Today, Saturday, “New Christian Life Baptist Mission” reopened its doors for the first time since Katrina. Under the leadership of Pastor Will Mack, Jr., this mission of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church sits smack dab in the middle of the Ninth Ward, surrounded by houses in every shape and of every description.

Many houses still bear the huge X of the National Guardsmen who combed the neighborhoods in the days following our hurricane, searching for the stranded in need of rescue. Fully fifty-percent of the houses are still not occupied and most probably untouched since the August 29, 2005, storm. The streets are broken and potholed and warped. You wouldn’t want to be caught in that neighborhood after dark. And yet, this is where New Christian Life located itself and where they rebuilt after the storm.

Representatives of the Florida Baptist Convention were present, several members of the First Baptist Church of Marianna, and at least two directors of missions. Pastor Will Mack welcomed everyone, then introduced his choir of perhaps five ladies. “This will be their first time to wear these robes since Katrina,” he said to cheers and applause. “The water ruined the zippers, so they’re leaving them open.”

The choir, accompanied by a keyboard and set of drums, rocked that little building as the praise lofted heavenward. People kept coming in throughout the service until an equal number of black and white were present. “How many are here for the first time?” Several lifted their hands, including a man in front of me who looked like he might be homeless.

Coba Beasley is the Director of Missions for the Chipola Baptist Association in Marianna, Florida. He brought greetings and told of the work of their teams over the last year or more, as they worked to redo this building. The keyboard was a gift of a gentleman in Marianna, he said. We all surmised that it had never sounded in Marianna the way it sounded in New Orleans!

Michael Petty is the Director of Missions for the Gulfstream Baptist Association in Fort Lauderdale. His text was Psalm 67, that “we are blessed to be a blessing.” He said, “We had thought we could restore this building in a few months, but it has taken us a year and a half.” At the time he and Pastor Mack began to make plans for the rebuilding, Michael was pastor of the FBC of Marianna. Some of his members were present today, and at least one staffer. In October, he moved to lead the association in Fort Lauderdale.

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In the previous blog, I mentioned that rebellious children sap the energies of parents, leaving them with no will, no time, and no strength for outside interests or ministries. Some of our readers have experienced this personally.

The question before the class today, students, is: “What depletes your energies for God?”

As usual, I’ll get us started. At the end, leave your own contributions to the list. Our hope is that someone will see himself in this and learn that a certain practice has been robbing them of their service to the Lord and will return to the Father. Luke 15:18 comes to mind. “I will arise and go to my Father.”

Here are my top ten energy-depleters:

10. Compromise.

You’re doing something displeasing to the Lord and you know it. The guilt lingers and weighs you down. When you try to read your Bible, pray, or worship, the fog is so thick you could cut it. God seems far away, and you know without being told it’s because you moved. You’re being torn down the middle and it’s a miserable feeling.

Isaiah 59:1-2 comes to mind. “Your sins have separated you.” Confess them and move back closer.

9. Nay-sayers.

The discouragers around you are constantly pointing out that you cannot do this, you are not the Christian you ought to be, the Bible cannot be understood, your prayers never go beyond the ceiling, and your pitiful offering amounts to nothing. To make matters worse, sometimes that negative voice hounding us is our own. You lose heart and want to give up.

Psalm 103:1-5 comes to mind. “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Speak to yourself words of faith. Believe your faith and doubt your doubts.

8. Nit-pickers.

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Reading the paper this Saturday morning and checking the television schedule for tonight, I began laughing. My favorite channel–that would be TCM, Turner Classic Movies–is showing a string of Greer Garson movies tonight. No, it’s not her birthday. That would be September 29 (and the year 1904). I think I know what happened.

TCM found out that I just last night finished reading a biography of Greer Garson. “A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson” by Michael Troyan was pure fun. It’s a $22 paperback, so don’t tell my wife. In fact, I picked it up twice over several months at the local World War II Museum bookshop before deciding to spring for it. Glad I did.

What started this for me was seeing the 1941 movie, “Mrs. Miniver,” some years ago. Thereafter, like a few million others, I was smitten. First, it’s about the most fascinating moment of the 20th century, that period when England stood virtually alone against Hitler. (There might be something else going on in my choice of that period; it’s basically 1940, the year I arrived on the planet.)

Secondly, there’s a historical angle: the movie aroused the American public as nothing else had to understand the British situation and get off the fence of neutrality. Queen Elizabeth was to tell Greer Garson later that her film had rallied worldwide support for Britain more than any other one thing.

The movie won a handful of Academy Awards the next year, and that has always perplexed the professional critics who do not understand the emotional impact a movie can make when it connects with a critical moment in history.

Mostly, however, when I saw “Mrs. Miniver,” I fell in love. And who would not? What a woman.

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Sometimes friends email to ask, “Where will you be preaching? Maybe it will be in my area so I can come.”

Being a director of missions means I work for and with all the Baptist churches in our association, which in this case includes the 5 parishes that make up Greater New Orleans. Many Sundays I’m not preaching at all, and at those times I enjoy dropping in on a church and worshiping with them.

This Sunday, January 20, I’ll be teaching “Paul’s Epistle to the Romans” at Rocky Creek Baptist Church near Lucedale, Mississippi, where Greg Harper is pastor. The schedule calls for four sessions on Sunday–10 am, 11 am, 5 pm, and 6 pm. Then we’ll continue Monday night at 6:30 and Wednesday night at 6:30.

In between, on Tuesday night, I’ll be speaking at the annual men’s banquet for the Baptist churches of George and Greene Counties, which will also be held at Rocky Creek Church.

Saturday morning, January 26, I’ll do another two-hour preview of Romans for our local pastors. We’ll meet in the conference room of FBC-Kenner from 8 am to 10 am. Anyone is invited of course, particularly pastors from anywhere.

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New Governor Bobby Jindal may be the youngest governor in the land, but at 36, he has lots of experience in state government and had a clear understanding of what he wanted to do in his first day on the job. Tuesday–like the cross-eyed javelin thrower–when he stood up, he had everyone’s undivided attention, and he made the most of it.

Jindal had appointed a committee of 17 to advise him on ethics reform in Louisiana. They took him seriously, and he is taking their recommendations for all they’re worth. Here are some of the contents of Jindal’s program as announced yesterday.

1) State legislators will be prohibited from receiving free tickets to concerts and sporting events. They will be allowed to purchase them at face value, though.

2) Everyone from the governor’s office to the legislature, from judges to local officials, should be required to file annual financial disclosures. The governor is requiring that his cabinet members comply with the same financial disclosure which candidates for governor must meet.

Officials in towns or parishes of more than 5,000 residents will be covered in this requirement.

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Bobby Jindal is the first governor of any state in the union of Indian descent. His parents came to America, settled in Baton Rouge, and Bobby was born there. He converted from Hinduism as a teenager and became a Catholic. He lives in Kenner and is the brainiest person on the planet. Monday, he was sworn in as Louisiana’s new governor, replacing Kathleen Babineaux Blanco who carries her Katrina-related scars with her into retirement. Jindal is 36 years old, making him the youngest sitting governor in the land.

What does “sitting governor” mean? And why do they express it like that? Is there any other kind of governor.

Tuesday, Jindal confirmed our faith in him. In his first full day in office, he spoke to the legislature and announced that everyone in his administration will file annual financial reports and that he will be asking the legislature to do that too. He said, “We are going to be transparent!”

Uh, Bobby, some of them aren’t going to like that. But good for you. Now, make it stick.

One of the ways our state is unique is that the governor has substantial power over the legislature. I’ve lived in states where the chief executive had zero authority over the state senate and house of representatives and the citizens paid dearly for the weakness of the office. In Louisiana, if you get the right governor, things can happen quickly.

One thing our governor does is to select the speaker of the house and the leader of the senate. It still has to be confirmed by the actual vote of the members, but the governor has such power in other ways they don’t dare cross him. That’s how Jim Tucker of Algiers became our new speaker.

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A student as well as staffer at our New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Don Pike serves the Ames Boulevard Baptist Church in Marrero as a part of the Unlimited Partnership program. He leads the congregation in education, discipleship, and evangelism. Recently, when our U.P. students reported on their ministries at their monthly gathering, Don announced, “I have the privilege of serving on the staff of a healthy church.”

Today, I dropped in on the morning worship service at the Ames Boulevard Baptist Church. Tommy Plaisance, another seminary student and–easily betrayed by his accent–a native of Cajunland, serves as the pastor. Don did the welcome in the service, then played the guitar while his wife Donna led the worship from the keyboard. It was a warm-hearted service with upbeat praise choruses and strong biblical preaching.

Tommy preached the famous passage from Philippians 3 where Paul lists his credentials, then tosses them in the trash. “I count all things but loss for Christ.” Tommy’s sermon dealt with decisions we make “with the end in view.” Paul’s purpose was to know Christ better, experience His fellowship in sufferings, and know the power of His resurrection. In light of that end, he made some tough decisions.

I sat there in the service reflecting on Don’s statement that it was a healthy congregation. Rick Warren says in one of his books that the next issue facing the church is not church growth but church health. Working with nearly a hundred of our Baptist churches throughout metro New Orleans, all in various stages of health, some strong and vigorous and some on life support, I completely agree.

What exactly is a healthy church?

Someone has observed that all unhappy families are unhappy in their own ways, but happy families all seem to have certain things in common. That surely must hold true for church health. Sick churches are a dime a dozen and each has its own kind of malady, but healthy churches seem to be alike in a lot of ways.

Here is my brief take on this.

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According to a news program this week, most people are still neutral about the field of Democratic and Republican candidates sparring in places like Iowa and New Hampshire, and soon Michigan and South Carolina. We’re sitting back watching, waiting to see who’s standing at the end of the marathon, and then we’ll decide.

I’m one of the many who thought it was presumptuous of this fellow Baptist preacher–from Hope, Arkansas yet–to declare for the presidency. I mean, a preacher? Lo and behold, the more I hear from Mike Huckabee, the more I like him.

I’m leading up to sharing something from a Newsweek article, but first, in the interests of full disclosure, here is my take on the main candidates….

Hillary? I’d like to have a woman for president. This nation is long overdue. And I think she would make a good one in a hundred areas. But for me, these are the negatives: she’s too liberal, she has all this baggage (think: Bill and his cohorts) left over from the 1990s, and she is being supported by all the far left (scary) groups.

Mitt? He sounds so good. But, I’m afraid of his religion. I told you this is full disclosure. I am not objective toward his religion. It’s a truly bizarre twist on Christianity and a faulty interpretation of God’s revelation in the Scriptures. It’s based on a con pulled by Joe Smith and furthermore, many of its leaders know that and cover it up. I have trouble trusting anyone gullible enough to believe in that religion.

McCain? Pretty good. Solid citizen. I like a lot about him, but he’s 72 now, which is 5 years older than me and man, I can feel my “powers” diminishing. Not sure we ought to be electing someone at that age.

Obama? Untested. He’s just not been around long enough at the center of power, if you want to call the U.S. Senate that, for my taste. We have a way in America of electing novices (present occupant of the White House included) and letting them get on-the-job training. I do think this country is overdue for an African-American president, and if it happens, it would be good for us. I’m puzzled at John Kerry and others jumping on his bandwagon just because he can make a good speech.

Rudy? Nah. Fred? Nah. Edwards? Hah.

Mike Huckabee? Yep.

Now, here’s what made me decide to post something on this blog about it.

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