NEW ORLEANS — Many of the
visible marks left by Hurricane Katrina five years ago have been washed away by
time and hard work, but the impact of the storm continues to affect New Orleans
Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS).
File photo by U.S. Coast Guard A Blackhawk helicopter flies past Leavell Chapel on the campus of New Orleans Seminary on Sept. 4, 2005. |
Despite deep pain and challenging circumstances, the seminary community
overcame. NOBTS President Chuck Kelley has seen those who went through the
storm emerge with a deeper faith in God and an unflinching, stubborn commitment
to be witnesses in the city and region.
On Aug. 29, 2005, Katrina slammed ashore just east of New Orleans, leaving a
path of destruction stretching from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., and as far
north as Meridian, Miss.
Initially it seemed that New Orleans escaped the worst
of the storm, but multiple levee failures left 70 percent of New Orleans
underwater.
The seminary was not spared. Sixty percent of campus housing received
significant damage.
Only two weeks into a new semester, the seminary’s primary
task of training ministers was put on hold. Main campus students fled to 29
different states; the faculty was scattered to nine states.
The healing process began quickly. Southern Baptists showered the displaced
seminary community with financial assistance and places to stay. The Southern
Baptist Convention (SBC) gave the seminary a $6 million gift from its Cooperative
Program overage.
File photo by Gary D. Myers The States Apartments at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, like the one shown here, received significant flood damage and had to be razed. In all, 92 housing units were damaged beyond repair. |
“This was the greatest outpouring of grace in the history of New Orleans
Baptist Theological Seminary,” Kelley said. “At every level of Southern Baptist
life, the individual Southern Baptist, the local Southern Baptist church, the
association, the state convention and the Southern Baptist Convention and all
of its entities … everybody participated in helping NOBTS recover. This was
one of the things that meant so much.”
Kelley said he hesitates to call out any specific gift, because every SBC
entity and every state convention made sacrifices to help the seminary
community in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. Even the conventions hit
hardest by Katrina — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi — gave to the
cause. The gifts — clothing, food and money — allowed NOBTS to provide
immediate assistance for students, professors and staffers.
The seminary also soon returned to its theological training mission. Just days
after the storm, Kelley, Provost Steve Lemke and other faculty members
formulated an innovative plan to re-launch fall classes for students wanting to
continue their studies. Faculty members gathered to reformulate their courses
into an online discussion-oriented format. Eighty-five percent of the students
who had enrolled at the main campus before the storm opted to resume their
studies online or at one of the seminary’s extension centers that semester.
The storm provided a powerful affirmation of the educational strategy NOBTS had
put in place decades earlier, Kelley noted. The extension center system begun
under Kelley’s predecessor, the late Landrum P. Leavell II, played a key role
in continuing classes that semester — and the philosophy behind the extension
centers — accessibility — made the online courses possible.
As in the immediate aftermath, SBC volunteers played a key role in the
restoration of the broken campus. Churches, conventions and individuals sent
money to help begin the cleanup and renovation of campus housing. Volunteers
came by the hundreds to help clean and paint campus buildings. The volunteer
labor alone saved the seminary $2 million in reconstruction costs. The total
cost of the restoration swelled to $75 million.
Kelley said Katrina illustrated the beauty of Southern Baptist cooperation.
“If we were an individual school, I just don’t know what we would have done.
This marvelous, cooperative relationship of local churches, of associations, of
state conventions and the national convention, each doing what they are best
suited to do is an unbelievably powerful force,” he said. “It is a powerful
force in girding up the church for its witness to the world.
“It means something to be Southern Baptist and it means something to have these
cooperative relationships. We saw it in action and it literally held us
together.”
While some main campus offices reopened in early January 2006, the entire
administrative staff did not move back to campus until April 2006. By August
2006, the campus was fully operational and students and professors were back in
the classroom for a new semester.
However, the campus was not the same. The beautiful restoration could not hide
the fact that NOBTS lost 92 apartments during the storm. Only 16 new apartments
have been constructed since Katrina. Kelley identified student housing as the
greatest need facing the school. NOBTS needs between $15-17 million to replace
the lost units.
Administrators also noted a shift in main campus enrollment. Before the storm
55 percent of students attended classes on the main campus, while 45 percent
attended an extension center.
Now the numbers are reversed, with 45 percent of
students attending the main campus.
Kelley said the numbers are understandable due to the seminary’s commitment to
make theological education more accessible. Giving students more options is not
simply a reaction to Katrina, but a continuation of the strategy launched under
Landrum Leavell. It is also a response to churches, associations and state
conventions looking for ways to train ministers as they serve.
File photo by U.S. Coast Guard Housing units near the front of New Orleans Seminary, shown here, received 2-3 feet of water. Near the back of campus, floodwaters reached 8-9 feet. |
The key issue is funding, Kelley said. “The funding formula for the Southern
Baptist Convention is rooted in the traditional model of theological education.
It is designed to give almost all funding for traditional on-campus theological
education and little or no funding for everything that is not on the campus,”
he said.
“Before Katrina, we were able to make it work; it’s just harder to make it work
with that shift in our student body from 55 percent on campus to 45 percent on
campus. That means less funding. Ultimately one of the biggest legacies of
Katrina is the reduction in funding that came from having a larger off-campus
student body than we do on campus.”
Many of the lessons learned by the seminary community, however, center around
NOBTS’ place in the city of New Orleans. Kelley sees renewed gospel vigor among
students, professors and staff. More and more students are looking for ways to
stay and serve in New Orleans after finishing their degrees.
“We really learned the role that our seminary plays as a ‘lighthouse’ in New
Orleans — as an illustration of the presence of God,” he said.
A few weeks after the storm, the contractor was able to get enough power to
light a few large spotlights. By shining them on the Leavell Chapel steeple,
workers on campus provided the city with one of the few points of light in a
sea of darkness. The lighted steeple, visible from miles away, offered a
testimony of the hope of Christ to the hurting city.
Though the seminary campus is restored and enrollment is making a comeback,
much work remains to be done in the city. As many as 50,000 homes are still
unoccupied. In some areas, entire neighborhoods have not returned. Water marks
left by the flooding still stain some buildings. Many members of the seminary
family are engaged in the ongoing recovery efforts throughout the city.
“The storm created a great awareness of the fragility of life in New Orleans,
but it also created a sense of opportunity,” Kelley said. “Here we had this
broken city, let’s be a part of putting it back together. Let’s weave Jesus in
the fabric of the new New Orleans.”
Due in part to the work of countless SBC Disaster Relief volunteers and rebuild
teams, Baptists in New Orleans are enjoying a larger role in the city.
“People have a very different image of who we are now; I think there is a much
greater respect and appreciation and there is a much greater openness to
Baptist life and our Baptist witness,” Kelley said. “That has been one of the
great redeeming touches that God has brought to our Katrina experience.”
Summing up the past five years, Kelley called the recovery an act of God’s
redemption.
“There will never be a moment in my life that I ever call Katrina ‘good,’”
Kelley said. “It brought so much hurt, so much disruption; I could never call
it good. But I can call it redeemed.
“God is redeeming Katrina in some very beautiful and precious ways. It doesn’t
mean it was a good experience — never can we call evil good — but it does mean
that there isn’t a situation that God cannot use for His purposes.”
Many personal Katrina stories are found in a new book by Curtis Scott Drumm,
associate professor of theological and historical studies in New Orleans
Seminary’s Leavell College. In Providence through the Storm: The New Orleans
Baptist Theological Seminary’s Hurricane Katrina Experience, Drumm shares
insights gleaned from interviews with more than 100 members of the seminary
community — faculty, staff and students — with a goal of preserving a lasting
record of the historic disaster for future generations. The book also provides
a brief history of the city and perspective on the geography and development of
the area around the seminary.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Myers is director of public relations at New Orleans Baptist
Theological Seminary.)
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