Letter From the Pastor
Frederick Buechner is one of my favorite pastors. As we move into the Season of Lent this month, I invite you to consider his words on this Holy Season.
In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use. For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days. After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness, where he spent forty days asking himself the question what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves. If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why? When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?
If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less? Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember? Is there any person in the world or any cause that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for? If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?
To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are, but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.*
This Lenten season will be a meaningful time for us all as we reflect on our calling as Christ’s disciples.
*Originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words Found at http://www.frederickbuechner.com/quote-of-the-day/2016/7/6/lent
Session Highlights
- The Session welcomed a new class of elders this past month.
- Alex Muller has found another job in Spartanburg, and will no longer be with us at Covenant. Beginning March 4, Ben Barnette will be filling in the office 10 hours a week. Ben will help us evaluate our needs for the position, as well as perform the other duties of office administrator.
- Leslie Lang will return to the pulpit as our guest preacher on March 17.
March Usher Duty
- March 3: Callaway Alford, Henry Polston, Terry Terawaki
- March 10: Cynthia Bridges and Jim Fraley
- March 17: Bob McMichael, Carole Sanders, Jim Fraley
- March 24: Russ Sanders and Nancy Biggerstaff
- March 31: Callaway Alford, Henry Polston, Terry Terawaki
Prayer Requests
- Covenant Presbyterian Church
- Shelly Akers
- Cathy Baldwin
- Joan Barnhardt
- Alexis Bezilla (friend of the Bleilers)
- Ann Campbell
- Chip Cecil (Ronnie Meeks’ friend)
- Kathryn Clark
- David and Catherine Dedmon
- Gia Ellenburg (Ann Granger’s Daughter)
- June Garren (Cathy Baldwin’s Mom)
- Zeverly Glenn
- Taylor Goode (M) (Bleilers’ Son)
- Rev. Charles Hall (Eddie Hall’s Dad)
- Mary Harris
- Jay Jeter
- Jeff Phillips (Cynthia Bridges’ Brother)
- Sandra McKinney
- Dave Starkey (friend of Bleilers)
- Thad and Elaine Strickland
- Charles and Miriam Turner
- Remember our shut-ins
- Families who have lost loved ones
- Our President and officials in Washington
- World Peace
(M) Indicated Military
March 2019 Calendar
