NEW ORLEANS (BP)–If not for a class assignment, Randy Brown might not have found his way to the Vieux Carre Baptist Church in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter.
In 1994, Brown was taking an evangelism class at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary taught by Chuck Kelley, president of the seminary. Brown wasn’t sure what to expect from the class but was quickly advised by his class aide.
“You are required to witness to at least five people this term and give a short summary of your experience,” Brown recounted. “The first one is due next week.”
Brown, sensing a desire to join a church in the area, came upon a sign hanging in his dorm inviting students to “come worship and witness with us at Vieux Carre Baptist Church.” That sounded good, he thought.
He began attending Vieux Carre’s Friday night services, after which a group of people would go into the streets of New Orleans’ notorious French Quarter to witness. After much prayer about a home church, Brown decided to stay, even though it wasn’t his first choice for a church home.
“I grew up in the country, on a dairy farm in Summerfield, La.,” he said. “I knew God had called me here, but it was just so different from home.”
God continued to affirm his place at Vieux Carre, and Brown became even more involved as time went on, sometimes going to the church during the day to go on visits with the pastor; sometimes preaching and leading witnessing groups through the Quarter.
After losing their pastor in 1995, and after some three years of interim pastors at the church, Brown began to approach his graduation. As the day grew closer, he said he felt the Lord leading him to send his resume to the church, but only after he had graduated. So, in May 1997 he followed through, and the church called him to be its pastor that October.
Brown said the ministry of Vieux Carre is mainly a staging area for missions. While their ministry reaches out to both French Quarter residents as well as vagrants, he said the church spends more time housing and assisting missions groups to do ministry there. Because of the volatile environment of the Quarter and because of the small size of the church, however, Brown says he welcomes all the help he can get.
“Basically, people come to the French Quarter to rebel,” he said. “You can come to the French Quarter and do anything. Nothing is off-limits here.”
The church has a couple of rooms with bunk beds, where missionaries and evangelists can sleep; several, for example, were staying at the church to witness to people traveling to the Quarter for the Super Bowl and for the Mardi Gras celebrations already underway.
The ministry is tough. The groups are ministering to hundreds of people, all of whom are there to party and many of whom are drunk beyond comprehension. The groups often will leave people with a tract, hoping they’ll wake up and read it. Or simply hope that those who need help will make their way to the large cross the church sets out on the sidewalk during such events.
Though the methods may seem fruitless to some, Brown said he often receives word of their amazing results.
“I once got a letter from a lady in Orlando,” he said. “She was walking out of a bar on Bourbon Street and saw the big cross where some of our college students were witnessing.
“She told me after she saw that cross, she became under intense conviction, saying, ‘I knew I was doing what I shouldn’t.’ She said she had committed herself to get back into church and get her life back on track and wanted to know if I knew of a church in Oakland.”
It’s not always the lost whose lives are changed, however. Brown said he has received letters from several college and youth directors telling him their kids “just weren’t the same” after ministering there.
“They’ll tell their kids, ‘If you can share your faith in the French Quarter of New Orleans, you can share your faith anywhere,'” he said.
Being in that environment helped him as a seminary student, Brown said. Although he had been a Christian for many years, he had never practiced sharing his faith as he did at Vieux Carre. As a training ground, he said it’s unlike any other.
“You have to think quick,” he said. “You deal with people who have all kinds of different ideas about God.”
As Brown discussed the church and its ministries, one of his guest evangelists slipped him a note.
The note read, “Tell him that this is the best soul-winning training center in the world.”
Brown smiled distantly, as though recalling a lifetime of changed lives.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: A PASTOR IN THE FRENCH QUARTER.
