Discipleship: The Future of the Church

In this article from the Trinity School of Ministry’s publication “Seed and Harvest” (Spring/Summer 2021), the Church of the Resurrection in Baltimore, MD is featured as a leader in the Anglican Church for their discipleship. By understanding that spiritual growth with numerical growth happen together, prioritizing the integration of new families, and focusing on community group ministry, Resurrection has witnessed God’s blessing through COVID-19.

COVID-19–A Mixed Blessing

Patrick states, “With COVID-19, we are having to rethink what church is and how to do it. While there will always be a place for in-person worship, I can’t imagine a world where we wouldn’t also offer the service virtually. People who we don’t know are watching us online now, but they may never step inside our door.” Brad reports, “Virtual Morning Prayer has been a means of formation and discipleship that never would have happened if not for COVID-19. Virtual gatherings can help to align and deepen what we are doing in person. For example, Compline over Zoom will probably attract more people than if we have it in person, because they don’t have to drive a half hour to participate.” Patrick adds, “The blessing of the pandemic is that it is rewriting things. We are doing a lot of things online that we would never have dreamed of.”

Some of those things include a once-a-month hymn sing implemented by their music ministry team—one gathering recently receiving 1,700 views. They are holding in-person worship, as well as live-streaming the service. ResKids, a weekly, virtual children’s ministry, engages the children and includes activities that tie into the gospel with videos that are helping parents teach the gospel to their children.
Additionally, they are making phone calls to everyone in their directory, because they haven’t seen some people since February 2020.

Both Brad and Patrick worry about the people whom they haven’t seen, especially their older members. They can’t predict the attrition that they will see as a result of COVID-19, but they are confident that they are being faithful to the gospel in their ministries, and believe that God is working in their midst. As Patrick concluded, “This has been a movement of the Holy Spirit. He’s used the many talented people that he has brought to our church.”