CELEBRATING PENTECOST SUNDAY—THE BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH!
What a joy it is to come together with our sister churches to celebrate the birth of the early church through the power of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit empowers God’s people to spread the gospel, encourage one another in the church, and further God’s Kingdom. Our passage this morning encourages us to trust the power and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and to speak the words God has given us. Note: Communion will be served as part of our celebration of Pentecost.
FROM THE LEADERSHIP TEAM
- The LT was unanimous in supporting measures to ensure the safety of Midway’s children over anyone showing a pattern of inappropriate behavior choices.
- A landscape designer was selected; work will begin the end of June, though preliminary cleanup work by volunteers may be sooner.
- Remaining contents of the Clothing Bank went to Transform Burien and Praisealujah. Our Portable will become office and worship space for our ministry partners, Bridge of Grace.
Ruth Hill, Chair
ON MISSION TOGETHER
Mary Chung March, Chair of the Covenant’s Mosaic Commission, writes to Covenant churches about leaning into our commitment to be the multiethnic family of God.
In the mid-1800s, the forebears of the Evangelical Covenant Church began arriving in America as immigrants, many working on farms or as domestic servants. Against that backdrop, the Covenant Church took root in the U.S. Our denomination was born in a new land in an immigrant context. Our founders understood and affirmed God’s call to live out their commitment to the whole mission of the church as stated in our third Covenant affirmation: “People of shared faith who came together to carry out God’s mission both far and near and follow Christ’s two central calls. The Great Commission sends us out into all the world to make disciples. The Great Commandment calls us to love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves.” Nearly a hundred years later, Grace Covenant Church in Compton, California, joined the Covenant, with Robert Dawson becoming one of the first African-American pastors to join the Covenant. Then in 1969, Oakdale Covenant Church in Chicago began its transition to a predominantly African-American congregation when they called Willie Jemison as their first Black pastor. In 1994, the Black Pastor’s Association was changed to the African American Ministers Association (AAMA).
During the 1970s, the Covenant established our first Hispanic/Latino churches in the U.S. in Chicago, San Francisco, and Bell Gardens, California. Then in the mid-1990s, the Ministerios Hispanos de la Iglesia del Pacto Evangélico Association (now ALIPE) was formed. The Korean Pastors Association formed in the 1980s and ’90s, and the Covenant Asian Pastors Association (CAPA), which included other Asian American and Pacific Islander pastors and leaders, was formally established in 2013. And in 2020, the Indigenous Ministers Association (IMA) was formally established, although Indigenous pastors had been gathering for decades through the informal organizations of the Alaska Pastors Association and the Native American Indigenous Association.
After John Wenrich was elected president in 2018, the ethnic association presidents and board members gathered with Covenant leaders to discuss Practicing Solidarity. As John created the focal points for his vision, he identified the Holy Spirit as the Blazing Center of our mission, and the multiethnic mosaic circled around that center. That was huge! After all, many who choose to join the Covenant do so because they believe that here is a biblical, evangelical denomination in which, when they stand up for issues of justice, they will not have to stand alone.
Why is this history important? The unique beginnings of the Covenant have been a part of our past, present, and future. We recognize our call to live into the whole mission of the church, the call not to be a church with multiethnic ministries but to be a truly multiethnic church. We are being called to continue to live intentionally as a multiethnic mosaic. God called the Evangelical Covenant Church to be on mission together for God’s kingdom in 1885, in 1992, in 2021. And He is calling us now.
PRAISES/PRAYER REQUESTS
- Praise for the opportunity to celebrate Pentecost Sunday with sister churches Ministerio, Bridge of Grace, City of Rain, Spirit of Truth & Worship, and New Anglican Church of Seattle!
- Pray for patience and compassion for all of us as we continue to follow Covid-19 safety measures to protect the health and safety of the most vulnerable among us. Pray for those areas in the world where Covid-19 is still raging.
- Continue to pray for our nation’s leaders.
SERMON SCHEDULE
- May 23: Rev. Shaun Higgins, Acts 1:1-14
- May 30: Rev. Shaun Higgins, 1 Corinthians 13:4-13
- June 6: Rev. Shaun Higgins, Ephesians 4:7-16
CHURCH & OFFICE INFORMATION
- The Church Office is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Office phone number: 206-878-4861 // Office email: office@midwaycovenant.org
- Sunday Morning Worship Service: 11:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary (or online at live.midcov.org)
- Children’s Sunday School upstairs at 11:30 a.m.
- Women’s Discipleship Lunch Group: Wednesdays at 11:00 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall
- Men’s Bible Study Breakfast Group: Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. at Tuscany’s in Des Moines
- The Clothing Bank is closed.