How do you revitalize a 140-year-old urban church facing the stark possibility of closure? In 2021, Abbott Memorial Presbyterian Church faced this question.

Abbott has been a faithful witness to the city since 1882. Many early attendees were immigrants, and over the decades, new immigrants came from Germany, Poland, Greece, and more recently, Central America.

Photo: Christi and son Xander

Pastor EC Holmes recetly received his Bachelor's in Theology at Metro Baltimore Seminary.

The pandemic served as an accelerator to speed up the dramatic attendance drop we've seen over the last 20 years. Weekly attendance dropped from 137 to 65 before the pandemic in 2020. While larger churches are showing a strong comeback now, smaller churches are continuing to decline or close.

Our gala was a feast of testimonies, food, fellowship, and encouragement! "Very informative program, delicious dinner, great fellowship," said one attendee. People heard about our four engines for disciple-making: Metro Baltimore Seminary, Church Renewal, Micro-Churches, and Baltimore Sports Academy.

Metro Baltimore Seminary’s inaugural graduation ceremony featured twenty-five students who earned B.A. or M.Div. degrees!

We are delighted to see all that God has done in Baltimore Antioch Leadership Movement in just three years.

We will share highlights of the last three years and future goals in our upcoming Gala Event on May 13, 2022, from 6:30-8:30 pm. Guests will enjoy a delicious banquet, hear from men and women impacted by BALM’s ministry, meet BALM staff, and be invited to pray for and support BALM. We'll be blessed by our emcee, Tracey Tiernan Coiro of SHINEFM and Your Day Brighter podcast.

Volunteers needed: we need help setting up/breaking down tables for the event. If you can help, please contact Tracy Taylor here.

We are also looking for individuals to help by sponsoring a table ($500) or half table ($250). Table sponsors will be given 8 free tickets to distribute to individuals who might be interested in BALM. please scan the code at left, or click this link to go to BALM's donation page and in the comments area, write TABLE SPONSOR. Questions? Contact Tracy Taylor here.

The church in America faces serious challenges: How do we minister in our changing culture? How do we reach our culturally and ethnically diverse neighbors? How do we raise up new leaders? God is using BALM to address these challenges.

Watch this brief video to hear from some of the people blessed by BALM in 2021.

"Let us not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." Heb. 10:25

Do we need the church? Yes! Even secular research studies prove we need the church.

Isn’t it amazing that God uses us to advance his kingdom? Though we are inadequate to the task, we have his promise: he chose us and appointed us to advance his kingdom in ways that will never be wiped away.

We see some of that fruit! Our first Metro Baltimore Seminary students will graduate in January. Six men and women will graduate from the Urban Ministry and Church Planting/Renewal tracks that Pastors Craig and Stan lead.

BALM’s YUMI director Kevin Good is passionate about reaching urban youth—especially in neighborhoods where churches have fewer resources for this task. “Less-resourced urban churches are in communities where youth have limited support systems to meet their educational, character, and faith needs. The gospel is for the hope, healing and flourishing of Baltimore. How do we help church leaders flesh that out?

Jesus had a B.A.L.M approach: Being with Jesus, Apprenticing to Jesus, Living on Mission, and Multiplying disciple-makers. Jesus's approach was developmental and holistic--head, heart and hands all engaged.

Pastor Derek Pulliam is enrolled in BALM’s Micro-church Missionary Pathway training. He plans to implement this training at the church he pastors, Believer’s Chapel.

BALM's Director of Youth Urban Ministry Institute (YUMI) Kevin Good (far right) is helping the team of the Splash Hoops Academy, a non-profit youth sports ministry in northeast Baltimore city.

More churches have resumed gathering in person, but early reports are that church attendance has decreased significantly.

Even before the pandemic, the percentage of Americans describing themselves as Christians declined by 12% from 2009-2019. The "nones and dones" (those self-identifying as atheist, agnostic of “nothing in particular” rose to 26%. That’s 30 million more "nones".

Pastor Craig recently attended a special service at One Voice Fellowship in Northern Virginia, where 44 men, women, and children from 12 countries took membership vows to join this new, multi-lingual church. The Garriotts have been coaching One Voice church planters Chris and Naomi Sicks, and this was an exciting celebration of God’s work. Gospel-to-Life coaching is one key way BALM fulfills its mission to multiply Christ-centered, cross -cultural leaders for disciple-making movements.

“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. “ John 17:20-21

Just before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed that his followers would be united with one another in the same way (in equal amounts) that He is united with His Father. This unity demonstrates the supernatural power of God, and proves Jesus' message. May God's church reflect this unity!

You may remember the famous line in Mission Impossible: "Your mission, should you choose to accept it..." Of course the star always accepted the mission, which sounded daunting yet vital.

We have far more assurance of the success and importance of our mission to join Jesus in filling the earth with the Good News of his life, death and resurrection.

The first charge that the Apostle Paul gave to Timothy, his young co-worker whom he left in Ephesus to shepherd the church there, was prayer. While Paul gives several charges to promote and deepen the gospel in Ephesus, the first criteria for gospel-shaped living was prayer. God’s people must practice this first order of the gospel-shaped life: prayer.