Download What is an Evangelical Covenant Church brochure [pdf]
Evangelical = Good News
“Evangelical” means “good news.” In Covenant churches we focus on the Good News that Jesus Christ gave His life on a cross for the forgiveness of our sin and was raised from the grave so that all of us have the opportunity to enter into a life-changing, life-giving, and eternal personal relationship with God. John 3:16
Covenant = Relationship
The heart of this Biblical word is “relationship”. Covenant churches focus on helping people start and sustain a healthy relationship with God (John 15:14,15) and healthy relationships with other people (John 15:17).
Church = People Serving God Together
Each local Covenant church is a community of Christ-followers through whom God carries out His mission in the world by:
- reaching people who don’t know Him,
- offering them new life in Christ,
- engaging people’s hearts in worship,
- creating vibrant Christian community,
- making things right in His world through ministries of compassion, mercy and justice.
The Mission of the Covenant
Over 850 churches partner together to…
Start and Strengthen Churches
We plant a new church every two weeks. We regularly coach churches that desire to regain their missional traction.
Make and Deepen Disciples
We are passionate about seeing people come to know Christ and about helping them grow in Christ for a lifetime.
Develop Leaders
We train gifted men and women for pastoral ministry, and we provide resources and training events to equip lay leaders for ministry.
Love Mercy and Do Justice
We are deeply committed to helping hurting people (love mercy, Matthew 25) and to addressing the causes of that hurt (do justice, Micah 6).
Serve Globally
We strive to take the whole gospel to the whole world through our World Mission Team and through strategic partnerships.
In Covenant Churches You’ll find that we…
Turn to the Scriptures to shape our faith, our beliefs, and our behavior because we affirm that the Bible is central to all of life. (2 Tim. 3:16)
Give opportunities for people to confess their sin, receive forgiveness, and make commitments to Jesus because we affirm the necessity of new birth in order to be fully alive. (John 3:3-5)
Ask the Holy Spirit to help us and strengthen us because we believe that the Holy Spirit empowers us to live the Kingdom of God kind of life that Jesus taught. (John 14:26)
Engage in the whole mission of God in the world because the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) sends us into the world to make disciples, and the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-39) calls us to love both God and our neighbors.
Live out ‘the church’ as a fellowship of believers – We are people of diverse ethnicity, culture, age, gender, and socio-economics who have consciously chosen to receive the new life Jesus offers, and to love and care for one another. (Galatians 3:28)
Focus on the Biblical truths that are essential (and uniting), and allow for freedom on doctrinal matters of secondary importance (not essential to salvation) because we affirm the reality of freedom in Christ. (Galatians 5:1)
Our 4 Abiding Values
- Biblical: We consistently ask the question, “Where is it written in Scripture?”
- Devotional: We strive to help one another nurture our relationship with God.
- Connectional: We value strong community within our churches and strong relationships between our Churches.
- Missional: We are compelled by the Spirit of God to do our part in the mission of God in the world.
Our “Cord of 3 Strands”
- The Local Covenant Church: Your church is the source of hope and mission in your community.
- The Great Lakes Conference: Our Great Lakes Conference staff members provide a range of behind-the-scenes support services for our churches.
- The Evangelical Covenant Church: Our 850+ churches in North America combine resources to advance the Mission of God in the world through local churches, agencies and missionaries.
Our 2-part Objective
To see every Covenant Church be both “Healthy” and “Missional.”
- Healthy = Pursuing Christ
- Missional = Pursuing Christ’s priorities in the world.
Our 1 Compelling Motive
“To follow the Heart of God into the World.”* (*Gary Walter, President of the Covenant 2008-2018)
The Evangelical Covenant Church…
is a growing movement of more than 850 congregations in the United States and Canada gathered around the central truth of the Bible: people matter to God. Set in motion in 1885 by Scandinavian immigrants, today we are a multi-ethnic, inter-generational mosaic of churches with ministry partnerships in nearly forty countries. We join our efforts in the hope of seeing more people engage in a personal relationship with God through Christ, among more populations, in a more caring and just world.
The Great Lakes Conference…
is a mosaic of urban, suburban, small city, small town, and rural churches made up of people with diverse spiritual backgrounds, ethnicity, and ages. We are spread out through 8 states (Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia) and are served by three Conference Centers: Camp Mission Meadows in New York, Portage Lake Bible Camp in Michigan, and Covenant Mountain Mission Bible Camp.
