November 1, 2024
Beloved,
As individual believers who trust and follow Jesus Christ, we are beneficiaries of the great grace of God. God has, no thanks to us, given us forgiveness, empowerment, a new and better life in the here and now, and the promise of an eternal and infinitely better life in the hereafter.
As a family of believers here at Covenant, we are beneficiaries of the great grace of the fellow believers who preceded us. They have given us a wonderful campus with wonderful facilities, and they started wonderful programs by whose legacy we are now able to bear much fruit in the mission of Jesus Christ.
It is as much thanks to them, as to us, that we are at this time able to make new disciples of Christ and stronger disciples of Christ. It is as much thanks to them, as to us, that at Covenant people are finding meaning and purpose for their life, healing for relationships beset by alienation, enjoying mutually supportive friendships, gaining power from God to manage their character defects and overcome their weaknesses, experiencing deliverance from their self-centeredness and self-preoccupied worries, and receiving inspiration to reach out to make a difference in this troubled world.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the good folks who preceded us. How do we pay it? By “paying it forward” – that is, by being as great in grace to those who follow us as the people who preceded us were to us. In other words, by insuring that Covenant’s beautiful mission will be sustained for many years to come.
That mission serves purposes more valuable than all the money in the world, but that priceless mission, to be fulfilled, takes a lot of money!
So, to pay forward our debt of gratitude to those who, before most of us arrived, built this church and gave their money to fulfill its priceless mission, we now give our money to enable it to continue to fulfill its priceless mission for those who have newly arrived or will arrive after us.
It’s like what happened seven Father’s Days ago in southern Indiana. According to radio station WDRB, a woman was moving down the McDonald’s drive-through lane when she noticed a dad behind her in a van packed with four kids for whom he was buying happy meals. When she reached the pay window, she on an impulse said to the employee there, “I want to pay you for the father behind me, and for you to wish him Happy Father’s Day for me.” The father was so touched by the kindness that he did the same for a couple of cars behind him. Ten more drivers followed suit, then twenty more did, and then over a hundred did. From 8:30 that evening, the “pay-it-forwards” kept coming until there was a string of 167 of them when the store closed at midnight.
This November we begin with a focus on stewardship – that is, on giving thanks for the grace we have received by paying our debt of gratitude forward by making sure that, for a long while yet, folks through Covenant will have many reasons to give thanks for God’s grace to them. This stewardship emphasis will culminate with Pledge Sunday on Sunday the 17th.
The rest of November we will overflow with thanksgiving in other ways as well. At noon on Sunday the 24th we’ll enjoy a Thanksgiving Potluck (see details on page 3). Then, starting at noon on Thanksgiving Eve the 27th , and continuing until Advent, people can participate online, at the time of their own choosing, in a special Thanksgiving Worship Service (see details on page 3).
We are thankful for you and our life together!
In the grip of God’s grace,
Pastor Adele and Pastor Rob
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