Difference between revisions of "Louisiana history"
From BrethrenPedia
Doug Engle (talk | contribs) (basic) |
Doug Engle (talk | contribs) m |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
==Louisiana== | ==Louisiana== | ||
| − | + | The first assembly in New Orleans was established by Vernon and Gladys Schlief in 1942. The assembly met in a tiny room that had been a one-man barber shop about 10 blocks from Canal Street. After a few weeks, the assembly moved into a small shoe repair shop at the end of Magazine Street, renovated it into a chapel, and called it Good News Chapel, though the sign on the building stated “Gospel Hall.” Local opposition to this work was strong, and the assembly remained small. | |
| − | The first assembly in New Orleans was established by Vernon and Gladys Schlief in 1942. The assembly met in a tiny room that had been a one-man barber shop about 10 blocks from Canal Street. After a few weeks, the assembly moved into a small shoe repair shop at the end of Magazine Street, renovated it into a chapel, and called it | ||
In 1943, with World War II under way, the Schliefs felt led to establish a center for reaching servicemen. Depending on God for the finances, they rented the second, third, and fourth floors of a building on Carondelet Street in downtown New Orleans and opened the Christian Servicemen’s Center. They moved their home into the Center from their trailer on the edge of the city and brought the meetings of the assembly to the second floor. From 10 to 30 would Remember the Lord there, including servicemen. | In 1943, with World War II under way, the Schliefs felt led to establish a center for reaching servicemen. Depending on God for the finances, they rented the second, third, and fourth floors of a building on Carondelet Street in downtown New Orleans and opened the Christian Servicemen’s Center. They moved their home into the Center from their trailer on the edge of the city and brought the meetings of the assembly to the second floor. From 10 to 30 would Remember the Lord there, including servicemen. | ||
| Line 9: | Line 8: | ||
After many years of service there, the Schliefs purchased a five-acre parcel on Oil Well Road in Belle Chasse, on the southeast side of New Orleans. They formed a new Belle Chasse Assembly, which met in a chapel they built on the grounds. The assembly grew to about 60 persons in fellowship. They eventually closed the Center in New Orleans, although the Good News Chapel continued for several years under the leadership of Stan and Esma Hanna. | After many years of service there, the Schliefs purchased a five-acre parcel on Oil Well Road in Belle Chasse, on the southeast side of New Orleans. They formed a new Belle Chasse Assembly, which met in a chapel they built on the grounds. The assembly grew to about 60 persons in fellowship. They eventually closed the Center in New Orleans, although the Good News Chapel continued for several years under the leadership of Stan and Esma Hanna. | ||
| − | After only a few years, the military appropriated the land on Oil Well Road, and another move was required. The Schliefs were able to acquire 42 acres a few miles away on which they built a home and a chapel | + | After only a few years, the military appropriated the land on Oil Well Road, and another move was required. The Schliefs were able to acquire 42 acres a few miles away on which they built a home and a chapel Lake Park Chapel. The assembly grew to several hundred. |
They subdivided the property and sold parcels, put in their own roads, and built dormitories for a Boy’s Home and then a Children’s Home. Later they established the Good News Book Store on the grounds. | They subdivided the property and sold parcels, put in their own roads, and built dormitories for a Boy’s Home and then a Children’s Home. Later they established the Good News Book Store on the grounds. | ||
| + | |||
* * * * * * * | * * * * * * * | ||
| Line 17: | Line 17: | ||
In 1981, the new group of about 15 people bought a building with a seating capacity of 100 in Gretna, which is still the home of the Household of Faith Assembly. The assembly now consists of about 65 adults and youngsters. It is gifted with evangelists, teachers, and pastors, and is well ordered with capable, concerned, hard-working elders. The Christians have conducted street preaching, for which they have been arrested and jailed on occasion. | In 1981, the new group of about 15 people bought a building with a seating capacity of 100 in Gretna, which is still the home of the Household of Faith Assembly. The assembly now consists of about 65 adults and youngsters. It is gifted with evangelists, teachers, and pastors, and is well ordered with capable, concerned, hard-working elders. The Christians have conducted street preaching, for which they have been arrested and jailed on occasion. | ||
| + | |||
* * * * * * * | * * * * * * * | ||
| − | When Guillermo Santos, who had been an elder in an assembly in Honduras, arrived at the Belle Chasse Assembly, the several Spanish-speaking believers in that assembly became interested in forming their own Spanish-speaking assembly. This resulted in the formation of Capilla Evangelica in New Orleans, which continued into the late 1980s. | + | When Guillermo Santos, who had been an elder in an assembly in Honduras, arrived at the Belle Chasse Assembly, the several Spanish-speaking believers in that assembly became interested in forming their own Spanish-speaking assembly. This resulted in the formation of Capilla Evangelica in New Orleans, which continued into the late 1980s. |
| + | |||
* * * * * * * | * * * * * * * | ||
In the 1920s, Arthur Rodgers held Gospel meetings near Winnsboro in northeast Louisiana. Several were saved, and a farmer donated a plot of ground on which a small building was erected, the Winnsboro Gospel Hall. The assembly scattered after a time, but the building remained. Vernon Schlief and William Walker learned of this situation and went to the area, probably in the 1950s, and revitalized the assembly. John and David Horn visited the assembly regularly, and after them, Willard Rodgers. After a few years, the assembly moved to the Winnsboro Town Hall as the Winnsboro Bible Chapel. The Christians later moved to nearby Monroe and meet today in a home as the Monroe Bible Chapel. | In the 1920s, Arthur Rodgers held Gospel meetings near Winnsboro in northeast Louisiana. Several were saved, and a farmer donated a plot of ground on which a small building was erected, the Winnsboro Gospel Hall. The assembly scattered after a time, but the building remained. Vernon Schlief and William Walker learned of this situation and went to the area, probably in the 1950s, and revitalized the assembly. John and David Horn visited the assembly regularly, and after them, Willard Rodgers. After a few years, the assembly moved to the Winnsboro Town Hall as the Winnsboro Bible Chapel. The Christians later moved to nearby Monroe and meet today in a home as the Monroe Bible Chapel. | ||
| + | |||
* * * * * * * | * * * * * * * | ||
| Line 37: | Line 40: | ||
The lack of local men gifted in public ministry, and Mr. Gillespie’s confinement to a wheel-chair, led the fellowship to seek help for its ministry from the Good News Center of New Orleans. The Schliefs drove to Lafayette and located Mrs. Meme DuCote, learning that the church’s building had been sold. The Schliefs suggested that an assembly could begin meeting in a home, and that they would secure help to get it underway. The home assembly in Lafayette was soon underway, keeping the name Southside Bible Chapel, and the Schliefs came weekly for a while. After that, William Walker, Irwin Headley, Stan Hanna, Bill Obenour, Herb McKay, and Art Reum would travel to Lafayette for the meetings. | The lack of local men gifted in public ministry, and Mr. Gillespie’s confinement to a wheel-chair, led the fellowship to seek help for its ministry from the Good News Center of New Orleans. The Schliefs drove to Lafayette and located Mrs. Meme DuCote, learning that the church’s building had been sold. The Schliefs suggested that an assembly could begin meeting in a home, and that they would secure help to get it underway. The home assembly in Lafayette was soon underway, keeping the name Southside Bible Chapel, and the Schliefs came weekly for a while. After that, William Walker, Irwin Headley, Stan Hanna, Bill Obenour, Herb McKay, and Art Reum would travel to Lafayette for the meetings. | ||
| − | William Walker had been saved while in the service, just before he was transferred to New Orleans. He became a regular at the Good News Center and developed his preaching gift there. When he was discharged from the service, he worked full-time at the Servicemen’s Center. At the Southside Bible Chapel, he met and married Mrs. DuCote’s daughter, Carolyn, and the couple eventually moved to Lafayette to devote their time to the assembly. | + | William Walker had been saved while in the service, just before he was transferred to New Orleans. He became a regular at the Good News Center and developed his preaching gift there. When he was discharged from the service, he worked full-time at the Servicemen’s Center. At the Southside Bible Chapel, he met and married Mrs. DuCote’s daughter, Carolyn, and the couple eventually moved to Lafayette to devote their time to the assembly. |
| − | In 1969, Southside Bible Chapel constructed a new facility on Acadian Drive. In the special evangelistic meetings that followed the dedication ceremony in September of that year, many came to know Christ as their Savior. | + | In 1969, Southside Bible Chapel constructed a new facility on Acadian Drive. In the special evangelistic meetings that followed the dedication ceremony in September of that year, many came to know Christ as their Savior. |
In 1990, a time when the average attendance at Family Bible Hour was about 100, a fire gutted the chapel facility. An athletic club in Lafayette fell on hard times in a business downturn, allowing Southside to purchase the building. The facility, with 14,000 square feet under roof, has a spacious sanctuary and numerous Sunday School rooms, with a small gym, a pool, and other facilities. Jeff and Alyce Bloom serve Southside Bible Chapel as full-time resident workers. | In 1990, a time when the average attendance at Family Bible Hour was about 100, a fire gutted the chapel facility. An athletic club in Lafayette fell on hard times in a business downturn, allowing Southside to purchase the building. The facility, with 14,000 square feet under roof, has a spacious sanctuary and numerous Sunday School rooms, with a small gym, a pool, and other facilities. Jeff and Alyce Bloom serve Southside Bible Chapel as full-time resident workers. | ||
| + | |||
* * * * * * * | * * * * * * * | ||
Latest revision as of 22:28, 30 August 2019
Louisiana
The first assembly in New Orleans was established by Vernon and Gladys Schlief in 1942. The assembly met in a tiny room that had been a one-man barber shop about 10 blocks from Canal Street. After a few weeks, the assembly moved into a small shoe repair shop at the end of Magazine Street, renovated it into a chapel, and called it Good News Chapel, though the sign on the building stated “Gospel Hall.” Local opposition to this work was strong, and the assembly remained small.
In 1943, with World War II under way, the Schliefs felt led to establish a center for reaching servicemen. Depending on God for the finances, they rented the second, third, and fourth floors of a building on Carondelet Street in downtown New Orleans and opened the Christian Servicemen’s Center. They moved their home into the Center from their trailer on the edge of the city and brought the meetings of the assembly to the second floor. From 10 to 30 would Remember the Lord there, including servicemen.
Thousands of service men passing through were made welcome and given the gospel; many trusted Christ. The work continued from 1944 to 1947, when the building on Carondelet Street was sold. The Schliefs felt the work should be widened to include ex-servicemen and other civilian young men. They rented four buildings on Magazine Street, still in downtown New Orleans, and moved all the activities there, including the assembly meeting place and their apartment. They named it the Good News Center. The incorporators included the Schliefs, Stan Hanna, the William Walkers, and Lloyd G. Walterick of Fort Dodge, Iowa.
After many years of service there, the Schliefs purchased a five-acre parcel on Oil Well Road in Belle Chasse, on the southeast side of New Orleans. They formed a new Belle Chasse Assembly, which met in a chapel they built on the grounds. The assembly grew to about 60 persons in fellowship. They eventually closed the Center in New Orleans, although the Good News Chapel continued for several years under the leadership of Stan and Esma Hanna.
After only a few years, the military appropriated the land on Oil Well Road, and another move was required. The Schliefs were able to acquire 42 acres a few miles away on which they built a home and a chapel Lake Park Chapel. The assembly grew to several hundred.
They subdivided the property and sold parcels, put in their own roads, and built dormitories for a Boy’s Home and then a Children’s Home. Later they established the Good News Book Store on the grounds.
- * * * * * *
Household of Faith Assembly in Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans, has an interesting beginning. In 1979, Raymond Lewis, a former baseball player and a new convert, walked into the Good News Book Store, concerned about eternal security. Vernon Schlief recommended some books and offered to help Raymond with Bible study. As they studied, learning about New Testament principles, Raymond kept bringing along new converts. Soon there a nucleus of about ten young men, including Orville and Cleveland Lewis, well-educated and devoted to the Lord, being grounded in the Scriptures through the teaching of Mr. Schlief and other elders from the Belle Chasse Assembly.
In 1981, the new group of about 15 people bought a building with a seating capacity of 100 in Gretna, which is still the home of the Household of Faith Assembly. The assembly now consists of about 65 adults and youngsters. It is gifted with evangelists, teachers, and pastors, and is well ordered with capable, concerned, hard-working elders. The Christians have conducted street preaching, for which they have been arrested and jailed on occasion.
- * * * * * *
When Guillermo Santos, who had been an elder in an assembly in Honduras, arrived at the Belle Chasse Assembly, the several Spanish-speaking believers in that assembly became interested in forming their own Spanish-speaking assembly. This resulted in the formation of Capilla Evangelica in New Orleans, which continued into the late 1980s.
- * * * * * *
In the 1920s, Arthur Rodgers held Gospel meetings near Winnsboro in northeast Louisiana. Several were saved, and a farmer donated a plot of ground on which a small building was erected, the Winnsboro Gospel Hall. The assembly scattered after a time, but the building remained. Vernon Schlief and William Walker learned of this situation and went to the area, probably in the 1950s, and revitalized the assembly. John and David Horn visited the assembly regularly, and after them, Willard Rodgers. After a few years, the assembly moved to the Winnsboro Town Hall as the Winnsboro Bible Chapel. The Christians later moved to nearby Monroe and meet today in a home as the Monroe Bible Chapel.
- * * * * * *
Evangelist A. Paul Duchesneau of Montreal, Canada was forced out of the mission field in Belgium by the threat of invasion by Nazi forces in 1936. Looking to the Lord for a field where his French language could be used, Mr. Duchesneau chose St. Martinville, a dozen miles south of Lafayette in southern Louisiana, 150 miles west of New Orleans, and began a work among the French-speaking people there.
With bicycle and books, Duchesneau brought the Gospel to remote sections of rural St. Martin Parish. The levee of the Atchafalaya River often served as meeting place for the evangelist to unfold the Scriptures through flannel-graph lessons. A building was rented on the main street of St. Martinville to serve as a chapel. One of the first of the St. Martin families to identify with the evangelical movement of Duchesneau was that of Martin J. DuCote, Sr.
Many Christians who were associated with the beginning of the work in St. Martinville relocated to nearby Lafayette, causing Mr. Duchesneau to move his evangelical work there. The Bible Chapel, later renamed Southside Bible Chapel, opened on Mudd Avenue. Roland Begneaud served as an elder and Treasurer of the Bible Chapel for several years. Mrs. DuCote was identified with the assembly until her home-call in 1993. Her children, Carolyn and Martin Jr. (Zeke), served the work over a long period of time. Carolyn DuCote joined the evangelical ministry of Duchesneau as a secretary following her completion of business college. Zeke DuCote served as an elder at Southside Bible Chapel for an extended number of years.
Young men in the Armed Services, stationed at various military facilities nearby, gave help and encouragement by their attendance and ministry. Some of these young men returned to their home churches after the end of the war to become leaders. The discipleship learned from Mr. Duchesneau at Southside Bible Chapel continued in these and many other communities.
After the war, Mr. Duchesneau returned to Montreal to establish the Bible Institute of Montreal. An interim worker at Southside Bible Chapel was Evangelist Elmer P. Gillespie. Mrs. Gillespie was a daughter of the noted author W.H. Griffith-Thomas, and she served as a consultant to Dallas Theological Seminary in their publication of her father’s work. As a Greek linguist, she served with Arthur Farstad in the translation of the New King James Version of the Scriptures.
The lack of local men gifted in public ministry, and Mr. Gillespie’s confinement to a wheel-chair, led the fellowship to seek help for its ministry from the Good News Center of New Orleans. The Schliefs drove to Lafayette and located Mrs. Meme DuCote, learning that the church’s building had been sold. The Schliefs suggested that an assembly could begin meeting in a home, and that they would secure help to get it underway. The home assembly in Lafayette was soon underway, keeping the name Southside Bible Chapel, and the Schliefs came weekly for a while. After that, William Walker, Irwin Headley, Stan Hanna, Bill Obenour, Herb McKay, and Art Reum would travel to Lafayette for the meetings.
William Walker had been saved while in the service, just before he was transferred to New Orleans. He became a regular at the Good News Center and developed his preaching gift there. When he was discharged from the service, he worked full-time at the Servicemen’s Center. At the Southside Bible Chapel, he met and married Mrs. DuCote’s daughter, Carolyn, and the couple eventually moved to Lafayette to devote their time to the assembly.
In 1969, Southside Bible Chapel constructed a new facility on Acadian Drive. In the special evangelistic meetings that followed the dedication ceremony in September of that year, many came to know Christ as their Savior.
In 1990, a time when the average attendance at Family Bible Hour was about 100, a fire gutted the chapel facility. An athletic club in Lafayette fell on hard times in a business downturn, allowing Southside to purchase the building. The facility, with 14,000 square feet under roof, has a spacious sanctuary and numerous Sunday School rooms, with a small gym, a pool, and other facilities. Jeff and Alyce Bloom serve Southside Bible Chapel as full-time resident workers.
- * * * * * *
Faith Bible Church in Covington in southeast Louisiana, was started in 1989 by Alfred N. Young, Jr. The large assembly has about 250 in attendance on Sundays. A worker has been commended by the assembly to the Lord’s work in Spain.
Sources
- Questionnaire Responses
- Southside Bible Chapel: Legacy of a Half-century, by William O. Walker, undated
- Our Great Adventure in Faith, by Vernon Schlief, Beeline Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996
- Letters of Interest, June 1955, p. 15; September 1983, p. 19
