New Wineskins Conference Testimony from the Chases
I (Michelle) grew up in the Anglican church. My childhood church was All Saints Church in Woodbridge, VA. My dad retired from the Navy and went to Trinity Seminary while I was in middle/high school and planted a church from All Saints after being ordained.
Fast forward - John and I met, married, and blended a family, and lived in southern Maryland. After a few years, we moved to Virginia when my dad's church, Christ Our Lord Anglican, invited John to come be the worship leader. We served at this church for 10 years, John leading worship and I serving a the director of Children’s ministry. The church began to dwindle after my dad retired, and we ended up closing the doors to the church in 2015.
Through a series of Holy Spirit led events (one of those was a dinner at a dear friend’s house with Sharon Steinmiller), John and I ended up at the New Wineskins Conference in 2016. To say we were impacted would be a vast understatement! We were already doing mission work in Jamaica, and we felt the Lord calling us to more full-time, on-the-ground mission work. So we explored and considered what this would look like in Jamaica.
Shortly after New Wineskins, we attended the ACNA Synod at All Saints. One of the speakers at the pre-synod was Jay Baylor, who had an Anglican church plant in Baltimore. We were aware of the plant because Jack Grubbs, who was one of the core members of my dad’s church plant, was the assistant pastor. After many events led by the Holy Spirit, we knew we were being led to go join Jay and Jack in Baltimore. We left our comfy suburban life in Northern Virginia and moved to Baltimore City. There we, with Jay and Jack, worked hard at building relationships within the community. We served through giving away food, doing big outreach events, serving at the schools, and serving alongside other community partners.
John and I attended the New Wineskins Conference in 2019, and our lives and hearts were once again tremendously impacted. We were moved by so many of the stories we heard, though we still wondered if God would call us to serve overseas. But we took what we received there and poured it into our new city.
A few months after the New Wineskins Conference, we closed the doors to Church of the Apostles in the City because the church was so small and we thought our resources would be better used to bring the church out of the building and into the community. Little did we know, Covid would hit a few months later. We began to give away food boxes weekly to a community that was greatly impacted by the shutdowns. We developed such a beautiful community of volunteers during these giveaways. Many of those volunteers came from our sister Anglican Church, Church of the Resurrection in Timonium, MD. Many of the volunteers were also people who lived in the community.
It was out of this community that BE Transformed was born! BE Transformed is a home in the Belair-Edison community in Baltimore City that provides a safe place for children and their families to come learn experience the radical love of Jesus through play, art, Bible study, tutoring, and provision. Our team at BE Transformed consists of members from Church of the Resurrection and members of the community. Church of the Resurrection continues to support us in many ways such as collecting Christmas gifts for children in the community where we serve, Thanksgiving bags, school supplies, Easter baskets, coats, etc. While we feel called to attend church in the city, our ties with Church of the Resurrection and its leadership and members are deep.
And when we attended New Wineskins in 2022, God confirmed to us over and over that we were right where we needed to be: That we are missionaries in a city that desperately needs the love of Jesus.
John and Michelle Chase married and blended a large family over 20 years ago. Throughout their marriage they have served in the church, community, and overseas. Seven years ago God called them to serve in Baltimore City. After spending years building relationships and serving alongside the schools, police, and other community partners, they opened a ministry home in the heart of the community to serve a safe place for children and their families. You can learn more about their ministry, BE Transformed, at www.betransformedbaltimore.com.