Cutters
2023-12-17 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Cutters will be enjoying their annual Christmas Dinner at 5:00 PM. This year the event will be held in the Fireside Room at Covenant. Please see Pastor Adele or Mary Lou for more information or to RSVP.

In-depth Bible Study
2024-01-08 19:00 - 20:00 | CA
This on-line study meets on Mondays at 7:00 p.m. Pastor Adele and Pastor Rob jointly lead this study through the Bible. You are invited to join our study as this month it studies the books of 1 & 2 Samuel.

Book Club
2024-01-09 18:30 - 19:30 | CA
The on-line Book Club is now reading and discussing Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them by John Ortberg. Elder Mark Wiley and Pastor Rob lead this group, on Tuesdays, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Women's Valentine Craft Afternoon
2024-02-04 14:00 - 15:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Bells are ringing calling ladies to a Valentine Craft Afternoon hosted by PWC. Women, plan to join in a fun afternoon as you will have an opportunity to make unique valentine cards Sunday, February 4th, at 2 pm in the Fireside Room.

Cutters Breakfast
2024-02-10 09:00 - 10:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Cutters are a group of adults who enjoy getting together month to break bread together over breakfast (on Saturday mornings) or over dinner (on Sunday evenings). In February, Cutters will be enjoying breakfast on Sunday, February 10th at 9:00 am at Polly’s Pies on Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach. See Mary Lou or Pastor Adele to make a reservation or to find out more details.

Souper Bowl of Caring
2024-02-11 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
On Super Bowl Sunday, join with the youth from Covenant and across the nation to raise money to help tackle hunger. Make this SOUPER BOWL year a winner! Look for youth with soup pots as you leave worship collecting financial and food donations on Sunday, February 11th, give through Covenant’s website, or mail a check to the church. Thanks for making a play to tackle hunger in Long Beach!

Ash Wednesday Worship
2024-02-14 12:00 - 13:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
12 Noon in the Sanctuary & Streamed Live
Imposition of Ashes & Holy Communion
James 4:8-10
“A Positive Negative”

Movie Goers
2024-02-25 13:30 - 15:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Join members of your Covenant family for an afternoon at a local movie theater (and a light meal following) on February 25th. The movie and show time have yet to be announced. For more details about Movie Goers, please contact Pastor Adele at ALangworthy@CovenantLB.org.

March 2024 Pastors’ Letter
2024-03-01 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
March 1, 2024
Beloved of God,
Our faith centers – neither on our doctrines, nor on the traditions of our particular church, nor on our service to our city and the world beyond – but on a Person: a Person whom we believe to be, and may have experienced to be, both the perfect Human Being and “very God of very God” – a Person whom we take to be the Source of everything good about us and what we do – a Person whom we love and follow and depend on as Someone who is alive here and now.
Our faith builds on the daring conviction that this Person, Jesus Christ, who once was as dead as a doornail, rose from the grave, never to die again. To live out this faith is to bank on the reality of His resurrection and His ongoing companionship in life. It is to love Him, follow Him and rely on Him as the best Friend we could ever hope to have.
The church this month prepares us for the last day of this month: Easter Day when we especially celebrate the reality of Jesus’ resurrection and give thanks for His being there for us every moment of every day in eagerness to bless us – and, most especially, to live in us, and to have us live in Him, that we might live beyond ourselves through Him.
As those who walk through life with this living Person, we serve each other and those outside our spiritual community, and we bear witness to the risen Savior’s love and longing for everyone. We go out of our way to invite others who don’t yet know Him (or could know Him better) to give Him a second look and to open their hearts and minds to the One who reaches out to strike up a relationship.
To that end, let us, as the Spirit enables and our friends and family members allow, share what a difference this resurrected, living Savior has made for us, and invite those we care about to join us for Easter’s celebration (or any other church event) – perhaps to experience something of the presence of this living and loving Savior.
Warmly in Christ,
Rob & Adele
Link to full letter: (Letter_for_March_2024)

An Evening in Paris, Rising TIDE-Style
2024-03-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
On March 1st, beginning at 6:00 pm, there will be interpretive centers, a mock French bar & French appetizers, followed by a full course meal at 6:45 pm to raise much needed funds.
Help Rising TIDE climb their Eiffel Tower—1,710 steps of giving—to reach a goal of $50,000. The first $20,000 is being matched!
Reservations are required. To reserve, simply visit www.RisingTIDEatMKEC.org & call/text 562-257-6881.

Children & Youth Hybrid Sunday School
2024-03-03 11:15 - 12:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Children’s Hybrid Sunday School
Sunday School for children thru 5th grade meets at 11:15 a.m. in a hybrid style (in-person & virtual).
Youth Hybrid Sunday Programming
Youth gather in-person & on-line on Sundays at 11:15 a.m. for Sunday School, fellowship, and youth group activities.
For more information about the children’s & youth’s programming, including codes to join virtually, please contact Pastor Adele at ALangworthy@CovenantLB.org.

Cutters
2024-03-09 09:00 - 10:00 | Katella Deli, 4470 Katella Ave, Los Alamitos, 90720, United States
Cutters are a group of adults who enjoy getting together monthly to break bread together over breakfast (on Saturday mornings) or over dinner (on Sunday evenings). In March, Cutters will be enjoying breakfast on Saturday, March 9th at 9:00 a.m. at Katella Deli – 4470 Katella in Los Alamitos. See Mary Lou or Pastor Adele to make a reservation or to find out more details.

Good Friday Service
2024-03-29 12:00 - 13:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
In-person worship 12 Noon in the Chapel, airing at 12 Noon virtually

April Pastor's Letter
2024-04-01 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Letter_for_April_2024
April 1, 2024
Beloved of God,
We are sending out this April letter considerably earlier than we otherwise would because of something that might happen before the calendar turns to April.
The last day of March this year, March 31st, is perhaps the most important day of the year for a church: Easter, the day we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.
We are planning to have one Easter worship service at 8:00 a.m. outside in the Courtyard, and an entirely different one at 10:00 inside in the Sanctuary. (Both services will be streamed live.)
The present weather forecast says that there is a three-to-one likelihood of rain at the time of that first Easter service this year.
We want you all to know that we will have that first Easter service whatever the weather will be at the scheduled 8:00 a.m. time. If it is raining, or if there is a high chance there will be rain before the service is over, we have made plans to hold it indoors.
The two of us sometimes reflect on how the older we get, the more things there are about which we are uncertain, but the more certain we are about the things about which we are certain. We are all the more certain that God loves everyone just as they are, that Jesus is real and life’s most precious gift, that the Bible is the greatest source of wisdom in the world, that God is good all the time and works for good in all things – to name just a few examples. What we are less certain about is how God is working exactly for good in any number of situations, how best to run a church, or how the weather will be just a few days from now.
We don’t mind this development. For the more confident we are that God is completely faithful and gracious and wise, the less we feel the need to figure everything out. It is enough to rest assured that He has everything figured out and will always do what’s best. Because we know what is in His heart, we don’t have to know everything in His mind. While we love to seek to understand His will, we are content to leave what we don’t understand in His hands – and to thank Him by faith ahead of time for whatever happens. So let us entrust our unknown future to the God who has made Himself known in the death and resurrection of Jesus – and proven therein His love and power to bless us mightily.
Warmly in Christ,
Rob & Adele

Rising TIDE @ MKEC Programming for Children & Youth
2024-04-01 12:30 - 20:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Homework Help, Tutoring, Activities, Science Experiences, The Arts, Recreation & More
12:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Pre-school & Elementary-aged Children
2:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.: Middle School & High School Youth
Go to www.RisingTIDEatMKEC.org

to sign up a child, click on New Participant Form
to apply to volunteer to uplift young people, click on Volunteering

Special Middle School & High School Programs:
1st & 3rd Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m.
Empowerment Groups:
Boys 2 Men
GLOW (Girls Leading Others Wisely)
2nd & 4th Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m.
Youth Group

May Pastor's Letter
2024-05-01 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
May Pastor’s Letter
May 1, 2024
Beloved in Christ,
We, who live out our discipleship to Christ in and through and from the fellowship of the Covenant family, want our family to grow spiritually, morally and, yes, numerically.
Of course, quality matters more than quantity; and people matter more than numbers. But numbers represent people! So how could we not want numerical growth if that means more and more people are being blessed by walking through life in the loving companionship of Jesus Christ and in the caring, supportive companionship of the family He creates?
The mission of a church must always involve more than the pursuit of numerical growth, but it must never exclude the pursuit of numerical growth.
To pursue numerical growth is to engage in evangelism. Evangelism arises out of Christians loving one another in the spiritual home they share and then sending one another out beyond that home to offer others the blessings of a life with Christ!
Engaging in such outreach takes courage, patience, humility and, most of all, genuine concern for those not yet a part of the Christian faith.
Even more, it takes the gracious help of God. We at best are channels through whom God touches others and wins them to Himself. No one becomes a follower of Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit!
This month we celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost marks the first coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’ disciples. On Easter Day, Jesus had reminded them that “as the Father has sent me” – that is, sent Jesus from heaven to reach out and communicate the Father’s love to all people – “so I send you” – send you and me to reach out and communicate the Father’s love into every corner of the earth. Then, immediately after saying that, Jesus had breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” [John 20:21-22]
On Ascension Day Jesus had reminded them yet again that they would “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witness…to the ends of the earth”.
Then on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit did come upon them. The Spirit empowered them a) to reach out to a variety of people who spoke countless different languages and b) to communicate to that variety of people about the Father’s love in such a way that each heard the good news of Jesus in their own tongue. What was happening was dual action: the disciples were acting but, even more decisively, the Holy Spirit was acting. From that divine-human collaboration in the work of evangelism, there was great numerical growth. Acts 2:41 says, “Three thousand persons were added” to the family of Jesus’ disciples that day.
It was, as Tony Evans once put it, like walking on one of those moving sidewalks found in many airports. Our legs may be carrying us forward, but the moving sidewalk is simultaneously carrying us along. We’re acting and it is acting – and the collaboration is enabling us to walk further and faster than we ever could on our own.
This month, let us both walk in obedience to Christ’s call to go and bear witness to the ends of the earth and entrust ourselves into the power of the Spirit that the Spirit may make our outreach fruitful in a way we never could on our own.
That will eventually bring the numerical growth that will thrill the heart of God!
Warmly in Christ,
Rob & Adele

Cutters at The Local Spot
2024-05-11 09:00 - 11:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Cutters are a group of adults who enjoy getting together monthly to break bread together over breakfast (on Saturday) or over dinner (on Sunday). In May, Cutters will be enjoying breakfast on Saturday, May 11th at 9:00 a.m. at The Local Spot – 6200 PCH.
See Mary Lou or Pastor Adele to make a reservation or to find out more details.

Pentecost Celebration
2024-05-19 12:00 - 14:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
You are invited — but not required — to wear red on Sunday, May 19th, in celebration of the Holy Spirit’s presence made visible through tongues of fire that first Pentecost.
For those who will be with us in-person, you are invited to join in a picnic in the Courtyard following Sunday School at 12:00 Noon.
The church will provide sandwiches, and there is no charge — but participants are asked to bring food to share with others.

June Pastor's Letter
2024-06-01 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Letter_for_June_2024
June 1, 2024
Beloved in Christ,
Last month in worship we began an extended, careful sermon series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. On the last Sunday of May, we reflected on Jesus’ saying that His followers are “the light of the world” and “the salt of the earth”. We came to understand that this means that we who follow Jesus are to bring the warm brightness of His love and the delicious flavor of His life to those not yet a part of His family of faith. This then led us to consider how we cannot be His light for others if we hide under a bushel basket; or His salt, if we don’t let His Spirit get us out of His salt shaker.
In other words, we fulfill our identity as Jesus’ light and Jesus’ salt by engaging in the world and with its people beyond the church.
We do this work of evangelism in two ways: 1) We reach out and invite folks in, and 2) We go out to where folks are and there represent Jesus’ loving concern for them.
Andrew is the biblical model of the first approach. According to John 1:35-42, once he met Jesus and sensed who He is, Andrew found his brother Simon Peter, told Peter he thought Him the Messiah, and took Peter with him into Jesus’ presence to see for himself.
We can follow Andrew’s approach to evangelism whenever we ask someone to join us in some activity of the church and accompany them in that activity as they see for themselves.
This month provides a particularly promising opportunity to imitate Andrew. Thursday evening, June 20th, we have the first of two Summer Courtyard Picnic and Worship events. (The second one takes place on July 18th.) The Courtyard gates open at 5:45; we eat from 6:00 to 6:45; and we worship from 6:45 to 7:30. Because of the informal, casual nature of this affair, some people, not used to church, might be comfortable to give it a try, and check things out, when they might not yet be comfortable coming to other activities.
Won’t you then try the “reach out and invite in” approach to evangelism?
The second approach, that of going out to where folks are and there representing Jesus and His good news, is modeled by all the disciples as they obeyed Jesus call, in Matthew 28:19, to “go…and make disciples of all nations.”
We may not go outside the nation of the America, or even outside the city of Long Beach. But Jesus wants us to serve Him outside the church by meeting folks on their own turf and giving them a sight and/or a taste of His presence. This may happen with our immediate neighbors where we live, with those who participate in the same community or shared interest groups as we, in our workplace, in the stores we frequent, anywhere!
We may not know how to spark a conversation with some spiritual dimension to it, but we can pray that the Lord would cause such opportune moments to arise on their own. If we keep praying and keep an eye peeled for God’s answering such praying, we might be surprised at how often God answers such prayer. As the former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, used to say with a twinkle in his eye, “I am not saying miracles still happen; but I notice that, when I pray, there are a lot of strange coincidences that come about!”
Won’t you also try the “go out and represent” approach to evangelism?
Won’t you become more and more the light and salt Jesus means for us all to be?
Warmly in His love,
Rob & Adele
Letter_for_June_2024

Covenant Summer Choir
2024-06-02 09:00 - 09:45 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Covenant Summer Choir
Covenant Summer Choir rehearses on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. through September 8th. If you’d like to join, please meet up with choir members in the Choir Room on Sunday morning. You can also see Peter Bates for more details.

Cutters
2024-06-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Cutters are a group of adults who enjoy getting together monthly to break bread together over breakfast (on Saturday) or over dinner (on Sunday). In June, Cutters will be enjoying dinner on Sunday, June 9th at 6:00 p.m. at Belmont Brewing Company (BBC) – 25 39th Pl. See Mary Lou or Pastor Adele to make a reservation or to find out more details.

Summer Olympics 2024 Rising TIDE-Style
2024-06-17 09:45 - 15:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Free for children & youth
Mondays – Thursdays
June 17th – July 25th
9:45 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Visit www.RisingTIDEatMKEC.org to register a young person to attend or to register to volunteer and help out directly with young people behind the scenes
Extended hours for youth on Mon. & Wed.

Potluck Picnic & Courtyard Worship
2024-06-20 17:45 - 20:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Thursdays June 20th & July 18th

Bring food to share and your table service, beverages provided
The meal will begin at 6:00 p.m., after grace
Worship will start about 6:45 p.m.

Movie Goers
2024-06-23 08:00 - 17:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Join members of your Covenant family for an afternoon at a local movie theater (and a light meal following) on June 23rd. The movie and show time have yet to be announced. For more details about Movie Goers, please contact Pastor Adele at ALangworthy@CovenantLB.org.

7th Annual Rising TIDE Golf Tournament
2024-06-28 07:00 - 17:30 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Golf_Tournament_Brochure_June_2024
For more information or to purchase tickets follow this link:
https://risingtidegolf.funraise.org/
Place: El Dorado Park Golf Course
2400 Studebaker Road
Long Beach, CA 90815

Date: Friday, June 28th, 2024

Time: 7:00 am Check-in
8:00 am Shotgun tee-off
(Awards ceremony immediately following the last golfers’ completion)

Format: 4-man scramble (best ball)

Register: By June 1, 2024

Attire: Collared shirts or blouses, slacks, skirts, or walking shorts. No denim, t-shirts, or tank tops. No metal spikes are permitted. Rules also apply to non-golfers.
A majority of the event is underwritten to maximize your dollars directly benefitting the young people at Rising TIDE.
For additional information, please contact:
Event Coordinator, Chuck Landon
310-781-0359
or
Executive Director, Adele Langworthy
562-437-0958, ext. 25
Rising TIDE’s Education and Development Program for Urban Youth uplifts and empowers young people in downtown Long Beach:

through academic support, cultural enrichment, healthy relationship building, nutritional support, and recreational programming,
by preparing them to lead happy, whole, and productive lives,
ultimately equipping them with the skills and tools necessary to become self-reliant and fulfill their academic, professional, and personal potential.

Our goal this year is to raise over $250,000 and increase awareness of the valuable service that Rising TIDE is providing.
We hope you can be a part of this event where you can greet old friends or make new ones while enjoying challenges, food, fun, entertainment, inspiration, and the opportunity to go home knowing you have made a real difference in the lives of countless young people.
We are committed to making this a great experience for you and a tremendous success for the Rising TIDE family. Please sign up early and join us for Rising TIDE’s 7th Annual Golf Tournament Fundraising Event being held on June 28th.

Pastors' Letter for July
2024-07-01 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Click here: Pastors’ Letter for July
July 1, 2024
Beloved,
We write this letter as an invitation to join us in the appreciation and celebration of certain volunteers in our church who play as crucial a role in it as any.

Covenant is a church that identifies as “Presbyterian”. That English word derives from a word in koine, the ancient Greek language in which the New Testament was originally written. The word is presbyter. It is translated in English as “elder”, referring to an office in the community of God’s people that goes back to the time of Moses. The words, presbyter and presbyteroi (its plural form), are used twenty times in the New Testament.

The congregation in our kind of church elects its elders. The congregation elects elders to lead the church in the will of Christ. Thus, the main function of elders is to listen to the living Christ and to discern His particular will for a particular church (in this case, Covenant).
This is no easy job.
The Bible gives us the general principles and purposes of a church, but it gives no specific instruction about how a specific church in today’s world should fulfill those general, but eternally essential, principles and purposes. It takes faithful praying, hard thinking, open-minded discussing and more faithful praying to pick up Christ’s particular wishes for a particular church in a particular context.

That is all the more the case when the context is as unprecedented as today’s. Never-before-seen changes in the cultural milieu have been taking place every which way, and with increasing speed. What used to work in helping “the church be the church” often no longer works, and frequently what works wonderfully are things we are still figuring out how to do best.

So please give thanks for our Covenant elders and pray for them as they discern Christ’s wishes and lead us in them. The elders are Jar’reese Billberry, Ah’jea’le Brown, Mary Lou Fourtane, Kris Hall, Karen Kennedy, Adele Langworthy, Rob Langworthy, Hubert Lloyd, Bubele Sakala, Jen Schwing, Ed Story, Jeff Sutton, Mark Wiley and Drury Wisdom; and they meet the middle of this month, July 16.
Thank you!
In the grip of God’s grace,
Rob & Adele
P.S. Here’s a teaser.
This letter of gratitude is the first in a two-part series. For in our tradition there are two kinds of church officers: elders and deacons. The primary role of the first is to lead with true discernment, and the primary role of the second is to serve with true love. Both are to be equally honored, for Jesus our ultimate Leader said, “The Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve.”

Pastors' Letter for August
2024-08-01 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Pastors’ Letter for August
August 1, 2024
Beloved,
As last month we wrote in appreciation and celebration of the church elders, this month we do so in honor of another group of volunteers who are essential to the fulfillment of the mission of our church.
They are the deacons, church members who make a special effort to embody the love of Jesus to others, particularly those in special need. They take as seriously as anyone the call to imitate Jesus when He said that He came “not to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28).
In the Bible, deacons are introduced in Acts 6. At that time, the church was growing rapidly and incorporating all kinds of people into its fellowship of shared love.
Many of the new members were poor and in need of extra help just to make it in life. It took a lot of work to take care of them all, and those who labored in this work had to be sensitive and vigilant in making sure that every segment of the church got an equitable share of the church’s charity.
The apostles valued this mission of compassion, and were at first very involved in it. But this mission of compassion had grown so big and complicated that their involvement in it was pulling them away from their God-given priorities.
So the apostles “called together the whole community of the disciples” and declared that “it is not right” that, even for so valuable a ministry, they should neglect their prime ministries of “prayer and serving the word”. So they instructed the congregation to select a number of people to head the ministry and thereby free up the apostles to do full justice to their primary calling.
Those selected by the people and appointed by the apostles to the work of mercy would later be commonly referred to as diakanoi, which literally means “servants”.
Servanthood should be a core quality of every member of a church of Christ and of each church as a whole. For example, the Apostle Paul called himself a “diakonos” (that is, “servant”) of the gospel of Jesus. But as the meaning of the term evolved over time, it came to refer to those with a specific calling to bring compassionate care to the needy.
In the Presbyterian tradition, deacons are those who embody Christ’s love “for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the loss, the friendless, the oppressed, those burdened by unjust policies or structures, or anyone in distress”. (Book of Order, G-20201)
We often see Covenant’s beloved deacons as those who jump into the troubled waters of others to be lifelines to the church and to rescue them from dark seas of difficulties.
So please join us in giving thanks for our Covenant deacons and pray for them as they represent the mercy of Christ widely for us all. Our deacons are Narin Antoniades, Mei Cameron, Margaret Hullett, Diana Law, Ray Law, Lea Lindley, Ruben Lindley, Cynthia Olson, Greg Perkins, Sandy Smeby and Felecia Taylor.
This August, as was the case August last year, the church is catching its breath. Its only “big” activities will be those that take place on Sunday (with the exception of Back to School Day on Monday, August 26th).
This August please slow down, linger prayerfully with the Lord, grow still and attentive to the deepest parts of your existence, and reflect on this scripture from Isaiah 30:15b, wherein God says, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
In the grip of God’s grace,
Pastor Adele and Pastor Rob

Programming for Children & Youth
2024-08-27 12:30 - 20:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Rising TIDE @ MKEC
Programming for Children & Youth
Monday – Thursday
Homework Help, Tutoring, Activities, Science Experiments, The Arts, Recreation and More
12:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Pre-school & Elementary-aged Children
2:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Middle School & High School Youth
Go to www.RisingTIDEatMKEC.org:

to sign up a new young person for Fall, click on New Participant Enrollment Form
to sign up a returning student for Fall, click on Fall 2024 Participant Renewal
to apply to be a tutor, mentor or general volunteer, click on Volunteering

Special Middle School & High School Programs are held on Wednesdays

Pastors' Letter for September
2024-09-01 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Letter for September 2024
September 1, 2024
Beloved,
The seasons change, from Summer to Fall, on the 22nd of this month.
The world around is day by day changing radically and rapidly.
The church needs to change to bring the changeless good news of Jesus to as many as possible in
this new, unprecedented cultural context.
We, however, are not yet clear on how we should change or how we can change.
What then are we to do?
What comes to us is we are both to work faithfully in the Lord and to wait faithfully for the Lord.
That is to say that we are, first of all, to carry on in doing what He has already made clear is ours to
do, changing only in the sense of doing those things still better as His grace enables.
It is also to say that we are, as well, to keep listening carefully for His guidance and to keep hoping
that He will lead us, at the exact right moment, in every next, new step we are to take.
Most of us probably understand better what it means to work for the Lord than what it means to
wait for the Lord.
Waiting for the Lord does not mean becoming passive and inactive. In fact, it means diligently
persevering in what God has already directed us to do, even while we hold on to His promises of directing
us further and hold out for His revelation of what is our best next step (which requires us to refrain from
jumping to what just occurs to us as a good next step).
To wait for the Lord is to let go of our illusions about our ability to figure things out on our own, to
depend on God to show us the way forward, and to believe that He will do that at the perfect moment
according to the perfect timing of His perfect schedule (which is often quite different from our schedule).
To wait for the Lord is to turn to Him first and foremost for the wisdom we need. It is with focused
and sustained attention to listen vigilantly and expectantly for His voice as it might come to us through the Bible, through the Spirit in prayer, through conversations with other brothers and sisters in the faith, and through our meditation together on the circumstances of our present context.
It is a process that takes longer than we might like; and, in the midst of it, we might feel like the
children of Israel on their forty-year journey to the Promised Land.
But let us persist in this drawn-out process of working and waiting, even as we obey the call of
Psalm 31:24 to “be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord”!
In the grip of God’s grace,
Pastor Adele and Pastor Rob

Children's Hybrid Sunday School
2024-09-01 11:15 - 12:00 | Covenant Presbyterian Church, 607 East 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802, United States
Children’s Hybrid Sunday Programming
Sunday School for children thru 5th grade meets in the “Center” for those attending in-person, and for those on-line through Google Meet.
Email ALangworthy@CovenantLB.org for virtual joining information.
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