For two years, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has been closed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19, Atlanta Fox 5 reports.
“We thought it was going to be six weeks, thought maybe a month. ‘Okay everybody we’ll see you Memorial Day weekend,'” recalls lead pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant of the national lockdown.
“Then it was Fourth of July, Labor Day weekend. Then it was ‘oh this is here!’… The difficult part was [determining] when do we open?! We knew we had to shut down. We shut down immediately,” said the pastor to the news station.
However, lead pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant publicized that the sanctuary opened its doors on April 15 in celebration of Good Friday and will host special guests Bishop T.D. Jakes and gospel artist John P. Kee.
For the Easter weekend, the church will provide a course of events fittingly titled ‘The Return.’
On Saturday, New Birth will drop by The New Black Wall Street Market from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. to support Black vendors and businesses. The weekend will conclude on Resurrection Sunday, April 17, with Bryant delivering a sermon in person at 9:30 a.m; gospel artist GMA Dove award-winning gospel artist VaShawn Mitchell will also appear.
Like other churches, New Birth reverted to virtual worship services during the pandemic to remain connected to its members and the community.
Dr. Bryant said he held services at Air BnB’s, the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in museums. Wherever his parishioners were mobile, they could access his sermons and worship. The pastoral staff tapped into their creative bag and came up with innovative ways to deliver the gospel.
“So it took the sanctity of the stained-glass windows and released it to the street corner,” he said.
The church’s scheduled events will happen at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, located at 6400 Woodrow Road in Stonecrest.
“It’s going to be the sanctified Essence Festival. Come with everything but a cooler. We are coming in for a family reunion. We’re able to hug each other again. To be able to worship to be able to see each other. It’s not just church, it’s family. It’s community.”