[img_assist|nid=6651|title=LBC Evangelism Growth Director Wayne Jenkins receives NAMB Find It Here Participation Award|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=83]Thomas Hammond (left), interim vice president-evangelization for the North American Mission Board, and Jerry Pipes (right), NAMB team leader for spiritual awakening/mass evangelism, recently presented Wayne Jenkins, evangelism church growth director for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, with NAMB’s “Find It Here” Participation Award  for outstanding work on the GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing) effort in Louisiana. The award was presented during NAMB’s recent summer senior leadership meeting in Atlanta. … [Read more...]

There are as many stories related to Katrina as there are churches in the state, and more than that, really. Probably every Southern Baptist in Louisiana has a tale to tell of what they went through either as a Katrina victim or a rescuer. We’ll be keeping this special section up for the next month or two, with additions as they come in. Send in yours to karen@baptistmessage.com. KATRINA RETROSPECTIVE By KAREN L. WILLOUGHBY, Baptist Message Managing Editor NEW ORLEANS – Five years have passed since Hurricane Katrina hurtled its way Aug. 29, 2005, across southeastern Louisiana and the rest of the central Gulf Coast. More than 1,810 confirmed deaths were recorded. Thousands upon thousands of people were displaced; the U.S. Census Bureau reported a 53.9 percent drop in population between April 2000 and July 2006. (The nearly 485,000 population recorded by the Census Bureau in 2000 was estimated by the mayor’s office at perhaps 352,000 in mid-2009.) More than $81 billion in property damage makes Katrina the most costly ever of American disasters. However, the ooze still seeping from what today is still a raw wound is the emotional toll the storm waged on the lives of area residents. “I talked with a friend in … [Read more...]

By DENNIS WATSON, pastor of Celebration Church in Metairie. It is my perspective that Greater New Orleans is still struggling, and will continue to struggle for some time, from the people losses, property losses and trauma related to Katrina.  At the same time, it is my perspective that Greater New Orleans is now a much better place to live in the present and in the future because: •     poverty stricken areas are being rebuilt with new homes, schools and businesses; •    public school facilities are being rebuilt and the public school educational strategy is revised and strengthened; •     government corruption and ineptness is being discovered and rooted out; •    the unemployment rate in Greater New Orleans is lower than the rest of the country; •    the levee system has been strengthened and rebuilt; •    the police forces are in the process of being strengthened and better equipped; •    property values are much more realistic and attainable for young adults and others; •    many positive and intelligent young adults have moved into our area from around the nation in order to “make a difference” in the rebuilding of this region; •    pastors and churches are far more connected and cooperative across denominational … [Read more...]

By DIANA CHANDLER, Regional Reporter ST BERNARD – John Galey is more committed than ever to leading Poydras Baptist Church to be an  Acts 1:8 congregation. With the help of more than 50 convention churches and associations, the 8213 Saro Lane congregation in August 2007, became the first St. Bernard Parish Southern Baptist church to return to its sanctuary after the storm. Galey said his greatest current challenge is inspiring his members to be missionaries and follow the example set by mission teams who helped the church thrive after the storm. “A lot of the church members have become so used to the [mission] teams coming and doing ministry for us,” Galey said. “I thought it would motivate us and serve as a catalyst. A few people have mentioned a missions trip, but there’s no real desire for it.” While the church continues to grow its benevolent missions fund, Galey said its only new post-Katrina outreach is its food pantry. The church in 2009 resumed leading its own Vacation Bible School, after mission teams did the work in 2006, ’07 and ’08. A New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary student is serving as the church’s minister of education. “I would like the church to be more mission-minded. I would like to see us … [Read more...]

By EJ SCOTT, pastor of Shiloh Community Fellowship before Katrina, and after a three-year stay in Texas, now back as pastor of Temple of New Life Baptist Church in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina taught the region that we are vulnerable. I think that Hurricane Katrina made us know that we are all the same. It doesn’t matter who you are. What you have accomplished, what you have achieved or acquired, no matter what your economic or social status is, we all are vulnerable to storms and the like. I think that Katrina made us more dependent upon one another. We depend more on each other now than we did before the storm. Parishes are now communicating one with another whenever a storm threatens. Parishes are working together now. Initially Katrina made more of us turn to and depend upon God. Everybody went to church as soon as they could get there after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. But now, after five years has passed, it seems like a lot of people are slipping back into the old way of thinking and doing things. I don’t sense that total and complete commitment to God as when Hurricane Katrina first hit. Before Katrina I think that I too had begun to think that maybe I did this or I did that by myself. Hurricane … [Read more...]

By LONNIE WASCOM, DOM, Northshore Baptist Associations: LaTangi, St. Tammany, Chappapeela NORTHSHORE, La. – Katrina remains as fresh in my mind today as when the strong category 3’s winds changed the landscape. On Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005, I preached in Independence, La., for a building dedication, and later fought traffic due to contra flow as I tried to get my wife’s parents to our house in Hammond from their place in Slidell. By late that night we had all battened down for the storm. At this point most of us in Hammond still suspected we would be spared the full brunt of the event. On Monday the 29th we stayed tuned to our favorite weather person, Margaret Orr, Channel 6 TV and WWL-AM in New Orleans, and were truly relieved when we heard her on our battery-operated radio. She broadcast from her home in Lakeview later that day, after the storm had passed, that “it looks like we have jumped another snake in New Orleans.” After the storm passed, my father-in-law and I did a “recon” of my subdivision and found tremendous wind damage. My neighbor’s beautiful house was ripped apart by fallen trees. However, all my house lost was a piece of overhanging shingle about the size of a credit card. We had a prayer meeting of … [Read more...]

By MARILYN STEWART, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS – No one who has seen New Orleans doubts the power of Katrina’s fury. At First Baptist Church, the storm’s energy was converted into a force for new ministry that is challenging the old way of “doing church” and taking new ground for Christ. “Katrina washed our people out of the building and into the streets of our city,” said Pastor David Crosby. “Now we understand in a new way that the Gospel must be lived to be believed.” The chaos of the storm proved fertile ground for ministry, Crosby said. Despite a loss of half the staff, hundreds of members, and millions of dollars in damages, the church’s vision for reaching the city came more clearly into focus. “It’s like we see the city through different eyes,” said Christi Gibson, connections minister. “Maybe our hearts have begun to be broken by the things that break God’s heart.” Gibson leads Inward, a bold, new ministry mobilizing women into the strip clubs on Bourbon Street to show God’s love to those employ    ed in the sex industry. Less than a year old, the initiative is proving successful. “For a short time, I didn’t even know that I would ever have a second chance with this city,” Gibson said of her family’s long … [Read more...]

TOBEY PITMAN, national missionary with NAMB serving in community ministry, living on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Pre-Katrina was director of the Brantley Center for the homeless near downtown New Orleans. By TOBEY PITMAN New Orleans is an historical, primary missional target for Southern Baptists. This truth has played out in many ways dating all the way back to 1845, the founding year of the SBC. New Orleans was one of three reasons forwarded for creating the Domestic Mission Board (now NAMB). Southern Baptists have loved New Orleans and have made Kingdom investments through church planting, missionary appointments, ministry centers, Associational missions, LBC missions, SBC Annual Meetings and Cross Over Evangelism, a hospital, a seminary, and now disaster response. Katrina served to refocus denominational thought on New Orleans. This is demonstrated in the huge number of volunteers that came immediately and have continued to leave footprints and heart prints here for five years. The incredible amount of money given for Katrina relief through NAMB Disaster Relief is a reliable barometer of how Southern Baptist people felt about New Orleans. In a sense, Katrina reminded Southern Baptists of our roots, our … [Read more...]

By MARILYN STEWART, Regional Reporter NEW ORLEANS – Jose Mathews, pastor of Discipleship Baptist Church in New Orleans East when Hurricane Katrina hit, lost everything in the storm – home, possessions, church. Then things got worse. Before his family had time to process the loss, Mathews suffered a stroke, lost his mother, and then his son. With a faith strengthened through trial, Mathews recognizes that God worked through the storm. Today, Mathews is the pastor of the growing Circle Baptist Church in Baker. “Katrina was the catalyst for moving me from the city I grew up in - a city I said I would never leave - to a city where God was already working,” Mathews said. “I didn’t go looking for God, but found God already at work where he put me.” Volunteers who served in New Orleans after the storm agree with Mathews that while “nobody wanted Katrina,” God has used the storm to change lives and ministries across the nation. A NEW HEART FOR ALASKA Michael Dupree, Rabbit Creek Community Church of Anchorage, Alaska, didn’t understand at first why people didn’t start life over someplace other than New Orleans. After two trips to the city, Dupree came to appreciate the importance of “home.” “Katrina, for me, was a huge eye … [Read more...]

By GARY D. MYERS, NOBTS Communications NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Many of the visible marks left by Hurricane Katrina five years ago have been washed away by time and hard work, but the impact of the storm continues to affect New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Despite deep pain and challenging circumstances, the seminary community overcame. NOBTS President Chuck Kelley has seen those who went through the storm emerge with a deeper faith in God and an unflinching, stubborn commitment to be witnesses in the city and region. On Aug. 29, 2005, Katrina slammed ashore just east of New Orleans, leaving a path of destruction stretching from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., and as far north as Meridian, Miss. Initially it seemed that New Orleans escaped the worst of the storm, but multiple levee failures left 70 percent of New Orleans underwater. The seminary was not spared. Sixty percent of campus housing received significant damage. Only two weeks into a new semester, the seminary’s primary task of training ministers was put on hold. Main campus students fled to 29 different states; the faculty was scattered to nine states. The healing process began quickly. Southern Baptists showered the displaced seminary community with financial … [Read more...]