Our community needed more leadership at the neighborhood/community association level, so we took the initiative in this opportunity to help.

Michelle Chase, and one other friend, Dwayne Richardson, called around to other community leaders, both formal and informal leaders to ask if they would be interested in joining a Zoom call.  The formal leaders are social workers at the schools, elected community association officers, representatives of elected city council people, leaders of non-profits, other pastors.  Informal leaders are members of the community who know their neighbors and just seem to get things done- these folks are the real gold in the in the community.

We set up a regular Sunday afternoon Zoom call that I host. The agenda is simple: we check in with each other; we discuss the needs we are aware of in the community; we discuss possible solutions to the needs; and we agree on simple next steps. The group is eager to collaborate, and they are thankful for the opportunity to connect.

The value I see in this is the relationship building that is happening in the midst of this crisis.  Leaders in the community who used to not get along have put differences aside to work together.  The relationships and solutions to problems are setting us up to not just deal with this crisis but will prepare us to handle the ext crisis that could be even worse.  

We are encouraged that we will come through this stronger and closer than we were before COVID-19 hit us. We had the advantage of having worked hard at relationship-building before all of this, but now is always the best time to start these kinds of community relationships. This kind of turmoil presents a great opportunity to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. It takes time, but it’s so worth it!

The Rev. Jay Baylor leads Apostles in the City, Baltimore, MD.