Yesterday, a number of us met in Hammond, Louisiana, at the North Shore Associational office to begin laying plans for “Adopt-A-Church,” the plan to match New Orleans churches up with sponsoring congregations all over the country.
I think the storm was still raging when Roger Freeman, pastor of Clarksville, Tennessee’s First Baptist Church, sent me an email suggesting that we partner churches in his state with New Orleans churches. I thought it was a great idea, and made special sense coming from Roger, who pastored New Orleans’ First Baptist Church in the late 80s into the mid-90s. He knows and loves our city and these churches. The editor of the state paper was working with Roger on this partnership.
A couple of days later, I began to hear that other states were thinking of the same type linkup. Then, last Tuesday in Baton Rouge, I learned that the North American Mission Board in Atlanta was proposing the same thing nationwide. That’s where we are now.
Several times a day I’m getting emails from people informing me their church is ready and willing to come to New Orleans to help a church rebuild. They know we’re not ready for company yet. In fact, we’re not even home yet. Although daily we hear reports of some residents being invited to re-enter very soon. As soon as it happens, we’ll be open for business and ready to welcome teams from the churches…so long as they understand a few things.
Understand that New Orleans is going to be different. No tours this time to exotic locales. No dining out in your favorite restaurants. It’s all work this time.
Understand that this is going to be hard and dirty and you will be uncomfortable. Today in Hammond I was told of two chain saw crews that arrived from another state to help, but turned around and went home when they discovered we had no air-conditioned accommodations for them to stay in.
Understand that adopting a church in the New Orleans area is actually a commitment, a covenant, between your church and the local congregation. NAMB is recommending that the time period be at least one full year and perhaps two. “All manner of help will be needed,” their literature says, including “mission trips, rebuilding trips, care packages, appropriate financial support, and encouragement for the staff who have been through numerous challenges.”
Understand that in bringing a team to help us rebuild, at first you will need to send a scouting party in to look over the situation and talk to local leaders to see what your group will be doing. Then you go back and select the workers you decide would be right and assemble the materials and tools you need. The Florida Baptist Convention is asking their people who come to plan to be completely self-sufficient. Know what that means? It means at least at first, you need to be able to prepare your own meals and everything.
Understand that your accommodations at first will probably be on the floor of some church’s fellowship hall in sleeping bags you brought with you. Showers may be the wash basin in the bathroom on the hall. Sorry, but that’s going to be uncomfortable for some; we surely understand. It’s a serious situation down in New Orleans, and all along the Gulf Coast, to be sure. Anyone coming in to help us needs to understand this is in the nature of a sacrifice.
Understand that you may be working from can to can’t, from dark in the morning until dark in the evening. I still recall a group from a church I served in Mississippi going to New Jersey and working for two weeks to build a complete church, and one of the men remarking to another, “I don’t work this hard for money.” That’s the point. Do it for Jesus.
Understand that if your church decides to adopt one of our churches, you will not be able to come in and put in some program you found to your liking back at home. This is a local church with members and deacons and pastors, and we ask visiting teams to respect that. They will establish their own directions as the Lord shows them, and sponsors will want to come in and help them fulfill it.
Understand if you sponsor a church in New Orleans, you’ll not have it all to yourself. That’s good, of course, because the needs of every church are so huge as to be beyond the capability of most other churches to meet. So, you’ll have plenty of partners. My dream is for each of our churches to be adopted by as many as a dozen churches around the country.
So, tomorrow, I’ll be meeting with a group of New Orleans Baptist pastors here in Jackson, Mississippi, at the First Baptist Church. We’ve sent the word out in every direction, but have no idea whether we will have a handful or a dozen or twenty or more. But, we’ll be asking these pastors who among them wants to invite your church to sponsor them. Then, I’ll be passing this information along to Mike Canady in the Louisiana Baptist Convention office, and you will go to his website www.lbc.org to make the first contact.
You’ll be interested in knowing that someone is attending this meeting with some money to give to each of these pastors, to help them get through this crisis. Maybe we should have announced that earlier; that should get them here!!
David Crosby walked around his church today. The First Baptist Church of New Orleans is largely untouched by the water that flooded the nearby neighborhood and washed over the cemetery lying near the campus. In the photos he took, it looks great. I will tell you, candidly, however, that David is not as elated as you might think. Because his church is not a building; it is the people, and his people are scattered over many states. Last Sunday three services of FBC people were held…in three different states. I understand each service had perhaps 50 or 75 in attendance. That is enough to break any pastor’s heart.
Pray for this church, and all our congregations, please. Thank you. Beyond words, thank you.
Man, that’s powerful stuff Pop! I’d print a copy for my pastor if i hadn’t already subscribed him to the mailinglist. 😉
joeslist-subscribe@joemckeever.com
Joe…I hope and pray that this a success but as
you and I both know…it’s more exotic to go to
some far away place! That way, you can brag to
the brethern that you went to Belize, Mexico or
some jungle somewhere. Keep it up, Bro.
My dear Bro. Joe,
Your past articles in BP have been a blessing, and of course your cartoons have ministered in so many ways to so many people (as has your pastoral ministry, I’m sure, though I’ve never been a part of it). However, doesn’t this posting sound a bit condescending to you? I just returned from the Gulf Coast. I wasn’t there long (long story), but accomplished my purpose. While there I observed people sleeping on the floors of church gyms, one shower with non-potable water for about 75 guys, and everyone working “from can to can’t.” And everyone was happy to do it just for the privilege of serving the Lord and helping the people. I didn’t hear one complaint. Do you seriously think that someone would actually sign up to go to NO or the Gulf Coast and expect a tour of an exotic locale, or to run things at the church they are trying to help? To suggest such things is an insult to all those who volunteer their time to help. As for the guys you mentioned who left b/c of discomfort, they sully the efforts of the thousands who are doing just the opposite, but surely the failure of a few is not an occasion to upbraid the many. Thank you for closing your note with a “Thank you;” the many have not asked for that, but they have earned it and it would be wrong not to offer it.
A.M.
Re:Grace Baptist Church, N.O.
Margaret Mitchell took her title, Gone with the Wind from Psalm 103:16,”The wind blew over it, and it was gone.” The Old South was gone after the Civil War.
Four times the winds of sorrow and destruction have blown over the century old Grace Baptist Church.On September 17, 1947 a hurricane totalllly destroyed Grace’s stately stone building. A church was left with a staggering financial load, and she recovered. Hurricane Betsy, in 1965, flooded the area, and a community of middle class citizens changed to an inner-city slum with the accompanying poverty, crime, and despair. Grace became an inner-city church with all the accompanying negatives. In 1995 the area became a historical district called Bywather, and gentrification brought hope. After having evacuated in September of 2004 for Ivan, upon return, the pastor’s wife of over half a century was taken to heaven on September 18, half an hour after returning. Mourning brought the church together. On August 29, Rita’s flooding destroyed the homes and businesses of more than eighty percent of the members, many of whom lived in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans East. The church property was spared, only to be flooded by Rita.
We are now being held together by the church web page and the hope which has kept one of the oldest Southern Baptist churches in New Orleans
The winds have blown over four times, but Grace has not gone with them. Grace is ready to begin again, for an open door is before us.
Bill Rogers, Sr. Pastor