The Year 2021 in Review
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest in your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
As we stand at the crossroads of two years, the one just passed and the one now to come, we reflect on what the Lord has done among us. This past year came on the heels of 2020 – a time of global, national, and local unsettling. In our church body, 2020 also included a change in our location, modified services, and continual adjustments to policies, protocols, and procedures. Amid the challenges we have faced over the last year and a half, God has been remarkably faithful and kind to our body, deepening the connections and bonds within our church family and securing our focus onto His eternal kingdom and His ancient paths.
In great contrast to the year before it, 2021 has felt like a year of settling (#hallelujah). We have settled into our new building and into the regular cadence of our Sunday Services. We celebrated our 10-year anniversary, a landmark of transition from being a “church plant” to a more established (although still very dynamic) fellowship in this region. We have settled into our new name (goodbye all previous variations, hello “Antioch Raleigh”) with a new website and a sleek new t-shirt. The significance of these examples is not a celebration of the brick, mortar, and pews of a building nor the shine of an updated brand – the significance is the beauty of an established church family whose intent, to its core, is to find the good way and walk in it.
What is the good way? What are the ancient paths? We believe that this is the way of Jesus, and our objective is to draw near to Him, to continually encounter His presence, and to be transformed into His likeness in every area of our lives. We do this through prayer, worship, community, and equipping. And while we certainly have not arrived at perfection, we find that the further we step away from the strife, performance, and politics of the world’s ways and further towards the good, ancient, and eternal ways of The Kingdom, like the verse above promises, we sense an increase of rest in our souls.
We rejoice in the fruit of this year and thank The Lord for His hand on us. We rejoice from a place of humility, knowing that our striving and efforts produce nothing that lasts but that the Lord is building His Kingdom through us and among us as we trust in His ways and rest in His goodness.
A Taste of the Fruit of 2021:
Family
This year we had the joy of celebrating several new marriages, a bumper crop of babies born, and families opening their homes to foster care. We also carry grief from the passing of our brother and friend, Jim Benedict, and the loss of several babies to miscarriage. We spent the summer of 2021 with a training focus on family, a charge we believe the Lord is highlighting, underlining, and emphasizing for us to contend for and equip our people in. We move into this next year with faith that we will see breakthrough in fertility, healthy marriages, and healthy families as we press into the ways of God.
We also had the joy of celebrating several baptisms this year, both on Easter Sunday and this fall. We have seen great growth in our Youth Crew and are excited for the teenagers who get to participate in this dynamic, strategic discipleship ministry. Antioch Kids has also continued to grow (and grow and grow) and in 2021 launched two new classes to accommodate our youngsters. This year, our kids and youth have been challenged to mature in the prophetic (with “listening to Jesus” time starting in the Preschool class) and discipleship (with guys / girls ministry time and Discovery Bible Study methods beginning in the Elementary class).
Equipping
Sunday Morning: We see our Sunday Mornings as both an opportunity for an encounter with God’s presence and as a training ground, believing that the purpose of each teaching is to help further prepare, equip, and challenge our church body in walking out the ways of Jesus. This year we have covered 3 sections of our D-Cycle: Delivered, Disciplined, and Developed, and we spent the summer focusing on developing healthy families as we heard from different couples in our church who shared their stories, hearts, and wisdom.
Antioch Discipleship School: In 2021, we had an ADS graduating class of 10 students in the spring and the launch of a new class of 19 students in the fall. The ADS is walking through 9-months of focused and strategic teaching and training specifically in the ways of being effective Disciples of Jesus and stepping toward each person’s unique calling.
Discipleship Intensive: This year our College Ministry launched the Discipleship Intensive – a summer-long “boot camp” for college students who wanted to spend their break diving deep into theology, training, and preparation for a lifelong walk with Jesus.
Lifegroup Training: In 2021, our Lifegroup Leaders spent four Saturdays of their year getting further trained, equipped, and encouraged as they help facilitate, lead, and host the weekly house-to-house communities of our church.
We also had the honor to glean from special guest speakers this year: Chris Gore, Mick Murray, Scott Lycan, Chase Moore (Discipleship Intensive), Tracy Evans, Craig Terndrup, Drew Steadman, Travis Nicholson, Trey Green, Bob Mumford (Discipleship Intensive) and Rachel Wortman (Women’s Gathering). And of course, it was so awesome to have Colby Lehmann back to share at our Ten-Year Anniversary.
Missions and Evangelism
This year we saw a lot of great strides in our focus on missions. As part of a global / missional church-planting movement, we are committed to continually sending, praying, and launching men and women onto the mission field.
In 2021 we participated in two corporate-wide weeks of fasting and prayer for missions as well as monthly gatherings where those with a heart for missions had a chance to learn more and become further envisioned in how to fulfill that call. We also had an encounter night hosted by our Missions Team where we spent an evening with focused and strategic prayer over the unreached nations that we are invested in. Our missionaries had a time of homestay where they both gave and received from our local church as they continued to wait, due to Covid, to be launched back overseas. We also have begun preparing for our missions' efforts in 2022, which will include blessing several missionaries as they fly the coop as well as launching long-term and short-term teams into Mozambique this summer.
In addition, we have also had the joy of beginning our first year of Alpha Course, a place of hospitality and study specifically meant to serve non-believers. We have seen a large growth in our International Student Ministry. And we have also had the pleasure to serve our local community by participating in our second year of A Community Christmas (20 families blessed and connected with), partnering with the efforts at Hope Pregnancy Center through our spring ADS “Life” initiative, and supporting the Gaming Ministry that meets in our facility and is volunteer ran.
Community
There has been exciting growth in our community in 2021. In addition to fresh faces, we also have grown by two new Lifegroups this year (not including the college ministry). The women in our church have met for two dessert nights in 2021 as well as a day-long Women’s Gathering where we experienced remarkable depth of worship, teaching, and physical healing. The passion and equipping for discipleship continued to grow as many have begun and continue to meet for one-on-one discipleship, for group discipleship (D Groups), and several of our college students have committed to living in gender-specific discipleship-based housing (D House). We also launched our Young Adult ministry this year with the goal to shepherd the young people of Antioch Raleigh as they walk through the unique transition from college to adulthood. Our college ministry has grown tremendously in both numbers and, more importantly, maturity, with leaders emerging within and from our fantastic group of students.
Presence
It is our heart to experience the Presence of God and we believe the way to best facilitate that is through prayer and worship. Our prayer team met diligently during 2021 on Sunday Mornings to pray for our services and all the going-ons within our church body. We also had several encounter nights in 2021 where we spent the evening in prayer and worship, including nights of prayer focused on healing (Chris Gore), missions, and racial reconciliation. This summer, our worship team led a set at Awaken the Dawn Raleigh, a two-day prayer and worship event. And from our dedication to becoming increasingly healthy and free people, we also have equipped 10 new Restoring The Foundations ministers here at Antioch Raleigh this year.
Looking Towards 2022
As we stand at the crossroads of these two years, we now look expectantly towards 2022. May the work of the Lord that has begun in us continue to grow and be cultivated in Antioch Raleigh. May we mature into people of presence and purpose, learning to walk in deeper levels of health and freedom in our individual, family, and community lives. And most importantly, may we be a people who are alive with anticipation for the return of our bridegroom. Whether He comes back in 2022 or a year further down the road, may we be a people whose eyes are searching, whose hearts are ready, and whose lamps are full, in preparation for His return for us, His beautiful bride.
