If you were to get down a map of the city of New Orleans, you could locate the Ninth Ward as a section of town just under Gentilly, behind the French Quarter, bounded on the South by the Mississippi River, and on the East by St. Bernard Parish. The infamous “lower” Ninth is the portion between the Industrial Canal and the St. Bernard Parish line and is where the levee by the Industrial Canal blew and did so much jawdropping damage.

The portion of the Ninth Ward on this side (i.e., the downtown side) is the Upper Ninth, and that’s where the Baptist Crossroads Project was focusing in the year 2004. It’s a spotted area, in the way much of New Orleans is, nice homes adjacent to slums, good neighborhoods a block from high crime areas. Originally, the Baptist Crossroads plan was to buy up forty blighted lots–vacant lots or condemned buildings–by paying the back taxes, then clean off a space and, under the direction of Habitat for Humanity, build forty new homes. Help forty families turn their lives around.

It all started with one statement from our mayor, an instance where he said something right.

David Crosby and I were among a large group of pastors invited to breakfast with Mayor C. Ray Nagin at the Fairmont Hotel one morning early in 2004. At one point in the middle of his message, Hizzoner said, “Studies have proven that home ownership is the most important factor in lifting a family out of poverty.” He said that and went on with his talk. David never heard another word. He was caught, snagged, hooked, as surely as if the Holy Spirit had thrown him a line with a lure and jerked it, setting the barb, and was reeling him in.

When we walked outside the hotel, David said, “Joe, we ought to build some houses.” I said, “What?” (No one ever accused me of quickly picking up on subtle nuances from the Holy Spirit.)

That was the inception. Out of that idea, the Baptist Crossroads Project was born. At first, David simply shared the dream with various friends and church members. And then Byron Harrell called.

The administrator of the Baptist Community Ministries, a foundation with deep pockets formed in the early 1990s when our Baptist Hospital was sold, Byron Harrell had moved over from his hospital CEO job to lead a board in finding worthy community projects to fund with the interest from that huge principal.

When David and I met with Byron, he told us, “BCM has been funding a lot of great works around this city, but we’re not doing enough with the name Baptist on it. Our board is aware of our roots and wants to fund the right project. Do you have anything on your heart?” When he mentioned a figure of one million dollars that might be available, he had our attention.

Until the Baptist Crossroads Project, BCM had never funded construction of buildings but had put their money into people and direct ministry. However, as a board for the Project was assembled and a plan developed, working with Habitat, the Baptist Community Ministries board decided to fund half our budget to the tune of $1.5 million, with matching funds. We would have to raise the other $1.5 mil. The forty homes would be built in vacant lots all over the Upper Ninth Ward, not in one specific location, using volunteers from churches across America as well as local Baptist churches, in the summer of 2006.

That was the plan, at least, before Katrina.

In late September, 2005, after we returned from evacuation and saw the scope of the devastation of this city and the metro area, the plan lay dormant for a while, then was revived and juiced up. David Crosby and the executive vice president of the Project, Mike Flores, met with Jim Pate, the CEO of New Orleans Habitat, and began planning for hundreds of Habitat homes to be built over the next few years using volunteers from churches and any organization that wants to help.

Before long, we began hearing of something in the Ninth Ward called the Musicians’ Village. Harry Connick, Jr. and others talked to the Habitat people about building homes so displaced New Orleans musicians would have a home to return to. The vast vacant lot just off North Claiborne Avenue where the Joseph Kohn Middle School once stood was available. The idea caught on and musicians groups and other performing artists picked up on it and began doing benefits to fund the homes in the village. The Times-Picayune gave them tons of free space.

And that’s when the confusion started.

First, the local Habitat people told our Baptist Crossroads people that they would fund the remaining half of our budget for those 40 homes. We would not have to raise the $1.5 million–which was a good thing, because after Katrina’s whammy on our churches, it would have been an impossibility. Habitat went to work preparing the ground and driving pilings and we put out a call for volunteers. Signs were erected at the site.

Some of the signs said “Baptist Crossroads Project.” Some of them said “Musicians Village.” It was the same tract of land, some 3 blocks square, with 30 houses going on almost simultaneously, and plans for a Marsalis Center to be constructed as a community meeting place.

Over the summer of 2006, you would drive down Alvar Street and see volunteers climbing over those sites like ants. They were everywhere. Some were church teams, some were civic groups, some were unidentifiable. In time, the new houses were as colorful as the rainbow–purple, green, bright yellow. Beautiful, striking, inspiring–particularly when you consider that these homes were going up in the middle of a sad and depressed neighborhood where few residents had returned.

Two blocks west of the site, at Alvar and North Claiborne, volunteers had restored Warren Jones’ New Salem Baptist Church and they were up and running. Further toward the river on Alvar, you come to North Rampart Street and Grace Baptist Church, led by Bill Rogers and Charlie Dale, another thriving small congregation.

So, the work continued. Thirty homes have been completed, and the families received their homes on August 19, 2006. The Baptist Crossroads Project leadership is knee-deep at work planning for–are you ready for this?–70 homes in 2007, and 60 homes a year for several years thereafter.

And that’s not all. The BCP leadership is taking responsibility for a 75-block area in the Upper Ninth Ward. Workers will be going door-to-door to secure information on every one of the 1500 homes–who owns it, name, address, what their plans are–whether to demolish, rebuild, or what–and what we can do to help. All this information will be entered on computer programs so that detailed information on each home in the district will be at one’s fingertips. The goal is to assist every homeowner in that huge area to get back home and have his home viable again.

In the meantime, throughout all of this, God’s people will be sharing the love of Christ in tangible and verbal ways as the Holy Spirit gives them opportunity.

Now, back to the confusion…

This week the Times-Picayune ran a front-page article about the Musician’s Village–without one word about the Baptist Crossroads Project, which is actually constructing the so-called Musician’s Village–and the news was not all good. Since anyone interested in securing a home has to go through Habitat and meet all their qualifications (sufficient income, good credit, etc.), it turns out that a lot of local musicians do not qualify to buy one of these homes for a simple reason: bad credit history.

A musician was quoted in the article saying he’d love to purchase one of the houses, that it was a great deal. The 20-year no-interest loan for $75,000 results in a monthly payment of some $550, which covers mortgage, taxes, and pest control. He was right.

The newspaper reporter was incensed that musicians around the country have raised all this money–millions–and yet our singers and horn-blowers can’t get a house. Where’s the justice in that, she wanted to know.

Of course, the Habitat people are not in the business of giving away free homes. They’re trying to assist hard-working needy people who seriously want to take control of their lives and lift their standard of living. And they actually have approved a number of musicians for the homes and are working with some others to clear up problems with bad credit histories.

Saturday morning, today as I write, the Baptist Crossroads Foundation board met at the home of Mike Flores in the Lakeview area. (The officers are David Crosby, President; Mike Flores, executive vice-president; secretary and treasurer is banker Guy Williams; and Mike’s wife Courtney is the recording secretary. The other board members are Freddie Arnold, Jack Hunter, Steve Watts, Fred Luter, Inman Houston, and me. Habitat’s Jim Pate and Elizabeth Lisle attend all our meetings.)

When asked, “What did you think of the Times-Picayune article this week?” Jim Pate said, “Not very much.” There were far too many inaccuracies and distortions. It seems to have been almost slanderous toward Habitat, possible even personal on the part of the reporter. A Habitat leader has written a lengthy correction to the editor and several others have written. No correction has been published, however.

Saturday morning’s paper carried two letters to the editor on the subject. Dianne Collins of Metairie wrote, “Musician’s Village? It’s a joke. It’s about time the public knows that this Village has very few musicians in it…. To name a village for musicians and collect money from far and wide for the purpose of homes for musicians has been misleading.” Cheryl Giraldi of Mandeville wrote, “So the musicians have credit and money problems? Join the club. Why should the mortgage companies look away and allow them to get a house they can’t afford? …All these coalitions and organizations need to tell the deadbeats to get a job and learn to take care of themselves.”

Jim Pate assured us this morning that very little of the money designated for the Musician’s Village has actually been spent so far. The Marsalis Center to be constructed in the center of this tract will be built with the musicians’ money, as will many of the remaining homes on this site. The future Baptist Crossroads homes will be built throughout a much larger area.

Pate suggested that we not worry about the confusion over the two entities, that when the Joseph Kohn site is filled with homes and we (Baptist Crossroads) are still at work building homes all over the city, the issue will go away.

Bottom line: when you hear talk of a Musician’s Village in New Orleans, understand that is not an official place. The name has no legal standing. It’s a concept. What is actually over there on Alvar and St. Roch is the Baptist Crossroads. And yet, even that will not be an official name of the neighborhood. It’s the name of this ministry.

Last September, after President Bush was interviewed by NBC’s Brian Williams standing in front of these homes, he and Laura gave a check to the Baptist Crossroads. They wanted to have a part in this vital work.

I asked Jim Pate, “You and Elizabeth Lisle here are on the cutting edge of the comeback of New Orleans. I’m wondering if you get depressed or discouraged.”

He said, “What depresses me are articles like the one in the Times-Picayune.” He thought for a minute and said, “And you’ll drive to an intersection and the light is out. It was working yesterday, but now it’s out. We thought we were making progress, but at times it looks like nothing is being done.”

Elizabeth said, “And the dead bushes. The devastation everywhere you look. It’s very depressing.”

They added, “And one more thing. It’s frustrating when people lose sight of the big picture, and start fighting over inconsequential things. You want to throw up your hands.”

“But I don’t want to leave it there,” Jim Pate said. “What blesses me every day is to go to the work site at the beginning of the day. The volunteers are ready to go to work and they’re fired up. That’s better for me than a bowl of cheerios!” He added, “And we are blessed with a great staff.”

Here are places to go for more information. www.baptistcrossroads.org. Send emails to info@baptistcrossroads.org. To volunteer for the springtime of ’07, email volunteer@firstbaptistneworleans.com. Jared Pryer is volunteer coordinator; his number is 504/482-5775.

Check out www.IdeaVillage.org. And of course, Baptist Community Ministries: www.bcm.org. Habitat is www.habitat-nola.org.

Inman Houston is First Baptist-New Orleans’ associate pastor of community missions and is the hands-on director of much of what Baptist Crossroads is doing with volunteers. Contact him at info@baptistcrossroads.org.

There! What did I leave out? Nothing I hope.

One of the key points we want to get across to every church in the land interested in sending volunteers this way is: there are many kinds of ministries you can be doing to help New Orleans rebuild. We still have flooded houses to gut and gutted houses to rebuild. But if you want to see a miracle take form before your very eyes, help us erect new homes. Go to www.baptistcrossroads.com and begin the process.

Thanks for patiently staying with us on this explanation. Let me know any questions you have that I can address.