From the Pastor - Building the Church

On no, here the preacher goes again, haven’t we just finished building that beautiful and very used Covenant Community Center; haven’t we been in the renovation stage of our sanctuary and so looking forward to being back in there by Easter? I am not talking about building anymore church buildings; well with the exception of adding some space to our Covenant Early Learning center in the near future. But nope, I am talking about building the real church, not simply our church facility. The church we are building is the eternal church of Jesus Christ that will last for an eternity.

We have been commissioned to help build the Kingdom of God; which in my way of thinking has us help people who have no relationship with Jesus Christ to explore, find, and develop that relationship until they are completely “sold out on Jesus too!” As their relationship grows, then they are enabled to go right back out to help others also form that redeeming and powerful life changing relation too. This means that each of us must be willing to be discipled and be committed to growing in our faith alongside other believers too. In this newsletter you might find a brief description of our ongoing groups that can help you along your journey. In so joining, you will be building the church.

Our worship through Easter, also has us looking at building blocks of building Jesus' Church, as we emulate what Disciples Do: follow, belong, worship, pray, work, celebrate, believe and go. I hope you remember I asked us who want to follow Jesus to: Daily submit our wills to Jesus, Pray, Read God’s Word, and then weekly to Worship and to do Random Acts of Kindness. In so doing, you will be building the church.

I am excited that just this week, some of the Covenant leadership agreed to working with Dr. Debra Davis of LSU and the United Methodist Foundation to help us establish a goal and vision for our future. No one plans to fail, but many fail to plan and as such never continue to grow. We owe taking these steps to enlarge our ministry for Jesus. The Foundation has given us this opportunity at no cost for this professional to help guide us as we build the church. We may be looking at adding worship opportunities; service opportunities, educational opportunities. We are the only limiting factor in our continued building the church.

I am glad to be a part of this loving generous Body of Christ we call Covenant and look forward to many years together as we build the church of Jesus Christ in this area of our world. Can’t wait to see where Jesus leads us.

See you in your place of worship,