At first there were four Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief meal preparation sites in or near Houma in the wake of Gustav’s gouge, said Wayne Hunt, pastor of Coteau Baptist.
HOUMA – At first there were four Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief meal preparation sites in or near Houma in the wake of Gustav’s gouge, said Wayne Hunt, pastor of Coteau Baptist.
Arkansas was set up at the Houma Town Hall; North Carolina at the Civic Center; Kentucky was at University Baptist in Thibodaux; Oklahoma was at Christ Baptist; and Tennessee at Coteau Baptist.
“One by one they started leaving, until all the meal preparation was taking place here,” Hunt said. “People have no idea how bad it was with the double-whammy of these two storms. According to the national press, Gustav is the storm that missed New Orleans, but the eye went over Houma and Thibodaux, just like Betsy.”
Hunt monitored the National Hurricane Center’s report of Gustav’s onslaught of Houma/Thibodaux.
“Two hours later, the eye hadn’t moved 10 miles,” the pastor reported. “Ike brought in the storm surge; Gustav, wind. Over 10,000 homes were flooded, all under water.
“The coolest thing about the way our church responded is that they acted out what they’ve been learning through Discipleship Training – EKG Louisiana, Experiencing God, Purpose-Driven Life,” Hunt continued. “When this disaster hit, our church was ready to get outside its box and make a difference in the community.”
Unlike most churches in hurricane-hit parts of southern Louisiana, Sunday morning worship went uninterrupted at Coteau Baptist; a previously-arranged revival with Lake Charles Evangelist Jerry Chaddick as guest speaker went on as planned that Sunday evening.
“As far as Sunday morning goes, I decided, ‘I’m not canceling church just because of a little storm,’” Hunt said. “And the revival? Revival was the best thing we could do – work hard all day and come in and be refreshed at night.”
Hunt’s interview with the Louisiana Baptist Message was interrupted several times for various disaster relief reasons, including periodic telephone calls to and from someone Hunt wanted to make 10-inch high DR decals.
“Us redneck guys will eat that up,” Hunt said. “We will all want one for the back of our pickup window.”
He was talking about the people who took the SBC’s NAMB Disaster Relief feeding preparation training in mid-September, and those expected to take NAMB’s Basic Disaster Relief, DR shower trailer, DR mudout and DR chaplaincy training Oct. 10-11 at Coteau Baptist.
Anyone in or outside of Louisiana is welcome to participate in the training, announced Gibbie McMillan, Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief/Men’s Ministries director. Call 318.448.3402 for more information. The training is this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 10-11.
How did Coteau Baptist go from being a relatively business-as-usual congregation to being passionate about disaster relief? Some would say it’s the pastor’s leadership.
“I introduce every worship service this way,” Hunt said, and then quoted himself: “‘I want to welcome you to the greatest Baptist church in the Southern Baptist Convention. Amen?’
“The congregation cheers and shouts ‘Amen!’ and I say, ‘Where God is good all the time,” and they say, ‘All the time!’ That sets the tone for worship.”
He talked frankly and openly with the congregation when they interviewed him, Hunt said.
“If you hang with me, I’ll be obedient to God,” Hunt said he told the Coteau Baptist congregation before they called him. “And if I’m obedient [to follow God’s direction] what are you going to do?”
Hunt came to the pastorate from 20 years as an involved layman.
Saved in a Bailey Smith (former pastor of First Baptist Del City, Okla., and later a nationally-known evangelist) crusade in 1987, Hunt walked away in 1995 from his lucrative career as manager of a new car dealership to go to seminary.
During his years at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the places he ministered was as an interim minister of education at First Baptist Church of Kenner.
He first was called as pulpit supply; two months later, Hunt became pastor of Coteau Baptist Church in Houma.
“I saw these were godly people,” the pastor said. “They just hadn’t been discipled for two years.”
He led them from a monthly business meeting to a quarterly “celebration of what God is doing,” and handling the business of the church. The church council makes decisions by consensus.
“If there isn’t 100 percent agreement, we table it until the next meeting,” Hunt said. “This format does not lend itself to any opportunity for disagreement.”
Coteau Baptist has baptized 33 people since Hunt was called as pastor; 53 people have joined as members, according to records maintained by Brinda Pontiff, the church’s administrative assistant.
Church organizations include Men’s Fraternity and Coteau Baptist Men, Women on Mission, puppets, and about 30 people in the church choir.
“When I became the pastor, the church owed $41,000 on its parking lot,” Hunt said. “We paid that off in May.” This was in addition to maintaining the church’s $215,000 annual budget.
Quickly becoming known in the community, Hunt invited the parish president, who happens to be Catholic, to participate in a National Day of Prayer service last May, which he attended. After the storms, the parish president remembered that, and contacted Hunt asking for prayer.
The two have prayed together every day since Hurricane Gustav hit. “Between 7 and 7:30 a.m., I’ve gotten a call from him,” Hunt said.
This Oct. 8, Hunt is to receive from the parish a formal Letter of Commendation for what Southern Baptists and Coteau Baptist Church have done in Terrebonne Parish.
“It is personally satisfying and a great joy to be part of what Southern Baptists are doing in Disaster Relief,” Hunt said. “We in this church have learned through Discipleship Training and through what we’ve just gone through with Gustav and Ike, that it’s not about us. It’s about what God can do through us.”