ECC-Evangelical Covenant Church
The Kingdom Takes Shape: Welcome as Radically Ordinary Hospitality
The book of Acts is a story of action, faith, courage, and boldness in uncertain times. Join us Sundays at 10:30am (ecclife.net/stream or facebook.com/ecclife) as we rediscover the passion and power of the early Church and what they have to teach us in our uncertain and anxious times today.
Locations & Times
Evangelical Covenant Church
3600 S 9th St, Lafayette, IN 47909, USA
Sunday 10:10 AM
Pre-register for Unity Sunday Outside Service August 30
Please pre-register so we know how many attenders to expect on Sunday. This will be an outside worship underneath an open-sided tent. <br>https://bit.ly/ECCAug30
Downloadable Bulletin
https://www.ecclife.net/uploads/2/7/2/8/27288883/8.23.20_bulletin.pdf
Communication Card
Let us know you attended today's service! You can also sign up for newsletters or prayer. <br>https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e054baaa923a2fc1-20200823
Unity Sunday
Next Sunday, August 30, we will be hosting an outside Unity Sunday service. It will be at 10:30 on the lawn under an open-sided tent. Bring your own chairs. Masks are recommended while we are singing. Please register at https://bit.ly/ECCAug30 so we can plan accordingly. <br><br>
How to Connect at ECC
Click below to explore many opportunities get connected even--or especially--in this time of social distancing.<br>https://www.ecclife.net/connect.html
Adult Christian Formation
Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. on Zoom. The Adult Sunday School class is<br>following a video series called <i>Me and My Big Mouth</i>. This series, by Andy Stanley, will talk about how we can prevent our mouths from getting us into big trouble. https://www.ecclife.net/zoom.html
Wednesday Morning Men's Fellowship
Men, please join us each week at 6:30am. We will be continuing a video study on race relations in the men's group using Tony Evans series <i>Oneness Embraced</i>. For an invite, please email Bill Oakes (oakes@purdue.edu). We'd love to see you there!
Connection Challenge
We encourage you to think of at least 2 people from ECC (not in the same family!) that you haven't connected with lately and give them a call! Check in on them, tell them you miss seeing them, and see how they are doing. We look forward to hearing how these connections encourage you!
Perspectives on the World Christian Movement Class
ECC’s Mission Commission is pleased to announce that ECC is part of a multi-church<br>partnership that is bringing this renowned and life-changing class back to the Greater Lafayette area this fall. This is a powerful opportunity to immerse yourself in God's work around the world by hearing each week from expert speakers brought in from all over the region. Check out all the information at http://perspectives.org/lafayette including how you can qualify for a rebate for successfully completing the course.
Miller Donations
We are taking donations to help with school related expenses for families whether that be shoes, supplies, clothing, masks or similar items. Please make your check payable to ECC with “Miller School.”
MOPs Open House
The MOPS and MOMSNext group at ECC will host an open house on Tuesday, August 25, from 9:30-11:00, outside under the ECC portico and in the parking lot. Expectant mothers and mothers of children of all ages are invited to come meet the MOPS team, learn more about how we’ll host our meetings during the year, and consider participating in our ministry. We know this fall is unlike any other season, so we’re working on ways to gather safely with other moms in the midst of a pandemic. MOPS and MOMSNext is open to any mom in the community, so we encourage you to invite neighbors and friends who might be looking for a place to connect! If you have a yard sign, or would like to pick one up from the ECC office, we invite you to place those in your yard as an invitation to our community. This year our theme is “Decide to Rise,” and we’ll be focusing on Being strong, Doing your work, and Chasing joy. Join us as we embrace motherhood as a catalyst to God’s plans and promises for our lives! More information is available at: <br>https://www.ecclife.net/mopsmomsnext---mothers-of-preschoolers.html
Love Over Fear
On September 13, we begin a 10-week sermon series on the ECC Touchstone of Welcome and learning to love our enemies. We invite you to join us. Order the book, Love Over Fear, by Dan White, Jr., and engage in one of several opportunities for growth and learning. Go to ecclife.net/ LOF to explore the possibilities.
First Fridays
Ladies, we invite you to join us for First Fridays, Friday, September 4, at 9:00am with Sharon Held hosting. Details at ecclife.net/women
Giving Online
You can give your offerings here. You can also give to special areas by commenting in the memo line. https://bit.ly/ECCGiving
August 23, 2020
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
Stacey Littlefield, Lead Pastor
We become a community of people who know God, follow Jesus, and pursue God's purposes in the world as we live out the ECC Touchstones of Welcome, Transformation, and Presence...
Welcome
We are a place of hospitality, grace, and community for all people.
Transformation
We provide resources and relationships for the journey from curiosity to Christoformity.
Presence
We are sent into the world as agents of change and redemption.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Why or why not?
"If we do not know how to welcome one another, we will be terrible at welcoming strangers. If we do not know how to welcome strangers, we will be terrible at welcoming one another."
Read Luke 15. Where do you see each of the ECC Touchstones of Welcome, Transformation, and Presence at work in these three parables? What do the parallels teach us about the Touchstones we discover there? How do they shape or challenge our understanding of what it means to welcome "all people"?
Read Galatians 2.11-14. In your own words, try to describe what happened to Peter (Cephas) and why? How might his experience mirror your own? Can you think of any Christians (well known or known to you) who did the opposite of what Peter does here? That is, can you name someone who was welcoming to others, rather than unwelcoming--even to the point of being criticized by fellow Christians? What happened?
If we were to take the situation in Galatians and drop it down into our context, most of us would be "insiders". If that is the case, who are the "outsiders" in your life? Who are the "outsiders" to ECC as a congregation? If we are "the Jewish Christians" of Paul's letter, who are the "Gentiles" today?
Memorize the ECC Touchstone of WELCOME: We are a place of hospitality, grace, and community for all people.
Rosaria Butterfield Calls You to (Radically Ordinary) Hospitality
Follow the link below to read an interview with Rosaria Butterfield on her journey of faith and on the importance of hospitality.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/rosaria-butterfield-radically-ordinary-hospitality/Write one way that you commit to move toward Christoformity in this next season. Discipleship and transformation into people who are like Christ is largely going to happen with you, in your home. How can you embrace God's invitation into a transformed life and actively participate in your own transformation?
If you'd like to sign up for a connection group, do so here - https://www.ecclife.net/lof.html
God, this day, I desire your forgiveness and mercy; I need your grace and peace to reign in my life and relationships. I confess my sin and selfishness to you. I confess that I cannot do this on my own, and I ask that you grant me your grace and peace, and that you teach me how to live as you lived. I choose daily to surrender myself to you, though I know I will not do so perfectly. I choose daily to rely on your grace to forgive me, to heal me, and to transform me. In Christ’ name, Amen.
The Prayer of John of Damascus (676-749AD)
Master and Lord, Jesus Christ our God, you alone have authority to forgive my sins, whether committed knowingly or in ignorance, and make me worthy to receive without condemnation your divine, glorious, pure and life-giving mysteries, not for my punishment, but for my purification and sanctification, now and in your future kingdom.
For you, Christ our God, are compassionate and love humanity, and to you we give glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and forever and ever. Amen.
Read 1 Corinthians 9.19-23. In what ways do you see Paul's words here as informing how we see him live his life in Acts 27? How might Paul's words here inform your life and way in the world--especially as we consider the anxious and divided times in which we live?
Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.