July 7, 2023
137
For the one hundred and thirty-seventh time, the Evangelical Covenant Church convened an annual meeting of its churches and the institutions it supports to do the business of our denomination. Over the more than a century and a third of its existence, the cultural context of the ministry of our denomination has changed drastically. Today the Christian denominations in North America are constricting. A political climate of division, mistrust, and intolerance has affected churches. Large denominations—Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist to name a few—have faced fissures and divisions within their communions. As a denomination that has throughout its history cast a net broadly, agreeing to disagree on matters not central to Christian doctrine, it has been a bit behind the curve of division, but not exempt from it. This was the context for our 137th meeting last week in Southern California.
Like other denominations, the Covenant is contracting. On the plus side of the ledger, we adopted ten churches into the Covenant, and planted six more new churches. On the other hand, we lost 21 churches. One church merged with another church and left, and 11 others closed. The remaining 9 chose to withdraw their membership from our denomination. This reduction is represented in our proposed budget, which was reduced from last year’s $18.3 million to $17.5 million this year. Our church building, just a bit younger than our denomination, reminds us how we have experienced reductions of our own each time we worship.
As a denomination, we are neither exempt from the trends of church constriction nor are we exempt from controversy and division. This year Awaken Covenant Church in St. Paul, Minnesota was hoping to prevent its involuntary removal from the Covenant. They were determined to be “out of alignment” with the denomination’s prohibition on same sex marriage. They argued that they were a Covenant church in spirit and wished to remain in our communion, inviting our “agree to disagree” heritage to allow them to remain. A two-thirds majority was required to remove them, and was achieved with 74% in favor, 26% opposed, about 30 votes shy of avoiding their removal. Awaken became the 22nd church lost.
Later that day, when approving a slate of candidates for the Covenant Executive Board (all of which run unopposed), invitations for nominations from the floor to run against proposed candidates was taken. Typically, there are no nominees. But in one instance, a nomination did come from the floor. It was notable, not only because it promoted a second candidate, but because it also questioned the validity of the nomination. It implied the candidate on the ballot was inappropriate for this role. The nominee from the floor in fact won that election.
At the very end of the meeting, however, a member of the Executive Board, requested we return to that vote, suggesting that claims made in that nomination were inaccurate and inappropriate. After some discussion, a second vote was taken and the original nominee won. Regardless of who one thought won the election, we all lost something, I believe, in that process.
Besides the business of the meeting, this was a gathering of our denomination, a gathering of people. The Covenant continues to grow in racial and ethnic diversity, and I met some new friends from those churches and ministries. I reconnected with friends I have made since coming to our Pacific Northwest Conference. But I also saw old friends, some who I haven’t seen for decades. These were people I worked at camp with, people I pastored, people I went to college and seminary with, and people I have taught in classes and in conferences. I realized just how diverse my small slice of this denomination is and what a gift it is to have such a broad range of friends.
These interactions helped me to realize how much the Covenant has shaped me in my faith and my ability to embrace people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. But mostly I realized how much it pains me when I don’t see a wide diversity celebrated in our denomination. I don’t recognize the church that has been my home for over six decades when it stresses uniformity and unanimity over a oneness in Christ which has a broad embrace.
I can do little to affect the large cultural waves that are impacting our denomination and our congregation. But as your pastor I will strive to protect minority voices, whatever they may be, in our church. I will encourage dialogue and discussion in the hope that we have created a safe environment for honest conversation. In the end, I pray that we represent the interdependence of diverse gifts that is held together by God’s Sprit and God’s love (see 1 Corinthians 12-13); and that people would see a love, a welcome, and an understanding in our church that reflects the love God has for us. As we read in 1 John 4, we are to love each other because God first loved us, and if we say we love God but don’t love others we are not speaking the truth. Please join me in praying for and working towards making First Covenant Church an obvious example of the love of God in the world. This is something we can do now and every day to come, and it will still be relevant 137 years in the future.
With audacious hope,
~ Pastor Todd