Resurrection and New Beginnings

As we gathered together this past Sunday to celebrate our Lord's victory over sin and death, some of our area churches were taking the opportunity to mark the beginning of a new chapter in their history. Sojourn, a church plant on Magazine St. that targets "cultural creatives," officially launched Sunday services. James Welch, Travis Flemming, and their ministry team had put in way more time than the typical church plant in investing in their community before attempting the much sought after milestone of a launch date. While Sojourn was gathered for worship, down the river in Arabi, Celebration: St. Bernard held their first service in their rebuilt sanctuary that had just been completed. In fact, I spoke several times to campus pastor Craig Ratliff last week and each time he was busy overseeing the final details of construction to ensure that their Easter service would go off as planned. A little closer to where I live, St. Rose Baptist Church celebrated the Lord's resurrection with an outreach to the community. Pastor Jim Louviere had been getting the congregation ready for weeks for the event. This is a church that was averaging five on Sunday morning six months ago before Jim came and gave the Holy Spirit some room to work. Now about thirty strong, St. Rose Baptist used Easter as a day to share the good news with their neighbors.