This week, the mayor will receive the report and recommendations of his Bring New Orleans Back Commission (also known as the “Bring Back N.O. Commission”, which works a little better), the blue ribbon panel of community leaders who have been active since late September envisioning how the “new” city should look. The ULI (Urban Land Institute) has recommended that certain low-lying sections of the city be abandoned and turned into parks, with many political leaders crying foul, saying it’s a racist plan since minorities lived in those least desirable sections. The BNOB Commission is expected to come down somewhere in the middle.
Meanwhile, a community group known as ACORN is hard at work helping people in the Lower 9th Ward, worst hit portion of the city, clean out their houses and get ready to rebuild. They’re thinking that if residents can restore their homes quickly, the city won’t dare tell them to move out.
We’re eagerly awaiting other reports. The governor’s Recovery Commission (which pertains both to New Orleans and the entire Louisiana coastline) is due to report in soon. It’ll be interesting to see how their recommendations match up or conflict with the local report. FEMA is set to release a map of metro New Orleans showing the new flood zones with their recommendations where elevations of homes will have to be raised. Insurance companies will set their rates based on this piece of paper.
Speaking of insurance, Allstate said Tuesday that automobile insurance rates for our area are going out of sight. Even this far removed from the hurricane and flood, you can still find flooded-and-ruined cars abandoned all over New Orleans. I’ve heard the figure, something like 100,000 or more cars destroyed by Katrina. The insurance companies have taken a hard lick.
Many wonder what will happen if the governor and the mayor cannot agree rebuilding our city. It was reported tonight that the governor controls the purse strings on several billion dollars (that’s “billion”!) to be spent in this area. (It was also announced today that someone has started a petition to recall Governor Blanco. They’ll have to garner 900,000 signatures in 180 days.)
The front page of USA Today showed students returning to Dillard University, one of our historically Black colleges. It took a great deal of flood damage, so the school has leased large sections of the downtown Hilton Hotel for dorms. “Private baths and double beds! Valet service!” the students exclaimed. The article said several local colleges are amazed at the high percentage of students who are returning for this Spring semester. One president said these “kids” will forever be known as the Katrina class.
I was amused to learn that the New Orleans City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for Saints football team owner Tom Benson to hire Doug Williams as the new coach. Williams is a Louisiana native who quarterbacked the Redskins to a Superbowl victory some years ago and succeeded the legendary Johnny Robinson as coach at Grambling. The talk show guys are laughing about this, as well they might. It’s not like the City Council a) knows what it’s talking about or b) doesn’t have its hands full of its own work without trying to run someone else’s.
Sunday and Monday, I had a wonderful visit at home (Nauvoo, Alabama) with my folks and in Jasper, Alabama, teaching Nehemiah in a fine church. Tuesday, I drove home via Jackson, MS, to visit a dear friend from years past who is in the care of hospice. Arriving in town about 7 pm, I ran by son Neil’s long enough to drop off the pan of fried apple pie turnovers his wonderful grandmother, aka “Granny”, had sent. She’s done this for so long, he no longer has to ask for them.
Monday night, Delmus Anthony, pastor of the Jasper church (New Prospect) for 32 years and now retired, greeted me with, “So, is everything getting back to normal in New Orleans?” I told him and the congregation that some weeks ago, Rush Limbaugh greeted a radio caller from down here with, “Hey, Bob, I hear New Orleans is getting back to normal,” which set off a flurry of letters to the editor, calls to local talk shows, and general amazement among the citizens that the outside world is so unknowing about the depth of the devastation of this city. It won’t be “normal” for years, if ever.
Our North American Mission Board is asking our pastors to decide which churches in which neighborhoods will be brought back first. The idea is that since the population is going to be a fraction of what it used to be for several years, we need to focus on one church in each large area, putting our resources there, trying to build it up, get all our people in that area worshiping there, having an “anchor” church there. Then, as the residential areas are rebuilt, some of the other churches can be reopened and their ministries resumed.
So, here’s your prayer request for today. It goes directly against the nature of most pastors and churches to volunteer for their buildings to stay unused for several years, to go a mile down the street and join with other partial congregations in forming another church. But that is precisely what we are going to be asking some of them to do. Pray for these churches and their leaders, please.
The last thing we need these days is a vast number of tiny, struggling congregations scattered across this devastated city, each one needing the charity and assistance of Baptists across America just to keep their doors open and their bills paid. To tell the truth, we had too much of that before the storm.
Our Baptist polity–a chief element of which is the independence and autonomy of each church–is often our strength, and sometimes a great burden.
More about this later, but one of the more fascinating plans being made for next summer is to pull together volunteers from around the country and build forty or more homes in connection with Habitat for Humanity. In fact, before Katrina, we were working on this very scenario. Under the leadership of David Crosby (pastor FBC New Orleans), the “Baptist Crossroads Project” was scheduled to become the largest Habitat project to date sponsored by a single denominational group. When Katrina hit, followed by the flood, and we learned of the extent of the devastation, I had a phone call from David. “Joe, let’s build FOUR HUNDRED homes next summer!” I said, half joking, “Man, you have lost your ever loving mind!” Later, I repented of my unbelief. Last week, we had a meeting to resume the planning. This incredible project has a website all its own through which you may keep up with the ideas, plans, and progress: www.baptistcrossroads.org.
I realize that this is a very tough time for the Southern Baptist leadership right now. Even though I agree with the North American Mission Board’s recommendations, I have a lot unanswered questions, like probably a lot of your readers. Maybe you or someone else can help us out and take the time to address these. First, it seems to me that if the political powers that be don’t know how to rebuild these neighborhoods without all this turmoil, what or who’s plan will the pastor’s and others be using to determine the outcome of this decision to rebuild what churches and where? I know that God’s guidance is needed, of course, but I would still like to know if they will be following the BNB Committee’s plan, the insurance companies plan, the mayors, who’s plan? Second, it seems to me that an empty building just left to sit is still going to be a financial liability. Someone will still need to pay the insurance and any utilities that may still be needed. Someone still need to maintain and secure the building, mow the grass, so on. Has this even been addressed? Third, these pastors that are going to be approached about either rebuilding or shutting down, will this be their decision alone? Will the members that have tithed and been so faithful to these leaders and their churches over the years have any say in this? I thought these churches were autonomous and that in most situations churches would vote on such issues. Have things deteriorated so badly that we can no longer do this? Worse yet, are we going to start seeing folks fighting for their churches like some homeowners are fighting with the government right now to rebuild and protect their land? Finally, what about people like me that came from a small but only church in a location that is thriving but the church has been already designated for relief workers only? Are we going to see more small church buildings being used just to house groups of volunteers? Not that I’m complaining but if this is to be the case then shouldn’t our leaders be looking at starting more outreach ministries and not just “churches” so to speak? The college-age community in NO is one of the few things that is thriving, just as you stated. Is it possible that these new mega-anchor churches just incorporate some of these small church buildings and just use them as youth/college centers? Or even relief supply centers, temporary shelters, anything? I know I am asking a lot of questions but I think it would be helpful for many of us that are struggling to rebuild out lives to be able to have some closure as well as some information clarified. Because this affects ALL of us, not just the pastors. You help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and God Bless You.
Michelle’s comments deserve answers; perhaps I can supply a few.
1. No one, certainly not the denomination and most assuredly not I, will tell a church it cannot be restored. That is for the pastors and members to decide. Nothing I’ve said was meant to imply otherwise. In every case, we urge the pastors to try to assemble as many members as they can find and make these decisions.
2. The Vieux Carre Baptist Church in the French Quarter has definitely not been turned over to relief workers. As Michelle knows, that church has had several rooms with bunk beds for many years where they hosted church groups that wanted to witness in the French Quarter. What the Louisiana Baptist Convention did was spend a lot of money to upgrade some delapidated facilities. The building on Dauphine Street was being eaten alive by termites. Workers gutted out a lot of it and treated the wood and restored it, rebuilding and restoring a great kitchen, painting the bedrooms, etc. Now, it will be far safer and more accommodating to visiting ministry groups. I applaud our state leaders for such vision and investment in one of our churches. Pastor Greg Hand is doing a terrific job in that church, one block off Bourbon Street, under the most trying circumstances. He needs our prayers.
3. What plan will the pastors be using in determining which churches to “merge” into temporarily? We have no plan for them to use. All I have done, Michelle, is to try to get them together and ask them to discuss getting together. Period. That’s it. Let them see how the Holy Spirit leads them. Let us see if the Holy Spirit has such a plan. If so, His would be the only one that would work.
4. An empty church just sitting there would definitely be a problem, it would require insurance and lawns mowed, etc. So, what alternative would you suggest? For each tiny, partial congregation of 15 or 20 to move back into their buildings and try to carry on as before? Or get together with brothers and sisters in the larger neighborhood and try to have a stronger witness? There are no easy answers to this. Every scenario has its negatives. You’ve spotted some of them; I could give you fifty more. But the question is not which plan has no problems; the issue is what does the Lord want us to do. That’s why I keep calling on prayer support from God’s people, that our churches will know His will and have the courage to do it.
Thank you for the quick response to my questions. I appreciate your honesty and no expects you to know all the answers to what the future of NO churches holds. And no, I don’t have all the answers either. That’s God business and his alone and I’m sure that when he reveals his plan you will be among the first to know. But I am at a loss to know what is all this about VCBC? I reread my entire posting and I don’t recall asking for any details about this renovation or the performance of the pastor. Matter of fact I did not even mention the name of this church, for practical purposes of course as not to mislead anyone. This church had bunks at one point, I knew that, but I was told by a reliable sourse that the building was being used for housing relief workers and volunteers. Any reason for all this ink on this topic? Especially when the future of so many others are now at stake? God Bless You Sir, you and your family.