Getting Here
Visit our contact/directions page for a Google map and instructions on taking Metro.
For Your Kids
Your children will love exploring God's story at Discovery Land.
What To Expect
Sunday is a big day in this busy Christian community. Learn more about what goes on.
What We Believe
Discover our core values and beliefs as a church.
Our Pastors
Learn about the pastors and pastoral teams here at Covenant Life.
Explore Covenant Life
Starting Point is the beginning of involvement at Covenant Life. Join the class any Sunday.
Tullian Tchividjian, Our Guest on November 28
8 Comments
Pastor Tullian Tchividjian will preach here at Covenant Life in both services on Sunday, November 28. His Scripture text will be Colossians 1:9-14, and his title, “Jesus + Nothing = Everything.”
Tullian’s full name is (get ready…) William Graham Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-ví-jin). He is a Florida native, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham. Yep, Billy Graham’s grandson is coming to preach at Covenant Life!
A graduate of Columbia International University (philosophy) and Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Tullian is the author of Do I Know God? Finding Certainty in Life’s Most Important Relationship
When he is not reading, studying, preaching or writing, he enjoys being with people and relaxing with his wife Kim and their three kids, Gabe, Nate and Genna. Tullian loves the beach, exercise, and when he has time, surfing.
Tullian’s favorite authors include C.S. Lewis, J.I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, and Jonathan Edwards.
November 16 2010 at 2:38 pm
How Loud is Too Loud?
6 Comments
This blog post was written by Dave Wilcox, Covenant Life’s Technical Director, in response to a question that was submitted to the pastors at our Members Meeting on November 14, 2010.
As Covenant Life’s Technical Director, I have the responsibility to help the pastors decide how loud the music should be for different events. Joshua Harris has asked me to give a brief explanation of our current understanding of safe sound levels and how we set the volume levels in our services.
First, your pastors and sound crew take hearing safety very seriously. Not only that, we want singing to be a joy for the church. We don’t want people thinking about the volume levels of the music instead of the songs they are singing and the God they are singing to.
To that end, I want to try to briefly answer three common questions related to the volume of our music:
1. Is anyone at risk of hearing loss from attending our services?
2. Who decides how loud the music is and how do they make that decision?
3. What should I do if I find the music uncomfortable?
Is anyone at risk of hearing loss from attending our services?
Several government agencies have published research and recommendations on hearing safety. The most conservative group is the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). They have put together a formula to determine the safety of volume levels. You can learn more about their standards here.
The NIOSH formula is based on a “daily dose” of noise and—after crunching all the numbers—gives back a percentage. Basically, each time a person hears loud sound, his percentage increases. Once he reaches 100%, he has used up his daily dose of noise, and any more loud sound will likely lead to some permanent hearing loss.
We have measured the levels in our services and plugged these numbers into the formula. The greatest we’ve registered was 13% for a single service. Most services are between 9% and 11%. For people who serve through the band rehearsal and both services, they may take in up to 30-35% of their daily dose.
In short, even those who are in the auditorium all morning long are far from experiencing any hearing loss.
Some people have asked about their children, especially infants. Are they different in any way physiologically than adults, so that they would be harmed by sound levels that would be acceptable for adults?
Thorough research about this specific topic is almost nonexistent, but we have spoken to a pediatric audiologist to answer these questions. She explained that, while children do hear better than adults, the levels for permanent hearing loss are the same for adults and children. We then told her about our current practices and sound levels, and she had absolutely no concerns for our children.
In short, we are confident that our sound levels are safe for everyone who attends.
Who decides how loud the music is, and how do they make that decision?
While the person at the sound board does set the volume level at any given moment, the pastor responsible for each event is the one who decides the overall volume targets, as long as they meet the safety requirements above.
For Sundays, Josh, Grant, and I have set some general goals that have helped us determine what the most appropriate volume level is:
• We want the levels to be loud enough that you can follow the worship leader, even if you are singing loudly.
• We want the levels to moderate enough that you can hear others around you singing.
• We want what you hear to faithfully represent what the band is playing, both in the mix of instruments and voices and in the style of the music.
• We want the music to be present, meaning that it doesn’t sound like it’s coming from far away, so that it is engaging you and drawing you into the singing.
Different pastors may have slightly different goals for their events. If you have questions about sound levels for a particular event, please check in with the pastor leading that event.
What should I do if I find the music uncomfortable?
Some people, for various reasons, may have a level of physical discomfort because of our sound volumes, even though they are well within safe ranges. For those of you in that situation, I want to mention two things that may help you:
• If you find the sub-bass frequencies too strong for your liking, I’d recommend moving back in the room. The subwoofers are located in the stairs in front of the stage, so the low frequencies are a bit stronger up front than in the back.
• If you find that the overall sound causes discomfort, we do have earplugs available at the welcome center that will cut the volume levels down for you significantly.
Music and the Multi-Generational Church
In conclusion, I’d like to take a brief personal tangent. My wife’s grandfather passed away earlier this year in his 80s. In spite of his age, he loved this church and thrived spiritually in the three years he was here. His great-granddaughter, my four-year-old girl, also loves this church and looks forward to going each week to Discovery Land. For a short time, our family had four generations meeting God together at this church. What a blessing it has been to us to have a multi-generational church!
That blessing would not have been ours apart from the grace of God in you, Covenant Life Church. Many of you have set aside your personal preferences in many areas, including music and sound levels, in order to see the advancement of the gospel through the next generation. Thank you for embodying Philippians 2:3, in humility counting others more significant than yourselves.
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact your pastor, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) directly, or call me at the church office.
November 5 2010 at 11:00 am
Tim Kerr Will Preach on November 14
1 Comments
Tim Kerr, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Toronto will continue our series, “Desperate: Living Aware of Our Need for Jesus,” as he preaches here at Covenant Life Church in both services on Sunday, November 14. His message from John 14:12-14 will ask: “Can I as a Christian experience the power of Christ in my daily life? Is this only theoretical ... or is it really possible? What exactly is the relationship between prayer and the power of God?”
If you’ve been visiting Covenant Life or are considering checking us out for the first time, we would be delighted to have you join us.
Tim’s Bio
Although he was born in Canada, Tim Kerr has spent more than half of his life in Asia. Tim’s family moved from Canada to India when he was a year old and lived there for the next 10 years. Tim has many fond childhood memories of living in places like Calcutta and Bangalore. When he reached his high school years, the family returned to Canada.
During college, Tim met his sweetheart Joanne, who had grown up in the Toronto district known as “Little Italy.” After wedding and graduating from college, Tim and Joanne spent 12 years in Japan where Tim was involved in starting new churches. In 2000, the Kerr family moved back to Canada, and Tim pursued mentoring men one-on-one as a full time vocation for the next five years.
Tim has been the pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Toronto since its beginning in the summer of 2004. He and Joanne have four children, ages 13-19.
October 11 2010 at 2:34 pm
How To Come To Church: Eager, Expectant, and Early
1 CommentsYesterday, Joshua Harris preached a message from Psalm 63 titled, “Earnestly I Seek You.” This video clip is from the end of Joshua’s message where he speaks about changes in the Sunday morning schedule and some practical things we can all apply.
In his sermon, Joshua posed four questions and explained how the Psalm answers them:
1. Who is the God I am to earnestly seek?
2. Why earnestly seek him if he is already my God?
3. How do I earnestly seek God?
4. What if I am not earnestly seeking him?
Joshua then gave two ways to apply the teaching of the Psalm: 1) by making extra room in our day to remember God, and 2) by coming each Sunday eager to behold God.
On this second point, he highlighted three words for us to remember:
1. Come Eager to sing to him, fellowship with other Christians, hear his word.
2. Come Expectant that he will speak, change us and refresh us.
3. Come Early —not walking in late, but in our seats and ready to go at 9 a.m. or 11:30 a.m.
Finally, Joshua went on to give some specific guidance about Sunday mornings as follows (Covenant Life members: heads up for this part!):
Starting Sunday, October 17, we’ll set aside the auditorium as a place for prayer one half-hour before each service. You can pray with others in small groups (or, if you prefer to pray quietly in your seat, that’s great, too), but the goal is to focus on praying for God to work in and through our church, while keeping casual conversation in the lobby.
The prayer time will last 20 minutes. When we hit the 10-minute mark prior to the meeting time (8:50 for first service and 11:20 a.m. for the second), we will break and allow for the normal hustle and bustle of everyone greeting one another and finding their seats. Then, we’ll all be poised and ready when the band calls us to worship at either 9 or 11:30.
A thorough outline of the sermon is available in the Resource Library.
September 27 2010 at 6:32 pm
Kevin DeYoung Will Preach on October 3
2 Comments
Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung will be with us at Covenant Life on Sunday, October 3, preaching from the first chapter of Leviticus. In his message Kevin will outline the sacrificial themes of Leviticus, pointing out how the book can be practical in its potential application, inspiring in its call to holiness, and rich in its foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ. This look at Leviticus should provide a fresh perspective on some foundational gospel truths.
Kevin DeYoung is the Senior Pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich., across the street from Michigan State University. He serves on the board of RCA Integrity, a renewal group within the Reformed Church in America. He is the co-author of Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be and Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion, and the author of Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc.
September 15 2010 at 6:35 pm
Partnering With OneU
0 CommentsThis past Sunday Jon Smith shared an update about OneU, Covenant Life’s campus outreach ministry at The University of Maryland. The ministry’s aim is to spread the fame of Jesus by multiplying the followers of Christ on the college campus.
You can partner with OneU in their mission to proclaim the gospel through your prayers and financial giving. Visit the Online Giving page to donate now or set up a recurring donation.