

A friend in Jackson, Mississippi, has invited us to come to their place. My son Neil contacted his aunt Carolyn in Jasper, Alabama, to see if her guest rooms were available. Hotels up and down the interstates are working overtime taking reservations for the weekend.

Governor Bobby Jindal has indicated that if Gustav does come toward Louisiana, he will begin the contraflow on Saturday. For you highlanders, a contraflow is when all lanes of a highway become one way and that way is “out of here.”

I had lunch with a pastor today, Wednesday, who tells me his church is ready, that they have all the contact information on his church members in case they evacuate, and that they are fine financially if they have to miss a Sunday or two.

Lynn Gehrmann, our office’s administrative assistant, canceled a scheduled medical procedure set for tomorrow, Thursday, in order to handle some office financial things we need to have with us in case of evacuation and shutdown.

We think the city is safer than it has ever been, thanks to the steady work of the Corps of Engineers and FEMA over these three years, but the question no one can answer is, “Is it enough?”

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