New Orleans-area CBF church emerges in Katrina’s aftermath

New Orleans-area CBF church emerges in Katrina’s aftermath
By Carla Wynn
Published April 21, 2006
 
ATLANTA (ABP) -- Amid disaster-response efforts to rebuild homes and lives after Hurricane Katrina, a new Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church has been born in western St. Tammany Parish, La.

Bridgewater Church, launched Feb. 12 with a worship service at Madisonville Maritime Museum in Madisonville, is already averaging more than 40 people in worship. While planners had thought to start the church before Katrina happened, the storm undoubtedly shaped the church’s ministry.

“Even eight months after Katrina, people are still not back to normal,” Reid Doster, Bridgewater’s pastor, said. “People are grieving over tangible and intangible losses. Bridgewater is meeting a need for the familiar, something that feels rooted in timeless truth and a need for closeness with safe people.”

The area is in suburban New Orleans, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It suffered flooding from the hurricane’s storm surge, but has not gotten as much publicity as the catastrophic damage in New Orleans proper or on the Mississippi coast.
Some attendees heard about the church because volunteers helped clean and repair the damage Katrina caused. Volunteers helped Lonnie and Tina Livaudais, who donated 50 hymnals to the church even though their home flooded during the hurricane.

Doster, who led Katrina relief efforts for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship work in Louisiana, most recently worked as the pastoral care director at a local Presbyterian church. There, he said, his pastoral gifts were renewed.

“It got harder and harder for me to sit through a sermon, because I wanted to be preaching,” he said. “The Lord seemed to be nudging me and saying, ‘Well, what are you waiting on?’”
When CBF of Louisiana began looking for a place to start a church, St. Tammany Parish was the fastest growing area of Louisiana. Growth potential still thrives, with 27 housing developments in the church’s focal area. The area also has the highest per capita income and highest number of college graduates. But with strength comes weakness: The parish also has the highest suicide rate, rampant divorce and substance abuse, Doster said. Two of the church’s small groups offer support for members dealing with grief or divorce.

“Many people here have tried everything and are coming to the conclusion that the only thing that can help them now is a savior,” Doster said. “We want to introduce them to Jesus Christ, get out of the way and let them get acquainted.”

Bridgewater Church is supported by three Louisiana CBF churches: First Baptist Church in Shreveport, Broadmoor Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, and Emmanuel Baptist Church in Alexandria.

http://www.abpnews.com/972.article