August 28th Sermon Download Available

This morning's sermon, Doubting Thomas? by Rev. Byron Aucoin, is now available for free download from our website. http://tinyurl.com/5j6nl3.

August 21st Sermon Download Available

This morning's sermon, The Camel and the Eye of the Needle, is now available for free download from our website. http://tinyurl.com/5j6nl3. This is part of Brother Chris' sermon series of Parables.

Midweek Reminders - August 16, 2011

Last Summer Solace
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is our final Solace Service for the summer. At 5:15pm we will have a light dinner and then move into the Sanctuary for the service at 6:15 for music, communion and a brief devotion by Brother Bernie Shamp. Come, join us in fellowship and worship.

Saturday, Men's Breakfast
All men are invited to join us this Saturday morning for our monthly Men's Breakfast. Beginning at 8:00am, we'll eat, fellowship a little, and then we have a few indoor projects around the church to complete. Like we need a reason to use tools.

Mandatory Acolyte Training Saturday
Also this Saturday at 9:00am, we'll have our annual Acolyte training session. This session is MANDATORY to ALL Acolytes, new and returning. If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Manuel.

Pilates Resume Tomorrow Morning
Tomorrow, Wednesday, morning at 8:00am the Pilates class will return to their regular weekly schedule. There is room for everyone, so come, join them.

Sunday School Promotion......Yea!
This Sunday all kids move move up to their new Sunday School classes. Come a little early so you can find out where to go.

We offer Sunday School classes from Toddlers to Adults - something for Every Age. All beginning at 10:10 Sunday mornings.

Much, Much More...
Please keep an eye out on the Sunday bulletin, our monthly newsletter as well as our webpage, blog, Facebook and Twitter pages for many more activities here at Covenant.

I look forward to seeing you at these and other activities.

Music Scholarship Recipients Announced

I am glad to announce the music scholarship recipients for the 2011-2012 school year.

Chase LaBure returns to the drums in the praise band, Redeemed. Chase, from Destrehan, Louisiana, is studying Music Media at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

 We are pleased to welcome Auriel Campbell, soprano, to the Chancel Choir. You may remember Auriel from our 9:00am service several months ago where she played flute as part of one of our choir anthems. She is a senior at Lafayette High School and has studied voice privately with both Karen Melancon and Shawn Roy.

I know you are going to enjoy the contribution that these two wonderful musicians will add to our worship experiences. Let us all give thanks to God.

August 14th Sermon Download Available

This morning's sermon, Hidden Treasures, is now available for free download from our website. http://tinyurl.com/5j6nl3. This is part of Brother Chris' sermon series of Parables.

August 7th Sermon Download Available

This morning's sermon, What's Your House Full Of?, is now available for free download from our website. http://tinyurl.com/5j6nl3. This is part of Brother Chris' sermon series of Parables.

Recognition of Our Own - Jim Sides

We want to take a moment and recognize one of our own, Jim Sides, on this wonderful occasion. Jim, we love you and are proud of you.

Texas Tech 2011 Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

James Sides

From Double T Association:

Comprising the 2011 Hall of Fame class are softball player Sandy Butler, men's basketball player Richard Little, baseball player Shane Wright, and football players Larry Gilbert, Brad Hastings and Jim Sides.

The Hall of Fame Banquet will be held Friday, Oct. 7, starting at 6:00 p.m. in the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Banquet Hall. The new honorees will also be recognized prior to the football game the next day. Banquet tickets are $50 each and $500 for a reserved table of eight. Contact the Double T Association at (806) 771-4000 for tickets. 

Sides was a three-time All-Border Conference fullback between 1953 and 1955. He was twice named Honorable Mention All-America and still holds the school‟s career record with 6.2 yards per carry. Of note, he lost only 3 yards in his career and never lost a fumble. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and played professionally in Canada. He resides in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Butler was the only Red Raider named to the Big 12 "10th anniversary team" in 2006. Four times she received All-Big 12 honors – three times being named to the 1st Team and once to the 2nd Team. She was named 2nd Team All-American in 1998 and NFCA All-Midwest Region Team in‟98 and „01. Butler resides in California.

Little was twice named 1st team All-SWC at guard. He led the Red Raiders to the 1973 SWC championship and was described by Gerald Myers as "one of the most complete guards to ever play at Texas Tech" and "an outstanding offensive and defensive guard". Little resides in Abilene.

Wright was one of the outstanding pitchers in Red Raider history. Named 1st Team All-American in 1998 by Collegiate Baseball, ABCA and NCBWA, his 14 wins that year remains the highest single-season wins total in school history. In addition, he set records for innings pitched and complete games. He followed his stellar ‟98 campaign with 3rd Team All-American honors in ‟99. Twice named to the All-Big 12 regular season and All-Tournament teams, he is the school‟s career record-holder in games started, wins, complete games and innings pitched. He resides in Minneapolis.

Gilbert highlighted his career with 2nd Team All-American honors in 1966 while leading the SWC in receiving. He was also Consensus 1st team All-SWC that year and later 2nd team All-SWC in 1967. He left Tech second on the school single-season and career receptions and yardage lists. His 12 receptions and 159 yards against Florida State in „66 were both school records which stood for 35 and 17 years, respectively. Gilbert resides in Dallas.

Hastings was a three-time All-SWC performer at linebacker and earned 3rd team All-American honors in 1986. An outstanding run-stopper, he held the school record for single-season tackles from 1985 until 2002. He also led the team in tackles in 1984 and 1986. He left Tech the career leader in tackles and remains #2 on the list. Hastings passed away in 2009.

The six will bring the number to 163 people who have been inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame/Hall of Honor since its inception in 1961.

Another Message from Covenant or the Preacher may get it right this time!

First Sunday is this Sunday, so we really will have Holy Communion.

I know most of you got a good chuckle at my mistake last week. It wasn't my first and sure won't be my last. But this coming Sunday, I have been assured is really the first Sunday of the month, which means Holy Communion and I CAN Food offering.

Marie Smith who delivers our offering to UCO, said it was a God Send. More people then ever are needing help, so Praise Be to God that one of our ways our church provides ministry is the offering of a few can goods and staple items to help out others. So come prepared this First Sunday to offer again if all possible with this vital ministry.

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Our Preschool Ministries is currently looking for a 2 year-old teacher. If you love them and have had some experience working with young children, whether volunteer or paid, please prayerfully consider becoming a part of our preschool team. This is a 5-day a week position where you can help children learn and while doing so, play all day long! For additional information or for any questions you may have, please call Kim Havard at 988-3962 or 278-2340.

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My message this week is on another of the Powerful Parables of Jesus, the parable of the Empty House.

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Upcoming events: 
August 14 - Church Council and Trustees Meeting
August 20 - Mandatory Acolyte Training
September 7 - First Wednesday Night Dinner and Covenant Academy - classes on Marriage Relationships, Book of Revelations, and Get Fit.

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Finally - It appears as if the deadline for some type of resolution to the impass at Congress may happen today. I don't really know how I feel about it, doubt if it does anything close to what needed to be done, but it certainly reminded us of how difficult it is to make the tough decisions. Pray for Our Congress, our President and for our Nation.

Sunday, someone asked me to pray because they were to have some medical procedure this week and I know I said, please write it down because I can't remember a thing someone tells me on Sunday, with all the conversations I have. So please if it is you or you know someone having a medical procedure this week, please let me know by emailing me back. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Preschool Update

We are already nearing the end of our summer session. It’s hard to believe that it has passed so quickly. We’re looking forward to fun jumps and ice cream the last week of school. Our fall session will be starting on August 22. We are getting our classrooms ready and are in need of a few things. Any donation of toys that you can make would be great. We are looking for gently used toys of any kind (no weapons, please) that are not made of fabric (for sanitary reasons). We are particularly in need of a couple of kitchen sets or tool bench sets. Also on our list are kid-sized pants hangers – those plastic ones you get from the stores when you purchase pants. All donations will be greatly appreciated. Please call the school office to make arrangements for pick-up or drop-off. Yes, we’ll come get it, if you’d like!

We are also looking for a volunteer to help us with an ongoing project this year. We are going to collect Community Coffee and Campbell Soup labels. We need an organizer! If you would be willing to help with this, please call the school office.

One more volunteer opportunity: storyteller in chapel. We have chapel twice a week during the regular school session and would enjoy having someone besides Ms Kim tell the story sometimes! It’s simple...the entire chapel time, including the pledge, announcements, a song or two, recognition of birthdays and the Bible story is only 15 minutes long. What a great witness...to share Jesus with these little children!

Kim

From the Associate Pastor - August 1, 2011

Wow, just a month before we are back to our Wednesday night suppers and Bible studies.

The Christian Academy for adults and children will begin on September 7th and offer three different classes this fall. Melissa Bowen will facilitate a 12-week “Marriage Enrichment” series and Pastor Chris will start a 6-week study on “John’s Letters to the Seven Churches in Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation”.

Something new this fall—classes on nutrition and exercise. The classes will focus on our theme of “living a healthier lifestyle” by planning and cooking healthier meals and exercise programs geared to each person’s physical needs and abilities.

Organized Chaos

Nope, not talking about my desk, because right now there is no organization at all. I am talking about VBS, in fact I'm talking about the church. As I write this article, we are smack dab in the middle of our excellent VBS Program—Panda-mania. Thank you Jennifer Manuel, and all our many, many volunteers. But what you could observe from the outside, are these children being herded around the premises as they are guided from crafts to snacks, to video to story time to outside play time and around. If you didn't know better, or maybe if you knew all too well, it certainly looks like organized chaos. But why not, because I suspect that is often what church looks like, too.

During one of my recent sermons, I shared from a book entitled “Going Home” by Robert Raines, about the nature of the authentic church. “It's not a neat, tidy, sober congregation, seated heatedly side by side all facing forward, but the church is a milling around, shoving, laughing, loving crowd- a combination of Moses and the whining mob- all making our way through the wilderness, but all headed toward the promised land.” Amen, brother Amen! Organized chaos!

Here at Covenant, we can observe some folks headed toward worship, some headed toward Sunday School, some toward service in the music, children, youth, and other service areas, some gearing up for Pumpkin Patch, others coming to exercise or weight loss programs, while others come to fellowship. Some of us are confident, others of us are doubtful. Some of us are wandering, others of us are wondering. But, together we are all headed in the direction of the promised land.

My function as your pastor is to help you along the journey. I can't make you nor would I want to. All I ask is that you ask the Lord where and what you should be doing for His Kingdom. We have lots of opportunities for you to jump right in as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I love worship, but you miss so much of the riches of the church, if that is all you do. Some of you who get this newsletter, need to evaluate if you are even doing that enough to reflect your Love of God.

We are on the move here at Covenant. It is my prayer, soon, and very soon, we will be unveiling the details of our building program here and asking people to step up and help us make that dream come true. We will be adding opportunities for you to learn God's Word, to hear about God's desire for improving our marriage relationships, hearing about our need to put our financial house in order as a spiritual act of worship, and we will be adding opportunities for our church family to get healthier so we might better serve the Lord. You don't need to do them all, but surely you can find something to jump right in and add to our organized chaos around here.

See you each and every Sunday at our place of worship.

A New Goal for the Fall

The Summer seemed so short this year. But the heat is still not done with us yet.

I know most of us still have a lot to accomplish before the Labor Day weekend (the actual end of summer). Especially those who are going back to school or getting those ready and back in school. But once all of that is done and schedules are calmed down, I'd like for those of you who have been resisting, to consider joining the Chancel Choir or Handbell Choir. These crucial ministries require minimal time obligation and are rich in fellowship and Godly rewards. One does not have to be a musical savant to be in either group but just have a love for praising God.

Scripture calls ALL of us to be involved in ministry in the church. And these are two of the easiest. Call me during the day (981-2088) or email me at ken@covenantum.org with your questions or to set up a meeting.

We've room for you. You'll never know what God will enable you to do until you try.

God bless,