In the Beginning...

No. Not the beginning! Our beginning.

Today is the date of Covenant's 41st Anniversary. 41 years of God's provision meeting 41 years of faithful service by so many. To honour our anniversary, here is what Glenn Robitaille has written about our first gathering and those early days.

Appropriately, June 15th was a beautiful day. 32 individuals arrived at Corpus
Christi school with an air of anticipation. The day before I spent in the parking lot of the
old Red Dock writing my first sermon and imagining what the future would bring. I felt
like David against Goliath—a poet taking on a seasoned warrior. I don’t remember being
nervous about that—we had the right team, we had the right vision, and we had an
amazing opportunity—but it was a monumental challenge. The image so resonated with
me that it became the text for my first message. We could do this thing with God’s help
if we remained connected to him, and if we saw it as his battle. Fittingly, we opened the
service with To God Be the Glory.

As services go, it was fairly consistent with the pattern in popular usage at the
time—announcements, a call to worship, an invocational prayer, several hymns
strategically placed throughout, pastoral prayer, an offering, a sermon, and a benediction
—which, with the addition of a children’s story, was a formula we were to follow for the
next 13 years. It was what real churches did. And doing what normal churches did was
very important early on.

Much could be written about the actual early services and their flavour. In
rereading my messages from the first year it became obvious that the central theme was
about understanding the nature of God as a loving father who desired a relationship with
his children and who was gracious and generous in dealing with them. Much of the
material was designed to underscore the idea that we, as God’s children, were to meet
people where they were and become God’s hands, hearts and voice in drawing them to
himself. But what most stands out for me is the people.

-Excerpt from chapter 2 of "And Walk With Them" by Glenn Robitaille, written in 2005 on the occasion of our 25th Anniversary

Thank you to all those who have been and continue to be a part of our rich history. Thank you to all those who have lived out the love of Jesus in both word and action in our community. May we continue to meet people where they are and become God's heart, hands, and voice in drawing them to himself. May we continue to be a family that cares for people.