Covenant??

HMMMMMM……I have been attending a Covenant church for years…..

I just started attending a Covenant church a year or so ago…….

I saw a sign for a new church starting in our community….a Covenant church……..

But what does it mean to be Covenant?

Must have something to do with the Old Testament.

I don’t want to have to promise anything to you people….I hardly know you.

It is like…..Lutheran? Baptist? Methodist?

These are statements I have heard many times and I am always thrilled to be able to tell someone what it means to be part of the Evangelical Covenant Church. For one thing, we are part of a big picture across North America. We believe in the Bible as the Word of God, the new birth, the whole mission of the church, the fellowship of believers, dependence on the Holy Spirit, and freedom in Christ. That is what we affirm but what does that look like in action?

In April, the Northwest Conference Women Ministries team organized the first ever all conference retreat celebration. The annual meeting the year before had attracted only 60 women and this overnight event in Alexandria MN gathered 280 women!! Five of those women were from my church 2 hours away. We are a church that is 100 years old but has gone through some huge changes in style, vision and congregation in the past 5 years. The Women Ministries is in the process of slowly rebuilding…….almost like a church plant. Most of our attenders know very little if anything about the Covenant church.

The four women that came with me were all at different stages of understanding what it means to be “covenant”. One was a life long member, one has been attending for about 10 years, one for about 5 years and another for 3 WEEKS!! What a great time we had on the 2 hour drive, getting to know one another; then to arrive at the church and be so warmly welcomed by old friends and new. We heard great speakers, helpful workshops, sweet worship and then a wonderful overview of what the women of the Covenant are doing. My friends were amazed……impressed…….challenged to get involved…..excited to be part of such a denomination…..surprised at how much women were doing in the world and glad to be part of it in their own way.

What did I learn from that experience? That women want to be part of something meaningful, global, local, loving, organized and yet contextual. They love connecting with one another and then thinking of ways to bring along their friends.

Whether you are part of an established church, one that is a few years old or one that is just starting up it is good to know what you are part of and what they have to offer. Go to the covchurch.org website and snoop around. Share it with your friends.