It appears to be part of an art show (or the like) called Prospect.1. This installation is called "Diamond Gym," by Nari Ward. It was installed back in 2008. There's a bit of information available on various art review websites if you Google it.

Looks like the church has been "gutted" or had the interior walls removed. It would be interewsting to know if the congregation still exists. Are there plans to rebuild? Or is it now abandoned?

BTW that neighborhood is probably safe as long as it is daytime. The 9th ward is still a place where people live.

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tim Stevens. Tim Stevens said: This may be the strangest thing I've ever seen in a church (filmed yesterday in New Orleans) http://is.gd/bO1oG [...]

Ted seems to be correct. In an obit for a former pastor, you learn that he was the one who facilitated the art project at the church. This church body appears to have been birthed in the last quarter of the 1800s, and that building you were in was built in 1963.
The art project, "Diamond Gym: Action Network. He also organized the "Solar Panel Project" for the Battleground Earth program.http://www.louisianaweekly.com/news.php?viewStory…

athttp://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1739&is… it says,

"Nari Ward’s installation Diamond Gym inhabits the nineteenth-century Battleground Baptist Church located, ironically, on Flood Street. Filling the sanctuary of this dark-fuchsia brick building, Ward’s “gym” is comprised of a large diamond wrought from iron bars, stuffed with exercise equipment and enveloped by two mirrored, curving walls smattered with old posters. Flanking the scene are four empty church pews placed evenly around the spectacle to form a rhombus. Adding a potent element to this ominous configuration is a looped soundtrack of recorded speeches by civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Their spirited words palpably charge the deserted space. "

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson11-7-08.asp

In a nearby gutted church, Jamaican-born artist Nari Ward has constructed an enormous steel cage in the shape of a diamond. The cage is stuffed with exercise machines and surrounded by mirrored walls that have been acid-etched in a wave pattern, reflecting the floodwater that once coursed through. Strange. Compelling, even though it's incomplete. Difficult to digest in just one viewing.
David Grunfeld / The Times-PicayuneJamaican-born artist Nari Ward has converted a gutted Lower 9th Ward church into a surrealistic gymnasium, with etched mirrors encircling an enormous iron diamond that surrounds a tangle of workout equipment. Battle Ground Babtist Church, 2241 Flood St. http://blog.nola.com/dougmaccash/2008/10/internat…

I think it is the ALLSPARK…megatron must be coming soon.

What in the world are you guys talking about?

Olivia, Peter, and Walt should be stopping by from the Fringe Division any day now.

I thought it was the newest peice of equipment for a Tony Little exercise equipment infomercial. Oh well