Deerbrook Covenant

It is very clear in the Old Testament that people need salvation from their enemies, from themselves and from their sins. There is only One that provides this salvation, the LORD God of Israel. “I alone am God, there is no other.” So, it should be quite shocking that the tiny baby born in Bethlehem is introduced as “the Savior of the World.” Jesus taking on the title of Savior is a mighty claim of...

God is revealing Himself to us! A tiny baby yet King and Mighty God! What a gift that God chooses to come near. God is with us! This Sunday we discover another name for Jesus: Messiah. A tiny baby yet…Messiah. This name is laced with deep meaning that reveals that Jesus is indeed the one for whom God’s people were waiting. We’ll discover the Old Testament connections to the Messiah as prophet, pri...

Our Mighty God, who spoke everything into existence, uses His power to protect and rescue us. In this message, we will explore how God spoke into existence, from the beginning of time, protective boundaries that keep us safe. We will understand why these boundaries are important to our well-being, yet we cannot live up to them on our own. Thus, our Mighty God broke through the boundaries with Jesu...

This Sunday, we will introduce our Winter (Advent) series with discussion of the tiny baby. We will trace the promises in Genesis for a line of kings and discover the royal lineage of the tiny baby born in Bethlehem. Jesus is a descendent of Abraham, Judah, King David and another fourteen kings after David. In his short life of public ministry, Jesus proclaimed ‘the Kingdom of Heaven has come near...

This Sunday, we will conclude our journey through Genesis with the passing of God's blessing from one generation to the next. The book of Genesis closes with Jacob ‘death bed’ conversations with Joseph, Joseph’s sons, and eventually the whole set of 12 brothers. The book ends with emotional moments of past, present and future. We are struck with the reality that God was working before we came...

Last week, we looked at the big scope of the Joseph Saga. Duplicitous brothers. A punishing famine. Luminous dreams about feeding a people. Betrayal and deception. Tears and reconciliation. It is an amazing story and through it all we saw the hand of God at work. In God’s providence, the story unfolds towards a dramatic and profound conclusion: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant...

It is possible to think that our lives are just a series of scenes, one after another, linked together by our decisions and mishaps. We are “half-victims and half-accomplices, just like everyone else.” Yet there is one other powerful player in our life-story. And that is God the Father. Most of our lives are full of adversity, and we may wonder why. This Sunday, we will discuss Genesis chapter 42...

Please join us this Sunday morning online or in person, as we gather as a community to give praise to the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’. This is one of the many names of God in Genesis. Jacob’s story goes from chapter 25 to chapter 50 in Genesis. His name means ‘deceiver’ and throughout his life Jacob struggles with Esau and later Laban. He has quite a dysfunctional family. However, God uses t...

This Sunday we will continue our series through Genesis. In Genesis chapter 24, Abraham asks his head servant to find a wife for Isaac. On this servant’s journey for Abraham, we discover two prayers and a blessing. We will explore this story, the prayers and the blessing, to see how God wants to work in our lives to strengthen our faith and fulfill His purposes. We hope you are following along wit...

As we continue our survey of Genesis, we discover that our creator God continued to bring people into relationship with Himself. Through the patriarchs, God demonstrated not only His creativity but his deep love for humanity. He revealed his character of faithfulness and plan for redemption through His covenant with Abram. This Sunday we will discover that even in the midst of Abraham’s test of fa...

Our survey of the book of Genesis continues this week as small groups continue to meet, and we worship our Lord together on Sunday morning. We will introduce the family of Terah, most specifically his son Abram. Abram answers God’s call to ‘leave his country’ with his wife Sarai & their nephew Lot. A whole caravan of people arrive in Canaan, and God promises Abram several times to give him thi...

Seven Hebrew words. Our faith all starts with seven Hebrew words.  “In the beginning God created the Heavens & the Earth.” The first words of revelation of God. Genesis teaches us that God is Spirit, the Creator, and a God who speaks. Indeed, Lord speak to us. This week, we will start our Fall series on Genesis with chapter one, this beautiful poem about  Elohim.  The ‘first lesson’ of Genesis...

David wrote Psalm 142 from a cave. Crying out to the Lord is a spiritual response to the stress that surrounds us. Pursued, overwhelmed, alone, in desperate need, afraid for our very survival, these are times of darkness and depression. Our spirit grows faint, to whom can we turn? We turn to the Lord our God in times of trouble.  “Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.”  And we w...

Eventually, on our journey through 2000 years of Christian history, we arrive at our own experiences. In the last few decades, we have experienced the war on terror, political scandals, climate change, iPhones and marketing of Christianity. The world is changing at such a rapid pace it makes our heads spin. History books will be written about these crazy times, but do we even have the capacity to...

Our summer journey through 2000 years of Christianity has finally arrived to the birthplace our nation. The enlightenment of Europe led to big changes in governments and the church. The American revolution was a successful break from the oppression of the King of England. The documents of our founding fathers spoke of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. These were viewed as inalienable rights...

While the Pietist reformers tried to counter Lutheran formalism, the Methodist movement tried to reform the Church of England. After years of frustration and failing in ministry in the first half of the 18th century, John & Charles Wesley experienced heart-felt, life-changing conversions to Christ. John Wesley began to preach  “Salvation by Faith”  to the common people across the countryside....

The founders of our denomination were deeply impacted by the historic movement of Pietist reformers from the 16th & 17th centuries. Years later, Scandinavian immigrants to the Midwest United States joined together to do the work of God’s Mission and formed the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of America (1885). Our local church was planted in 1995 by a group of Evangelical Covenant...

Our expression of Christianity (the Covenant is rooted in Pietist Protestant Evangelicalism) is tied to the incredible events that started over 500 years ago. European nations (France, England, Spain) were beginning to develop and had a robust relationship with the Italian Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor. The German territories were less politically organized and were burdened by Papal "tax...

We are a product of our history. The way we think, act, live, speak and believe has all been affected by the people and ideas that have come before us. So, we learn, and we live. The late centuries of the middle ages saw a great expansion of Christian faith in Europe. A series of horrible crusades were conducted against the armies of Islam. Power struggles within the church faced a consistent stre...

This Sunday, we begin a spiritual journey together as a church. Months of preparation & prayer have created a new vision for Deerbrook. Aspire: Pursuing Impact Together. We are embarking on a six-week series that studies ‘The Collection for the Lord’s People’ in 2 Corinthians 8 & 9. We have created a 72 page Aspire guidebook with small group material, prayer activities, family & daily...

There are themes of courage, generosity and the signs & wonders of God throughout the Scripture. God is always with us, caring for the sick and poor, his Spirit is working miracles among us. It is all by God’s grace. In the book of The Acts of the Apostles we read of these repeated themes. The followers being filled with the Spirit, persecution & boldness in the name of Jesus. This week, w...

After the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Apostles, the church  celebrated a period of connection, sharing and growth together. The very  next story is Peter & John healing a lame beggar “in the name of  Jesus of Nazareth.” The healing, and their teaching, causes a stir with  the religious leaders, so Peter & John are arrested for the first  time.   Chapters 3...

Jesus told the apostles, “wait for the promised Holy Spirit.” And then, right on time, it come upon them. A room full of praying followers of  Jesus hear and see a rushing wind. A large crowd witnessed the Spirit as  ‘tongues of fire’ fell upon each believer as they spoke the wonders of  God. And God set his Church in motion. Peter explains what has happened  by using the Old T...

This Sunday, we begin our detailed exploration of the early church. The church starts with the very people who knew Jesus well. They had traveled with him, shared meals with him and witnessed his healings. Then they passed down the stories of his teachings and actions to us today. This week, Acts 1, starts with Jesus’ instructions to ‘wait on God.’  Our American culture feeds us with many myt...

After Jesus rose from the grave, he spent 40 days with his followers and gave them detailed instructions. Then, when the Holy Spirit come upon them, faith and persecution spread, and the church was born. We study the Scripture for inspiration, and the book of Acts encourages us to follow in their footsteps. Faith, evangelism, courage in persecution, healings and defense of the gospel. We are part...