What is a covenant renewal, and why are we doing it? Two excellent questions if you’re asking them.

Sunday, January 27th, is our covenant renewal Sunday for all Remedy covenant members. It won’t be all that different from any other week, so guests and regular attenders will still feel welcome and at home. We will, though, have a brief time during our gathering for our covenant members to say again, “Yes, I wholeheartedly renew my commitment to these people and to the Lord!”

So why are we doing this?

Why Covenant Membership?

If you’ve been part of a church before, you’ve seen that membership is not an uncommon thing. It’s a way of identifying who is part of the flock. At Remedy we have a high bar on “membership” in a couple of ways:

• We make it very clear what people are committing to, what will be expected of them, and what they should expect from others, and we ask them to enter into a covenant with God and each other around these things.
• We make it a little harder to become a covenant member by asking those interested to participate in a three part process including 2 group workshops and a personal conversation with one of our leaders.

Our bar is high because we see covenant community as a very weighty thing, both Scripturally and functionally, and we don’t want anyone entering into it lightly. Our hope on the back side is that no one would opt out of it lightly either.

Why Covenant Renewal?

Like many things, the meaning and weight behind covenant commitment can become faded as time goes by. We get used to life a certain way and the reasons and motivations behind it become assumed, casual, or even forgotten. We want to intentionally work against that.

So from time to time, we think it’s healthy to revisit the covenant we’ve entered into and be reminded of what we’ve committed to and why. Our hope is that no one continues as a covenant member with the Remedy family by default or because they believed something at one time, but because they wholeheartedly agree with where we are going and want to be active participants in it.

How we are facilitating this

If you are a covenant member of the Remedy family, you should receive a letter in the mail from our pastors with a copy of the covenant and a covenant renewal card enclosed. During our gathering on Sunday, January 27, we will have a place to drop that card, affirming your continued commitment to each other and the Remedy covenant.

I want to challenge all of us to pray through this together. Read over the covenant and ask God to speak to your heart. Pray for yourself and for others as we move forward. Ask the Lord to give you passion and vision for our future. Make plans to be there that Sunday to worship together, hear from the Lord, and together say that we are still in the fight together.

We love each of you dearly, and we thank God for you. It is a privilege and a joy to lead and serve with you. We are excited about what the future holds.