The Gate
AUGUST 2008
The Official Newsletter of Gateway Covenant Church “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” -Psalm 133:1 Firmly nestled on the East End of Prince Albert stands Gateway Covenant Church, built in 1981 as a community desiring to ask the questions of “what does it mean to be the church?” and “how do we feed the spiritually homeless?” Gateway seeks to give people a safe environment where they may be free to worship in a
Gateway Covenant Church
COVENANT
A F F I R M AT I O N S
comfortable setting and articulate how God has been at work in their life. Worship begins at 10 in the morning followed by coffee where people are free to chat. There are also classes which occur during this time. For youth, there is a confirmation class in process. For children, there is a Sunday school class where they can hear story and make crafts. There are also adult classes. Come and worship with us! God bless and take care.
Phone: (306) 764 - 7155 Fax: (306) 763-1570 Website: www.covgate.com Email: gatewaycovenant@hotmail.com Address: Box 2318 Prince Albert, SK S6V 6Z1
Table of Contents: Review of Covenant Heights Bible Camp Words from a Friend Wordsearch
Gateway Covenant Church
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COVENANT
A F F I R M AT I O N S 1
Who are the ECC? The Evangelical Covenant Church is a denomination of more than six hundred churches in the United States and Canada. It was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1885 as a voluntary covenant of churches committed to working together to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Covenant churches emphasize the Bible's witness to new life in Jesus Christ expressed in a day to day walk with the Lord. What is a Covenant Church? • Evangelical, but not exclusive. • Biblical, but not doctrinaire. • Traditional, but not rigid. • Congregational, but not independent. The Evangelical Covenant Church is an apostolic, catholic, reformation, and evangelical church. Who hold to the centrality of the word of God, the necessity of the new birth, a commitment to the whole mission of the Church, the Church as a fellowship of believers, a conscious dependence on the holy spirit, and the reality of freedom in Christ.1
CAMP!!! In July the youth were able to spend some time at camp in Clear Lake, Manitoba where they attended Covenant Heights Bible Camp, an event held through the ECCC. I asked them the highlights of the trip and here is what they had to say: “So camp this year for me was over all an awesome experience. Each year it just gets better and better. I meet more and more new, amazing people and learn so much. This year I was there for 3 weeks straight, with one day of rest in Norquay SK. I would definitely have to say that my favorite part of camp has always been the people; the campers that I've counseled, fellow campers, and counselors that I've learned from. This year I particularly enjoyed the two weeks of counseling. Being the role model, the one they went to with their questions. It was a very maturing experience. It also helped me during teen camp as a camper, finally realizing the changes in myself. I don't have many bad experiences that I can recall, just that the mosquitoes and fish flies are almost enough to drive you crazy at times, but thankfully I made it through.” - Molly Read “This camp was fun and at the same time deadly painful. It was fun because I was involved with so many games. It felt strange because people actually recognized me. It was painful by a lot of people tackling me and taking me down. The overall camp was AWSOME (his emphasis). I made so many friends who are so kind and caring.” - Daniel Vandervord “Camp is probably the thing I look forward to most out of the entire year. The people are great to hang around with and the games are awesome, especially garbage can. The food is great, I love the fresh air, and talking about God all week. The only things I don't like about it is the drive to camp, the wake up bell, and the cold showers. I wouldn't change much, it's the whole experience that i love.” - Emily Read "Seeing as this was my last year to be a camper, I think it was a nice way to end off. The best part of camp was just being able to slow down for a week from what I was doing at home and relax in a healthy environment with good friends. Catching up with people I haven't seen for a while was a good thing too. This camp is a place away from every thing where you can look at where you are in your life, and gain a deeper understanding of where your walk will go in the future." - Thomas Friesen
To download the Covenant affirmations please visit the website of the ECC at: 1
http://www.covchurch.org/ affirmations 2
began to fade into the background and what I began to see was a whole bunch of agitated, anxious and angry citizens. The comment that one of the older gentleman blurted out has haunted me over the last months since that meeting. In a voice of exclamation it rang out, “We just want it to go back to the way it was!”
Words from a Friend: Erik
Anderson sheds some light on the lost art of submission. Each August as the days become shorter and we quietly curse the end of summer we at our little faith community in Winnipeg (Faith Covenant church) spend the month thinking about spiritual disciplines. Last year we looked at the inward disciplines (prayer, study, meditation and fasting) according to Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline. This August we are entering into the outward disciplines which in turn are service, solitude, simplicity and submission. Last year when I took a look at the landscape of my life and those around me I thought we were a little weak at the inward discipline. The reality is as weak as we may be at practicing inward disciplines many of the outward disciplines are not even on our radar as Christians in North America. We may pretend we are people who practice solitude but really we are more often than not just alone and lonely wanting to make our disposition worthwhile so we too often say we are people who experience God in solitude but the brass tax is that this could not be further from the truth. Our service rarely comes out of love for God or neighbor but too often from duty and responsibility- it lacks love and joy. We think we are striving for simplicity but the noose of the material world is ever squirming around our neck. And submission… submission is not our strong suit as the only thing we tend to submit to is number one (and that is rarely anyone/thing other than ourselves). In the neighborhood I live we were invited to come to a community meeting the other day to discuss an issue that was becoming problematic to our life together. As I was there the issue that we were there for
Now, there are times where we learn from looking back but the world turns and days change. Life cannot be stagnant especially when we follow the Living God. I can not stop my mind from thinking this comment from this well meaning man sounded a lot like the Hebrew people in the days following their exodus from Egypt. This same struggle is not an uncommon one in church as I began to meditate on it some more. We all have our style of music, teaching, caring and sharing that we wish still was. It is difficult for us to submit to the changing winds of the Spirit of God. We have a difficult time taking Jesus seriously when he says to us: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” We have a tendency in the church to not want to deny ourselves of anything. When each of us will not deny for an example our preferences we lack unity which cripples our ability to follow Jesus. We don’t like the work of carrying a cross and so we dig a hole put it in the ground paint it up a bit and make it a little more pretty and then choose to die for the most ridiculous of things (church decorations, song selections, Sunday dress, what new Christians do or don’t do, lack of visits, what the preacher said or didn’t say, budgets and on and on as this broken record we all know spins!) In our little community we don’t have that many elderly people. This is unfortunate as they can bring so much beauty, depth and encouragement to a young church trying to love God and neighbor as best we can. About three years ago this elderly couple walked through our doors. They were from our church neighborhood which I was excited about but didn’t know how they would take being one of the only in their demographic. As it turns out they spent the last five decades at a Lutheran church around the corner that
A Confession: “It is hard for me, O God, to confess my sins and not merely repeat well-worn phrases with which I try to cover my real guilt.
I am a sinner. Why is it so difficult for me to see that, Lord? Why am I so bothered with a few things I do wrong while I think nothing of my lack of trust in You? Why do I feel guilty when I do not live up to my own standards but hardly blush when I fail you? Why do I imitate unholy men instead of following the Christ? I must confess it is because I follow my own desires, because I am weak in the face of temptations, and without You I am nothing. All I can do is plead mercy, O God. I cannot even hold up to the honesty and fullness of my confession. All I can do is trust Your love in Jesus Christ. I surely cannot trust my love for You or for Him. Hear me for the sake of Jesus Christ, who lived for me and died that in Him I might live. Forgive me, Father! Forgive me even this, my poor confession. I need Your forgiveness for Christ’s sake. Amen.” - from the Lutheran Book of Prayer, p. 48, 1970. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” - Romans 9:9-10
had recently died out and closed and were looking for a church in their community as driving became more difficult at their stage of life. 3
This couple began to engage in our community and in a lot of ways I am sure practiced the discipline of submission with a young church that surely had music, teaching, décor styles and an overall way of being that was quite foreign to their previous way of church.
His life taught me about how I want to be. I have seen too many people go the other way holding on to their “way it used to be” right to their final breath. My Winnipeg grampa died with a smile on his face. How do we want to live? How do we want to die?
My “Winnipeg grammpa”, as I had come to think of this old man passed away last week. He had been sick for some time and in one of our visits with him he made the comment, “I have been preached at for 53 years but what I have experienced at Faith for the last couple years is something altogether different.” Our friend went on to describe how he was intimately experiencing the presence of God because he was able to deny himself pick up his cross and follow Jesus. In laying down his desire for the way it used to be he experienced the depths of joy, life and fulfillment in community!
My prayer for us is that we would take seriously our need to practice the lost art of submission. Submission is not being a doormat, pleaser or master manipulator but disciples who deny themselves and pick up their cross to follow Jesus for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
Erik Anderson is pastor at Faith Covenant Church in Winnipeg. He is married to Kristi and he blogs at http://basementmusing.blogspot.com/
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Saints of the Church Calendar On August 3 the church celebrates the life of St. Stephen the Martyr. In Greek, the name Stephen means “crown” or “wreath.” Stephen is venerated in both Roman Catholic and Easter Orthodox churches as being the first martyr for the Christian faith. (c. 35 a.d.) Stephen was one of the seven men, most likely Hellenistic Jews, who were chosen to provide aid to the widows in the early church community, he was a deacon. Stephen also possessed proficient abilities in evangelism, preaching to many Jewish communities in Jerusalem. Stephen was later charged with blasphemy by the Jewish religious leaders (Sanhedrin) for speaking against Moses and the Temple. As a result, Stephen was stoned to death. Acts notes that it was Saul of Tarsus, who later became Paul, who condoned and encouraged the stoning. 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ St._Stephen
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