Beyond 9/11: Southern Baptists still finding ways to minister to New Yorkers

The rubble has long been cleared from the scar on Lower Manhattan that will forever be known as Ground Zero, but the process of healing continues throughout the city and around the world.
   
For Southern Baptists, the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, resulted in an unprecedented Disaster Relief response and related ministry efforts. But it also provided a bittersweet blessing — a strengthened ongoing presence that could impact the city for years.
   
“I believe Southern Baptists and all evangelical Christians are more sensitive to people’s needs and understand something of the urgency in regard to spiritual things in this city,” said J.B. Graham, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New York. “We are approaching more people through ministry evangelism than ever before.”
   
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers were on the scene soon after the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. — ramping up mobile kitchens to feed relief workers as part of a longstanding partnership with the American Red Cross.
   
But the effort quickly became more than that. By the time the response ended more than 300 days later, 643 apartments had been cleaned, 1.29 million meals prepared and 842 children cared for at child-care centers — in addition to other associated ministries.
   
It was the longest sustained response in the history of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, and one that reshaped the network of volunteers in ways that continue to be felt today — including more emphasis on chaplaincy and new partnerships with other relief agencies.
   
Various funds were established early on to allow Southern Baptists to contribute financially to the needs, and by early 2002 a plan named “Enduring Hope” was in place for using more than $3.5 million donated to a number of Southern Baptist entities.
   
Direct benevolence for families of more than 1,500 workers who had lost their jobs because of the tragedy was one of the key uses of the fund, said Larry Brown, who administrated the benevolence fund and now serves as interim office administrator for the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association.
   
Churches have been impacted as well, including one Haitian congregation that added many members because of the benevolence effort and received a grant to help expand its facilities.
   
The fund also provided chaplaincy services, ongoing relief projects, a building in Brooklyn now under renovation to house volunteers in the city on a permanent basis and support for a new church in lower Manhattan — Mosaic Manhattan — that is providing a continuing spiritual presence in the affected area.
   
One of the most significant factors surrounding the heightened Southern Baptist presence has been New Hope New York, a part of the North American Mission Board’s Strategic Focus Cities initiative that will channel hundreds of volunteers and other resources to the city. New churches will be planted, existing churches will be strengthened and other efforts made to touch the city with the gospel.
   
Nelson Searcy, city coordinator for the effort, said Sept. 11 has prompted a new heart for New York among Southern Baptists as a whole and a willingness to be involved in ministry to its people. (BP)