This fall, I celebrated my 50th high school reunion and our 30 years in ministry together here at Covenant. It has offered a time to reflect on the changes that have taken place across those years – not only in me and my family, but also in the larger society and church. When I began here in July of 1995, my office was where the library is now. Worship was at 10:00, followed by Sunday School at 11:15, which meant that anyone attending Sunday School could not beat the Baptists and Episcopalians to lunch! There was no Great Hall, no Memorial Garden, no covered entrance, and the playground was in the woods on the neighbor’s property. Our total budget for that year was a little over $300,000, with $22,000 of that for Outreach. There were no cell phones of note, and my computer took a while to boot up in the morning. The sanctuary carpet was gold; there were no cutouts in the pews for wheelchairs and no elevator to access the Fellowship Hall downstairs. I had hair on my head! A lot has happened in these past 30 years, not only in the expansion of our building, the addition of a second weekly worship service, the calling of associate pastors, growth in our preschool, and funding of a budget which is proposed this year to crest $700,000 with over $90,000 for Outreach. Lives have been changed, faith nurtured, new members welcomed, neighbors helped, the Gospel proclaimed, saints laid to rest, and a boatload of infants, youth, and adults baptized! The stories of God’s hand at work in individual lives and in our life together is the real story of these three decades, because that is why we are here – to be the church, a vibrant Covenant community that seeks to follow wherever God leads us. On Sunday, we heard three of our folks share their stories of wrestling with God; the church is where that wrestling should happen, among siblings in Christ who share this faith journey and support one another along the way. Stewardship season is not the sexiest season of the church year, startling as that news may be to you! There are no seasonal colors for it – the green is for Ordinary Time, not dollars for Stewardship – and there are no soaring anthems to celebrate it. It is a season for us to take stock of our blessings, to consider the vision God is setting before us, and to commit to helping make that vision a reality by sharing our gifts. It is a season to recall what God is doing in our lives and in our life together, and to celebrate the new stories which are being written daily – stories of faith and faithfulness, stories that include you!
— John Peterson
