Resurrection Covenant Church

ResCov is hiring a Youth Director Resident! Find our job posting at: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4329640644

Join us for Advent this season!

If you’re looking for a beautiful SAB arrangement of “Build a Longer Table,” look no further! John Helgen’s setting was just published with Augsburg Fortress. Link for purchase in the bio.

“God welcomes all,
strangers and friends,
God’s love is strong
and it never ends.”
-John Bell

On Sunday, we opened with this song in worship, a song we have sang many times over the years. This week, it took on a sad and terrible irony as once again the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church voted for division and exclusion by involuntarily removing Awaken (Covenant) Church from the denomination for their inclusive stance toward the LGBTQ+ community. Rather than taking up the gospel mandate to be one, rather than living into the generous spirit of our Covenant forebears who claimed to be companions of all who fear God, the delegates of the annual meeting again chose the path of scarcity and fear. The scope of our welcome continues to narrow as the list of the excluded and removed grows.

Most importantly, this continues to do damage to people in the LGBTQ+ community—our children, our siblings, our parents, our friends—making so many question God’s love for them as they are treated like pawns in a debate rather than beloved children of God made in God’s image. Whether these decisions are made on the annual meeting floor, or, as currently is being proposed for next year’s Annual Meeting, the denominational constitution is amended so these decisions around pastoral credentials can be made behind closed doors to avoid communal scrutiny and public witness, the harm will still be real and lasting.

At ResCov, we stand against these decisions by the ECC and believe they are antithetical to God’s call of welcome. Since we are called to the same positions on human sexuality as Awaken and Quest (who decided to disaffiliate before being involuntarily removed), we are proud to stand with them. We will continue to strive, however messily and imperfectly, to live into our welcome statement: “We are companions of all who desire to follow Christ and welcome you to participate fully in our life together regardless of age, ethnicity, national origin, physical or mental ability, economic status, education, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or station in life."

God welcomes all,
strangers and friends,
God’s love is strong
and it never ends.