DALLAS — Editor's note: The video at the top of this article aired on Monday, July 22.
After the Friday fire at the First Baptist Church of Dallas that sent plumes of smoke above the Downtown Dallas was finally extinguished, fears quickly turned to concerns over what, if any, future might exist for the historic, 133-year-old building that had gone up in flames.
Would authorities deem the still-standing, fire-damaged parts of the building too unstable to be saved?
After promising on Sunday that it intended to "rebuild that sanctuary", and after filing to Dallas Fire-Rescue on Monday a roughly 200-page report detailing their plans to preserve the remaining structure, church leadership eventually on Wednesday got an answer about next steps for their beloved building.
In a video update posted to the church's Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon, Executive Pastor Ben Lovvorn announced that the church had received formal approval from the city begin work on preserving the three walls of the church that still stood in the wake of the fire.
"Now, I can make no guarantees about how that work will go or even if it will be successful -- but we do have approval to try," said Lovvorn, who both met and married his wife in the damaged structure. "We're going to do everything that we can to preserve these exterior walls of our historic sanctuary."
Lovvorn called the approval "an answer to prayer" and revealed that construction crews would begin the process of preserving the remaining structure as early as Thursday morning.
"There will be a new structure of scaffolding and cabling that is built around the walls of this historic sanctuary," he said, alerting churchgoers to changes they might see on campus as a result of the preservation efforts. "That's being put in place to secure these walls and keep them in place, so we can begin demolishing the site, cleaning the site and ultimately coming back and rebuilding this structure in an even greater way that will facilitate the gospel work of the First Baptist Church of Dallas. "
Lovvorn additionally detailed in Wednesday's video the status of other cleanup efforts across other portions of First Baptists' campus -- the worship center, the Horner Family Center and the Criswell Center among them -- in the wake of the Friday's fire.
Later this week, he said, crews will make a determination on whether their cleanup efforts have progressed to the point of service returning to the worship center this coming Sunday, or if services will instead be hosted at the convention center for the second week in a row
Lovvorn also asked his church for ongoing prayer as their community continues to rebound from Friday's fire.
"Keep praying for the things that you've been praying for," he said. "One, now that we have approval to begin the work to restore this site, [pray] that that work would be successful. Pray for the protection of the crews that are doing that work and that we'll be able to achieve that objective and preserve these historic walls. Two, continue to pray for the work that's going in the remainder of our campus -- pray that that work will go well, and we won't have any issues, and that we'll be able to return to worship here in Downtown Dallas sooner rather than later."
Finally, Lovvorn's update concluded with thanks.
"We're so grateful for your gifts," he said to the congregation. "We're going to need them in the days ahead, but we're confident that God is going to do great things."