Within hours of church fires breaking out across Bibb County and into Chilton County, Alabama Baptists were scurrying around to offer assistance to four Bibb Baptist Association churches.
Calls poured in from around the state as Steve Patrick, director of missions for Bibb Association, attempted to get a handle on what had just happened.
During the night between Feb. 2 and 3, six churches were torched in Bibb and Chilton counties.
Four of the six churches are part of Bibb Association — Rehobeth Baptist Church, Randolph; Ashby Baptist Church, Brierfield; Antioch Baptist Church, Centreville; and Old Union Baptist Church, Randolph. The other two churches were Pleasant Sabine Baptist Church, Centreville, and New Harmony Church in neighboring Chilton County.
Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) joined state and local authorities the morning of Feb. 3 to determine the cause of fires that “were set as fast as they could drive from one location to the next,” Bibb County Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Weems said, according to The Associated Press.
“It’s either somebody or a group who has a vendetta against Christianity or Baptists,” Patrick said.
Leaders at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) were quickly moving to offer financial assistance, mobile chapels to replace destroyed church buildings and prayer support.
“We have two mobile units on standby right now,” said Ron Parnell, coordinator of the office of information and facility services for the SBOM. These units will go to Ashby Baptist and Rehobeth Baptist, both of which Patrick said are “completely gone.”
“We are waiting on the area to get stabilized and for them to find a place for us to set up the units,” Parnell said at press time.
Rick Lance, executive director of the SBOM, said at press time, “Also we’re providing some appropriate financial assistance for all four Bibb Association churches whose facilities were damaged or destroyed by fire.”
SBOM is also providing financial assistance to Pleasant Sabine, a predominantly black non-convention church that also burned to the ground.
“It’s only because of Alabama Baptists’ generosity through the Cooperative Program and the general disaster relief fund that we’re able to offer some financial assistance,” Lance said.
“This crisis illustrates how critical it is to support the Cooperative Program, associational missions and disaster relief on an ongoing basis.”
While Ashby and Rehobeth were total losses, Antioch and Old Union sustained damage but escaped complete destruction. All four churches, Patrick said, run less than 100 on Sunday mornings, and all five churches that were affected are located within 10–15 miles of each other.
Members of all the churches are “a little bit in shock, but they are going to go on. They’re pretty resilient,” he said.
Patrick added that the churches are already planning to get in the mobile chapels and get back to business as usual. “The next step is to continue on. Desecration of a house of worship is serious but will not stop us. We will rebuild and we will worship on Sunday.”
Jim Parker, pastor of Ashby, said his church will be rebuilt. “We’re in the process of making plans for this Sunday and beyond,” he said.
David Hand, pastor of Old Union, said the damage to the church was basically caused by two separate fires. The damaged areas include the pulpit, remembrance table, American flag and carpet around the flag and remembrance table. “They also kicked in the back door,” he added.
Hand said that a member of Ashby called a deacon from Old Union when the Ashby fire was discovered about 4 a.m. By 4:05 a.m., the deacon was on the phone to Hand. “I was in [dis]belief,” he said. “I couldn’t understand why.”
He said the community remains in disbelief. “Our congregation is pretty upset, but we are also thankful because others lost a lot more than we did. There is a lot of sadness around the area, but we are all pulling together.”
Church members have a place to turn for help in dealing with their emotions and reactions after the fires if they need support, said Bob Murdaugh, director of communications for the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH).
According to him, the group has made its counseling services available to members of affected churches at no cost. “Our professional counselors are specially trained in crisis intervention and debriefing counseling,” Murdaugh said.
He noted that as time goes on and members return to the church sites, more needs may become apparent. “We want to work in partnership with what the association is already doing to respond,” Murdaugh said.
At press time, Gov. Bob Riley, along with Lance and Bobby Welch, president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), was expected to visit the churches over the weekend. The three were to tour the damage and offer encouragement to the congregations.
“I am overwhelmed with concern and tremendously burdened for the pastors and members of the churches as well as the communities in which they have carried out Christ-centered ministries throughout all these past years,” Welch said.
“This is one of the many critical times when I am so, so thankful and proud of our SBC churches that give through the Cooperative Program to help in circumstances like these,” he added. “We always do better together, and the Cooperative Program certainly proves that in times like these.”
Without fail, Welch said, the more than 16 million Southern Baptists are urgently concerned for these sister churches whose fires occurred within “a curious time frame.”
According to CNN, Jim Cavanaugh, ATF special agent in charge, said there has not been an organized attack on churches in the South since the late 1990s.
Some of those blazes — including those at three black churches in Boligee, about 55 miles west of Centreville — have never been solved, he said.
Lance said the crisis illustrates at least two truths. “First, we live in an imperfect world in which we experience tragedy. Second, these tragedies of life present us with ways to respond proactively in sharing God’s love by helping others.”
Share with others: