Daniel Edmonds said for his team — as with most people — the COVID-19 pandemic caused them to rethink everything.

Edmonds, who serves as director of the office of Sunday School and discipleship at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said the type of ministry he equips churches for had to change dramatically over the past year as meeting in person became difficult or even impossible.

“When COVID happened, many churches got caught thinking linearly,” he said. “We’re trying to create space for people to think creatively about what they’re doing.”

And recently, Edmonds’ office experienced another big change too — two longtime staff members, Jamie Baldwin and Eileen Mitchell, retired on the same day.

‘CREATING A STRATEGY’

All of that together put Edmonds’ office in a space to think creatively too — and that brought on the hiring of new staff focused on making disciples and reproducing groups. Two of those new staff members — Steve Layton and Mark Gainey — are working with him to produce tools called Connect316 and 4 Invitations to help churches “create a strategy that matches their mission,” Edmonds said. “We want to help them think through ‘Who are the people I’m trying to connect with? What’s the plan? And what are our steps to carry out that plan?’” …continued

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