The Churches Are Getting Up

Our churches are getting stronger. Wednesday at our weekly pastors’ meeting, several leaders gave reports of people coming to know Christ in Sunday’s services and several told of baptizing last Sunday.

Our churches remind me of a boxer getting up off the mat after an eight-count. He was knocked down and almost out, but not quite. Maybe it took a splash of cold water in the face to clear his head, but he’s back on his feet now, so to speak, and ready for action.

Oh sure, many of our churches are still meeting in someone else’s church building or in their renovated fellowship hall, but they’re meeting. Over ninety of them are meeting on Sunday in regular services. The gospel is being proclaimed. The lighthouses are shining forth.

Some of our newly renovated and recently rededicated churches are now focusing on having an open house for their communities. The idea is to get the neighbors to come celebrate with them the return of this vital force in the area. And to make some more friends in the neighborhood.

Before the hurricane landed its haymaker in late August of 2005, some of our churches were focused inwardly and doing little or nothing in the community. They would not have used these words, but the prevailing attitude seemed to be, “Well, they know we’re here. If they want the Gospel, they will come.” Which is of course the worst theology on the planet, and light years from what our Savior commanded.

Now, we’re getting into the community.


I suggest to our churches having a community-open-house that this needs to be put on by the church members themselves. The rebuilding of their church plant was done by church volunteer groups from all over America, but the act of reaching out into the immediate neighborhood to invite folks in, well, this should be done by the local church members. That responsibility is theirs.

We have a fund for doing local evangelistic projects in the association and I’m sending word to the pastors that we will sponsor the open house up to a total cost of $1,000.

Here is the sequence we’re recommending: first the dedication of your “new” church plant, then the open house for the community, and third, sending teams out into the community to do service projects. A service project could be anything from washing cars on the church lawn at no cost, or going door to door in FEMA trailer parks offering bags of toiletries and cookies, or giving away Bibles from the front lawn, or a hundred other things.

An explanation of the Bible giveaway.

“How many of you have old Bibles at your house you no longer use?” I asked that of our congregation when still pastoring the First Baptist Church of Kenner. Lots of hands went up. I said, “Next Sunday, we’re setting a large cardboard box in the foyer. Drop those Bibles in and we’ll give them to people who don’t have one.”

We ended up with over 200 Bibles. Some were in terrible shape and had to be destroyed. A few were from religious cults and I put them in my office for future reference. All the others, we gave away. Here’s how we did it.

We chose a Saturday and erected signs on the front lawn that said, “Free Bibles — This Saturday — from 10 am to 2 pm.” Several volunteers helped me greet people who stopped and assist them in selecting Bibles. That’s what happened before we figured this thing out.

A lovely deacon by the name of Nick Carrone–now in Heaven and how we miss him–asked if he could take over that project. He then went to the auditorium Bible class and enlisted the help of the members. They took up offerings and bought 200 new Bibles. They erected the same signs we’d used before and on the following Saturday, they had 10 or 20 volunteers in place to welcome and assist people who stopped.

Why so many volunteers? They needed every one. They registered each person. They asked about their church affiliation. They asked if they had prayer requests for our church’s continual prayer ministry. They requested the names of family members in the military for our prayer ministry. If the individual opened up about a particular need, the volunteer spent all the time necessary talking, counseling, and praying with them. And of course, they gave them Bibles into which they had inserted leaflets with information on salvation and our church.

Then, on Sunday when I arrived for church, Nick Carrone would hand me a report on an index card. Typically, it would say something like: “We gave away 239 Bibles. We met 128 individuals. We prayed with 38 of them. We got the names of 19 in the military for our prayer ministry. And 4 people prayed to receive Christ.”

This, mind you, occurred without me the pastor lifting one finger to help. They did it all. Any pastor would love to have such church members.

Nick and the class repeated the Bible giveaways every few months. One day I was talking to a fellow in a grocery store. When he found out I was pastor of the FBC of Kenner, he said, “That’s the church that gives away the Bibles.” Pretty good way for a church to be known.

So, the plan is: dedicate the building, invite the community in to see it and rejoice with you, then get your people back out into the community serving and helping. Do enough of that and they’ll be coming to your church. I promise. Plus, your members will begin living Christianity on a higher level than ever in their lives.

Christian Fellowship Cathedral, Willie Breaux pastor, is back up and running and had their first services Sunday. Suburban Church is dedicating its rebuilt buildings this Sunday.

Looking good, Baptist churches of Greater New Orleans! Keep fighting the good fight.

3 thoughts on “The Churches Are Getting Up

  1. Great second paragraph metaphor! A “splash of cold water” indeed! More like the whole bucket, wouldn’t you say?!!? Love your writing.

  2. Joe: Very good to hear the news of the churches. Praise to God and to the people for the accomplishments.

  3. BREAD OF LIFE OUTREACH CHURCH

    P.O. BOX LA 566,LA

    ACCRA-GHANA,WEST/AFRICA

    TELEPHONE 233-244-265161

    Dear Pastor Joe McKeever,

    Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus

    Christ who has blessed

    us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

    Ours is an indigenous outreach ministry located in

    Accra-Ghana.

    Our vision is:-

    1.To share the love of Christ through the

    propagation

    of the gospel

    most especially in the rural areas.

    2.To provide social,health and welfare services

    such as distribution of

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    needy in the Ghanaian

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    3.To promote poverty alleviation programs,such as

    farming,setting up of

    cottage industries,most especially in the rural

    areas

    to improve upon

    the living standard of the people.

    4.To establish schools especially in rural areas to

    meet the educational needs of the children living

    in

    these areas where the rate of poverty is

    very high.

    5.To establish an orphanage to cater for the orphans

    and

    destitute in the Ghanaian society.

    6.To establish a Bible college to train Church leaders.

    We want to take this opportunity to invite you to

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    You can read more about me and our ministry at http://www.myspace.com/rev_sowah

    Hope to hear from you soon.

    In His Glorious Service

    REV.JERRY SOWAH

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