Covenant Presbyterian Church Augusta

On this second Sunday in January, we have finished our annual journey of remembering and celebrating the birth of Jesus. This Sunday, we will mark his baptism and the beginning of his adult ministry. Baptism is one of the oldest and most meaningful traditions in the Christian Church, and as Pastor Andy Cooke says,  it is important for us to consider what it meant for Jesus and what it means for us...

There is comfort in what is familiar especially when we are on the threshold of something new - like a new year with all of its possibilities and unknowns stretching before us. Certainly, God was doing something new in the person of Jesus Christ, and the magi and the gospel writer looked to familiar things to help them recognize God's presence and discern God's guidance for them.  This week's serm...

During Advent we anticipate, meditate, and prepare for the arrival of God’s Incarnation but then after Christmas we can quickly move on.  Have you slowed down enough to consider God’s willingness to be so vulnerable? What is more exposing than the process of a human birth?  The uncertainty of food, shelter, and safety of an immigrant family?  This Sunday Rev. Karla Conditt Daniels explores the sto...

Tonight we celebrate the light of God coming into the world through Jesus Christ.  God incarnate.  A bright light to show the world the face of God in human form.  We celebrate that light with a candlelight service of worship and adoration.

Not long after Charlie was born, I noticed a change in myself. I started singing a lot more than I did pre-Charlie. I'd make up songs about all kinds of things for Charlie.  I wonder if the same was true for Mary when she sang the Magnificat that we'll read in worship on Sunday morning. Perhaps Mary's beautiful and prophetic words about the God who had chosen and blessed her to be Jesus' mother ju...

This Sunday will be our annual Lessons & Carols service.  we will tell the story of Advent and Christmas with readings from Old Testament prophets and New Testament gospels. You will also have the opportunity to join the choir in several places, so come ready to sing out!  We hope you enjoy this service of worship in its entirety.

As you may know, we've been focusing this year on The Stories We Tell and why they are important. During Advent, we're calling it The Story We Tell. Like all good stories, this one has a lot of secondary characters that might be less familiar. Who is Jesse? Or Elizabeth? Or Simeon? No one is putting an inflatable Simeon in their yard and Elizabeth will not make the front of any Christmas cards. Th...

This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent, which is a season of preparation and waiting for the coming of the Christ child. Waiting can be hard, and it helps to have something to do while we're waiting. This Sunday, we'll dedicate ourselves to the task of readying our worship space for Christmas with our annual Hanging of the Greens service. We include the entire service this week full of music an...

Maybe it's just because I still feel like we lost a whole month after the hurricane, but it seems to me that people are decorating for Christmas even earlier this year than in previous years. (Have you seen the bevy of inflatables on the front lawn of that house on Wheeler Road?!?) While I understand the impulse to jump to Christmas, perhaps we can pump the brakes just a bit. Before we can celebra...

We've all had our challenges lately. When we are in the midst of challenging times, it can be comforting to read the stories in Scripture of those who experienced their own challenges and to hear how God was at work during those difficult moments. Our focus this Sunday will be the story of Hannah, who was not able to conceive a child and who prayed that God would bless her with a son. As is often...

There is a line in The Confession of 1967 that says the quality of our relations with other persons is the measure of the church's fidelity. I've thought about that line a lot over the past week, especially as I saw people make overblown statements about others leading up to and immediately following the presidential election. It is hard work to value people with whom you so vehemently disagree. I...

Several years ago I came across this line in a book I was reading: "People don't resist change; they resist loss." Oof. I can't speak for you, but that resonates with me. I'm not good with grief, and I don't think our culture is either. We're too fixated on success and happiness and positivity. Our faith, though, does allow for grief and sadness, and we'll get to hear one of the most powerful stor...

This week we celebrate Reformation Sunday with the Kirkin' O' the Tartans. We will honor the roots of our Presbyterian denomination with traditional Scottish music and a processional of tartans.  And a wonderful message entitled, "A Reforming Fire."

As Covenant congregants continue dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, we explore what it means to be a people of faith during difficult times like these following Hurricane Helene.  Sometimes we have to learn to be receivers and not just givers of God's grace and love to others.  

Hurricane Helene devastated Augusta, Georgia.  It resulted in the loss of 107 trees on Covenant Presbyterian Church's property and extensive damage to the physical facility.  But even amongst the debris on the property, we gathered for worship to praise God.  Today we hear a new interpretation of the parable of The Rich Young Ruler.  We also hear a desire for clarity as the congregants deal person...

Maybe you have an experience like this - a time when you hoped for success and recognition but were instead humbled and reminded of your own limitations. Jesus' disciples certainly did, and they were caught in their hubris when Jesus overheard them arguing about who was the greatest and called them on it. This is the story we'll hear in worship this Sunday, and I hope you'll join me as we consider...

As followers of Christ, it is hard work to decide when to speak and when to remain silent. We feel called to speak up about injustice, but we also don't want to damage relationships. We believe that accountability is important, but we don't want it to overshadow the grace of God. We have passion for an issue, but we don't want to silence others or diminish their dignity. When should I speak, and w...

Andy Cooke is one of the most even-keeled people I know, but if you want to get him riled up, just tell him something isn't fair. As our children have learned, arguing about fairness is not the way to get Andy on your side. It's a human thing to want life to be fair, but life is often otherwise. We recognize that truth in our own lives, and we see it in the story of the Syrophoencian woman in this...

When you need to learn to do something, finding trustworthy sources of information can be a challenge, especially if you consult the internet. Luckily we can take the "old school" alternative and consult Holy Scripture, which gives us two excellent tutorials about how to live as faithful people in our Psalm and Epistle lessons this week.

We've been in Ephesians the past few weeks. We'll finish that book with a reading from chapter six this Sunday, but our focus is moving back to the Old Testament story. Our reading is from First Kings, and it is the story of King Solomon's dedication of the temple. It is one of those stories that can be hard to read on your own, but which can really open up when take some time with it. I'm excited...

Be careful. This is what we say to people we love when we think they might be in a risky situation - a friend meeting a blind date for the first time, a teenager driver leaving the house to meet friends on a Friday night, or a child climbing on playground equipment. We care about the people we love, and we want them to be okay. "Be careful" is the opening phrase in this Sunday's lectionary reading...

The latter half of the book of Ephesians deals with ethical behavior in Christian communities. In the sermon, we look at Ephesians 4:25-5:2, and particularly the phrase “be angry but do not sin” alongside the story of Wilma Derksen, a Mennonite woman whose daughter was murdered in the 1980s.

This Sunday and next, we will be looking at Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Paul's letters sometimes look like internal documents that we were not meant to see, but the truth is that we all need to see them. We need to wrestle alongside these early Christian communities and figure out what we believe and how we will act. And it seems timely to work on this before we kick off the fall calendar in a...

The fourth and final hymn of our "Then Sings My Soul" sermon series is "I, the Lord of Sea and Sky," which is perhaps more familiarly known as "Here I Am, Lord." I have a clear memory of singing this hymn in the pews of my home church when I was in high school. My youth group friends and I would sing it with gusto; this hymn was one of our all-time favorites. I'm looking forward to singing it with...

This Sunday we continue with our series, "Then Sings My Soul."  Today's him is "Lord of the Dance."  There are so many beautiful things about this hymn - its summary of Jesus' life, the image of dancing, and the well-known Shaker tune "Simple Gifts." I'm looking forward to exploring the hymn with you more in worship on Sunday, and maybe we'll even be inspired to do a little dancing together!