A Community Church For Our Community
In 2018, when we reviewed and renewed some strategic initiatives as a church, the first thing we affirmed was, "We will be a community church for our community."
As we have unpacked that, we have emphasized two things. First, we will be a church that is a community. We are together in this - walking with each other and supporting each other as we look for opportunities to help each other to become all that God has created us to be. Second, we will be for our community. We want to equip and empower people to serve in our community, not by creating serving programs that are coordinated by our church office to accomplish, but by equipping individuals and groups to serve in their areas of passion and gifting. We want to create ways to engage with our community and be active and present within it.
With those two things in mind, I want to use our Covenant Weekly today to let you know about two ways we can practice being a community church for our community.
- Serving in roles that help us be a healthy church community.
Each year we need people who are a part of our church family to fill essential roles that serve and maintain our community life together. The two primary roles are that of deacon - to help ensure care for the members of our Covenant family - and board member - to help oversee and ensure proper management of our finances and facility. There are also specific roles on the board, opportunities to represent Covenant with our Be In Christ Church of Canada family, and opportunities to serve on our Nomination Team.
We need the help of our church family to identify those who would serve well in these essential roles and those who will capably fill these roles. We are currently seeking nominations for our 2021 roles. We welcome your input as our Nomination Team begins their work on behalf of the congregation and the board.
- Help us be present to connect with and serve our community!
In less than two weeks, many children and families in our community will be heading out for Halloween. This year will look different as some are nervous about taking their kids out and many are hesitant to open their doors to trick-or-treaters. To help serve our community - those who want their kids to receive candy safely and those who would rather not distribute candy at their home - we would like you to contribute to the best Halloween candy bags in the area!! Between now and Halloween, we will be collecting candy that we will safely divide into baggies for distribution on Halloween night from our building at 95 Robert St. E. Brent and a small group of volunteers will be present at the building to give out candy to kids and to serve hot chocolate to warm up cold fingers. Candy can be delivered to the church office between 9 am and 1:30 pm Tuesday to Thursday or you can message Brent (brent@covenantchurch.ca) or Jon (jon@covenantchurch.ca or text 249-201-9024) to arrange for alternative pick-up or drop off.
To help you engage well with your neighbourhood by communicating your plans for Halloween, the government of Ontario has printable signs available to say "Welcome Trick-or-Treaters" or to say, "See You Next Year" to those who come by your house.
We've added our own sign that you can post to let people know where they can get the candy you have contributed. It's available in the attached documents below!
Thank you to the many of you who are actively loving and supporting those within our Covenant Church family and within our community broadly. We need each other and you are doing amazing work. I look forward to seeing who will help us be a strong church community in 2021 and how much amazing candy we'll receive from you to distribute on Halloween night!!