Hey Centennial,
Why would anybody come to our church?
The reason we choose this question as the title for our summer sermon series is to help us acknowledge a reality. It’s a hard reality and for some of us, we might rather ignore it.
People have lots of good reasons not to come to our church.
People see churches as political puppets, money hungry manipulators, intolerant critics, and closed-minded hypocrites. When we turn to scripture, we find a wildly different picture. Scripture defines the church as
- A gathering of people whose lives point to Jesus.
- A gathering of people dependent on the Holy Spirit.
- A close-knit, mutually beneficial fellowship.
- A place where God grows people and their gifts.
How do we reconcile such diametrically opposite images?
Rebecka Sutton is preaching on Sunday. She will explore the tension in these questions. Here is where she will land.
The church reveals the wisdom of God.
When God established his church, he decided to do it in one of the most bizarre ways. He takes our broken, stumbling, we-often-mess-it-up lives and reveals himself through us.
Karl Helvig
Lead Pastor
CENTENNIAL COVENANT CHURCH
P.S. I’m in California this week at our denominational annual meeting. Council member Jeff Warren and Pastor Nicki Nickerson are also delegates to the conference and are attending virtually. We would appreciate your prayers for the Evangelical Covenant Church as we do the important work of welcoming new churches to our fellowship, ordaining pastors, celebrating God’s work through us, and conducting the business of the church.