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To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.

Happy June!

Over the coming weeks, we are gradually entering into our summer schedule. We have completed our September to May journey through the Bible guided by the Narrative Lectionary. We now have three special services before we get into our summer conversations. We have our Celebration & Thanksgiving service on June 7. We’ll honour our volunteers, receive communion, and celebrate the baptism of two youth. On June 14 we have a Family Worship Service. It will be a fun and encouraging gathering for all ages - complete with a snack and a craft! And on June 21 we will honour the men in our church on Father’s Day. We’ll also be celebrating some of our high school graduates that morning. As a part of heading into our summer schedule, this will also be the final Covenant Weekly until the fall. I’ll still be communicating about some things that I’m going to talk about here this morning, but you won’t get the regular weekly thoughts. So for the final time before a hiatus, this is the Covenant Weekly for June 2, 2026.

As a final reminder before we head into the summer, I want to draw on two things Paul said to the church in Philippi. In Philippians 2:2, Paul wrote, “make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.” Then, in Philippians 4:2 Paul addressed two women who were at odds with each other. He wrote, “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.”

In his letter, Paul is deeply concerned about this church - a church which seems to be rather healthy - maintaining and working towards unity. There is conflict between two women, which Paul addresses with pleading. And he wants them to work at protecting the unity that already exists.

His concern seems to be rooted in Jesus’ prayer in John 17. In his final words before he is arrested, tried, and crucified, Jesus prayed, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

Unity among his followers - his very diverse bunch of followers - was of utmost importance to Jesus. Which aligns with what he told his disciples, recorded in John 13:34-35. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

I’m reminding us of this because this summer, we face a major decision - the kind that has broken relationships and splintered churches. It centres around our building, which even in Covenant’s history has been a divisive topic.

Here’s the short version:

  • We have raised almost $320,000 towards phase one of our accessibility project. The first phase will likely be around $350,000. The other phases, which include removing the current inside front stairs to put our main office there and closing in our front porch to add another meeting space, will likely cost us another $150,000.
  • Our basement has some serious water damage in it. The most thorough estimate for repairs says that it will cost almost $190,000 to take out what is damaged, mitigate moisture and mold, and rebuild it. We are still waiting to find out if insurance will cover any of this expense and, if so, how much.
  • Beyond that, we will need to work to ensure water doesn’t get back into the building. We don’t know what it would cost to deal with water flow and sealing the foundation. There is also wondering if maybe water levels have changed enough that we may not be able to seal things enough to keep the basement fully dry.

To complicate matters, we don’t have the money on hand to do all this work and we aren’t able to borrow it. We’re wrestling with what is wisest and best for us to do that will give us the space we need for ministry, allow us to serve our community well, while not tying our hands with facility expenses that hinder ministry in other ways.

There will, I hope, be a lot of creative ideas come forward for how to move ahead. We are praying for wisdom, discernment, and for God to provide in ways beyond what we can even imagine right now.

  • We’re meeting tonight, June 2, at Covenant from 7-8 pm for a prayer gathering. If you are available, please join us to pray. If you aren’t available, please pray where you are.
  • We have a board meeting on June 4 to continue to discuss options. Please pray for God to speak through the wisdom of his people at this meeting.
  • And then on June 14, following our Family Worship Service, we will have a Covenant Coffee & Conversation time where we will discuss things together. Between now and then we hope to get more answers and have some clarity on some options. We believe that God speaks through the church community and we are leaning into that as we go through this together.

But there is always the threat of something worse than financial struggles or building issues. The worse thing is that these challenges will take our eyes off the one we are following; that our differences in thinking or struggling to express ourselves will result in a failure to love; that unity will be broken.

So please pray for each other and for us to remain united in love. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. I pray that this challenging summer (and likely beyond) will draw us closer to Christ and to each other as we lean into trusting in God’s provision.

In closing, I want to go back to the verses we talked about on Sunday morning. I pray that your summer will be marked by the good, beautiful things we talked about. May your summer be filled with things that are true and noble, right and pure, lovely and admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. And as your days, weeks, and months are marked by those things, Covenant Family, I pray that the God of peace will be with you.