After a fire destroyed the historic red brick sanctuary at First Baptist Dallas, church officials say they are making progress in the cleanup and returning to their normal schedule.
“Our people are very resilient and they’re hopeful about the future,” said Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News earlier this month, Jeffress said there have been some minor inconveniences, with some buildings unable to be occupied.
The damage to the sanctuary “has been so extensive” that teams have not been allowed to search for what items may remain, with archives and a library located in the basement.
“They are still in the process of securing the site and beginning the work of removing the debris,” Jeffress said. “So, it may be a little while until we’re able to see what, if anything, has been saved.”
The pulpit placed in the sanctuary in 1890 survived, he said, adding that “we thought that was a little miracle in and of itself.”
Executive pastor Ben Lovvorn stood in a clearing among the debris at the site, where he said the pulpit once stood, in a video posted to social media on Aug. 20.
He said the team working to clear debris inside the shell of the building was making “great progress,” and that a restoration company was working to clean up steel bars and other debris that served as a backdrop to the video.
Only the shell of the building will remain, he said.
The church got approval from the city to preserve the exterior walls of the historic, red brick sanctuary after the fire downtown on July 19 severely damaged the building, which is the church’s secondary chapel.
The chapel served as the church’s primary place of worship for more than a century until First Baptist Dallas opened a new facility in 2013. On Aug. 21, a Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson said an investigation into the blaze is ongoing. The fire’s cause is still undetermined.
First Baptist started in 1868 with just three men and eight women, according to a story by The News on the church’s 150th anniversary. The church now has about 16,000 members.
Jeffress is a religious leader well-known nationally. Jeffress, who leads the church, is a regular contributor to Fox News and was one of former President Donald Trump’s most prominent Christian advisers.
People will see that what’s being rebuilt at the site will be better than what was there before, Jeffress told The News. The church posts pictures of the devastation “not to wallow in sorrow” but to praise God that no lives were lost in the fire, he said.
“All of this is a reminder that the church is not a building, it’s the people,” Jeffress said. “It’s the people who are the church of God, and although we lost a treasured building, nothing of eternal value was lost.”
