New Orleans Seminary professors: Faculty of the diaspora

J. Gerald Harris

Left to right, Clay Corvin, vice president for business affairs; Charles Harvey, vice president of development; Craig Price, dean of students; Jimmy Dukes, dean of extension center system; and Provost Steve Lemke meet at NOBTS North Georgia campus to strategize.

New Orleans Seminary, located near the southern banks of Lake Pontchartrain and in Chalmette, east of the city, did not escape the fury of Hurricane Katrina nor the looting and vandalism that followed. Prognostications of a Category Five hurricane and warnings of impending disaster sent seminary staff and students scurrying to find refuge wherever they could find a door of welcome.

The administrative staff, including President Chuck Kelley and a sizable contingent of the faculty and students, have made Atlanta home - at least temporarily. The North Georgia seminary campus, located at Columbia Drive Baptist Church in Decatur, is where the administrative staff has gathered to strategize for the future and see that effective plans are made to help each of the nearly 2,000 students finish this current academic semester.

Steve Lemke, provost of the seminary, stated, "We are the faculty of the diaspora," a term used to describe the dispersion of the Jews from Palestine following the Babylonian's conquest of the Judean Kingdom in the 6th century BC and again following the Romans' destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70.

J. Gerald Harris

Columbia Drive Baptist Church in Decatur provides campus for the North Georgia NOBTS extension center.

Craig Price, dean of students for the seminary, indicated that his house got nine feet of water; and stated, "I left with three pair of shorts and some sandals." Most of those who left the seminary thought they would be able to return in a few days.

Preston Nix, who recently joined the seminary faculty as associate professor of evangelism and preaching after 30 years in the pastorate, had unpacked boxes of books and sermons in his garage - all of which were destroyed in the floodwaters that engulfed the seminary's campus. Lemke lamented, "He had 30 years of his personal life's work destroyed in a matter of moments."

Price added, "We are in a crisis triage. We have lost everything, but this is one of the most exciting times in my life because we are totally dependent upon God."

Most of the faculty and students have lost all their earthly possessions. Lemke stated, "The student losses are not big dollar losses, because they didn't have much to start with, but they have lost everything they had, including their jobs and means of livelihood."

One Florida church near the seminary's extension center in Orlando, where some of the student evacuees are relocating, promised to find as many as 200 jobs for students and student spouses. Similar responses from Georgia Baptist churches are anticipated.

President Kelley explained to Baptist Press, "Imagine what would have happened if [New Orleans] had taken a direct hit. The levee did not break until after the storm was clear and the winds had died down and the rescue workers were able to get out. It's a terrible tragedy and we still don't know the scope of it, but the evidences of God's mercy are there. We rejoice in the fact that He has got the whole world in His hands, including the city of New Orleans and [the seminary]."

J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, allocated $25,000 in Wal-Mart gift cards to be given to students and faculty to help supply basic needs for food and clothing. The Florida Baptist Convention has made a similar donation to the seminary.

First Baptist Church of Lilburn has refurbished and furnished three houses the church owns and made them available to the seminary for use. The family of Francis Kimmitt, associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew and associate dean of Leavell College, the seminary's undergraduate program, already occupies one house.

David Hovey, children's minister of the church, indicated that the church had purchased the houses for future expansion, but were delighted that they could be used to accommodate needs for seminary housing.

North Metro First Baptist in Lawrenceville, where Frank Cox is pastor, has welcomed back three families that had to evacuate the seminary: the Bill and Leanne Marlette family, the Mike and Arenda Schultz family and the Mark and Julie Barentine family. The church recently took up a love offering and distributed $1,500 to each family. Other provisions are being made for these families and other victims of the hurricane.

Although the future of the seminary lies in the hands of the trustees, the administrative staff believes the school will be fully operational at the New Orleans campus by August of 2006. Lemke exclaimed, "The seminary was founded in 1917 by an act of the Southern Baptist Convention to impact the city of New Orleans."

P. I. Lipsey, editor of the Mississippi Baptist Record, had made an impassioned plea for a seminary in New Orleans: "A seminary [in New Orleans] would plant the Baptist cause in this city in a way that would immediately command the attention and the respect of all."

Lemke added, "New Orleans is the seat of Satan, a stronghold of evil. We knew it would take a catastrophe to break down the strongholds and provide an open door for a witness. Our seminary was created not only to be a schoolhouse, but a lighthouse."

So in spite of being evacuees, personal losses, the need to make some tuition refunds, exigency expenses, lack of flood insurance in some cases and malicious looting, Kelley has stated, "When we get to the end of this story, the last paragraph is going to be a testimony to the greatness and glory of our God, who is able to do all things well, and able to provide every need."