Despite destruction by Katrina, church keeps missions focus

By Karen L. Willoughby

LONG BEACH, Miss. (BP)—At first glance it looked as though First Church had been completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but that was before the character of its people and the cooperative spirit of Southern Baptists kicked in.

“Pre-Katrina ... we thought we were a Great Commission church,” said LaRue Stephens, pastor of the Gulf Coast congregation in Long Beach, Miss. “We gave a lot of money to missions, sent a lot of missions teams all over the world, and many of our people had been involved in direct support or going. We had our community food bank ministry, and housed it on our campus at no cost, plus provided volunteers for it.

“However, one of the sweet blessings of the storm is that God allowed it to remove the walls,” Stephens said. “We had to decide what do we do now, and we began to discover that the place to do church was not behind the walls in activities we called Bible study and worship. The place to do church is out in the community. With no walls to be concerned about, we saw the real needs of real people.”

Cooperative-thinking Southern Baptists, meanwhile, took note of the church’s needs. Within two weeks after the hurricane, First Church had sound equipment for its worship services and computers for its offices.

Located one block off U.S. 90, which runs alongside the usually placid Gulf of Mexico, First Church was in the direct path of Katrina when the hurricane made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. All that remained of the church when the wind stopped howling was the worship center’s round roof and a modern-shaped steeple topped by a cross that the wind was able to blow through rather than push over.

Stephens, who has led First Church for nearly 11 years, said the church is “committed to maintaining our level of commitment to the Cooperative Program because number one, we know what it means to have nothing.” Pre-K (pre-Katrina), about 500 people worshipped at the church on Sunday mornings. 

“We understand the value of a cooperative partnership because we have benefited from the cooperative efforts of Southern Baptists around the nation. But even before Katrina, we knew the value of the Cooperative Program,” Stephens said, noting that it gives the church “an organized and efficient chan-nel...to engage in significant Gospel min-istry that im-pacts people in time and for eternity.”

With the fi-nancial, prayer and hands-on support from 150 partnering churches across the country, First Church accomplished an amazing variety of ministries in the weeks and months after the hurricane, which touched virtually every family remaining in Long Beach and the surrounding region.

“It was a neat thing to watch our people,” said Brenda Davis, First Church’s minister of education. “They had lost everything, but they were helping others. It gave them a purpose.”

“We didn’t even think about rebuilding the church for nearly a year,” Stephens said. First Church initially met for worship services at an elementary school; now it meets at a middle school. “When we did start talking about rebuilding, it dawned on me that when you’re involved in meaningful ministry – connecting with people at their point of need – you really don’t think about yourself or your need.

“Through Southern Baptists’ amazing spirit of cooperation, people from all over the country helped us meet peoples’ needs here,” Stephens said. “We’ve been overwhelmed by all the volunteers we’ve had.”

To this day, First Long Beach continues to coordinate housing for construction mission teams. More teams still are needed, Stephens added.

Despite their losses, and the tremendous needs in Long Beach and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, First Church continued its five-year partnership with First Church in the port city of Bath, Maine, and is developing a three-year partnership with First Church in Aberdeen, Md., a Southern Baptist church directly outside a military base expected to triple in size over the next few years as other bases around the nation are decommissioned.

The new partnership in Maryland builds on a mutual military connection. A Navy construction battalion, the Seabees, is located near Long Beach, while Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., is about 15 miles away. Many military families live in Long Beach because of the highly regarded public school system.

“We feel strongly about our involvement with military families,” Stephens said. “We have been intentional in our ministry to the Seabees, especially, during the last 11 years.”

When Katrina careened through the area, Calvary Church in Bel Air, Md., became one of First Long Beach’s partnership churches. The person responsible for coordinating Calvary’s eight mission trips to the Mississippi Gulf Coast was Mike Karmann, a deacon and Bible study leader, who recently was called as pastor of First Church in Aberdeen.

“We feel this [partnership with First, Aberdeen] is a significant opportunity for us,” Stephens said. “Mike has led teams here to restore homes and make families whole again. How can we not go up there and help Mike rebuild their facilities, provide leadership training, back-yard Bible clubs, and Vacation Bible School? We feel compelled to help that congregation connect with military families there.”

Other needs expressed by church leaders: a piano for choir rehearsals, organ, classroom tables and chairs, sound equipment for the children and youth areas, additional lighting, puppets and related staging, a third octave of handbells, teacher preparation materials for the church library, commentaries and computers for tutoring.

“We could use Christian inspirational reading but if we had to pick and choose, our goal is to reach and preach the Word of God,” Stephens said. “To communicate that to our people and our teachers, we need to assist with their Bible study materials because they lost it in their homes, too.

“God has faithfully provided everything we have needed at each stage of our ministry since Katrina – and before,” the pastor continued. “We’re trusting Him to continue to do what He has done, as we have been obedient and even eager to serve in His Kingdom agenda in Long Beach and across the world.” 

Karen L. Willoughby is managing editor of the Baptist Message, newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.