“I never imagined I would start my ministry in the midst of a pandemic,” Dr. Joshua L. Mitchell said.

But that’s the case for the 33-year-old Baltimore native and graduate of Virginia Union University’s seminary who has just been tapped to be the seventh pastor of Thirty-first Street Baptist Church in Church Hill.

Mostly recently the minister to youth and college students at a mega-church in Houston, Dr. Mitchell is scheduled to formally take the pulpit on Easter Sunday, April 12.

The church, located at 823 N. 31st St., was officially organized 105 years ago.

“Increasingly, it looks like my first Sunday preaching will be in an empty sanctuary,” Dr. Mitchell told the Free Press, based on what he heard during a conference call Monday between Gov. Ralph S. Northam and faith leaders.

Dr. Mitchell is a prime example of how ministers and their congregations are seeking to adjust to the emergency conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Undaunted and showing the energy, initiative and caring that made him the top choice of the search committee and the congregation, Dr. Mitchell said despite being more than 1,000 miles away, he has begun working with the church’s lay leaders and congregants on keeping the church’s 450 members together.

“Every crisis calls forth our creativity,” said Dr. Mitchell, who is the son of the Rev. Marlow L. Mitchell, pastor of Rising Sun Baptist Church in Washington.

The closure of church buildings to help stop the spread of coronavirus “is accelerating restructuring in some of the ways we connect that are important to 21st century ministry,” he said.

The graduate of Howard University who earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees in ministry at VUU, said that in the past week, he has helped the church link with Facebook and its live video streaming that allows for interaction with people with computers and smart phones.

He said the church’s Facebook page has been dormant since 2017, but the new capability means “we can do fresh things.”

He said he worked with Carolyn Brown, chair of the Trustee Board, to set up the new Facebook.com/31sbc to link congregants to remote worship.

The church also has set up a connection through FreeConferenceCall.com to enable those without such equipment to call in to listen to services.

Dr. Mitchell provided the first test in leading two services last Sunday in which he urged his listeners not to miss what God is offering as a result of the crisis and to stay calm, connected and committed.

On Tuesday night, he led a Bible study via Facebook and conference call.

He also has worked with church officials, such as the Finance Committee chairperson, Alesia Gibbs, and the current and past chairs of the diaconates, Lorraine Claiborne and Beverly Wynn, to enable the congregation to continue their support through online donations.

“We are moving,” he said, noting that one congregant already is ensuring the Facebook page is updated. He said the next step would

involve creating small teams to sup- port the online operations while “I focus on creating content.”

When he arrives in mid-April, Dr. Mitchell, who has earned attention for his 2018 book, “Black Millenials and the Church: Meet Me Where I Am,” will take over from the Rev. Alvin Campbell, a retired Henrico County schoolteacher and associate minister, who has served as interim pastor for the past two years following the retirement of Dr. Morris G. Henderson in January 2018.

Thirty-first Street, which traces its roots to 1875 and its actual founding to 1915, received 117 applications for the pastor’s position and winnowed them down to six finalists, according to Dr. Peyton McCoy, a consultant on business and leadership strategies.

Dr. McCoy said a VUU seminary professor encouraged the church to invite Dr. Mitchell to apply. She said Dr. Mitchell quickly moved to the top of the list based on his ability to relate to people, his preaching ability and his experience as a youth minister at the 15,000-member Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston where he has overseen a staff of 10.

Dr. McCoy said Dr. Mitchell impressed everyone during his three-day visit to Richmond in early February with his ability to connect with people and with his sermon. “None of the other finalists came close,” she said.

Dr. Mitchell has been with Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church since 2013. He and his pediatrician wife, Dr. Lori Mitchell, moved to Galveston, Texas, after he graduated from VUU’s divinity school in 2012 so she could start medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The couple now has a year-old son.

“I didn’t know anything about Thirty-first Street,” he said when he was first approached, but said he found himself increasingly attracted as he went through the process.

When he visited in February, he said, “I found a group of loving people and a church with a beautiful sanctuary and a greater potential to be a blessing for the community and the Richmond area.”

He said he was impressed that the church has long had a Boy Scout troop as part of its commitment to young people, has a community garden to provide fresh food and operates a feeding operation for those in need.

“The church has laid a good foundation,” he said, “and has a potential for growth, not just as a place of worship, but as a greater resource for everyone from young people to seniors in the community and the Greater Richmond area.”