Covenant Life Church

August 10 2010 at 3:19 pm

A Story of Living Hope: John Spiro

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The video above is a testimony by John Spiro, given at Covenant Life Church on Sunday, August 8. John is a longtime member of Covenant Life who is suffering with ALS (often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”). Following John’s testimony, Joshua Harris and other members of the pastoral team gathered around to pray for John, his wife Kathy (who accompanies John in the video), and their family.

For more on the theme of suffering and the call for all Christians to persevere and rejoice in the midst of difficulty, see Joshua Harris’ message, “Fiery Trials.”

July 20 2010 at 5:20 pm

A Story of Living Hope

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In keeping with our “Living Hope” teaching series from the book of 1 Peter, Erin Leach, 19, shares her story of finding grace and strength from God in the midst of suffering. Erin has struggled with juvenile epilepsy over the past seven years. Alongside Erin in the video are her parents, Jamie and Cindy. Jamie is the Principal of Covenant Life School.

July 13 2010 at 7:08 pm

Encouraging Report from the Prison Ministry

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Dave Hartman sent in this encouraging news about the work of Covenant Life’s Prison Ministry. Dave leads the Prison Ministry each Wednesday evening at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Clarksburg.

I am writing a quick note to share with you some evidences of grace occurring in the Prison Ministry.

During worship, between songs, we encourage the men to read Scripture. On a recent Wednesday, after three songs, one inmate spoke up. He had tears running down his cheek, and he said he felt something in the room that he had never experienced before. He said he wanted to convert from Islam to Christianity and needed help and our prayers.

David Huff suggested that we pray right away, so I told the men we were going to pray for this fellow. Without any instruction, several men, about six or so, surrounded him and laid hands on him. I prayed and asked God to save him. After we concluded, the men recited Scriptures centered on salvation, one after another. It was so sweet.

The Spirit of God was very noticeable, and I felt like we were in a birthing center!

After the message, instead of a small group setting, I took him aside for private counseling. It turns out his father is a minister, and his mom is a Christian as well ... I preached the gospel one more time and instructed him to read the book of John over the next week and look for Christ.

The next Wednesday I pulled this new brother aside again for another private session and found out he had read the entire book of John and was very encouraged. Amazing what happens when you point a man to God’s word!

There’s also another brother who has been growing in his faith. He has been leading Bible studies and prayer meetings almost every day within the pod [section of the facility]. He recently added a Spanish-speaking prayer meeting as well. He asked last week for the Covenant Life Team to fill out prayer cards so that the prayer group could pray for us. This brother has gone from two or three in attendance at his prayer meeting to eight! He said he has become the “go to” guy for prayer. Even though he is getting 15 years for his crimes, he has much faith and joy in God’s plan for his life.

June 29 2010 at 8:11 pm

Get To Know Kevin and Jami Rogers

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This past Sunday, new Singles pastor, Kevin Rogers, and his wife, Jami, told how they came to Christ and to Covenant Life Church:

Kevin: I grew up in Upper Marlboro, Md., in a Christian home where I heard the gospel and attended church regularly. Like many kids who grow up in church, I prayed the sinner’s prayer several times. Looking back, I see evidence of God’s hand in my life in those early years, but in high school, my faith was tested and I began to look more and more like the world.

My parents then made the decision for our family to join a church closer to our home where they hoped my brother and I might get more involved. God used that decision and that local church as a significant means of grace in my life. The people there loved me and reached out to me. As I heard the gospel and saw it lived out in the lives of the people in that church, God did a transforming work in my life. The summer after my freshman year was a distinct turning point. I began that summer eager to live for myself, craving love and respect from the world, but over the next three months, I was confronted by the gospel in a number of contexts. God drew me to himself, and I came back to school in the fall distinctly different—eager to turn from the sin that had characterized my life, pursue holiness, and share the gospel with those around me. By God’s grace, I witnessed a number of friends at my public high school come to Christ and grow in their faith through the next three years.

Jami: I grew up actively involved in the church with my family near Greensboro, N.C. I recall responding to the gospel as a child and remained engaged in the church, but I had no true concept of the grace of God and lived under a persistent weight of guilt. I viewed God as distant and angry, which hindered me from turning to him in repentance when I sinned. Eventually, after some spiritual experience, I would come crawling back to God in shame and seek to work my way back into his good favor. This legalistic cycle led to constant ups and downs in my high school years and periods of wordliness and sin. I devoted myself to success academically, athletically and relationally, but God providentially brought someone into my life to draw me to himself. My cheerleading coach was a devoted believer, and she reached out to me. Eventually, she confronted me about the path of sin I was pursuing and urged me to turn to Christ. By God’s grace, I did and sought to live my life for his glory. My senior year was distinctly different and I continued to grow in love for God, his Word and his people.

Kevin and I met the next year at Liberty University. Kevin co-led a student discipleship ministry and led their worship team. We first met when I auditioned to sing on the team. Kevin likes to say that during my audition, he asked me how many kids I wanted to have, but it’s not true. Two years later, we ended up serving on the same worship team, which gave us a lot of time to build a great friendship, and our respect for each other only grew. We were married just after college in August 2003.

Kevin: For the first few months of marriage, we lived near campus and worked there, but I had long carried a desire to participate somehow in whatever God was doing in the D.C. area. A friend of mine was a member of Covenant Life, so on a trip to the area for a wedding, we decided to visit. That visit changed our lives. C.J. preached that morning from James 4 on conflicts and cravings, which had an immediate impact on our young marriage. We had the experience that morning many of you have had. We stood as first-time guests, and before we even sat down, Larry Earles greeted us. After the service, we went to the guest reception and spent 30 minutes talking with Sam and Priscilla Ellis. We met teens who were engaging and mature. A man saw us looking like newcomers in the bookstore and took the initiative to greet us and point us to good books. A few days later, we got a follow-up phone call from Patrick Ryan on the guest follow-up team to see if there was any way he could serve us. The kindness of the people, the richness of the teaching and the spiritual maturity of the members we met blew us away. In May 2004, we moved here and Covenant Life became our church family.

We threw ourselves into church life, led newly married care groups, and started a family. We have three kids. Chloe is four, Jacob is two, and Owen is six months. In May 2007, I had the privilege of joining the church staff as the ministry teams director, working with Mark Mitchell in Outreach, before attending the Pastors College this year. We walked through the doors of this building six years ago knowing no one, and since then, you have become our family. We have lived life together with so many of you, experiencing Christ through you in joys and trials, growth and struggles … together. We love you, Covenant Life Church, and we are astonished and sobered by the privilege to serve you.

October 13 2009 at 1:49 pm

God Is at Work Through OneU

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Here’s a great report from Kate McMahon and Chavia Groveman!

Kate: Our God is mighty to save and continues to show His mercy through loving and saving sinners!

Sometime in the spring a friend asked me to start meeting with a girl from her home church who had grown up in a Christian family but did not know the Lord. I met Esther soon thereafter, and we got together all through the spring. She even invited a friend of hers to join our Bible study in April.

We continued through the summer and this fall started going through How Good Is Good Enough?
together. Chavia was able to join us a few times, and the girls really enjoyed getting to know her. Our last two Bible studies [late September] felt particularly led by the Lord and empowered by His Spirit. Everyone came away excited about what we were learning, even though the conversations were very weighty and revealing.

The girls acknowledged that they did not yet know the Lord, but were aware of their need for a Savior. We talked through the barriers holding them back, and I encouraged them to take a sheet and put it by their bed. On the sheet I asked them to write out any evidences of God showing up in their lives. Chavia and I committed to pray for them and specifically that God would reveal Himself to them in an undeniable way. He did.

Chavia: After I met Esther, we pretty much hit it off right away. She loves sports, and so I was able to connect with her through softball.

Recently, Kate was having lunch with Esther, and so I asked her if she would want to hang out and go to The Gathering that night. [The Gathering is a Christian campus outreach affiliated with McLean Bible Church.] She agreed, and so that night we hung out just talking and talking for several hours in the STAMP [the Student Union at the University of Maryland] while we were waiting for the meeting to start. She ended up pouring out her heart, and told me that the thing that was keeping her from trusting Jesus as her Lord and Savior was her past sins. I reminded her of how when you put your trust in Jesus, He covers you with His righteousness, and forgives you of your sin. I really felt the Spirit the whole time we were talking.

When we got to The Gathering, there was a verse that they put on the screen from Ezekiel 36:25-27. It talks about how the Lord cleanses us from all our sins, and gives us a new heart of flesh taking out our heart of stone. I felt the Lord wanted me to read it to Esther after the service. The message that night was all about the Lord’s specific love for each of us, and the pastor spoke to people who were holding back from accepting Jesus because of their sins. At the end he took communion, and gave the explanation of how only people who are Christians could partake. I leaned over and asked Esther what she was thinking. She said she thought we should go up there, and asked me if I could pray with her. As I led her through the sinner’s prayer, she cried and cried!

Afterward, she was so happy, and kept talking about the new peace in her heart. I shared Ezekiel 36 with her again, and she told me that verse had really spoken to her when she saw it on the screen. All in all, it was an awesome night, and I really wish that Kate could have been there, since she’s been investing in Esther’s life since last spring. :)

But, as Kate and I were talking this morning, we were able to rejoice in the truth that it is not the sower or the reaper who gets the glory, but the Lord who is mighty to save! He is truly in the midst of this campus, and we are excited to see what else He is going to do!

October 9 2009 at 7:22 pm

More About Self-Control

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Here are more responses I received when I e-mailed church members last week asking how they were being affected by our recent messages from Proverbs. People responded to three questions (names have been removed from the responses): 1) Where is God calling you to exercise self-control? What do you feel he’s calling you to say “no” to?
2) Express how God has been speaking to you. 3) What do you think he’s calling you to do instead with your time? Is there an attitude, activity or behavior you’d like to “put on”? (see Ephesians 4: 24)

Thanks to everyone who responded! I hope you’re encouraged (as I was) to see how God is at work.

1) My tongue and my reckless words!
2) Proverbs 12:18 was read and I was convicted of how my reckless words said in anger contributed to a conflict with my daughter.
3) Encourage my daughter with Scripture for where God is at work in her life and hold my tongue.

1) Media. E-mail, Facebook, and text messaging I need to put down…
2) I believe that God has been reminding me that I have an eternal purpose. It is eye-opening to think how much I lose when I waste my time with media. I make God so small and not important and NOT the main focus in my heart.
3) I think he is calling me to spend time with people in person and pursue their hearts.

1) Playing on the computer, sweets, doing my work, etc.
2) God has spoken to me about being a sluggard. Since my bout with Lyme’s disease, I’ve gotten used to being lazy. Now that I’m better, though, I need to start working.
3) I’d like to serve more.

1) No to martha-isms - distractions of the home.
2) Conviction that my heart and mind are not fully engaged in my quiet times.
3) Be still.

1) Show kindness in my interactions with my children and husband, and not be so quick to anger.
2) Show love, patience; enjoy time now because children grow up quickly.
3) Spend more time in prayer for my family, also, quality time in God’s Word.

1) No to the busy schedules. Slow down and spend more time for the Lord.
2) God gave me a very specific command about a week a go: he said: “Worship me!” I have been, and the Holy Spirit has renewed my heart.
3) To praise him, to be humble before him, adore him for the wonders he does in our life. Soak in the Spirit.

1) Food as an idol and web-surfing during my time at home with my kids during the day.
2) I am sensing that God wants to deepen my relationships with my children individually through my prayer time with HImself.
3) Praying for and with my children as their needs are brought to my attention.

1) No to: negative thought patterns that lead to dissatisfaction with the life God has chosen for me.
2) Especially thru Ben Wikner’s class on The Book of Ruth (“He is actively plotting for my good”) and Charles Spurgeon’s books: The Suffering Letters and The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith (I’ve had severe, long-term health problems for almost 20 years).
3) Spend more time in His presence: the Word, worship, prayer, service to others and biblical fellowship

1) With my thoughts, I have a tendency to let my mind run with too much concern, worry, lack of faith.
2) Self-control should apply to even how we use our mind.
3) Philippians 4:8

1) Less time wasted on the computer, be it editing pictures, checking e-mail, or watching movies.
2) I became aware of how I was wasting my time a few weeks ago, and Joshua Harris’ message helped confirm that I was not spending my time wisely. I have had the desire to spend my time better, but have lacked the motivation, even though I know every moment counts.
3) Open the Bible and read, work on cross-centered friendships, and involve others in all that I do.

1) I’m a very aggressive and judgmental person. I need to show the same grace Christ has shown me to others.
2) Mainly God has been working on how I need to depend on him and “look before I leap,” so to say. Show compassion and grace for others before judgment. It may take some time, but I’m just going to keep coming before him in prayer and reading his Word.
3) Less “me” time and more time helping others who may need it more then I need my time to relax.

1) Free time; spending more time with God rather than personal pleasure.
2) He’s been telling me to spend less time on the computer.
3) Rather than going on the computer for games, bring up the Bible on the computer to study.

1) Self-control for me is connected to faith and humility.
2) It takes faith to let go of those not-obviously-sinful impulses to do things which often seem much less interesting.
3) It takes humility to let go of my own ideas and desires because of my overrated view of myself.

1) Not eating unhealthy foods or over eating, and having the self-control to exercise.
2) As I pray the Lord’s prayer every day, the Lord has been speaking to me about having “no other Gods before him” and “do not fear.” When I am afraid, I often get a snack. I do not exercise self-control nor trust in the Lord in my eating.
3) I need to be aware of my eating response and pray and/or exercise when I’m aware of my fear.

1) Self-control in how I manage to spend my time. God is calling me to say “no” to laziness.
2) God has been speaking to me to take more initiative in planning.
3) Put on more of a servant’s heart to care for everyone I interact with in my life.

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