We began our weekly pastor’s meeting with the monthly “Executive Committee” meeting of our association of Baptist churches. John Galey, vice-moderator and pastor of Poydras Baptist Church, presided.
Scott Smith, chair of the administrative committee, reported that his committee had approved money for the Disciple-Now youth activities this spring and money for a Spanish Sunday School conference in June.
Scott told how his church (Highland, Metairie) received a phone call last week. “Someone was calling from Georgetown University of Washington, DC. They had a group of 20 students coming down to gut out houses in the 9th Ward and their accommodations had fallen through. They got our name from the FEMA list and wondered if they could stay with us.”
Scott explained that this is a terrific group of young adults, very respectful, hard-working. “They even attended our Sunday night worship service,” he said, and added with a grin, “I don’t think many of them are Christians. Just think–now we’ve got the world coming to us!”
Keith Maddox is the new interim manager of Camp Living Waters, the historic campground at Robert, Louisiana, jointly owned by our association and several others in this part of the state. He has resigned West St. Charles Baptist Church of Boutte where he served as worship leader and youth/education man for the past decade. Already, Keith has made a big difference in that camp, and is urging our churches to bring their people for conferences. I told the pastors, “If ever there was a man matched to a position, I believe it’s Keith Maddox and Camp Living Waters.”
Rudy French reported on the ribbon-cutting at FBC Norco last Saturday. “We registered over 140 people, and heard some great messages. Two hours of them, in fact.” He went on to say that the present accommodations can take care of 20 guests per night, but he’s got 35 coming next week. “Eventually, I want to be able to host 80 people,” he said.
A residual effect of the new vision Rudy has brought to that church is the 8 visitors they had in church Sunday. One young woman prayed to receive Christ in the service.
Rudy ended his report with, “I don’t think our members have been dead. I just think they’ve been in hibernation and we’re trying to awaken them.” I said, teasingly, “The best proof that they’re not dead is that you’re still there and they’re still supporting you. If they weren’t alive, they would not have been willing to make these changes.”
Lynn Rodrigue (Port Sulphur Baptist Church, downriver deep into Plaquemines Parish) reported that houses are being built and people are returning to his area. “Virginia Baptists have sent us money to build sheds behind people’s FEMA trailers so they will have room to store their belongings.” Those trailers are a miniscule 240 square feet.
Lynn reports that he and the Catholic priest are building a relationship that never existed before. For some reason, the Catholics seem to be slow about coming to the aid of that parish, so Lynn is sending our volunteers over to help them. When the priest raves about the wonderful Baptists, Lynn protests, “It’s not about us being Baptists. It’s about the Lord Jesus Christ.”
It’s a new day down in Plaquemines Parish, Lynn reports. “You can walk up to any house or any trailer and people open to you. They’re glad to see you, they appreciate any help you offer. God has given us an open door, and friend, we’d better walk through it. We’d better seize this day! It may not always be this open.”
Boogie Melerine reports that his congregation (Delacroix-Hope, meeting in Boogie’s house) is holding steady in the 60s. “People say they’re just coming because we feed them lunch every Sunday and that when we stop feeding them, they’ll stop coming. I say, ‘We’ll just keep feeding them!'”
Our two ex-patriate pastors are Jerry Darby (One Faith) who drives in from Alvin, TX, each week and Anthony Pierce (Evangelistic) who comes from Lafayette.
Jerry meets on Wednesday nights in New Orleans in someone’s home with as many members as they can find. But on Sundays, he has begun preaching at a Missionary Baptist church in Alvin. “I think they like my preaching,” he said, “because they want me to be their preacher, even though they know New Orleans is in my DNA and that as soon as we’re able, we’re coming back.” Jerry didn’t say, but I think that is a National Baptist Convention church in Alvin. I assured him it’s fine with us, that he should never worry about our support for his work. Just serve the Lord Jesus.
Anthony Pierce has invited Jerry Darby to bring his people to Evangelistic Church on Elysian Fields Avenue and meet at any time on Sunday they choose. Anthony said, “Our little congregation really needs some senior men. Pray with us about that. They add so much to a congregation.”
Carolyn Tilton, wife of our Cornelius (Irish Channel Christian Fellowship), is the state-wide faith-based director for the Louisiana Department of Hospitals and Health. She told us, “Because of the good work of men like my husband who made those trips to Baton Rouge to address legislators–and because of some of the rest of you–our state now has outlawed smoking in restaurants. Second-hand smoke is a killer. My father smoked 3 packs of Lucky Strikes a day all his life. My mother never smoked a cigarette, yet she died of lung cancer.”
Carolyn urged us to keep this cause before our people. We need to protect our children especially from the harmful effects of smoking. She offered to lead conferences in our churches to help people kick tobacco.
After the meeting while we were enjoying a great luncheon provided by Cherry Blackwell (red beans and rice with sausage, three kinds of salads, and two kinds of cake), Carolyn Tilton said to me, “I see now why the pastors keep coming to this weekly meeting. It is so uplifting!”