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In the coming days (and weeks) we're going to be sharing some exciting news about fall plans for Covenant Christian Community Church. As I've been thinking about what is to come, I've also been thinking about where we've come from. In his recounting of our earliest days as a church (and before), Glenn Robitaille shares about a conviction that Penetanguishene needed its own "evangelical presence." It was this conviction, along with some unlikely (dare we say, divinely orchestrated) circumstances that led to Glenn being mentored into the BIC and Covenant Christian Community Church being started as that evangelical presence.

That word "evangelical" has a lot of baggage today. It has come to identify a group of people and ways of thinking that many wonderful Christians do not want to be identified with. But what "evangelical" means to many today is not what it has meant for most of history. At the most basic level, the evangelical means "related to the good news." In particular, it is about the good news of Jesus. To be an evangelical presence meant to be a church committed to sharing the good news of Jesus as recorded for us in the Bible and inviting others to join us in the life change that comes through following the way of Jesus.

I'm thankful that Covenant continues to be that evangelical presence in Penetang. The Be In Christ Church of Canada expression of our evangelical witness is distinct from our brothers and sisters in other churches in Huronia. And I am convinced that our Anabaptist understanding of the good news of Jesus and the invitation to join in it is desperately needed today just as much as it was 40 years ago.

As we look forward to the future, let us continue to embrace the raison d'être for which we were started thirty-nine years ago. Let us look towards what is to come with a renewed conviction that the way of Jesus is worth sharing and worth inviting people to join us in following. Let us prayerfully and courageously look for ways to invite others to know him and live the abundant life he longs for each of us to live. 

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