Friday, September 4, 2015

Fleeing Hurricane Katrina, Church Finds New Place of Ministry Hundreds of Miles Away

© 2015 The Wired Word
www.thewiredword.com
The news this week is about a smokin' hot church, but we start with a bit of retrospective.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States on August 29, 2005, The Wired Word was a new curriculum, in its third month of publication (our 10th anniversary was this past June). Here's how we opened our "In the News" section the following Sunday:
Monday night and on into Tuesday of this week, a category-5 hurricane, dubbed Katrina, tore into the Gulf Coast, with winds in excess of 150 mph and a devastating storm surge, inflicting catastrophic damage in the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including the cities of New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Gulfport and surrounding communities. In New Orleans, the levees protecting the city were breached and as much as 80 percent of the city is in standing water, up to 20 feet deep in some places.
As we now know, Katrina killed more than 1,800 people across the Gulf Coast region, and many thousands more were displaced by that catastrophe, which TWW referred to at the time -- without exaggeration -- as a "disaster ... of biblical proportions." In New Orleans alone, an estimated quarter of a million residents fled the city, and half of them have never returned.
Among those who escaped Katrina's wrath were the more than 200 members of a non-denomination church called Smoking for Jesus Ministry, which had been founded in 1996 on New Orleans' rugged east side. The name comes from Revelation 3:16 -- "So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Its members don't want to be lukewarm toward Jesus.
Many in the congregation didn't have cars or the money to evacuate, but in the 24 hours before the storm hit, the church organized transportation to get its members out of the city together before Katrina unleashed her fury.
They first tried to settle in southeast Texas, about 40 miles from New Orleans, but the second major storm to smack the area, Hurricane Rita, drove them on. Over the next six weeks, they caravanned some 1,000 miles, visiting eight Texas communities, staying in church retreat centers and hotels. Finally, they came to Marble Falls, a town about an hour northwest of Austin, where they settled. One of Marble Falls' claims to fame is that it was the first town in the United States to elect a female mayor, in 1917.
According to the church's pastor, Willie Monnet, God's Spirit led them to that location.
Most residents of Marble Falls are white, while the Smoking for Jesus folks are black, but according to a Yahoo News story about the church's odyssey, the whole county welcomed them. In time, they were able to purchase a 56-acre ranch in nearby Kingsland that had once been the site of an orphanage and already had a church building. Since then, eight families from the congregation have purchased lots on the campus and built new homes.
Several members have also started businesses in the area or work in the Real New Orleans Style Restaurant that the church opened in Marble Falls, which has become a popular eatery.
The church has now grown to about 300 members, including some local people of other ethnicities. Pastor Monnet says, "We have a mixture now ... 'cause they wanna figure out what we smokin' here."
It sounds like they are high on the Lord.
In occurs to us here at The Wired Word that the members of the Smoking for Jesus Ministry had become people of the "diaspora." (Pronounced di-AS-po-ra, the word is from a Greek root meaning "to spread about" or "to sow.") Diaspora usually refers to the scattered members of a religious community separated from the main body of fellow believers because of circumstances not of their own choosing -- and usually unpleasant. While the members of the Smoking for Jesus Ministry no doubt found fellow Christians already in Marble Falls, they may still be considered people of the diaspora in terms of being driven out of their hometown by circumstances beyond their control.
More on this story can be found at these links:


The Big Questions
1. How does diaspora fit into God's plans for people of faith? Is there a sense in which all Christians are people of the diaspora, and if so, what is the homeland from which we are separated?
2. Think about a time when you may have reluctantly relocated (perhaps because of a job, a spouse's job, a health reason, etc.). What responsibility, if any, did you feel toward the people in your new location? Why?
3. When, if ever, have you felt that the Lord was active in a relocation you hadn't expected to make?
4. When has a relocation given you fresh insight or renewed vigor in your faith? Why? If you have not relocated, how has staying put contributed to your faith?
5. What does it mean that God is both localized (close to you) and unbounded (involved with the whole creation)?

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:


Jeremiah 29:7
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (For context, read 29:1-14.)

This is from a letter the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the people of Judah shortly after they arrived in Babylon, where they'd been forced by the Babylonians. Some apparently argued that the stay there would be short, but Jeremiah had heard different news from God. Although Jeremiah said the people would be allowed to return to their homeland eventually, that was to be many years in the future. In fact, it would be so far in the future that many in the exiled generation would no longer be alive. The Judahites had become people of the diaspora.
In the interim, said Jeremiah, the people should not only resign themselves to a lengthy stay, but should actively seek the welfare of the land where they had been taken. They were actually to work for the good of Babylon. They were not to forget who they were or where they came from, but neither were they to think of themselves merely as short-term visitors.
Questions: Remembering that "diaspora" is from a Greek root meaning "to spread about" or "to sow," in what positive sense does the definition "to sow" apply to Jeremiah's advice to those in exile? How does it apply to you, whether you are away from your homeland or not?
How reluctant or eager has your church been to abandon location and security, whether literally by moving, or figuratively by creating new programs, advocating for abandoned populations or in other ways changing the character and face of the church?

Psalm 137:4-5 
How could we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! (For context, read 137:1-9.)

Psalm 137 is a lament of the Jews in exile in Babylon. Clearly, from the verses above, they would rather have been back home in Jerusalem. In fact, their anger at their captors is also expressed in the psalm quite graphically (read verses 8-9).
Also, in a time when the exiles thought of Jerusalem's temple (by then destroyed by the Babylonians) as the throne of God, how, they wondered, could they sing God's song in this foreign land? Without a temple, they couldn't even offer the prescribed sacrifices. Some may have even wondered if God's rule applied in the land of the Babylonians.
But in this foreign land, the Jews found ways to continue the worship of God. The prophet Ezekiel and many priests were in exile with them, and Jeremiah sent messages from Jerusalem encouraging prayer and fasting. They kept the traditional feasts and Sabbath days. They held house meetings for instruction in God's laws. These practices, in fact, were the foundation of the synagogue system, which did not exist before the exile.
The exiles discovered that their religion was not dependent on location and the temple. They learned that their faith could survive and be practiced in any geographical setting and culture.
Questions: When have you used a relocation as a reason to not connect with a new congregation? When has a relocation hampered your worship of God? How did what you carried with you from your former church help you contribute to your new congregation?
Is your congregation grieving in some ways because it can't get back to an imagined perfect past? Has your church grieved and then settled into the 21st century? How about you individually?

Matthew 6:31, 33 
Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" ... But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (For context, read 6:25-34.)

We don't know what Bible passages Pastor Monnet used for his sermons to his flock while they were searching for a new home, but Matthew 6:25-34 (from which we've quoted a representative sample above) strikes us as a good candidate.
Questions: In what ways does this passage fit the circumstances of a congregation forced by circumstances to move? In what ways does this passage apply to you? Do you or your congregation worry about the "small stuff" instead of focusing on living by the Sermon on the Mount?

Acts 2:44-45 
All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. (For context, read 2:43-47.)

Acts 2:43-47 tells of the Jerusalem church in its infancy functioning in a communal way. It reminds us of the importance and value of congregations as church "families" who take care of one another, which, indeed, was what the Smoking for Jesus Ministry did after hearing the weather forecast in the wee hours of August 28, 2005.
Questions: How does your church function as a family to take care of its members' needs? How is this aspect of Christianity being lost in our society today? How does a church distinguish itself from other non-religious organizations (civic clubs, social groups) that provide support and care to their members?

Luke 17:20-21 
Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you." (No context needed.)

It's one of the paradoxes of the New Testament that the kingdom of God is spoken of both as something that is yet to come (as in the Lord's Prayer: "Your kingdom come" -- Matthew 6:10), and something that is already here.
Questions: How might the verses above apply to today's news story? Would someone who visited or began to attend your church, or someone in the community who does not worship there, think of your church as an outpost for the kingdom of God? Do people see God's light shining through your church?
For Further Discussion
1. Discuss this: The odyssey of the Smoking for Jesus Ministry is not unique. According to the early Christian chronicler Hegesippus (A.D. 110-180), quoted by the Roman historian Eusebius, after the murder of James the Just (a brother of Jesus) in A.D. 62, Simeon the cousin of Jesus became the leader of the Jerusalem church. Then certain members of that church received a vision to get out of there, due to coming persecution. As Eusebius records it, "But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation vouchsafed to approved men before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella" (Eusebius III, V, 3).

2. Respond to this, from the book The Household of God: A People of the Covenant Bible Study on the Pastoral Letters by TWW team member Frank Ramirez: "Some time in the second century an anonymous Christian composed a letter to an official named Diognetus defending believers as good citizens, countering rumors that Christians participated in strange and unnatural practices with the argument that Christians are nonconformists who challenge the world's standards, yet do their best to be good neighbors." 
     That Christian wrote: "For Christians don't come from other countries, speak a different language, or act differently. They don't have their own economies, or dialect, nor do they have bizarre lifestyles. ... They live according to chance in both Greek-speaking and foreign cities, and dress the same, eat the same foods, act the same in all the rest of life's ways -- except that they also [live] paradoxically differently because of their citizenship. They live in the same countries, but they are foreigners. They take part in the political life of their land, but they endure the hardships of aliens. ... They live on the earth but they are citizens of heaven. ... They are put to death, but they are brought to life. They are made poor, but they make many rich. ... People curse them but they bless in return. They honor those who insult them. ... Simply put, Christians are to the world what the soul is to the body" (Ramirez's translation).
     Ramirez goes on to say, "However, the author then lists several contemporary customs, such as disposing of unwanted children or sharing spouses, which Christians do not take part in, but adds that 'They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything.'"

3. What does it feel like to be part of a supportive environment at your church? Have you ever been faced with a crisis where the whole group participated in achieving a positive outcome?
4. Many church groups are made up of people who probably would not have otherwise met: people of different economic levels, ages, backgrounds, outside interests, etc. How do you create harmony and the oneness of Christianity despite the differences? Is there an invitation process that helps diverse new people to join your church? How are they welcomed as part of the whole, despite any differences they bring?
5. Discuss how these verses apply to today's story and to your life: "[God] comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort -- we get a full measure of that, too" (2 Corinthians 1:4-5, The Message).
Responding to the News
Today's story is a good reminder that we should look for and even expect that God may use even the catastrophes of our life to renew our faith.
It's also a good time to review how your congregation can best provide the "family" type of care to its members.

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