By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor
BOGALUSA – Washington Parish, which borders the state of Mississippi on the north and the east, was mostly a dense forest of longleaf yellow pine when Washington broke off from its southern border, St. Tammany Parish, in 1819.
But Andrew Jackson had slashed a road for his military troops from Nashville, Tenn., to New Orleans before the 1814 Battle of New Orleans, and settlers followed – enough, by 1855, for far-flung neighbors – who hunted, trapped, fished, and sold the extras to New Orleans, some 70 miles downriver, as they scraped together a living – to start Union Church for Baptists and Methodists.
Ten years later, the year the Civil War ended, eight members of the congregation broke off to start Lee’s Creek Baptist Church on a tributary of the Pearl River. There was much work to be done, starting with the construction of a church house. It burned. So did a second. So did a third. But 70 years ago, in 1936, a building was constructed that has not burned, and in 1989 an educational building was annexed for the church that was officially chartered in 1871.
“However, in the last few years the 70-year-old sanctuary, exhibiting structural problems, compounded by damage inflicted in 2005 from Hurricane Katrina, was deemed too costly to repair,” according to a Dec. 13, 2009, article in the Bogalusa Daily News.
With Sunday morning participation reaching as many as 150 individuals at the church located about four miles south of downtown Bogalusa, the decision was made to build a new worship center, as impossible as that seemed for the working class congregation, Pastor Joshua Smith said.
“Are you willing?” became the slogan for the fundraising campaign that followed, which had a $300,000 “Hallelujah” goal. It was exceeded, and enthusiasm for the project emboldened the congregation, Smith said.
“Most of the work was done mainly by ourselves,” the pastor said. “The monies we borrowed turned out to be only 25 percent of what we estimated would be needed. The giving of our membership and many others far exceeded the general expectation. Without revealing dollar amounts, the overall cost of construction came to be 81 percent of the projected costs.
“Most of those who worked on the construction of the church were affiliated in some way with Lee’s Creek Baptist – either as members or those familiar with the church,” Smith continued.
The new building includes a worship center with baptistry and sound room, conference room, choir rehearsal room and restrooms.
The financial needs of building construction has not weakened Lee’s Creek’s mission focus. The church continues to give 10 percent of undesignated offerings to missions through the Cooperative Program, the acclaimed method of supporting missions and ministries of state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention, and 5 percent to missions and ministry in Washington Baptist Association.
In addition, Lee’s Creek Baptist maintains an active benevolence program.
“The membership and leadership of the church possesses an uncanny awareness for the needs of others in our community and within the church,” Smith said. “Through relationships, Lee’s Creek Baptist Church truly serves as Christ to those whom the Holy Spirit brings our way. …
“The depth and frequency of the work done at Lee’s Creek Church is evidenced by the quantum-like capacity of her heart to create and strengthen Christ-centered relationships both within and without the walls of her sanctuary.
“It is difficult to describe all that the Lord’s people do in His church,” the pastor continued. “Truly, how does one put the many meals brought over to a grieving brother or sister’s home within the predictable vernacular of a ‘program’? How do you encapsulate with a title the question which is posed at every deacon’s meeting, ‘who can we help; who is in need this month’? … The religious jargon we have to describe the church’s activity today fail to truly pinpoint the real Kingdom-Among-Us work that Lee’s Creek Baptist church and many more like her are doing each and every day with no care as to who is looking.”