Greetings,
For those I have not met yet, my name is Chuck Potts, and it is a joy and honor to have joined ECC as the Pastor of Young Adults! My wife, Heather, as well as our three boys (Sean – 10, Ben – 7, and Mason – almost 3) are grateful for your prayers and encouragement as we have moved to town and work to get settled in this new part of our family’s journey.
A little about me: I believe my call to ministry began when I was a freshman in high school attending my first ever week of summer camp at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp in Lake Geneva, WI. This week of hearing the gospel message in a new way opened my eyes to the transformational and healing love of Jesus, which inspired and challenged me to respond to this work in my own life by telling others about it. After many years of returning to camp each summer in pursuit of this purpose, I continued to sense this calling on my life, which was affirmed by my wife Heather just as we were getting married in 2011. So I finally said yes and pursued my first ministry call in the Covenant thereafter.
Since that time, I have served in two called youth ministry positions, the most recent being at Valley Covenant Church in Stillman Valley, IL, for the past 8 years. During this time, I obtained my Masters degree in Christian Formation in 2020 and was duly ordained to Word and Service in the Covenant in June of this year.
As I have been in transition out of my call at Valley Covenant and to this new call here in Lafayette, I have reflected a lot on how God is at work and what ways He is calling me, the church, and the rest of His holy people towards His purposes. While the details vary as much as each of our individual daily walks of life, the mission and purpose are the same. The Kingdom of God is here and now, bursting into our world in ways seen and unseen. And our role is to turn our lives to God and His kingdom, responding to His transformative presence in our own lives by choosing each and every day to love God BY loving all of His people.
It seems both complicated and yet simple; complicated because life is hard and the world is constantly calling us away from Kingdom living. And yet simple, in that it just takes a conscious, daily, moment-by-moment choice to love people in the same forgiving, unbiased, overwhelming and unrelenting way that God loves each of us.
This is our call as a community, and I am excited to join with you all on this journey of being the hands and feet, love of Jesus to one another and to the community in which we serve. I look forward to being “on mission” with you, reaching out to students and young adults in our community, and living a life of love and service to all those considered to be the “other”; the overlooked, the outcast, the hurting, the broken and all those that differ from ourselves.
My prayers continue to be for God’s blessing, power and energy to be made known for each of you, and I look forward to being “on mission” as a community with you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out and connect with me, as I really look forward to getting to know you all in time.
--Pastor Chuck Potts