First Baptist Cumming partners with First Baptist New Orleans in Baptist Crossroads Project

DULUTH — When Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005 no one could have imagined the devastation that would be wrought by this unprecedented cataclysm. By the time the storm launched its assault on the Gulf Coast its winds had been measured as high as 175 miles per hour. Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the first ever mandatory evacuation of the city, referring to Katrina as “the storm that most of us have long feared.”

As the ferocious storm unleashed its fury on New Orleans the levees could not hold back the surge of water. Since 80 percent of the Crescent City is below sea level massive flooding occurred. Mayor Nagin reported that the loss of life was “significant.” The damage to buildings and roads escalated into the billions of dollars. Evacuees from New Orleans were scattered all over the nation.

First Baptist New Orleans

Left to right, Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page stands with First Baptist New Orleans pastor David Crosby; Jim Pate, executive director for New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity; and Lee Weeks, associate pastor of missions and evangelism at First Baptist Cumming.

The North American Mission Board initiated the process of connecting churches throughout the Convention with churches on the Gulf Coast that had been impacted by Katrina. First Baptist Church in Cumming was chosen to partner with First Baptist Church of New Orleans.

David Crosby, pastor of FBC in New Orleans, stated, “When I viewed the ruin and desolation of the city after the storm all I could do was weep. We had $2.5 million worth of damage to our church facilities, but we also had no power for two months, no mail for six months, and no Internet service for eleven months.”

Crosby became convinced even before Katrina that he wanted to help the poor of New Orleans by making home ownership a reality. Then Katrina came and the flood-ravaged city lost more than 100,000 housing units.

Under Crosby’s leadership, First Baptist established the Baptist Crossroads Foundation and forged a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. “Habitat” is a non-profit, Christian ministry dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness by providing decent shelter for families.

Prior to Katrina, Crosby envisioned providing 40 homes for 40 needy families, but after the storm he expanded his vision to construct 300 new homes in the 75-block area known as the Upper 9th Ward. Thirty homes were completed in the summer and fall of 2006 with the help of 2,500 volunteers. Ten more will be finished this spring to complete the original calling to build 40 homes.

Robert Jolly, pastor of First Baptist in Cumming, declares that their involvement with the Baptist Crossroads Project has energized their church. He stated, “In 2004 our giving was flat. We did not increase our giving as we had in the past. In 2004 we gave $44,000 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Our goal for 2005 was $50,000. We had just agreed to the partnership with First Baptist New Orleans in October. So, I met with our finance committee and told them I thought we needed to set a year-end goal to give $150,000 to missions.”

Jolly explained, “We will give the first $50,000 we get to the Lottie Moon Offering, then half of whatever else comes in to the Crossroads Project and the other half to the budget. This offering will become our Acts 1:8 Offering.”

First Baptist Cumming

First Baptist Cumming members Jerry Holbrook, Pat Elliott, and Elaine Prosser help with construction.

Jolly admitted that the committee looked puzzled at first, but he stated, “The Spirit of God got in that meeting and it was the greatest committee meeting I ever attended. They got on board and realized they just might have a chance to see God at work. Their vote was unanimous and we all got excited about the prospects of what God would do.”

Dollar bills were given to every member of the church as “seed” money for the special offering. Jolly and each committee member gave a hundred dollars in order to provide the money necessary to distribute one dollar to each member.

One church member agreed to match every dollar given to the “end of the year” offering up to $150,000. Jolly stated, “When it was all said and done we got a total of $329,000. Lottie Moon received $84,000 and First Baptist of New Orleans received $84,000. We were also able to give $75,000 to build a church sanctuary in Ethiopia and another $75,000 to build a Habitat for Humanity house in Cumming.”

At the end of 2006 the church gave $318,000 (without a $150,000 challenge gift) to the Acts 1:8 Offering. Lottie Moon received $106,000 and First Baptist New Orleans received $50,000. The remainder of the money was distributed to missions objectives in the church’s “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Ends of the Earth” ministries.

First Baptist Church in Cumming has increased their total gifts to SBC related missions from $186,331 (2005) to $329,723 (2006) to an anticipated $426,600 in 2007. The church gave $100,000 to the Cooperative Program in 2006, but has budgeted $143,000 for the CP this year.

The church sent 128 people on short-term mission trips last year, fifty of which helped with the Baptist Crossroads Project in New Orleans.

At the Georgia Baptist Evangelism Conference, Crosby made a plaintive appeal for more volunteers. He declared, “We have very fine accommodations available at the World Trade Center in New Orleans. The lodging and meals are available for only $20 a day. Come and be a sponsor of a Habitat House.”

Crosby added, “When President Bush came to New Orleans and saw what we were doing he was moved to write a personal check for the Baptist Crossroads Project.”

“I was on a plane,” Crosby remarked, “and a Jewish woman was seated beside me. She told me about her grandson from California who had been to New Orleans to work on our project and how it had changed his life.”