2020: Our Year In Review
/When we look back on this year as a church, the word that comes to mind is "INCREASE." We have seen a great amount of increase in so many areas, specifically in the areas of Prayer, Community, Family, Discipleship, Development, and Servant Leadership. Keep reading to learn more about what the Lord has been doing at Antioch Raleigh in 2020!
PRAYER
In 2020 we saw an increased passion for prayer nurtured in our church demonstrated through regular prayer gatherings and initiatives. When Covid-19 shut downs began, we rallied together and began meeting daily for virtual prayer. Once we moved into our new church location, we embraced the simplicity of meeting outside and used it as an opportunity to prayer walk the surrounding neighborhoods for several weeks. May our prayer culture continue to develop and strengthen in 2021!
COMMUNITY
In 2020 we saw growth within our church community and we began to invest further in our local community. When the world shut-down, our community moved online and since then we have seen new LifeGroups form (including an exclusively virtual LG) and new ministries develop. We have been able to partner with other local ministries, including Your Choice Pregnancy, Wake County Food Security and other local churches. We have had the honor of serving meals to our local community since April and are still distributing food bi-weekly to those who are food insecure due to Covid. This Christmas we rallied as a church and with the leading of our ADS we were able to provide meals and gifts for 60 families in our local community. May we continue to grow in our friendships as a church body and may we become a greater blessing to those around us in 2021!
FAMILY
In 2020 we saw our family grow. Young couples got married, a handful of babies were born, and families are growing through foster / adoption. We have had the honor to welcome some of our missionaries from overseas that have returned for their homestay. And our church body has been blessed by new brothers and sisters joining our fellowship this year. May our families continue to be blessed and expand in 2021! May we further learn how to resemble a healthy church family by honoring and loving one another and may our passion for Jesus lead us into deeper relationships with one another in 2021!
Discipleship
In 2020 we saw an increased focus on discipleship relationships and in spite of (or because of) such an unusual year, there has been a deepening in the relationships and life-on-life discipleship among our international and college students. Our college ministry had one of our most fruitful semesters yet in terms of seeing people learn how to follow Jesus, seeing the wayward return to fellowship several students making the decision to follow Jesus for the first time in their lives. We have also seen our youth group grow and gather weekly, learning how to develop into disciples who make disciples; eagerly learning how they can mature into men and women who will change the world. May we continue to be dedicated disciples who make disciples in 2021!
Development
In 2020 our church structure was flipped on its head and we suddenly had a high need for online communications which resulted in the development of two new teams: The Communications Department and The Production Team. As a church we spent a season corporately developing our love for the word through the Study of Luke series. In the fall we launched our '20–'21 Antioch Discipleship School with a focus on development – what is the calling and ministry the Lord has for each student and how to become best equipped and deployed into it. Antioch Kids developed through the restructuring of the classrooms and the implementation of a new, awesome curriculum. As a church we have pressed into being further developed into a free people through the teachings of our Delivered series and by training several people in Restoring The Foundations freedom ministry. And we have implemented quarterly trainings for all of our LifeGroup leaders so that they feel further equipped and supported as they continue to facilitate their weekly gatherings. May we continue to develop into healthy, empowered individuals who have the wisdom and ability to further develop God's Kingdom in 2021!
Servant Leadership
In 2020, there was a lot of church-wide shifting and change, from our church location to our church structure (with months of weekly changes becoming the norm). This resulted in a much higher need for "all hands on deck" and man, did our folks rise to the occasion! From our first ever Antioch work days to the increase of people who have joined serve teams, we have seen so many servant leaders step up this year. It has been awesome to see the fruit of so many people raising their hand and serving our body in new ways including (just to name a few): worship nights, advent readings, a clean facility to gather in, and an increase in the amount of quality care and teaching our kids are receiving on Sunday mornings. May we continue to grow further into the resemblance of Jesus, the ultimate servant leader, in 2021 – paying attention to the needs of those around us and eager to insert ourselves to help meet them!