God’s Rebuilding Plan

Sad news. Coliseum Place Baptist Church burned last night. Police indicated that they ran a vagrant out of the building a few days ago–he was apparently living there at night–and they assume he returned and set the place afire. Built in 1854, this imposing brick structure was our oldest Baptist building. Only the walls of the sanctuary were standing today, but the educational building was saved.

Mike Melon has been serving as the latest pastor of the church, taking over from John Curtis, founder of the Christian School here in River Ridge that bears his name, who pastored that church for some 30 years. In recent years, a huge crack had occurred in the structure and engineers had installed massive hydraulic jacks and beams to prop up the building from the inside. You could walk around inside and sense the imposing presence it once presented, but the small congregation wisely decided to meet in the educational building in recent years. Estimates were that two million dollars would be required to restore the sanctuary to usefulness, money no one had. Being listed on the Historic Register added a layer of hurdles that had to be surmounted in order to restore the building.

Much of the early history of Baptist work in New Orleans involves Coliseum Place Church. While the First Baptist Church dates its beginnings some years earlier than 1854, in actuality they went out of existence a couple of times and when they resumed, they met in the Coliseum Place for a period. Mike Melon will show you the doors the church installed during the Civil War to keep Union soldiers from riding their horses into the fellowship hall.

There’s no longer a debate or quandry on what to do with the sanctuary. The fire ended that discussion. We hope we can salvage some of the bricks for memorial purposes once they decide to tear down the walls.


The Baptist Crossroads Project in the Upper Ninth Ward is proceeding at an impressive pace. Thursday morning, I ran by the site on Alvar Street to check on the progress. A dozen or so homes are in various stages of construction, with foundations being prepared for others. It’s interesting to see the final shape of this project. When Pastor David Crosby originally envisioned these 40 homes two years ago, the idea was to take over an intersection in some blighted area of the city–we had many to choose from–building five new homes on each side of the street in four directions. Jim Pate, executive director of the local Habitat for Humanity, discouraged that, saying this would turn those homes into a ghetto surrounded by a poor, sad neighborhood. He recommended a better approach as building the houses at various locations over a larger section, saying this improves the entire neighborhood. It has been shown to lower the crime rates as neighbors see what has been done and begin to take pride in where they live. However, after Katrina, other lands became available, including this large tract which will house the entire forty homes. Of course, more homes will be built than these forty in the months and years to come.

Youthful volunteers were painting the homes today, even as others worked on the roof or inside. One house was becoming a dark red, another yellow, a third gray, and so forth. One block down the street sits New Salem Baptist Church where Warren Jones is pastor, and a half-dozen blocks further down Alvar is Christian Bible Fellowship where Eddie Scott pastors. Not far beyond is Grace Baptist Church, led by Bill Rogers and Charlie Dale. So we have three excellent congregations within spittin’ distance, you’ll pardon the expression, of these new homes.

“Where are you from?” I asked various volunteers. “Senatobia, Mississippi.” “Winston-Salem, North Carolina.” “California.” I asked one lady what group she was with. “In a group by myself. I’m from Germany.”

“We knock off about 2 o’clock,” one of the pastors said. Their way of dealing with the stifling heat. We’re beginning to get isolated rain showers around the city, but that can mean an intense storm in one spot and a few blocks away, nothing.

In our associational offices, we held a session today to start to plan an evangelistic and rebuilding thrust to take advantage of the open door we’ve been given in this city. From our North American Mission Board in Atlanta, Richard Leach and Fred Hewitt; from the Louisiana Baptist Convention in Alexandria, Mike Canady, Wayne Jenkins, and John Hebert; and four of us from the city: Bill Day from the Evangelism Center at NOBTS, Alberto Rivera of Getsemani Church, Freddie Arnold, and I–meeting for four hours. We got as far along as we dared, then stopped and made plans to get our pastors together on Wednesday morning, July 12, to present the concept and solicit their input and involvement. Everyone is committed to not putting together the plan and then ask the pastors to buy into it, but to bring them on board early so the finished project is as much theirs as anyone’s.

So far, this exciting plan involves dividing the metropolitan area into 25 zones, each with one or more Southern Baptist Church, each one to be adopted by some entity in the SBC, either a large church, an association, or even a state convention. The adopting group would then meet with the pastor or pastors in that zone to make plans for whatever that area needs, whether rebuilding homes or reaching the lost or whatever. Much of our discussion centered around what resources we can amass to help in these efforts.

We are getting out an urgent letter to our pastors and other ministers asking them to put July 12, 10 am, on their calendars, to meet with these leaders at Oak Park Baptist Church in Algiers to get the details, to get questions answered, and to begin the planning process. This has the potential of being the greatest evangelistic thrust New Orleans has ever experienced.

Dr. Chuck Kelley has frequently pointed out that New Orleans has never known a genuine spiritual revival. He adds that traditionally our churches have tried to reap where they have not sown. We pray we’re about to see that reversed.

We’ll appreciate the prayers of God’s people that He will lead every step of the way and that His people will step up and respond with enthusiasm and commitment.

One of our men said, “I’ve read all the disaster manuals Southern Baptists have written over the years. The amazing thing is that some of them omitted evangelism altogether. In fact, one of the earlier ones even cautioned against it.”

I was incredulous. “Why?” He said, “They said we should give our help to people in trouble freely, with no strings attached, and not try to convert them.” I said, “If all we’re trying to do is make them Baptists, fine. But you have to decide whether you believe Jesus Christ is the only Savior and He alone is what people need.”

The NAMB leader said, “Jeremiah 6:14 applies.” I had to ask what it said. “God was rebuking the prophets and priests of that day. He said, ‘They have healed the wounds of my people superficially.'” Wow, I thought. How appropriate. Gut out their house, give them food and water, help them rebuild, but leave them at that point and they lapse back into their old lives and former ways. Tell them about the Lord Jesus and lead them to trust Him as Savior and they become brand new people, former things passed away, fully and deeply and permanently healed.

Propping up damaged houses and hurting lives will not get the job done. Leave lives vacant and they become susceptible to anyone with a match. New habitats for God out of the old dwellings. That’s God’s plan.