This Sunday's sermon, Just Can't Wait, is now available for free download from our website. http://tinyurl.com/5j6nl3.

November 20, 2011 Sermon Download Available

This Sunday's sermon, What Does His Kingdom Look Like?, is now available for free download from our website. http://tinyurl.com/5j6nl3.

This Week at Covenant

Dear Covenant Family

Wednesday Night
5:30pm - Wednesday dinner 
6:15pm - Children's Ministry
6:15pm - St. Jude Bike Walk Debriefing meeting. If you wish to let others know how to improve the walk, please join in.
6:15pm - Mid Month Solace Service. We will gather in the Sanctuary for prayer, praise and Holy Communion.

Saturday
8:00pm - Men's Ministry and Breakfast. 
6:00pm - St. Jude Workers Celebration Dinner - if you helped, come celebrate and eat a great meal together. RSVP requested, please reply to pastor@covenantum.org.

 Again a big thanks to the men who helped make the Flagpole project a big sucess.

Count Me In

Dear Covenant Family,

What another great weekend. Our St. Jude's Fund Raiser was a great success! 152 participants and $10,000 was raised to help fund the research and treatment of cancer in our children. THANK YOU,  THANK YOU, TO ALL WHO HELPED MAKE IT ANOTHER HOME-RUN.

This week is off to another fast start.

Wednesday
8:00am - Pilates Exercise Group
9:30am - Explorer's Bible Study
5:00pm - Handbells rehearse
5:30pm - Wednesday Night Dinner
6:15pm - Children's Ministry midweek event
6:15pm - Holy Communion in Fellowship Hall
6:30pm - Rev. Byron teaching the final lesson of obscure Women in the Bible and what we can learn from their lives and faith.

Friday - Veteran's Day
Don't miss the dedication of our new flagpoles and the very first raising of the flag to honor and remember all the Veterans and Families that have served our nation. Gifts were given so we could have our very own flag and thanks to all the men and women who helped us raise the poles. The unfurling of the flag and raising the flag occurs at 11:11am on 11/11/2011. The poles are situated at the northeast corner of our property. Refreshments will follow.

Sunday Afternoon
Help us Feed the Homeless from 3:00-5:00pm at the parking lot of First Methodist Church (corner of Johnston and Main). Bring food to help us feed our community. Great fun and fellowship. Covenant has always had the largest contingency of any church and I know we will again.

Childrens' Ministries & Preschool Update

It's been a full month of Pumpkin Patch activities for many of our children. Hats off to those who have been there to assist their parents when they were working and to those who have shared with others about the Patch.

We offer several opportunities for children to be a part of the activities in our church. There's Club 456, MPKids, Wednesday night activities and Sunday school. Be sure you bring your child so that they can reap the benefit of the wisdom of these leaders who work so hard to prepare for them to learn more about our Lord.

Congratulations to one of our families...the Nugents have a new baby girl and Jay is a proud new brother. Many thanks to Mrs. Leigh and Mr. Jerry for all they do to assist with our Children's Ministries.

The children in our Preschool have thoroughly enjoyed the Pumpkin Patch. There have been comments every single day from numerous children about "all those punkins." They've had great fun, so thanks to you Covenant Pumpkin Patch Volunteers, for all the effort you put forth each year to provide all this fun!

We are moving into Thanksgiving, where we'll by dying shirts with fruit and tea leaves and setting up teepees and wearing Pilgrim hats and collars. We believe in teaching the children early about their heritage as Americans.

We also believe in teaching them the importance of Christmas. Many of our children are active in church with their families, and most know the Christmas story, but there are some who do not. How fortunate that we have the opportunity to witness to these families and it shows up most at Christmas.

Many blessings throughout this holiday season,
Kim Havard

From the Associate Pastor - November 6, 2011

Just want to give you a heads up for the spring semester on Wednesday nights. We will be offering, beginning Wednesday night January 4, the “Financial Freedom” series by Dave Ramsey. Dave and Diane Redfearn will be the facilitators. This will be a 12 to 14 week study.

If you are interested, please call me or the office so we can begin the registration for our church. Not sure of the cost but we will get the information out as soon as possible. Of course we will offer a regular Bible study as well. Our adult Sunday school continues to grow. Les Stratton will be leading a new class at the beginning of the year. On our web site www.covenantum.org, under “Adult Studies”, you can find all of the classes offered and what each class is currently studying.

The Fred Factor

I was given a book a few years ago, with the above title, with a foreword by John C. Maxwell, a Christian pastor/leadership trainer/motivational type of guy. I was intrigued by the subtitle which merely said: “How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.” I thought that was certainly kind of spiritual if not scriptural, without sounding so religious to chase people away.

 

After a long-long month of October, in which we have had over 7000 students not counting parents, teachers, chaperones here at Covenant for pumpkin Patch field trips; and five full weekends full of great fun events where we played host to other thousands of guest to our campus, I needed to remind myself of some of the “Fred Factors” in life. After all, we have had lots of ordinary people doing ordinary type work, but we certainly expect extraordinary results.

 

Principle #1 - Everyone makes a difference - our Lord and our church, in fact our world needs people who know we can change the world, one person at a time. It seems as if part of being a disciple for Jesus Christ is one who is committed to making a Christian difference in someone's life.

 

Principle # 2 -Success is built on relationships – we can't make much of a difference in the lives of people that we don't have a relationship with or don't care about. Well, we might make a difference, but it certainly wouldn't be the difference Jesus would want us to. Take time to get to know people as you invite them to spend time with you, your church, and your Lord.

 

Principle # 3 - Continually Create Value for Others- In order to make a difference in others lives, we must be determined to add to their lives, not to distract or take away from them. Are you able to either add good stuff to their lives, take away bad stuff from their lives, or are you simply dumping bad stuff upon them?

 

Principle # 4 - Reinvent Yourself Regularly – be committed to growing spiritually and growing as a disciple, so that you will have more of yourself (or Jesus) to give away to others. If you are the same person you were when you first gave yourself to Jesus, then you may either be in a rut or a grave and neither are great places for us to live.

 

Covenant and Our Lord needs us to ponder these principles and to recommit ourselves at being the best disciples possible. We will be building a new facility, and hopefully within the month of November, we will get bids and finalize our financial plans, but we are to be about more than building buildings; we are to make disciples. I am more then committed to lead us to be a church where People Meet Jesus, Hear the Message of Jesus, and then live out our Mission for Jesus. That is when we might need some of the Fred Factor Principles to live out. Find your place among us as we live out our faith.

 

November 6, 2011 Sermon Download Avaliable

This morning's sermon, Heaven is For Real, is now available for free download from our website. http://tinyurl.com/5j6nl3.