February 10, 2023
State of First Covenant
I caught a bit of President Biden’s State of the Union speech before a meeting Tuesday night. President Biden was so positive and optimistic. My first response was admittedly cynical—the re-election campaign has begun! But upon further reflection, I thought that in a season when it is easy to be negative and cynical, it doesn’t hurt to be positive. Especially if there are legitimate reasons to be positive about present successes and optimistic about future prospects. So with such an attitude I offer some observations.
In November, we invited people to contribute to an offering which would be divided equally among our missionaries. As a church we raised nearly $3,600 which meant a gift of about $720 for each missionary unit (individual or couple) we support. I can say from speaking to some of those people we support how much they appreciate this gift of discretionary funds. Thank you, First Covenant, for your thoughtfulness and generosity.
In the past months, we have had a number of visitors who have returned to worship with us consistently. This is not common, evidently, with several of our First Hill Protestant churches. It was relayed to me that a person outside our church suggested that we are one of the healthiest churches in this area, as our sister churches are having post-pandemic struggles. First, I encourage you to pray for our sister churches. There is more than enough ministry for the churches in our area to do, and our church cannot serve everyone. Second, this is a sign of the thoughtful and care-filled way you all sustained our church family when in COVID isolation. A special shout out to our staff in those days: Pastor Steve, Pastor Ellie, and Nat Bartels and for all the seeds they sowed which continue to bear fruit. Thank you, First Covenant, for your faithfulness and commitment.
In the near future, the North Park University Gospel Choir will be offering a concert at First Covenant Church on Monday March 13, at 7:00 pm. This is a great event to offer our neighborhood, as gospel music is one of the most valued resources of the Christian churches by those outside of our faith. This concert gives us an opportunity to welcome even more new people into our community. Thanks to North Park for approaching us about such an event.
As I mentioned above, there is more than enough ministry for the churches in our area to do in our neighborhoods. This past Monday I attended an Open House at Peer Seattle. There, a number of community resources had booths informing people of their work. Some were churches (Quest Covenant Church was among them), but most were social service agencies. I was so buoyed by the depth and breadth of the work being done in Seattle by so many groups for so many different kinds of needs. Although many of the agencies serve our neighborhood, few (beyond Peer itself) is located in our neighborhood. There is a growing safety net of support for people’s needs in our neighborhood. This gives us the opportunity to meet the needs we see in our neighbors that we are uniquely gifted to meet, spiritually and physically.
Last, we are just coming off a positive Staff-Council retreat and an equally positive church annual meeting. We are moving to both improve the state of our church building and add to our pastoral staff. Our finances are sound, our community is loving and kind, and God’s work in, around, and through us is evident. Thank you, God, for your faithfulness to us, your people here at First Covenant Church.
I don’t know if anyone would heckle me if I delivered this live. If you are feeling the need to quibble or heckle, feel free to email me. But for now, I remain optimistic about what God is doing here at First Covenant Church.
~ Pastor Todd
P.S. Please do not hesitate to send me names of people you think might be interested in our “Get to Know First Covenant Sessions” coming in the Spring.