I began attending an Evangelical Covenant Church as a young adult, just a few years out of college. The Covenant church I first attended was actually this church, ECC of Lafayette, Indiana. It was where I was first introduced to this denomination, and where I first heard questions that revealed the heart of this denomination, questions like “How goes your walk with Jesus?” and “What do the Scriptures say?”
As I dove deeper into what it meant to be a church in the Evangelical Covenant denomination, I learned about the Covenant Affirmations. These Affirmations point us to the heart of our shared Christian beliefs, drawing us together in faith and fellowship, giving us common ground and language as a people of God.
Our six Covenant Affirmations are:
1. We affirm the centrality of the word of God.
2. We affirm the necessity of the new birth.
3. We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.
4. We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.
5. We affirm a conscience dependence on the Holy Spirit.
6. We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ.
This past summer, different voices from our denomination shared their reflections on the depth and breadth of meaning in these six Affirmations. You can find an introduction to the series here, with links to reflections on all six of the Affirmations at the bottom of the introduction. I encourage you to get to know our denomination a little better by reading some of these articles and meditating on what the authors share. As you read each reflection, you’ll also get a glimpse of how many different cultures, ethnicities, and voices make up the beautiful mosaic of the Kingdom of God in our Covenant churches.
If you find that you’re at a place where you want to learn and discuss these Affirmations, or where you want to make a deeper commitment to our local Covenant church here in Lafayette, we invite you to be a part of our “Intro to ECC” class coming up on Sunday, September 24, after worship. We’ll take time and space to go deeper into our beliefs as a Covenant church, and you’ll be invited to consider if God is calling you into membership with our local church community.
I love that our Affirmations both unite us and invite us into further growth on our journey with God. As for me, I’m so thankful to have found my home in a Covenant church just over 20 years ago. This past summer, as we were cleaning up things around the church, we may have even found my membership picture…which will have to wait for another article on another day!