Antioch Baptist Church North has stood on Atlanta's Westside since 1877, a sanctuary that grew out of a Thursday prayer meeting of eight former slaves and now draws a multigenerational congregation to its worship center on Cameron M. Alexander Boulevard. The congregation describes itself as Bible-based, Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-led and mission-bound, with four working pillars, Fellowship, Evangelism, Doctrine and Stewardship, that frame everything from Sunday worship to its urban outreach arm.
From the Bethursday Prayer Band to a 148-Year-Old Congregation
The congregation began when Oscar Young, Miles Crawford, Jordan Beavers, Lem Wright and four other freedmen in Atlanta's "colored quarters" organized a prayer group they called the Bethursday Prayer Band because "the meetin' be on Thursdays." Their earliest gatherings were held outdoors, in shanty one-room structures and in the back of a butcher shop where one member worked. In 1895 the group borrowed two hundred dollars from the Southern Home Building and Loan Association to purchase a basement structure at 7 Wallace Street, paying the note back at $1.20 a month and clearing the loan in record time in 1899. That same year, the prayer band changed its name to Antioch Bible and stepped into the twentieth century with "jubilant enthusiasm."
The Antioch name was chosen deliberately. The founders knew it was at Antioch that the term "Christian" was first given to converts and that the city served as Paul's point of departure for his missionary journeys. By the early 1920s the young congregation had grown to include property owners, skilled laborers and a few readers and writers, and in 1924 it borrowed three thousand dollars to build its first "new" sanctuary, a clapboard structure on a tall stone foundation that doubled as a fellowship hall.
During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s the congregation weathered the Great Depression, the loss of its property to foreclosure and the displacement caused by the construction of Herndon Homes. In the 1940s and 1950s, under the energetic leadership of the Rev. D. T. George, Antioch reorganized its auxiliaries, expanded its choirs and turned the sanctuary's facade from Lambert Street, later renamed Northside Drive, toward Kennedy Street to keep the building in place during a state highway project. That street would itself be renamed in 2010, when the City of Atlanta rechristened Kennedy Street NW as Cameron M. Alexander Boulevard in honor of the pastor who would lead the church for nearly five decades.
Six Pastors, One Continuous Family
Antioch has been served by six pastors in its long history. After the earliest ministers remembered through oral tradition (the Revs. Jerry Davis, Harris, Briscoe, B. T. Harvey and Alfred C. Williams), the Rev. Timothy Saine guided the church through the 1920s and led the construction of the first sanctuary. He was followed by the Rev. T. H. George in 1927, who steered the church through the Depression; then by the Rev. D. T. George in 1943, the charismatic pastor who reorganized the auxiliaries still in use today. The Rev. W. Marcus Williams served from 1963 to 1969 and started a church credit union and a daycare center.
The longest tenure belonged to the Rev. Cameron Madison Alexander, who accepted the call to Antioch in 1969 and served for forty-nine years. Under Pastor Alexander the congregation grew from fewer than five hundred members to thousands, the annual operating budget expanded from about thirty thousand dollars to more than five million, and the staff grew from one part-time employee to forty-five full- and part-time workers. He presided over the acquisition of more than eighty-seven parcels of land, the construction of a multi-million-dollar worship center dedicated in 1990, and the founding of Antioch Urban Ministries, Inc. (AUMI) in the early 1990s as an umbrella nonprofit for the church's outreach work. He also served as president of the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia, Inc. During his tenure Antioch planted eight mission churches, five of which grew into thriving congregations: Lakemont, New Hope, Faith, Loving Spirit and New Horizon Baptist churches.
The Rev. Kenneth Lamont Alexander, the sixth pastor, was consecrated on Sunday, March 31, 2019. Known affectionately as Reverend Kenny, he is the son of the late Rev. Dr. Cameron M. Alexander and Dr. Barbara J. Alexander, a third-generation Baptist preacher, and a graduate of Morehouse College and Argosy University. He was licensed and ordained at Antioch and had previously served the church as President of the Minister's Alliance, Presiding Minister of the Antioch Lakewood Mission for more than twenty years, Assistant to the Pastor and Co-Pastor. He is married to Lisa Kathleen Gilbert, and the couple have two daughters, the late Kathleen Nicole and Ashley Lauren, and three grandsons.
The Four Pillars: Fellowship, Evangelism, Doctrine, Stewardship
The congregation organizes its life around four Biblical pillars drawn from Hebrews 10:25, John 15:16, Mark 4:2, Psalm 24:1 and Luke 12:42. Fellowship calls members to gather for workshops, special services and the regular assemblies of believers. Evangelism is the church's commitment to witness to at least one unchurched person during special events and bring that person into the life of the church. Doctrine is nurtured through Sunday School, Nurturing Baptist Church classes, revivals and other learning experiences designed to deepen understanding of Baptist beliefs and practices. Stewardship asks members to give cheerfully and consistently of their time, talents, money and resources, recognizing that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof."
Worship and Christian Education Through the Week
Sunday School begins at 9:00 AM each Sunday, with preschool classes (ages 3-5) meeting at 8:30 AM. Children ages 6-11 gather in Room 8, youth ages 12-17 in Room 9, and adults in the Music Room, with online Zoom attendance available for each class. The Sunday Worship Service follows at 10:00 AM and is offered both in person in the main sanctuary and online, livestreamed on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram as part of the Antioch Baptist Church North Network (ABCNN).
Wednesdays bring the Antioch School of the Bible Classes from 6:00 to 6:50 PM, followed by the Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting and Wednesday Night Bible Study at 7:00 PM, also streamed online. The Terry West Bible Class meets on Wednesday mornings from 10:00 AM to noon via Zoom. A weekday Noonday Service is held Monday through Friday. Worship services and Bible study continue to be livestreamed online, and ministry activities are offered on a variety of virtual platforms.
A Youth Ministry That Spans the Calendar
The Youth Ministry keeps a packed calendar with Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Children's Choirs, Ushers' Ministries, Athletic Ministries, Bow Ties and Pearls, plays, an orchestra, Sunday Youth Days, educational and cultural trips, Black History Month observances, Easter speeches and plays, youth outings, oratorical training and a tea party. Antioch's young people participate in the National and State Congresses of Christian Education, and the ministry's rhythm gives children and teenagers a steady place in the life of the congregation.
Antioch Urban Ministries: Feeding, Clothing and Healing the Community
Antioch Urban Ministries, Inc. (AUMI) is the church's nonprofit umbrella for outreach. Its Food Bank partners with the Atlanta Community Food Bank to provide food for more than four hundred families each week, and during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic AUMI nearly tripled its distribution, serving more than thirty thousand clients with over one million pounds of food and adding prepared hot meal distribution three days a week plus delivery to seniors. The Apparel Shoppe, formerly the Clothing Bank, distributes donated apparel, toiletries, shoes and other necessities to men, women and children weekly. Annual Back-to-School and Christmas outreach efforts support hundreds of Atlanta children each season.
Recovery is central to AUMI's identity. Through partnerships and its own programming, AUMI has helped more than seven thousand men and women rebuild family relationships and sustain sobriety. The recovery ministries include Ananias House, Luke's Place, Billups' and Job's Place for men, Ruth's Place and Lydia's House for women, and Matthew's Place for persons living with HIV. The Malachi Ministry mentors at-risk youth aged 7 to 17, the Serving Our Seniors (SOS) Ministry connects residents aged 55 and older to vital community services, and the Mental Health Ministry, launched by Pastor Alexander, raises awareness and connects members to professional resources.
During the pandemic AUMI partnered with Fulton County to provide $350,000 in rent, mortgage and utility assistance, distributed more than $100,000 in small business loans, supplied personal protective equipment to health providers, and partnered with the Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) to operate a designated COVID-19 testing and later vaccination site. Morehouse School of Medicine has joined AUMI for community health fairs offering basic vital checks, healthy cooking demonstrations and educational materials.
The Bethursday Development Corporation and the English Avenue Community
Beyond the worship center on Cameron M. Alexander Boulevard, Antioch has long shaped the physical landscape of Atlanta's Westside. The Bethursday Development Corporation, named for the original Thursday prayer meetings, has stewarded more than eleven prized acres between Joseph E. Boone Boulevard and Jett Street, along with four and a half acres of former CSX railroad right of way, as the canvas for revitalizing the English Avenue community. The Gateway Apartment Community, completed in partnership in 2004, brought 261 units of quality affordable housing fronting the street, and the first phase of twenty-eight townhomes on Elm Street, just two blocks west of the church, was completed in 2008. In 1991 Antioch also acquired and converted the twelve-story Walton Hotel into apartments for the working homeless and persons with noninfectious tuberculosis; the building was renamed Madison House in honor of Pastor C. M. Alexander's middle name and later sold in 2012 to expand AUMI's outreach ministries.
Streaming, Giving and Staying Connected
Worship services and Wednesday Night Bible Study are livestreamed on the church's Facebook page, YouTube channel and Instagram feed, and an archive of recent services and Bible studies is available for on-demand viewing. Giving is accepted online through the church's Givelify page and through the giving portal. The Sunday School ministry hosts its classes on Zoom, and forms for prayer requests, directions and other needs are available through the contact page.
A Sanctuary Rededicated for a New Generation
In 2022, as the congregation prepared to celebrate its 148th anniversary, Pastor Alexander oversaw a critical sanctuary upgrade that included a state-of-the-art audio-visual system, new flooring, lighting and pew padding, along with a new roof after storm damage. A Sanctuary Rededication Service and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony opened the anniversary year. The same year Antioch held the inaugural AUMI Recovery Walk to raise awareness about substance abuse. The congregation's leadership remains rooted in the founding Bethursday Prayer Band's conviction that wherever God's people are gathered, in person or online, the church remains "a beacon of hope, a place of refuge, and a living testament to the greatness and goodness of God."