Holding their keys high for all to see, 30 New Orleans families celebrated the joy of home ownership Aug. 19.
Baptist Crossroads residents shout for joy as they receive the keys to their new homes during an Aug. 19 dedication service at the site. Thirty residents received keys to their new homes that day.The brightly painted new homes in the Upper Ninth Ward – part of the Baptist Crossroads Project – and the smiles of the new owners offered a message of hope in the battered city just days before the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Habitat for Humanity and Southern Baptists in New Orleans teamed up to make the statement – “New Orleans is coming back.”
“This is … an investment of our blood, our sweat and our tears as an endowment to hardworking families in this community to lift them to a new level of economic stability and give them a stake in the community,” said David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans.
The dedication ceremony was the culmination of a two-year journey. The idea of building homes in the city’s Upper Ninth Ward first came to Crosby in 2004 – long before Katrina.
During a 2004 prayer breakfast, Crosby heard Mayor Ray Nagin say that “home ownership is the most important factor in lifting a family out of poverty.” The idea rang true to Crosby. But how could a church help tackle an issue like this?
If the church began building homes, Crosby wanted to make sure they didn’t merely do something good – God had to get the credit. He wanted the church to witness in word and in deed. Most of all, Crosby wanted to see people come to know Christ.
With God’s leading, Crosby and First Baptist Church pursued the idea of building 40 new homes in the name of Christ.
With a $1.5 million matching grant from a private grantmaking foundation – Baptist Community Ministries – the Baptist Crossroads Foundation approached Habitat for Humanity. They quickly jumped on board. The joint effort, known as the Baptist Crossroads, called for the construction of 40 homes during the summer of 2006.
Thirty new brightly painted homes now line Alvar and North Roman streets in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans, calls the site “the most hopeful place in New Orleans.” Crosby and the Baptist Crossroads Foundation planned to announce the ambitious plan in a press conference with Mayor Nagin in September 2005. Katrina hit just weeks before that announcement could be made. The city suddenly faced even more housing needs. First Baptist Church immediately began ministering to the needs of the city – providing food and gutting homes.
But instead of putting off the Baptist Crossroads Project, Crosby and Jim Pate of New Orleans Habitat continued with the plan. On June 5 of this year, construction began. Over the summer, some 2,500 volunteers – mostly Baptist, mostly teenagers – created a new community of bright blue, pink, green, purple and orange houses.
While each of the new homeowners worked on houses at the site – something Habitat calls “sweat equity” – volunteer labor was essential to the project. Habitat’s job was to oversee construction and provide low-cost loans for homeowners; Baptists would locate volunteer labor.
The task of coordinating volunteers fell to Inman Houston, associate pastor of community ministries and single adults at First Baptist. He said close to 1,000 of the volunteers came to the site through the North American Mission Board’s World Changers program. Youth on Mission sent more than 200 teens to the site. Others worked directly with First Baptist to plan their trips.
Crosby calls the Baptist Crossroads site “the most hopeful place in New Orleans.” He has good reason, too – in that area, at least 26 people have accepted Christ since the groundbreaking ceremony.
The Baptist Crossroads Project did not meet the goal of building 40 homes in the summer of 2006, but the project was a success, those involved in the project say. God is getting the credit for the work and people are coming to know Christ.
The remaining 10 homes scheduled for this summer will be completed during the 2007 spring break. And the Baptist Crossroads Foundation plans to make homebuilding an annual affair. Their goal: 160 additional homes by 2008 – a strong witness to a hurting city.