Each Wednesday, our ministers/pastors meet at First Baptist Church of LaPlace for fellowship and information. Around 50 of us gather there each time, but it’s never the same group.
Today, November 2, a young pastor who serves a non-Southern Baptist church in Kenner addressed the group. “I’ve been in this area for nine years, and I’ve been impressed with the work of Southern Baptists. I know what you believe and it’s the same thing my church stands for. After Katrina hit, I did not see any of my denomination’s people down here at all. The first people on the ground were Southern Baptists, and they’re everywhere, ministering in Jesus’ name. It’s outstanding. And I want my church to be a part of that. So I am here, officially requesting to join the Southern Baptist Convention.” Everyone applauded. We may have lost 30 or more churches from the hurricane, but we just gained one! (We’ll deal with the details at another time, and explain how one goes about becoming a member church in the SBC.) He brought a laugh of understanding when he added, “I would have been here a couple of years earlier, except I was waiting for one key deacon to go to Heaven.”
After prayer time, our two-hour-and-a-half meeting was jam-packed with one person after another rising to address the group. Disaster relief workers talked about cleanup, building people about permits, and financial people about insurance and loans. One pastor gave a report that Franklin Graham will be leading a two-day festival at the New Orleans Arena, next to the Superdome, on Saturday and Sunday, January 28 and 29. Another spoke of plans to invite all the “first-responders” to a banquet or barbecue to show them proper appreciation for all they did to secure the city. Others told of the counseling available for those having trouble dealing with this crisis. On and on it went. I felt sorry for Lynn Gehrman, trying to get it all down in the minutes.
The First Baptist Church of Covington, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, has invited our ministers and spouses to have our Christmas banquet in their facilities, as their guests, no charge. We gladly accept and agreed on Monday night, December 5.
One of the most heartening things I heard was a simple word about our weekly meetings. A denominational worker told the group how he was serving a church in South Florida years ago when a hurricane did massive devastation. He said, “We did not have weekly gatherings like this. Each pastor was pretty much on his own, and it was tough. Within a year, most had bailed out and gone to other places. I want to commend you for getting together like this.” I suppose I needed to hear that. We started these weekly sessions during the evacuation, the first being Wednesday, September 14, at the First Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi, when twenty of us drove from every direction to meet. We’ve not missed a Wednesday since. I have found myself wondering how much good we were doing, looking to the attendance as a clue. But probably the best gauge is that when the meeting is dismissed for lunch at 11:30 sharp, no one leaves. Some are still standing, talking, 30 minutes later, still not having eaten. Something important is taking place here.
One speaker said, “There’s a verse of Scripture that comes to mind. ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.'” Everyone nodded. No one told him we’ve heard that verse from Proverbs 27:17 at every meeting, without fail. We keep discovering the truth of our ministry to and dependence on one another.
One of our chief failings in the pre-K days was the isolation of our churches and pastors, and the resulting insulation of our church members. But God is showing us a better way. We’ve received so much from God’s people from one end of the country to the other and even beyond, none of us will ever brag again about our independence. We are so dependent on the Lord and so inter-dependent with each other, we’ve found a far superior way to live and minister.
No one knows yet what our churches in the new New Orleans will look like. But we are determined to be part of a new Team of God, partners with one another and with all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ.
Toward the end of the meeting, I said, “I almost forgot. Someone sent some presents to us, and I promised them to you today–luggage filled with what?” Several called out, “Goodies!” The church had received the shipment of these backpacks-on-wheels and stored them in the choir room. Each one contained personal items such as shampoo, lotions, combs, flashlights, and such. A yellow sheet inside identified the donors as “Open Door Missions, Inc.” of Choudrant, Louisiana. There must have been a hundred of them. We asked the ministers to take two each and if they had no need of them, to pass them along to those who do.
We have received so much from so many. We will be eternally in debt. Which is just fine, because a wise man once said, “No one unwilling to be eternally in debt can ever be a disciple of the Lord Jesus.”
Hello – Just a heart-felt thank you for your informative sharing that helps us who live so far away to “hear” the heartbeat for a city devasted but not down with fine Christians & pastors seeking God’s direction for a “new” city that reveals the love of Christ in its churches as all minister in Christ’s name! We keep praying from “afar” – God bless, Judy
I am so glad to see and hear of good coming from this “bad ol’ hurricane” (that’s what my 3 year old daughter Moira has called Katrina.) I have always loved the story of Joseph in the Bible, and how at the end he tells his brothers, “you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” I think that’s what has happened as a result of this terrible tragedy. Hurricane Katrina was definitely bad, but to see all of our churches’ pastors coming together like this, it is wonderful, but I’m sorry it took a hurricane for that to happen. Thank you to all the pastors out there and to you Bro. Joe, for encouraging and loving not only us, but each other. God Bless
Ginger Davis
Brother Joe: I am being blessed every day as I check your website for updates on the churches and pastor/shepherds of New Orleans. I long for this kind of news about the broken city I have loved for years. Maybe I can explain it like this. In 2004, I took my first cruise in honor of my “Jubilee” birthday. It was the most wonderful trip. So restful. So beautiful out there in the middle of the gulf with no land in sight whatsoever. The variations of blue hues in the water were endless. Sunrises and sunsets were celebrations and benedictions. There really are flying fish! I longed for every one of my friends to be there in the nextdoor deckchair. I thought, “how awesome this would be if this ship could be filled with Christians praising Jesus and praying together instead of casinos and bars and hoodlums and ‘adult’ sunbathing decks.” My analogy is this. All over the internet and news media we can find stories of the storm and the plans for the future. But when we read your messages, we see what we have longed to see and share with folks all over the world. There can be a better life! In the midst of all this OTHER news, your columns give us hope. It is hope we can share with the world. The news media will say that the first thing to reopen in the city was Bourbon Street. Maybe there will be a Mardi Gras and on that day they will BRAG that it was the first celebration held in the city. What they don’t know is this: the first, the VERY FIRST celebrations in our city have already begun as pastors have gathered together for these prayer and care and share meetings and as a few of the scattered churches have already been able to meet for worship together, even if those meetings were held in other cities! I am presently reading through that seminary classic called, “The Master Plan of Evangelism” by Robert E. Coleman. I quote him from page 38: “Here is where we must begin just like Jesus. It will be slow, tedious, painful and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don’t live to see it. Seen this way, though, it becomes a big decision in the ministry. We must decide where we want our ministry to count–in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of our lives in a few chosen people who will carry on our work after we have gone. Really, it is a question of which generation we are living for.” Brother Joe, you are certainly living for future generations as you dig in your heels and stand firm for Jesus in leading these healing, encouraging, prayer and strategy gatherings. Stay by the stuff. Keep telling us the truth. Let those folks know we are praying for them and cheering them on! One day, our children will look back and they will say…I remember way back in OhFive when New Orleans was under water and all the churches were destroyed. If it hadn’t been for the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the vision and leadership of the cartoon man…..+B+B+
Dear Dr. McKeever,
My husband, Mike, and I lived in New Orleans for a total of 16 years, serving 2 different churches at two different times, Calvary in Algiers and First Baptist, New Orleans. Both of these great churches are on the front lines of helping at this critical time in the city’s history. We have been out of your area for four years now, serving in North LA, but our hearts have been so moved by your “journal” of the events Katrina has brought about. Please relay our love, heart-
ache, and applause to our former churches, and be
assured of the prayers and support of your sister
churches all across North LA. In fact, our associaton is teaming with the LA Tech BCM to send a team of workers down there later this month. We want to put feet to our prayers. Keep
up the great work of reporting to us on the day-to-day, week-to-week happenings across the great Association there…and congrats on the “new member”!! You all are loved beyond belief!