As most of you know, I have been the lead pastor at Bermuda Baptist Church since 2005. If I were to ask you why it was named Bermuda Baptist Church, what would you say? A while back, I received an e-mail from a gentleman who stated that he wanted to come to our church when his cruise ship docked at our island. I had to let him know that cruise ships do not dock in Chester. The lack of identity in our name led our leadership to begin a conversation about rebranding, renaming, and revisioning a church that has been a part of the Chester community since 1980. I cannot tell you the number of times that people have told us that they never knew that we existed.
If you have driven by our church, located at 13912 Jefferson Davis Highway, you have seen our new name, Mission Community Church. You may wonder, how we come up with that name? We developed a survey that our present membership, attendees and guests filled out. The two words that rose to the surface were “mission” and “community.” We are a missional people, seeking to make Christ known in Chester, Baltimore, and all around the world. We also believe that our church is a community of believers.
This name led us to a vision statement that will propel us into the future: building the Kingdom through mission in community.
One thing that you may notice is that Baptist no longer appears in our name. We have been asked if we are still a Southern Baptist Church and the answer is absolutely. We are Baptist because we believe, preach, and teach that the Bible is the inerrant, inspired, and infallible Word of God. We also believe that believers are baptized by immersion once a person has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, repenting of their sin. We believe that taking Baptist out of our name removes a barrier to the unchurched that was never meant to be a barrier.
On March 3, we radically transformed our campus inside and out. We decided to paint the outside brick using a paint sprayer and a lift in 40-knot winds. We did some landscaping outside and painted the inside, predominantly our children’s space. Can you picture a purple wall? You should have seen the expressions and heard the responses from our children. It was on this weekend that we also launched our new social media strategy. Visit our website at missionco.church/, then go to and like our Facebook page.
There are still many things to be done, but this has been an exciting journey for our church family. Our launch date for us to officially become Mission Community Church will be Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018. That day will start with a sunrise service at Henricus Park at 7:30, and you all are invited! Our praise team, one of the best that you will ever hear, will lead us in a Resurrection celebration (I might be a little biased). At 9:30, we will meet at Mission Community Church for an Easter breakfast. Again, you are invited. If we run out of space or food, I will consider that a good thing. At 11 a.m., we will celebrate our first official worship service as Mission Community Church. For a third time, you are invited to join us. I do not know if you will understand this, but we have made all these changes for you. If you are looking for a church and even if you aren’t, come check us out.
