November 09, 2006
The World's Greatest Church Library Conference
I billed it that way because it was! Held Friday and Saturday, November 3 and 4, at First Baptist-Marrero, across the river from New Orleans, this conference pulled together 30 volunteers from Louisiana and five other states. Leader Hope Ferguson e-mailed us her report on Wednesday. Following are the highlights.
Thirty-two churches from this area participated. Most were Anglo churches, 1 was Haitian, and 3 were Spanish. Twenty-seven of the churches are either starting or restarting their church libraries. Three schools participated.
Ninety-five individuals registered for the classes, including eleven pastors.
Get this: churches and businesses and individuals which contributed money or books or library supplies or some of all came from 17 states.
58 attended the class: Administration for beginning libraries.
21 attended: Classification and Cataloging for beginners.
29 went through the class on processing, circulation, and selection.
12 for Children and the Church Library.
14 Planning Promotion.
17 Reading Club Extravaganza
6 Space and Furnishings for Church Libraries
15 Collecting and promoting church history
5 Preserving Church History
6 Writing Church History
Baskets of blessings (information, gifts, promotional items, library supplies) were given to all 32 churches. Nearly 4,000 books were given to these new church libraries, with an average of 150 given to each one.
During the weekend, a brand new library was established at FBC Marrero and it was dedicated. Mobile shelving units were constructed onside and given to the library.
Conference leaders were Sue Berthelot of Gonzales, Mary Broussard of Denham Springs, and Cathy Smith of Shreveport. Also Sandra Fitts of Corinth, MS, Amy Gamble of Kingston, TN, and Bev League of Nashville.
Aren't we blessed?
Financial donors included FBC Natchitoches and the Natchitoches Association, Evelyn Pockrass of Indianapolis, and the Elmore Baptist Association in Alabama. Corporate donors included Broadman & Holman, Brodart Books of Pennsylvania, KAPCO of Texas, Lifeway of Nashville, Moody Publishers of Chicago, SURPASS chuch library software of Georgia, and H.W.Wilson of New York. Books and other supplies came from Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Tennessee.
Isn't Hope Ferguson a wonder!
Wednesday in our weekly pastors meeting, I asked the ministers to report on their participation in the library conference. Tony Bellow said, "I got a gift!" Charlie Dale reported that the ladies from his church returned home very excited about what they had learned. Kemp Johnson and Cipriano Stephens attended the class on ministering to children. "I was never very interested in ministering to children," admitted this pastor. He is now. He learned how to present the gospel to children at various levels.
We'll be bringing Hope Ferguson back this way in the future to check the progress of our library rebuilding and to learn what needs to be done next. Many of our churches are still meeting in temporary facilities and their new libraries will be as makeshift as everything else about their buildings.
Thank you, Hope.
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OK, so I go to the library conference simply because Joe asked us to. I thought to myself, it can’t be too bad. I had thought about the idea of restarting our library, but in the back of my mind I felt that a church library was an “old church” idea. (Now I know that the problem was that I had never witnessed a library that functioned well and was utilized properly.) I figured that this would be an opportunity to see if starting our library back up would be worth the trouble. Then the amazing thing happened… these ladies made me fall in love with the idea of church libraries. I sat captured as they spoke of their love for this unique ministry and before long, I totally understood why they loved this ministry so.
You could see the excitement on their faces caused by the large number of attendees. I know that must have energized the presenters and gave fuel to their presentations. Dr. Farrington and many of our friends at Marrero did an outstanding job hosting this event. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was joyful. I’d just like to say “Thank-You” to our sister church for their openness and to Dr. Farrington for the vision he had to help make this event happen.
The presenters were great! As soon as I saw a “Church History” track, I jumped on it. Mary Brousard was fantastic. This track was all about collecting, preserving and celebrating your church’s history. I think that woman knows everything about the local churches of Louisiana. I had been putting together a history on our church, FBC Westwego, and could only get so far. I knew our church started out as a French speaking mission on a house boat in Bayou Signette, but could never find any information on the church that send the “French speaking preacher” (Massey Memorial Baptist Church). That was all put to rest as Mary had us do some “research” in class using some material that she brought with her. We can now trace our history further back. Thanks Mary! My time was well spent at the conference if for no other reason than meeting you.
“Hope Ferguson is a sparkplug,” I heard someone say that at the conference, and they were correct. She built the engine, put the fuel in place, and then set off the spark that made this thing drive. I was stunned to see all the books that had been donated. You just would not believe the gifts that they gave out to all those who attended. There were tears as Hope called each church forward to “receive their blessing.” And that is exactly what was happening. Our churches were “Blessed by Hope” and all the countless others who gave for our benefit. Thank you Hope, for bringing this to us. Enough good could not be said about this lady.
Thank You, Father for sending us “Hope.” And may each of these ladies be blessed for their faithfulness to You as they seek to serve others.
Hey Joe… is there anything else in which you’d like to ask us to participate? Whatever it is, it can’t be too bad.
Posted by: Jay Adkins at November 10, 2006 03:17 PMOur church sent 8 boxes of books to the conference. Would be interested to hear what denominations were represented at the conference, or was it only for Baptists?
Posted by: B Donaldson at November 22, 2006 11:18 PM