Weep! The Broken Body of Christ
Trump raises his voice. Hillary yells even louder. People are dazzled by the large number of gold medals won at the Olympics. A crazy guy with suction cups for shoes climbs a New York skyscraper. Residents of several Louisiana parishes are reeling from devastating floods.
Louisiana. Flooding. Statistics are given. Property losses calculated. A rising death toll is tallied. And there she lies: The Broken Body of Christ, God’s church.
What? You read correctly. The Broken Body of Christ – a catastrophic casualty of the Louisiana floods. It is the one causality not reported on the nightly news -- the plight of a large number of churches destroyed or damaged by the flood.
Churches across the country are joining forces to help the victims. That’s good! But, what about the churches?
At this writing seventy-two Southern Baptist churches were damaged to some degree by the recent Louisiana floods. (Figures for other denominational and non-denominational churches were not available at this writing)
A massive movement is underway within Louisiana seeking financial support, financial assistance, donation of time, materials, supplies and more – to rebuild these churches.
Would you pray about leading your church to partner with a damaged church in order to help them rebuild and recover from this disaster.
Eleven years ago in St. Bernard parish (county), where my wife and I live, for the first time in American history an entire parish was completely destroyed. Not just one or two towns within the parish, but every town, every community and every neighborhood that comprised the entire parish -- flooded and destroyed. Every building and every structure – every business, every school, every home, every church – were all flooded, suffered wind damaged and destroyed. Everything that formed the backdrop of our lives, gone, destroyed. The entire St. Bernard population of 63,000+ was gone, displaced, with 50,000+ of the original residents permanently relocating somewhere else, never to return to St. Bernard.
Every person who once stood in the foreground and the background of our lives were suddenly gone. Our families were broken, fractured and scattered across the United States from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific seaboard and all points in between. All of our friends too were displaced, many never to be seen or heard from again.
We would wonder, what became of the other people who stood in the shadows of our lives? We mourned the absence of the young boy who once served hamburgers at the malt shop? He was gone, like the malt shop, no longer there. And, what became of the hairdresser, where did she go? And our mailman, did he survive? And that older man who delivered our newspaper early each morning, whatever happened to him?
And what became of the pastors? And the churches?
If I learned one lesson through that tragedy it is this: There is no governmental agency, no private entity, no organization, no matter how noble its intention, its goals or aspirations – none of them were big enough or strong enough to handle our crisis. There was one body, however, that was big enough and strong enough – God's church – the beautiful body of Christ.
The church is the only body big enough or large enough to handle the 2016 Louisiana flood crisis – and, Christ is the backbone of that body.
God is our Hope. God’s People are our Help.
Dr. John Dee Jeffries
Senior Pastor – First Baptist Church - Chalmette, Louisiana
CEO/Acquisitions Editor
Published By Parables
I am including a list of the damaged churches. Look over the list and pray for God's leadership. If you are interested in adopting a church on the list, contact Wayne Jenkins with the Louisiana Baptist Convention at wayne.jenkins@lbc.org or call him at (318) 446-3242)
Church Name: Amite BC Central Bethel BC Franklinton Blood River, Albany Carroll BC Church of Life, Baton Rouge Comite, Baton Rouge Cross Creek Cowboy Church, Zachary Crossgate First Baptist, Robert Don Avenue, Denham Springs Eastside, Zachary Ebenezer, Hammond Emmanuel, Denham Springs Faith, Baker FBC Baker FBC Broussard FBC Denham Springs FBC French Settlement FBC Lake Arthur FBC, Eunice FBC Head of Island FBC Holden FBC, Kaplan Parsonage FBC, Lydia FBC, Zachary Fellowship,of Central French Corner, Ponchatoula Friendship, Central Grace Point Church, Simmesport Gray’s Creek Greenwell Springs Hebron, Denham Springs Highland, New Iberia Hillsdale BC Amite – Hillside, Albany Hope Center, Roseland House of Prayer, Baton Rouge Immanuel, Hammond Indian Mound In His Hands, Baton Rouge Koran Church, Lafayette Lake Martin, Ascension Lanier, Baton Rouge Lifepoint, Simmsport Magnolia, Holden Milldale, Zachary Mt. Calvary, Independence Mt. Nebo , Roseland New Covenant, Denham Springs New Bethlehem, Watson New Hope, Independence New River, St. Amant North Highland Community, Baton Rouge Northside, Denham Springs Old Zion Hill, Tickfaw One Life, Walker Park Forest Baton Rouge Red Oak, Livingston Redeemer, Baton Rouge River of Life, Port Vincent River Road, Hammond Riverbend Sherwood, Baton Rouge Southside, Denham Springs Stevendale The Way, Livingston Trinity, Eunice Trinity, Pumpkin Center Vietnamese Hope, Baton Rouge Walker Community Ministries Woodland, Springfield Zoar, Baton Rouge If you and your church have already connected with a church on the list, please let Wayne know so his team will be able to keep up with who needs help.
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Dr. John Dee Jeffries
Senior Pastor – First Baptist Church - Chalmette, Louisiana
CEO/Acquisitions Editor
Published By Parables
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