By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
Slidell Independent

SLIDELL — A policeman and a businesswoman in finance.

That seemed to be the career paths for Lawrence and Chiquita Weathersby for many years after they got married as high school sweethearts in New Orleans.

He was working his way up the New Orleans Police Department ladder, eventually reaching the rank of deputy superintendent, while she was a 4.0 honors student all the way through school and into business college.

After marrying in 1983, the young couple had a successful future mapped out, and it was coming true as both were excelling in their chosen fields.

But today, that path through life—seemingly so clear many years ago—has taken an incredible turn in the road. Together, Lawrence and Chiquita Weathersby now pastor Living the Word International church in Slidell, that has grown so rapidly since its start in 2003, that church leadership has drawn plans for a 1,000-seat sanctuary on a 20-acre plot of land in the Slidell area.

The church started with only 11 people in the first service over seven years ago, but now meets on Sunday with approximately 800 attending the two services.

What has made this church explode so rapidly? And particularly behind two individuals who many years ago never imagined they would be pastoring a church family?
“First of all, I still wake up early and at times think about this ministry, and am blown away by what God has entrusted to us,” Lawrence said. “But if I had to explain why the church is growing in this manner, I think it is our focus on blessing others. That is the Abrahamic call, and it’s what we try to follow.”

Chiquita agreed that they have tried to make their “church family” be much more than what some church goers have been used to.

“We wanted to be very accessible from the start,” she added. “Everyone in the church has our cell phone number and they can call us anytime, other than on Friday since they know that is our ‘Date Day.’ We always have a day for ourselves, and they know that. But in the church, I think the people know this is a true family, and that’s been something people really want.”

Perhaps that willingness to operate just like all others in the church, or at least close to it, has been effectively communicated since Lawrence and Chiquita grew up just like their church members—in families with their own obstacles and difficult challenges.

Chiquita said she spent much of her life trying to overcome the emotional scars from her parents having her live with her great-grandmother much of her early life.

“They couldn’t afford to keep me during the week, so I stayed with my great-grandmother. But it took a lot of years to understand that, and not question the love they had for me,” she said.

Lawrence’s struggle came later in life after he walked away from an academic scholarship to Xavier, where he began studying to be a pharmacist, and enrolled in the police academy. As he became a top officer for the NOPD, rising in the ranks to third in command for the entire department, it made a move to full-time ministry very difficult.

“I loved the adventure on the streets, as we called it, of being a police officer,” he said. “I always wanted to be a cop.”

As they were achieving personal success in the work world, it took dramatic events in their lives to make them decide that serving the Lord needed to be their first priority.

For Chiquita, it happened in 1991 when she was driving in New Orleans on I-10 and had a serious accident with both of their children in the car.

“Our car was totaled and we all walked away without any injuries. I remember sitting in the car and telling God that I was ready to recommit my life to Him,” she said.

Lawrence had a similar situation where he knew he needed divine intervention. In 1996, a complaint was made against him with the NOPD, charging malfeasance in office, and alleging he ordered the release of a college professor to get a grade while he was attending college courses. He has since finished college, and obtained a masters in criminal justice.

The case went to trial, but he was acquitted on what is known as a “directed verdict,” which Lawrence explained as “the judge saying the evidence was so poor against me, that the case was essentially thrown out.”

Lawrence and Chiquita both went to church in their younger days, and ironically, both taken each week by a grandmother or great-grandmother, who was intent on influencing them towards a life of serving God.

After marrying, neither one was serious in their relationship with God, they said, but each had a change of heart after those attention-getting incidents.

While Chiquita got very involved in the New Home Family Worship Center in New Orleans East, Lawrence did not get completely committed until being acquitted in his court case. He began working in many church ministries and then answered a call to start a Slidell branch of the church, which opened here in 2003.

From the beginning, the leadership from the pair was apparently so dynamic that the church grew rapidly, passing 100 members after six months.

“The way I could see the growth was by the number of chairs,” Lawrence said with a smile. “We knew we had 99 chairs, so it was easy to see more people filling them up.”

Even though most area churches were severely impacted from Katrina, and the same was certainly the case for Living the Word, it still didn’t seem to slow the growth for very long.

The church, originally still as a branch of New Home, was operating in a building at the former Slidell Factory stores, right off Old Spanish Trail. It took 8-feet of water from the storm.

But even as they began meeting in another church off Browns Village Road, members quickly started coming back, along with new members who had relocated here from the storm. Within a year they were already approaching 200 regular attendees again and the future looked bright.

Lawrence said he felt led to leave the New Home ministry in early 2006, but was given the blessing of Bishop Robert Charles Blake Sr., which led him to start his own ministry in Living the Word International. They overcame one early financial challenge as a new church, getting bank approval to buy the former New Home building in the Factory stores. Then they put $400,000 into renovations after the storm to completely remodel the church, doing it debt free. The church exploded in growth in 2007, going from 300 members in April to almost 600 members by December.

Their focus as a church to bless others has brought growth in many areas, and also gotten local attention, especially from public events like the one recently when they raised $5,000 from church members to set up a free gas line at a station on Fremaux Avenue.

“God called us to clothe the naked and our ministry is to help others,” Lawrence said. “We want to keep doing those things.” They have been involved in numerous community giveaways, like last week donating $1,000 to the Slidell Police Reserve Force. They give scholarships to worthy students and more.

The plans for the future sanctuary also call for a complete community complex that will include a bowling alley, basketball court, roller skating rink, liberal arts center, and swimming pool, that Lawrence said will be free to the public.

“Churches need to be about having great customer service to its members,” Chiquita said. “If hotels can have 5-star service, why can’t a church? That is what will draw the people.”

Their two children are grown, with their daughter working as an RN and son as a New Orleans police officer. They recently took in a teenage niece who now lives with them.