Featured App: New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore
“Don’t wait another moment to get the nourishment you need for your day!” That is the invitation behind the New Psalmist app, which connects the members of New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore with ministry information, events and “special video content viewable 24/7/365,” along with live worship every Sunday. For a church with more than 125 years of history and a 4,000 seat worship center, it is a modern way to keep a very large church family close. The app is built with AppPresser.
In this featured app spotlight, we take a closer look at the team behind New Psalmist, what the app does, who it serves, and why it is such a strong example of what happens when a WordPress site and a mobile app work together.
Who Is Behind New Psalmist Baptist Church
New Psalmist Baptist Church is one of Baltimore’s best known congregations, located at 6020 Marian Drive and online at newpsalmist.org. It was founded in 1899 by Rev. Junius Gray as the Right Independent Freewill Baptist Church, beginning in the basement of a house on Russell Terrace with fewer than twenty members. Rev. Gray pastored the church for 47 years, and it was renamed Psalmist Baptist Church along the way. Under Rev. Frederick C. Atkins, who was called in 1948, membership greatly increased, the church moved to Druid Hill and North Avenues, and it took the name New Psalmist Baptist Church.
Bishop Walter S. Thomas Sr. was called to pastor in April 1975, and over five decades the church grew tremendously. It moved downtown to Cathedral and Franklin Streets in 1978, opened a worship center and ministry complex on 19 acres on Old Frederick Road in 1996, and in the fall of 2010 moved into its new 4,000 seat worship facility. Word in Black has described New Psalmist as “one of the nation’s most influential Black churches,” with a congregation that at one point reached 7,000 active members and visitors over the years that included Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Jesse Jackson, Bishop T.D. Jakes, former President Bill Clinton and then-Sen. Barack Obama.
In August 2023, the church elected its fourth pastor, Dr. Walter S. Thomas Jr., who grew up in New Psalmist and preached his first sermon there in 2001. A cum laude graduate of Morehouse College with a Master of Divinity from Howard University and a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary, he served as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Steelton in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from 2014 before returning to Baltimore. He serves with his wife, First Lady Jarrette L. Thomas, and Bishop Thomas Sr. now serves as Pastor Emeritus. The church’s mission is “to make life better for someone else,” through partnerships with local schools and nursing homes, a food pantry for anyone in need, help for families at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a new partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
What the New Psalmist App Does
The New Psalmist app is designed to keep members connected to everything happening at the church, all week long. It opens to a bold home screen with four large buttons, Watch Live, Join New Psalmist, Events/RSVP and Resources, and a bar along the bottom keeps the Bible, Notes and Give one tap away from every screen.
Here are the main areas the app covers:
- Watch Live, so members can join worship services live from the app every Sunday and at other scheduled times.
- Join New Psalmist, a path for visitors who are ready to become part of the church family.
- Events/RSVP, with upcoming events, worship invitations and the ability to RSVP.
- Prayer and Praise Wall, where members can submit a prayer request and tap Pray For This to stand with others.
- Resources, including a Business Directory, a Connection Center and a Prayer Calendar.
- Notifications, which keep members up to date on Sunday School, food pantry days, new teaching series and more.
- Bible, Notes and Give, always available in the bottom bar for reading, taking sermon notes and giving.
The Prayer and Praise Wall is the feature that makes the app feel most like a church family. Members share what is on their hearts, and others can respond with a single tap to let them know someone is praying. Alongside it, the notifications feed shows how the app supports the church’s ministry beyond Sunday, with reminders like the food pantry schedule and alerts when Sunday School with the Bishop is starting or a new Empowering Disciples lesson is out.
The New Psalmist app first launched on Google Play in December 2014 and on the App Store in March 2015, and it is free on iPhone, iPad and Android, where it has been installed more than 5,000 times.
App Screenshots
Here is a look at the app. Use the arrows or the numbered buttons to move through the screenshots.
Watch Live, Join New Psalmist, Events and Resources.
Join us for our upcoming events.
Resources: business directory, connection center and prayer calendar.
Notifications.
Test Drive the App
The best way to understand the New Psalmist app is to try it. Download the free app, join a service live on Sunday, and visit the Prayer and Praise Wall to see the church family in action.
Key Features That Stand Out
Watch Live
The home screen puts the most important action first. Watch Live lets members and friends of the church join worship services in real time from anywhere, whether they are traveling, homebound or just running late. Next to it, Join New Psalmist, Events/RSVP and Resources make it easy to go from watching to getting involved.
Upcoming Events
The Events section invites members to join the church’s upcoming events, with bright flyers and details for each one. A worship invitation, for example, features Dr. Walter Thomas Jr. and First Lady Jarrette Thomas with the Sunday service time. Members can RSVP right from the app, which helps the church plan for a congregation of thousands.
Prayer and Praise Wall
Under a “Let us Pray for you” banner, members can submit a prayer request and see the requests others have shared. Each one has a Pray For This button, so the community can respond to every request with a simple, meaningful tap. It turns the app into a place of support, not just information.
Resources
The Resources section gathers practical tools on one screen, with large buttons for a Business Directory, a Connection Center and a Prayer Calendar. Instead of hunting for links on the website, members can find these church resources in a single tap, right alongside the Bible, Notes and Give buttons.
Notifications
Push notifications keep members in the loop all week. The notifications feed shows reminders like the Saturday food pantry, alerts when Sunday School with the Bishop is starting and announcements when a new Empowering Disciples lesson is released. For a church with Bible study classes every day of the week, timely reminders make a real difference.
At a Glance
- Free to download on iPhone, iPad and Android.
- Live worship every Sunday and at other scheduled times.
- Events with RSVP.
- A Prayer and Praise Wall with one tap Pray For This responses.
- A Business Directory, Connection Center and Prayer Calendar.
- Bible, sermon notes and giving always in the bottom bar.
Who New Psalmist Serves
The first audience is the members of New Psalmist Baptist Church. With a 4,000 seat sanctuary, Bible study classes held every day of the week, a three year discipleship program, leadership classes and much more, there is a lot happening. The app gives members one place to watch services, RSVP for events, take notes, give and keep up with announcements.
The app also serves members and friends who cannot always be in the building. Live worship means that people who are traveling, ill, homebound or living far from Baltimore can still worship with New Psalmist every Sunday. For a church whose influence reaches well beyond the city, that matters, and the 24/7 video content gives them a way to stay connected between services.
Finally, the app serves the wider Baltimore community. New Psalmist has long focused on making life better for someone else, from its food pantry to its work with local schools and nursing homes. Notifications about food pantry days help connect neighbors with the church’s ministries.
Technology Behind the App
The New Psalmist app is powered by New Psalmist Baptist Church’s own WordPress site, newpsalmist.org.
The app is built from WordPress, and WordPress drives it. Church pages and events live on the WordPress site, and AppPresser carries that content straight into the app, so updates made on the site show up in the app without a separate system to manage.
Looking at the site itself, these are the platforms behind the experience:
WordPress, the foundation for the church’s website. WordPress is the open source content management system that powers more websites than any other platform.
Divi, with a custom child theme and Divi Supreme Modules Pro, for the site’s design. Divi is a popular visual page builder and theme for WordPress from Elegant Themes.
Gravity Forms, for the site’s forms. Gravity Forms is a WordPress form builder plugin used for contact forms, registrations and more.
Smart Slider 3 Pro, behind the site’s image sliders. Smart Slider 3 is a WordPress slider plugin for building responsive slideshows.
Modern Events Calendar, for events. Modern Events Calendar is a WordPress events plugin.
Popup Builder, for popups. Popup Builder is a WordPress popup plugin.
AppPresser, which turns the WordPress site into the mobile app. AppPresser is a mobile app builder that creates native iOS and Android apps from a WordPress site.
What New Psalmist Shows About AppPresser
The New Psalmist app shows how AppPresser can help a large church stay personal. New Psalmist runs its website on WordPress at newpsalmist.org, where church pages and events already live. With AppPresser, that content powers a native app with live worship, events, prayer and resources, so the church does not have to manage a separate system for its mobile experience.
That matters for a congregation of thousands. In a church this size, it is easy for members to feel disconnected between Sundays. Features like the Prayer and Praise Wall and timely notifications give every member a way to participate and be heard, and live video means no one has to miss worship because they cannot be in the building.
The app also shows how long an AppPresser app can grow with a ministry. The New Psalmist app first launched in 2014, and it has carried the church through a historic pastoral transition, with the app still serving members under a new generation of leadership. It is proof that an app can be a lasting part of how a church serves its people.
New Psalmist in the Press
New Psalmist’s pastoral transition received national attention. In 2024, Word in Black, in a story republished by the NNPA, covered the installation of Dr. Walter S. Thomas Jr. as the church’s fourth pastor, describing New Psalmist as “as much a part of Baltimore as crab cakes, Orioles baseball games and ‘The Wire,'” and detailing the succession process that let father and son walk the journey together.
Congratulations to Dr. Walter S. Thomas Jr., First Lady Jarrette L. Thomas, Bishop Walter S. Thomas Sr. and the New Psalmist Baptist Church family on building an app that keeps a historic congregation connected. We are proud to have AppPresser behind it.
Do You Want Your Own App?
If your organization already runs on WordPress, launching your app with AppPresser is simple. Your app pulls directly from the website you already manage, so every update you make to your site appears in your app automatically. Ready to get started on your app right now? Check out our pricing page.
Not on WordPress yet? AppPresser can still help. Our team can move your website onto WordPress and then set up your app, so everything works together from the start. And if you need something more tailored, from custom features to a completely custom app, our custom development services have you covered.
If you need help or have any questions, tell us about your organization and what you’d like your app to do, and we’ll get back to you with a clear answer on costs and next steps.
