Metairie Baptist Church is in an unusual situation these days. First, this wonderful old traditional church in the heart of what we call “old Metairie” (translation: old money) has as its pastor seminary professor Dr. Thomas Strong. The church called Bob Cole to handle weekday pastoral functions so Thomas can continue serving at both places.

And secondly, they’re going through some significant changes. Thomas is leading the church in a FAITH evangelistic ministry. Recently, he told me, “We have 42 people participating in FAITH this semester. On a recent Sunday we did door to door visitation. I’ve discovered that despite what people may say, door-to-door visiting is not a thing of the past. In the process of the day, we had the opportunity to knock on 96 doors and talked to about half of them (42, I think). We were doing an opinion poll that would lead to the gospel presentation. We shared the gospel with seven people! That is a huge praise.”

“Also,” Thomas said, “we offered the ministry at Metairie Baptist Church to the other 36 homes we visited. This now happens on a regular basis as the church is getting turned on to telling others. I am so thankful to see what God is doing by empowering the church for mission through FAITH.”

MBC is hosting our NAMB chaplain Joe Williams in a “Coping with Loss” conference, and their women’s ministry is flourishing under Terry Dickson (who heads the associational women’s ministry).

These are significant changes for this church. “Only God could do these things at MBC,” Thomas said and added, “I am rejoicing daily that he has let me be a part of it.”

Second Church: First Baptist Church of Avondale on the West Bank.

Marc Daniels is also a bi-vocational pastor like Thomas Strong. He’s a professor, too, but in this case, he teaches anatomy at the William Carey School of Nursing which adjoins the Hardin Student Center at the seminary. Marc is a former Jew who was led to Christ by his now-wife Kristen. FBC Avondale was her home church, Marc was baptized here, and now he’s the pastor. From my standpoint as the director of missions, maybe the most exciting part of all that is this means he ain’t going nowhere. He’s not going to be in this church for a few months, waiting for some bigger church to call him.

Anyway. After being in their services this past Sunday, Marc and I swapped e-mails and I commented on the large diversity of races in the morning congregation. I estimated a hundred people present and almost half were African-American.

I thought you would find his comment interesting. I’m editing them a little for brevity.

“A few years back when we came here (fall of 2000), the church was very white and very traditional (read dull and lifeless). Although the people were always warm and friendly, there was very little excitement in worship and no vision for what God wanted us to do in the community.”

“We’d always get a large turnout of African-Americans for VBS and Fall Fest, but we could never get them to visit during services, even though we always had a great time visiting them in their homes. We were considered a ‘white church’ by the community.”

“The barrier between the church and the community began breaking down 3 years ago when we held joint services with Mt. Hermon Baptist Church. I would preach there and Pastor Sean Elder would preach here; our choirs would join. Then we followed that up with a 40 days of purpose campaign in the fall of 2004.”

“Things began to change. Our worship transitioned from 3 hymns (taken from the same 20) and one special song, also a hymn, to a blend of hymns and contemporary worship. Finally a couple of biracial families started attending and then joined the church. We called Eric as our youth minister.” (He’s African-American and looks like the New Orleans Saints missed a great linebacker.)

“We have a goal of looking like our community. I’m a firm believer in community-based ministry. At first, some of our older folks freaked out and thought I wanted us to be a black church. Some left, others stayed and allowed the Lord to change their hearts and confront their prejudices. These days, we are a racially, socially, and chronologically diverse congregation–just like the town of Avondale.”

“In attendance, we’ve finally come out of the dark period and into the light. Before Katrina, we ran 80-100 in worship. Last August, one year after, we were down to the low 50s. Then, these last months, we’re running in the 70s and this past Sunday we had 89!” (That’s when I estimated 100.)

Marc ended with this note, “I’m glad that you noticed what I have also seen happening here. The Lord is good and will fulfill his purpose for us!”

One last comment about one of our churches.

Because I don’t have their permission, I’ll leave them unnamed.

Recently, this pastorless church asked one of my friends to preach for them. He filled the pulpit in the morning, went out to eat, and came back to the church and spent the afternoon (before the evening service) reading through historical records in the office. Here’s what he said.

“The strangest thing happened after church Sunday morning, Joe.” Oh? What was it? He said, “They might have had 40 in church that morning. They were down a little. And they are a good bunch of people. They were friendly and they really listened to the sermon well. I enjoyed preaching to them. But as soon as church dismissed?”

Yes? What happened?

“They walked out the door and went home.”

That’s it?

“Yes. They hardly even spoke to each other. They just went home. Why, the church I’ve been pastoring, they would have stayed around for an hour visiting with one another.”

I said, “I’ll tell you why that is. A church takes on the personality of its pastor. You are a people person, you love people, so your people were that way. But these people had not had that kind of pastor.”

He said, “I’ll tell you what I found out, something that really disturbed me. In their 80 year history, they have had 30 pastors.” Thirty pastors. Even if you divide 30 into 80 and get a little over two-and-a-half years for each one, that does not count the months and months between pastors. So, figure an average of 2 years each.

My friend said, “Joe, they’ve not had pastors. They’ve had preachers.”

Wednesday morning, when Dr. Tommy Teague of Fort Worth’s North Richland Hills Baptist Church met with a small group of young pastors in my office, I said, “Tommy, you’ve been at your church 9 years. Talk to our guys about longevity in the pastorate.”

It takes 2 years to even get to know your people, he said. You don’t really start to pastor until you’ve been there that long. “I’m now doing my best work at our church,” he said.

Marc Daniels and Thomas Strong are both committed to their churches for the long haul. Let’s pray the Lord will send a long-time pastor to the third church–one who will love and shepherd them through all the ups and downs of the future.