(Ed. note: One IBSA Annual Meeting keynote speaker has been concerned about the direction of the SBC for a long time. As a professor at New Orleans Seminary, he warned in 1983 that the denomination had plateaued. He pointed to the loss of evangelism among Methodists that led to their decline. “They never mounted a […]
Loss comes with permission
The loss of nearly everything reveals the true value of what you have left. Fifteen years ago, the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina took away homes, family photos, and heirlooms, along with the necessities of everyday life—furniture, dishes, towels, sheets, electronics, toys—gone in an instant. When New Orleans Seminary families dressed in hazmat suits to salvage […]
There is a path forward
Never in my life had I felt so overwhelmed. Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans in August 2005, creating the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States. The levees protecting the city were breached, and 70% of the city, including the campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, went underwater for […]
Do not be afraid
The most important lesson I learned after Hurricane Katrina, one I cherish to this day, is profoundly simple: Do not be afraid! Never in my wildest imaginations could I conceive of an event as dreadful as the storm. The death, the destruction, the loss, the pain, the despair: emotions that I had never experienced to […]
Loss comes with permission
The loss of nearly everything reveals the true value of what you have left. Fifteen years ago, the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina took away homes, family photos, and heirlooms, along with the necessities of everyday life—furniture, dishes, towels, sheets, electronics, toys—gone in an instant. When New Orleans Seminary families dressed in hazmat suits to salvage […]