A generation ago, Houston’s John Bisagno and E. V. Hill of Los Angeles were featured speakers at a conference I was attending. Hill, an eloquent fiery preacher in the best tradition of African-American stemwinders, had blown the windows out of the church with his message and left the congregation of a thousand on their feet cheering and shouting. As order settled in on the auditorium, our host introduced Bisagno. Brother John walked to the pulpit and softly related the most appropriate little story I’ve ever heard.

“Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Linus were lying in the grass gazing at the puffy white clouds. Lucy says, ‘If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formation…What do you think you see, Linus?’

“Linus said, ‘Well, those clouds up there look to me like the map of the British Honduras in the Caribbean….That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor…and that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen…I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side….'”

“Lucy says, ‘Uh huh…That’s very good… What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?’ And Charlie Brown answers, ‘Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind.'”

Bisagno looked out at his audience and said, “I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but after that sermon from Dr. Hill, I don’t think I’ll say anything now!'”

But he did. He was equally wonderful and just as enthusiastically received–ask anyone who heard Dr. Bisagno in his prime–but I’ve never forgotten his description of that comic strip from Peanuts.

In the comics for today, Sunday, August 19, 2007, that was the Peanuts strip that was reprinted. I’ve clipped it out, It’s a real keeper.

A couple of months ago, we reported here of the visit of Paul Pastorek, the new state superintendent of education, to our area and his reaction to the unfunctioning bathrooms and kitchens in many of our public schools. He met with a group of students and promised that these would be replaced and made first class by the time school started. Sunday’s Times-Picayune indicates he’s keeping his word.

You get an idea of what he was up against when you consider that an additional 26 public schools in New Orleans are opening this year. They’re expecting up to 6,000 new students, bringing the total up to 32,000. The Recovery School District announces that 300 bathrooms have been completely refurbished this summer.

Nine of the reopened schools will be charter schools, giving them a great deal of independence in their operations. Furthermore, 5 new schools will be under construction by the end of this year. A number of the schools now reopening for the first time since Katrina will be meeting in modules since their buildings took too much damage, are being repaired, or are slated to be demolished.

Reporters followed Pastorek and others around a number of redone schools, noting the new plumbing, windows, and ceiling tiles, and pointing out the teachers’ desks waiting to be uncrated and the fresh paint on the walls. At one school, he pointed out a live electrical plug attached to the wall that was too accessible to the students. Contractors promised to change the wiring and protect the children. Pastorek noted, “If we’re down to that kind of issue, then we’re doing good.”

Great job, Superintendent. Now, it will be up to the schools to keep the facilities looking good. And that’s not always a foregone conclusion.

I preached Sunday morning at the Lakeview Baptist Church on Canal Boulevard. They’re meeting in their sanctuary now but it’s still a long way from being completely restored. Recently, an out-of-state team of volunteers rebuilt the platform area. Every time I come by, a little more work has been done. Pastor Dick Randels and his wife are vacationing out west for several weeks, well deserved if a rest ever was. I suppose others are getting in their last-minute trips before school starts–although classes have already begun in much of the area–because we might have had 20 or 25 people today.

Several of our small churches are struggling with the same issue, but in different circumstances. Faith, FBC Gretna, and Lakeview all have an older membership and a difficult time attracting the kind of younger families which will assure them a future. Gretna’s plant sits in a lovely middle-class residential area with young families in every direction. Interim pastor Wayne Scholle is giving them good leadership and they are filled with praise for the ministries he is beginning.

Faith, which has never owned its own building since it was formed out of the relocating FBC of New Orleans and which presently worships at 12:30 pm in the chapel of a Methodist church on historic St. Charles Avenue, also has an interim pastor, Professor Tim Searcy. Without a permanent location and a separate identity in the community, they find it difficult to attract new people.

Meanwhile, Lakeview sits in the middle of a flooded neighborhood that is gradually rebuilding. Never very strong numerically, the post-Katrina existence in this city has exacerbated that problem. Up and down Canal Boulevard, one sees churches meeting in make-shift situations, with hastily done signs indicating unusual times or locations.

Driving to our lakefront offices one morning this week, I stopped at a Shell service station on Elysian Fields Avenue and got in line. The price of gasoline was competitive and this was a busy place. Next door, the Burger King had long lines of cars in its drive-through. “Smart people,” I thought. The businesses in that section that rebuilt and reopened early have made incredible profits since they have very little competition.

Then I remembered how we had made a similar prophecy about the churches. Get the church in a flooded neighborhood up and running first, while the others lie there untouched, and as residents move back in you’ll be there waiting for them. That has happened in a few places, but mostly not.

The reason, evidently, is that people do not want to drive five miles to fill up with gas or buy a burger, but they will gladly drive across town for their favorite church.

I met this week with two pastor search committees from our churches, trying to help them get on course to finding God’s men for their congregations. It’s one of my favorite things to do, probably because I was on the receiving end of contacts from so many of these groups over the last 45 years and have seen it done so well and so poorly.

The Baptist campus ministry at the University of New Orleans held a meet-and-greet cookout near a campus apartment building Saturday evening, and I went over and sketched people for a couple of hours. Staring into the bright faces of these fresh young people, one impression still lingers 24 hours later: they sure do have great teeth. Pearly white, shining. A tribute to this generation of parents who taught good dental hygiene to their offspring, I suppose. And who paid for the braces. Odd the things one notices.

Then again, maybe there is a reason I noticed this. On Thursday, my orthodontist handed me a two-page printout of his analysis of my dental problems and the program for rehabilitation that ended with a head-jarring, teeth-rattling estimate of the total cost. Let’s put it this way: it’s not enough to buy a new car, but plenty sufficient to buy half of a nice one.

My uncle John Chadwick had a good line that comes to mind here. “Joe,” he would say, “Don’t worry about expenses. We’ve got plenty of them.”

Our readers who pray for us would do well this week to lift up the three churches mentioned above–Gretna, Lakeview, and Faith–asking the Father to direct them about hard choices they will be making concerning their future.