First Baptist Dallas may return to its fire-ravaged campus Sunday

dallas — First Baptist Dallas members are getting closer to returning to their downtown Dallas property after a four-alarm fire ravaged their historic sanctuary.

"The Worship Center looks wonderful. I was in there yesterday, and I texted our pastor," Dr. Ben Lovvorn said. "I said the Worship Center looks, feels, and smells great."

Lovvorn is the executive pastor of the Dallas megachurch. On Sunday, he told congregants who had to go to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center's main arena for the past two Sundays about their chances of returning to the property.

"Barring any surprise, I'm fairly confident that we will be together worshipping in our Worship center next Sunday morning," he said.

Lovvorn said everything, including the building's systems, elevators, escalators, media, internet, and life safety systems, must be checked out first.

In the meantime, he said crews are working around the clock to put beams and scaffolding up at the site of the scorched facade, where they are accustomed to having services.

"We are confident that we're going to preserve much of that historic sanctuary---the exterior of those walls," Lovvorn said.

The pastor also told the church he had no answers about how the fire started. He said the investigation could only proceed once First Baptist Dallas got the grounds safe enough for fire investigators to do their job.

"The priority has been to secure those walls and make sure the site is safe," He said.

The damage to the church's Criswell Center is significant enough that he said members would be unable to use it. The night of the fire, he said, the building took in dark smoke, lost power, and had a flooded basement.

The impact on the church's artifacts remains unclear. A church spokesperson said the items are all digitized, but they have not worked through everything damaged or what didn't make it.

The hull of the former sanctuary is where destruction occupies the place where members came to worship.

Mike Judd, the president of the Dallas County Pioneer Association, said the First Baptist Dallas fire reminded him of Notre Dame in April 2019.

"The wooden structure tends to burn straight up, very hot, and very quickly, but that type of fire tends to leave the exterior walls intact and reusable," Judd said.

Judd's Dallas County Pioneer Association is a non-profit organization that preserves and promotes the history of pioneer-era properties and facilities. The 1868 genesis of First Baptist Dallas is on their page.

"This is not just any church that burned. It's the flagship church for decades and decades of the Southern Baptist Convention," Judd said. "I think for prominence, it probably has no equals."

As for what the rebuilt First Baptist Sanctuary could look like, Judd said he's not a member. He does have a vision.

"Leaving a corner with smoke damage at the top of one of the windows, all those cornices around the edges that have the smoke damage, yeah," Judd said. "Leaving one or two of those as a reminder of 2024 and the fire. That would be a wonderful call back to what happened this year."

In a statement to CBS News Texas about the new sanctuary, Lovvorn said, "We are confident God is going to do great work in the days ahead. We are beginning to make plans to rebuild. Whatever we ultimately do will both honor the history and spiritual heritage of our church and express an excited optimism for the future." 

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