Covenant Church

Event Tip: Select any Bible reference to highlight, create a verse image, bookmark it, or share it on social media through the Bible Reader.

1. What is God’s Story?
• Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration
• The Exodus Event - the central event of God’s story in the Old Testament.
• The Christ Event - the saving acts of Christ are the center of God’s story in the New Testament: his death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit. This is the new and greater exodus.

2. Why do We Engage God’s Story?
• So that we may “fear” or have reverence for the Lord. It is to nurture faith in us, our children, and future generations:
• So that it may “go well” with us.
• To grow in our love of God. Because of God’s covenantal love and faithfulness towards us, we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and might.
• To keep God’s word in our hearts

3. What are the Steady Rhythms of Engaging God’s Story?
• The steady rhythms are the ordinary ways we talk with and about God throughout our day and week.
• The steady rhythms are the spiritual practices, the ordinary means of grace such as: word, prayer, sacrament, song, spiritual conversations, and Christian fellowship. The early church cultivated these practices.
• Spiritual practices can be cultivated in the home (throughout the week), in the church (in corporate worship on the Lord’ Day), and in personal devotion times, small groups, and triads.

I cannot transform myself, or anyone else for that matter. What I can do is create the conditions in which spiritual transformation can take place, by developing and maintaining a rhythm of spiritual practices that keep me open and available to God.
Ruth Haley Barton

Takeaway Truth
The steady rhythms of engaging God’s story nurture faith.

4. Overview of My Doctoral Study
• Implementing a Lectionary-based Resource for Households during the Season after Pentecost at Covenant Church: A Bridge between Church and Home through Worship
• For my study: 11 participants, representing 8 families at Covenant. These participants engaged a lectionary-based resource in their homes over a 5-week period during the Season after Pentecost. The thrust of the study was to help parents cultivate spiritual practices in the home during the week while preparing for corporate worship with the church on Sunday.