Responsibly Moving Forward

September 16, 2020

Leadership Notes

Grace and Peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Here's a mid-pandemic update on life here at Covenant Church:

* Sunday School is moving out of a holding pattern. While we are still working out plans for children, adult classes are invited to begin meeting this fall. We need a few weeks of time to pass to see how everything shakes out for our children's ministry. We have tied the progress of in-person public schools to gauge when to return to children's Sunday School.

* As adult classes prepare to resume, please note we will maintain our 10:00 a.m. worship time. As a result, Sunday School should go from 9:00 - 9:45 a.m. For now, the shortened class time is advantageous for several reasons.

* Celebrate Recovery is responsibly moving forward.

* MOPS will be doing some shortened one-and-done events. Regular programming will not resume until, at the earliest, 2021.

* Youth ministry continues to gather. We have begun a middle school discipleship group.

* As of today, there has not been a reported case of Covid-19 either directly related or indirectly related to in-person worship. As long as we all continue to make responsible choices, we will be okay. And as always, the people of Covenant Church will be immediately notified if any of that changes.

Now for a few notable quotes to carry you through the rest of your week:

I loved this one, which I shared in worship September 13, "We don't go to church…we are the church…we go to worship." Can something be both simple and profound?

Then there's this beautiful observation by John Piper, "When God Himself is treasured as the reward, He is more glorified than when He is only trusted as the rewarder."

Thirdly, for those of you who enjoy a little snark in your life, the son of

Alexandre Dumas reportedly said, "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." That dovetails nicely with one of my favorites, "I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you." There, now we can be snarky together.

Finally, here's a huge encouragement:

CHRIST BEING OUR FRIEND, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHO IS OUR ENEMY.

- Richard Sibbes, 17th Century Anglican Theologian

With Much Love and Affection,

Richard