Covenant Presbyterian Church Augusta

This week you get not one but two messages from Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke and Pastor Andy Cooke.  This Sunday, we start our Double Take sermon series where Andy and I each preach a sermon on the same Scripture passage. This week's reading from Luke 10 includes some hard (and somewhat confusing?) words from Jesus, and it also includes some pertinent reminders for this weekend when we'll celebrate...

Guest minister Amy Hobby Rickard says she loves the fruits and vegetables that are available to us this time of year. June is when the juicy locally grown tomatoes and peaches make it to farm stands, and neighbors beg you to take the zucchini proliferating in their garden.  None of this fruit happens by accident. It requires planting and careful cultivation. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is no diff...

This Sunday will conclude our Greatest Hits sermon series. Pastor Andy Cooke repreaches a sermon from August 7, 2022 entitled "The Audience." This sermon draws heavily from another sermon that one of our first pastors, French O'Shields, preached here 65 years ago this month. When I first came across that old sermon, I felt that it would be important for you to hear it and I re-worked it into the s...

This Sunday will be a liturgical mash-up of sorts. As Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke explains, on the liturgical calendar, it's Trinity Sunday; we'll still have our Pentecost decorations up; and I'll be preaching an Easter sermon from 2019 as part of our Greatest Hits sermon series. So exciting! :) Each of those events and theological doctrines - Jesus' resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit and...

Recently, Pastor Andy Cooke said he watched A Complete Unknown, the movie about Bob Dylan that was released last year. Near the end of the movie, he is performing at the Newport Folk Festival and playing his new songs with an electric guitar rather than his old folk songs on an acoustic guitar. The audience revolts and starts throwing trash on the stage! They want the songs that they know and love...

This Sunday is the first week of our "Greatest Hits" sermon series during which Andy and I will (re)preach some favorite sermons that we've preached during our time at Covenant. To kick off the series, Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke is  preaching a sermon from early November 2022. We had just started our "Heart and Home" stewardship campaign, which included our annual stewardship campaign for 2023 as...

This week's reading from the Gospel of John includes some of my favorite verses of Scripture. Jesus says to his disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." I don't know about you, but I need to hear those words from Jesus on a daily - and sometimes hourly - basis. as Pastor...

I've been looking forward to this Sunday for some time. During our worship service, we will recognize and celebrate our confirmands. They have attended confirmation classes, completed their confirmation journals, created faith statements, and met with mentors and elders. This Sunday is the last step on their confirmation journey, and I hope that you will join us and show your support for them. The...

Revelation is not usually a favorite book of the Bible for most Christians, but it is a wonderful place to go during the season of Easter. There are many visions of redemption or resurrection throughout. As Pastor Andy Cooke explains, "I will grant to you that most of it sounds odd to our ears and is often not especially well suited to Sunday morning worship. But there are certain parts that paint...

On Andy's and my first date, I ordered one of the "safer" items on the menu: a flatbread pizza. Andy, on the other hand, looked at our waiter and said, "I'll just have whatever you think is good." I was both flabbergasted and impressed - who was this man who would leave his dinner order up to a complete stranger?? Our choices for dinner that evening many years ago said something true about each of...

This Sunday, we will look at the resurrection through the lens of Creation. God's Creation reflects the resurrection everywhere, which is why you see so many hymns that make that connection. As Pastor Andy Cooke explains, simply put, resurrection is God's way and there are opportunities all around for us to see that.

The story of Jesus' resurrection is our annual, insistent reminder that God is not done with the world, with us, or with God's own story yet, and, as Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cook explains, it is a reminder that is joyful, perplexing, surprising, and overwhelming all at the same time.

Pastor Andy Cook tells us this week that this Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week with our Palm Sunday service. Holy Week is a time to remember the words and actions of Jesus and his disciples during that last week in Jerusalem before his resurrection. There is a lot that happens in that week, so it is helpful to pay attention to that story across several days rather than just on Sundays. You...

After weeks of penitential and solemn texts, our Lectionary passages for this Sunday offer a different tone. In the midst of Jesus’ sacrificial journey towards Jerusalem, our Old Testament passages proclaim God is doing a new thing, and that God’s redemptive action can fill even those tired and downcast with laughter and joy.  As pastor Karla Conditt Daniels tells us, our New Testament readings se...

We are in for a treat this week as we welcome The Reverend Gail Henderson-Belsito as our guest preacher on Sunday morning. Gail will preach on another powerful story in Scripture - the parable of the Prodigal Son . The stories of Scripture - ancient though they may be - have relevance for us in our present day experiences and circumstances, and we are grateful that we get to share these stories to...

Lent can be a tough time to worship together. There are ashes and talk of death, sin, and repentance. There's usually some sort of fast or self-denial. On the first two Sundays in Lent, we've talked about temptation, wilderness, and promises in the midst of doubt. The themes of Lent are weighty and often do not often feel joyful or upbeat. Today, Pastor Andy Cooke brings you a bit of a reprieve th...

In our Scripture passage this Sunday, we'll hear the story of God making an especially important promise to Abraham. It was a promise that would set the course for Abraham's future and the future of God's people, and God would make good on the promise - as God always does. As we continue in the season of Lent, listen to Pastor Katelyn Gordan Cooke as she urges us to consider the nature of God's pr...

During Lent, we will have a 9-part sermon series based on our theme for the year, The Stories We Tell. This Sunday, Pastor Andy Cooke preaches on Stories of Temptation, and we will look at the story of Jesus and his temptation in the wilderness in Luke 4.

This Sunday, Pastor Andy Cook, shares the story of the Transfiguration, which is one of the last things that Jesus does in Galilee before he "set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). This story is mysterious and powerful. Jesus goes up a mountain to pray and his disciples are perplexed by all that they hear and see. Join us  as we explore this story of clouds and light together.

Last Sunday, we heard the first several verses of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus proclaimed blessings to those who are usually considered less fortunate (the poor, the hungry, the persecuted) and woes to those who are usually considered successful and admirable (the rich, the full, the well-regarded). It is the opposite of what we expect and experience in our own lives. Je...

In today's sermon, Pastor Andy Cooke brings a powerful message for all of the church.  He preaches on the pivot in America away from Christ's teachings in the Sermon on the Plain, about Christian hospitality, compassion and inclusiveness.

This Sunday in worship, we'll ordain and install our new church officers, and you're invited to wear red (the color of the Holy Spirit) to mark the occasion with us.  And as pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke tells us, there are many different ways of being called to serve God.  And today we celebrate that in addition to the calling of our new church officers, each of us has our own calling in doing and...

If you've ever been to a wedding, then you've probably heard this Sunday's Scripture passage. 1 Corinthians 13 is a favorite reading for weddings, and that's understandable given its focus on love. But, as the youth of the church have learned during their preparations for Youth Sunday, these verses aren't really about romantic love. They're about God's love and the kind of love God calls us to sho...

Our Scripture readings for this Sunday show us two different worshiping communities that are facing big moments in their lives together. In Nehemiah, the people are reestablishing temple worship following the Babylonian exile. In Luke, the people in Nazareth are coming to terms with the fact that Joseph's son is not going to be an average kid from Nazareth. Both stories show readings and interpret...

First things are important. First impressions are important. We've learned this lesson through our own personal experiences, and in this Sunday's gospel reading, as Pastor Katelyn Gordon Cooke tells us, we'll get to see Jesus' first miracle (or "sign" as the Gospel of John calls it) that marks the beginning of his ministry.