Rev. Kenneth Alexander, Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church North, delivered an uplifting and optimistic devotional message at the April 17th Virtual Transform Westside Summit. Rev. Alexander, drawing inspiration from the book of Nehemiah in the Bible, acknowledged the negative impacts that COVID-19 continues to have on Atlanta residents while also encouraging attendees of the online summit to not let those negative impacts overshadow the many reasons for which one may still give thanks.

“Sometimes, when things seem to be at their worst,” says Rev. Alexander, “God and his people are at their best, and I have seen us at our best during this terrible time.”

Rev. Alexander gave thanks to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Fulton County, as well as his congregation for their respective roles in helping to sustain Antioch’s food bank as it continues to serve community members in need. He also gave thanks to several other stakeholders on Atlanta’s Westside, including Chick-fil-a, the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, and Westside Future Fund, for continuing to pay employees who remain focused on serving the Westside community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rev. Alexander then gave a special thanks to Dr. Gregory Antoine, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at Morehouse School of Medicine and Chief Medical Officer at Morehouse Healthcare, who helped convince him during a March 15th conference call of the need to encourage Antioch’s congregation to stay home and practice social distancing. The call may have helped save lives as Rev. Alexander acknowledged, “had it not been for that call, I would have made a different decision.” He continued, “That was on a Saturday. By Saturday afternoon, I went on Facebook, and I asked all of our members to please stay home and live stream the service because I wanted our members to be safe.”

Continuing to express gratitude and optimism during his closing remarks, Rev. Alexander highlighted, “on the news they’re reporting how many deaths there are, but who can count how many lives have been saved because we are working as a group?”

View Rev. Kenneth Alexander’s devotional message in the video below beginning at minute 16:30.