Christ Church Evangelical Covenant

Ken Bell, one of our Deacons, shares from God's word this morning about the grace and truth found in the reality of Christ's coming. John 1 highlights the fulfillment of God's Old Testament promises, marking the grace of God's faithfulness. But, the truth of the gospel is that God's faithfulness makes things possible that would otherwise be impossible. God is working in and through the people of C...

During this Christmas Eve sermon, Pastor Cheryl encourages us to consider how "inattention blindness" can impact our relationship with God. Ultimately, this a lead us to remain disconnected from the God who loves us. Instead, she encourages us to truly behold Jesus with intentional sight, where we choose to focus on God's goodness, faithfulness, and love for us.

Dogs. Football. Spaghetti. All of them are very lovable things. But we inherently understand that when we say that God loves us (or that we love him), the love that we have for these other things falls substantially short. As Pastor Vann invites us to explore the Magnificat in Luke 1, we discover that God's love is both comforting and unsettling. It is a transformative force that challenges our pr...

During the Advent season, and particularly on this third Sunday of Advent, we remember the joy that is promised to us in Christ. In the joy that the wise men experienced when they saw the star to the joy of God's deliverance, we see that it is appropriate for us to respond to the good that God works in the world. However, what could it mean for us to be a people marked by God's joy, especially in...

Around Christmas, we often hear the list of names in Isaiah 9 that will be given to the promised savior: Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and, as Pastor Cheryl invites us to reflect on today: Prince of Peace. As she shares about the full picture of peace, or shalom, we consider what it means for Jesus to be the one who brings that kind of peace both to us and through us today...

As we begin our Advent series, Stars of Wonder, Pastor Vann reminds us that God has placed the stars in the sky to help us understand our world. They separate day from night, they mark the seasons, and they give light to the Earth. In our spiritual lives, God has given us another gift to help us understand the world: hope. Where we place our hope tells a lot about what we believe to be possible; s...

Over these past few weeks, we've focused on God's message to Moses in Exodus 6. It wasn't just that He promised to rescue the people of Israel from the oppression of Egypt. Better than that, he would bless them as His very own people! What does this mean for us today? When God rescues us (and He promises to rescue us!), how do we respond, and how do we live in His blessing?

How often do we find ourselves stuck? It may be a financial situation, a difficult moment in a relationship, a dry season with God, or something else. As we hear the words of God for his people from Exodus 6 and think of the story of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, we're reminded that our God is a God who draws his people out of the places they are stuck and promises them freedom, healing, and pr...

3500 years ago, God's people were slaves in Egypt, seeming to be without a hope. As we think upon the story of the Exodus, we can certainly see the miraculous intervention of God to free his people from oppression, but we also realize that God didn't just free them from slavery. He gave them a new identity. God may not need to free us from enslavement today, but he does want to help us see ourselv...

We're all too familiar with bad situations where we feel stuck or helpless. In Exodus, God's people were definitely stuck under the oppressive role of Pharaoh. God promises Moses that He would rescue the people of Israel. But have you ever wondered why? What does God lead His people into when he delivers them? And what does God invite us to experience today?

If there's one powerful narrative that resonates through the history of God's people, it's that God is always present for them. Just as He promised Moses that He would stand by them, He reassures us of His presence in every facet of our lives. But how can we truly sense His presence with us? How do we actually come to know him? For Moses, God revealed His name. And for us? Well, let's find out ...

Rev. Dr. Howard Burgoyne, Superintendent of the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church shares with us this morning about the impact and grace that comes when God says yes or no.

As we look through the whole of scripture, we see themes and threads of God's call for his people. Pastor Cheryl explores the connections between Matthew 5, Matthew 25, and Hebrews 13, where God's compassionate heart invites us to care for our brothers and sisters as well as those we don't know. As we consider the ways that God is inviting us to hear from him, his call for us will always be to car...

Revisiting our summer series, "The Good Life," Pastor Cheryl delves into the transformative healing stories in Luke 8, featuring Jairus, a prominent synagogue leader, and a socially marginalized woman suffering from 12 years of bleeding. Despite facing different societal pressures—Jairus with the urgency of his dying daughter and the woman with her prolonged social isolation—both seek Jesus's heal...

Rev. Dr. Barbara Ettinger, Executive Associate Superintendent of the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant, shares a powerful message that reminds us that we know what love is because God loves us first (Deuteronomy 6 and 1 John 4). Through stories of three women from scripture - Lydia, Hannah, and the woman with the alabaster jar - Rev. Dr. Ettinger helps us understand what it means t...

How often do you feel like you are wandering in your faith, trying to find out where God is (or even if he is real!)? God's word reminds us that He is present, and even more so that He is with us, but what do we do when our experience doesn't match that promise? Pastor Vann shares from Acts 17.

How do we, as followers of Jesus, experience God’s power and presence? Pastor Vann shares about the importance of gathering together to support and encourage one another! We lean on the people around us to help us grow in our faith, but we also discover the ways that God wants us to use the gifts that he has given us in the context of community.

What could a story about a war-battle in ancient Israel teach us about worship? Pastor Vann shares a story about what happened when the people of God chose to worship him first, even in the face of near-certain defeat. And he invites us today to consider what might happen in our own lives if we choose to take on the same posture.

As Pastor Vann launches us into our new series called Remember, this first message challenges us to consider the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus invites us to “do the same” as the Samaritan, and many of us aim to be compassionate - but, does our picture of compassion measure up with what Jesus’s audience would have understood?

As we close out our series focusing on "The Good Life," Pastor Cheryl shares about what Jesus meant when he talked about the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world." She also shares a number of stories of how God has been at work in the day-to-day lives of our own congregation this summer.

As we read the Beatitudes, we get the sense that Jesus believed that “The Good Life” is something worth pursuing, but how do we live the so-called good life? Pastor Cheryl shares about how this is a life of imitation, and invites us to consider how we might follow Jesus example even in the midst of the difficulties that may arise.

Pastor Cheryl delves into the last triad of the beatitudes with a call from Jesus to be “peacemakers.” This peace isn’t just about silent complacency or avoiding confrontation. Instead, we are invited to do the work that will bring about true peace. And as followers of Jesus, we look to him as our example.

Here's the blessing that Jesus lays out for us this week: he says that the pure in heart will see God. But what does "pure in heart" even mean? What was Jesus trying to get at? Are we just supposed to avoid wrongdoing, or could there be a deeper invitation that Jesus has for us here?

Jesus came as the ultimate demonstration of mercy, but how is Jesus' idea of mercy (heed) different from our contemporary cultural understanding? (Does our understanding come from the Christmas classic "The Christmas Story"?) What sort of invitation does Jesus have for us in this call to show and be shown mercy?

As we navigate the Good Life, what does today's passage from Matthew 5 have to say about righteousness? Surely righteousness talks about God and what he hopes for his people, but is there something more that we may be missing? Wht does this righteousness (or right-ness) have to do with living a full life? Let's find out.