Hurricane-Hit Churches Endure with Faith, Rebuild in Collaboration
Long-term plans to rebuild the storm-stricken city are underway.
After 43 days of pumping out nearly a quarter of a trillion gallons of water from the Katrina-hit city, people are streaming back to what is left of their homes and churches in New Orleans.
Amid the demolished homes of hundreds of thousands of people, the faith that helped bring most people through the torrential disaster will not be met with the same face of the churches where they once worshipped.
More than 700 Southern Baptist churches were damaged or destroyed by the hurricane, said Jim Burton, director of volunteer mobilization of the North American Mission Board.
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"We're looking at a number of damaged churches," Burton told The Christian Post, pointing out that the number only includes Southern Baptist buildings. "That's just Southern Baptists."
Among the people that are looking to return to their home city, many church leaders will have to do what Burton terms as a "church restart."
"They may have to think of themselves as a 'restart,'" he stated. Explicating further, he said that pastors and congregants have to "come at it as almost a new church planting mentality."
Long-term plans to rebuild the storm-stricken city are underway. However, relief groups including the Southern Baptists currently have their hands full with recovery efforts.
"Our state conventions are still consumed with feeding operations and recovery," said Burton, who explained that they do not yet have a handle in long-term plans but are committed to such efforts.
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, which runs as the third-largest disaster relief operation in the country, recently set an all-time record of preparing more than 7.3 million meals for victims of the disaster.
Kenneth George, national coordinator for disaster response of the American Baptist Churches USA, said it was still too early to assess long-term rebuilding efforts that will come about.
Whatever plans are executed, however, George stressed the need for collective work.
"However this is accomplished, there's going to have to be a lot of collective efforts to make this work," said George, listing the involvement of the government and nonprofit and faith-based groups.
"We are looking at a great deal of involvement in long-term rebuild," commented Burton. "This is truly a national caliber catastrophe."
A recent CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll revealed that a majority of the hurricane victims identified family and faith as what helped them get through the hurricane and recovery period.
Burton was not surprised by the poll results.
"Faith is what strengthens you," he said. "You find resolve in faith and ... comfort in family. When you have your faith and family, you can get through just about anything."
Commenting on the survey, George also spoke of the power of faith.
"Faith sustains them," he said. "Faith in a community context, i.e. churches ..., can be very helpful."
