Two days after Hurricane Katrina keelhauled Chalmette, about two miles south of the New Orleans border, people were telling John Jeffries, for 16 years pastor of First Baptist Chalmette, to look for another church.
ST. BERNARD PARISH – Two days after Hurricane Katrina keelhauled Chalmette, about two miles south of the New Orleans border, people were telling John Jeffries, for 16 years pastor of First Baptist Chalmette, to look for another church.
Almost every building in the unincorporated town – the parish seat, with a population in the 2000 census of about 32,000 people – had been under water 20 or more feet deep, for more than two weeks, because of a wall of water that roared up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico. Then a massive Murphy Oil Co. tank knocked over by the storm surge split, and sludge covered the floodwater’s muck.
First Chalmette was not spared.
Clean-up and grieving took place first. Then came an almost healing demolition of some of the seven buildings – sanctuary, educational building and five houses – that comprised the church complex.
Even as he worked with Southern Baptist volunteers across the nation in the gutting of the church’s remaining structure, its original sanctuary, he began to plan, the pastor said.
Schools are open in Chalmette; businesses are moving back. The residents, still in the midst of what for many essentially is post-traumatic-stress-syndrome, need the healing that can only come from being filled with peace that comes from God.
Yes, more than ever before, Chalmette needs a strong, thriving and healthy First Baptist Church, the pastor determined.
“I’m like a guy standing in the midst of the past and the future,” Jeffries said. “I do not pastor a memory or a phantom congregation. I pastor the First Baptist Church that’s here today. I’ve got to be as wise as I can be, and have as much courage as I possibly can. It’s not easy.”
Pre-Katrina, about 350 people participated in Sunday morning worship at First Chalmette. Today, about 70 gather for Sunday worship in the cafeteria of Chalmette High School with members of St. Bernard Baptist and other churches.
“I sat down with the architect way back, and we started with a box,” Jeffries said. “We knew we could rebuild with a metal box, but that’s not who we are, and that’s not what our community needs. … It’s not our intention to build a Taj Mahal but the architect has done some little things that make it very nice, for minimal cost.”
In light of the decreased numbers, the new church plant is to be about 7,000 square feet less than the old buildings, the pastor said – 23,000 square feet, down from 30,000. That’s still a major project for volunteers to tackle.
Groundbreaking for the new church plant took place in late January.
First Chalmette is one of 18 or more construction projects being handled across the state by the Louisiana Baptist Builders. Gary Morrow is the onsite project coordinator. Jeff Woodrich, the overall contractor.
“Of all the pastors in the world, God entrusted me with this responsibility,” Jeffries said. “I’m standing in the midst of the past and the future.”
First Chalmette also has become a project for Builders for Christ, which is a coordinated series of weekly volunteer construction teams led by Lawrence Corley, an architect from Birmingham, Ala. Corley, who has led in the volunteer building of 44 churches over the last 26 years, has about 600 volunteers lined up for First Chalmette but says he figures an additional 400 volunteers are needed over the summer, between Memorial Day and mid-August.
Morrow says he needs skilled and unskilled volunteers to get the job site ready for the Builders for Christ blitz.
“We need mission teams; we desperately need mission teams,” Jeffries said. “Our building is more complex than many volunteer projects, and we also need to be working on the homes of our church members so they’ll be available to use the new building.”