You’ve probably heard of that classic time management parable: you’re given a jar and told to fit in a pile of big rocks, gravel, and sand. But you cannot start with the gravel and sand, because then you won’t be able to fit the big rocks. The moral, of course, is this: prioritize the biggest, most important things in your life first, and all else will fall into place more naturally.

In this series, we recognize that the biggest rock is our relationship with God, and so in order to put God first, through this season of lent we will investigate and engage in what are called “spiritual disciplines” or “spiritual practices.” A “spiritual practice” is an intentional act we use to foster our connection with God. Each emphasizes a different part of that connection, but all are helpful in making sure that big rock stays in the container as our highest priority.

Join us as we explore the book of Ephesians – a sort of “theology 101” written by the missionary and apostle Paul – through the eyes of artists: those who imitate the Creator who called us his masterpiece!

Paradox: a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one’s expectation. A great way to illustrate this idea is the möbius loop – an object with only one continuous side that appears to be two-sided. In other words, we discover that what seems to be two separate things are actually interdependent, even one and the same. Join us this advent as we unpack the paradoxes found in the story of Jesus’ birth and what they have to teach us today.

We join the people of Israel as they exit their slavery in Egypt, freed by God … and ask the question, “now what?” As God leads them into the desert, we learn that there is opportunity in the wilderness of the land between; it is fertile ground for transformation.

Join us this summer as we explore the book of Mark, a book authored by a companion of the apostle Peter as they traveled around the ancient near east bearing witness to Jesus the Messiah. It’s a wonderful book … but it can feel like it’s very disjointed, like Peter just kind of put stories about Jesus into a hat and pulled them out randomly. Let’s explore these stories and what Mark is trying to tell us about Jesus, the risen Savior.

God is a god of the generations, and Bethany seeks to love and serve people of all ages. Join us as we explore how God intentionally engages us in every stage of life.

The beatitudes (latin for “blessed”) are eight phrases found at the very beginning of Matthew’s recollection of Jesus’ sermon on the mount. In them, we begin to learn from Jesus what is most important to God.

The history of humanity is fraught with conflict. This series, we’ll explore what it means to navigate conflict in a healthy way. We’ll discover principles that God has used for millennia in the old testament as God worked with his people Isarel, with their allies and enemies, and then in the new testament, with the church.

As we move into Advent this year, we’re going to journey back to the time of the Judges in Israel and follow the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz; a story of tragedy and redemption.

Our God is a God of generosity and abundance. Join us as we learn about what it means to take care of all God provides in a way consistent with who God is.

What happens if we work at learning more about Jesus but forget that as his disciples we’re called to become more and more like him? This fall we’re looking at following Jesus as an “apprenticeship” that will have us spending time with Jesus so we can become more like him and learn to do the things he does. We’ll see how his first followers did that and how we can do it today as we take on the “yoke” of Jesus and follow his lead.

There are lots of books of the bible we don’t get to hear from very often, especially the shortest letters in the New Testament. This summer, join us as we explore the world of the early church from the perspective of the letters written by apostles and missionaries across the Roman Empire. We’ll hear from books like Philemon, Jude, Titus, and others.

Join us this summer as we work our way through the most prominent judges from Israel during the time following the exile as they began to settle the land of Canaan. We’ll explore the cycles of death and rebirth that come with growth and transformation as we explore the stories of Othiel and Ehud, learn from Deborah, hear from Gideon and Jepthah, and grow with Samson.

We’ll explore the stunning transformation of the life of Peter: fisherman turned disciple of Jesus and then apostle.

Galatians give us a list of what Paul calls the “fruit of the Spirit”. As we’ve learned, to worship is to respond to God’s mercy together, and one of our responses is the transformation that God works in our lives from the ways of brokenness to a life lived in the power of God’s Spirit. Join us as we explore these nine qualities and how God uses them in our lives and in our world.

The scriptures talk a lot about “worship,” but what do they mean by that? What is worship, and why is it a thing? Join us for this five-week series as we explore what it means to worship our Creator with our whole lives, to respond to God’s mercy, and to respond to God’s mercy together.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have many reasons for hope. In this season of Advent, we find that our hope from the incarnation (God coming to be with us in human flesh) gives us hope as we await Christ’s return. In this time of watchful waiting, we’ll explore together the results of our hope: What difference does it make that God has made us people of hope because of Jesus?

When we watch the news, read web articles, listen to the radio or see online posts, it’s easy to lose hope. Are things going to get better? CAN they? Christians are supposed to be people whose hope and hopefulness get people asking questions. So how do we nurture that hope? So often it’s through stories: stories from the Bible, from each other’s lives, and from our own pasts… stories God is writing about our future. Our hope is countercultural but not without reason or beyond explanation. Our hope is in and from Jesus.

What makes a bonsai tree a “bonsai?” It turns out that there is a specific set of guidelines and distinctives around growing and cultivating a bonsai. Bethany is a Covenant church. But what makes the Covenant “Covenant?” We’ll explore our denominational distinctives and shared affirmations as we recognize our place within the Church universal and study the nuances of our denomination’s particular journey and emphases. Being a Covenant church isn’t just a label … it’s a practice and process!

At Bethany, we connect and serve so that generations discover and experience the transforming love of God. Our connecting builds us into a community that is greater than the sum of its parts. We are, in fact, the Body of Christ with Jesus as our Head. This August, we’ll gather and connect in some new and creative ways each Sunday morning. We hope to see you!

We serve a faithful God, but often God’s ways and timing are beyond our understanding. Sometimes, the promises and plans of God unfold over the course of generations. In the book of Genesis we discover an old couple, their kids and grandkids, and learn a lot about the goodness and faithfulness of God through generations of some often wild and weird characters.

Pentecost was an amazing moment; the birth of the church was a Mountaintop experience. But then, God sent the church back into the valley of a broken world. The book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament (including, yes, Revelation) are descriptive examples of the church working out God’s mission in unique times and places and cultures.

We are now in a massive culture shift once again; we find ourselves in a “gray zone,” a time-between-times, where the world is not really the old world anymore but has not yet settled into a new normal. But while there are always significant challenges and uncertainty in a gray zone, there are also many opportunities. As pastor and sociologist Mark Sayers writes, “Crisis always precedes renewal.” In this changing world, here are three major shifts with which we must wrestle and adapt.

Spring brings with it a multitude of special events. This playlist contains all of the sermons as we preach “between series.”

As we climb out of winter and into spring, the days become longer and warmer. During this season of Lent, we’ll discover together in the Gospel of John how God wants to shine light on our lives and warm our hearts to the things of God’s kingdom. God doesn’t want us left in the dark but to open our lives to the light of Jesus.

Usually, if we want to succeed at something, our game plan is to try harder and work longer. When it comes to growing as disciples of Jesus, this approach might not always prove helpful. Jesus repeatedly points to children as the people who “get it” – who understand the secrets and natural rhythms of God’s Kingdom. Let’s learn together… and play together!

The scriptures can feel like they come in small nuggets, but is really one big epic story, full of connections. Join us this Advent as we explore the big story of the scriptures, the story of God.

The Gospel accounts make it clear that Jesus interacted with many elements of his world and culture in ways that often seem counterintuitive and very challenging today. How can we learn from what we see our Teacher doing in the Gospels so we stay true to our calling and identity as Kingdom people?

In a chemical reaction, two or more things are combined to make something new. Catalysts are the ingredients that enhance the reaction, bringing better results faster. In the New Testament, we’re given 100 “one another” instructions that catalyze healthy relationships. In a world increasingly intent on “othering” – the act of marginalizing or even dehumanizing those not like us in some way – “one anothering” can be the catalyst that leads us toward Christlikeness and transformed lives and communities.

Have you ever been driving along when your GPS spoke out an unanticipated instruction to turn suddenly or even take a U-turn? Throughout Scripture we see God intervene in unexpected ways in the lives of the people God loves. The Bible is filled with these “but God…” moments when God changed the course of human history. It wasn’t always easy for the people involved, but it was always for the better. We’ll explore several of these twists and turns and what they reveal about God’s love and character as we prepare ourselves for God’s guidance and redirection in our own lives.

Jesus told his friends that they were the light of the world, meant to shine brightly in ways that point people to the love and power of God. Just as stained-glass windows reveal their full beauty only when light shines through them, Christ in us illuminates our true identity and purpose. Using our sanctuary stained-glass windows as launching points into the Scriptures they artistically portray, we’ll discover God’s plan to shine through us in dark places desperately in need of the love, joy and hope of God.

The season of Lent in the Church begins with Ash Wednesday, when we’re all reminded that we’ve been made from dust and then dust is our destiny. This isn’t meant to be morbid, but realistic. We’re frail, fragile, fallen people. We’re broken, but God doesn’t leave us in our brokenness. He rescues us, sometimes in ways that leave our brokenness behind, sometimes resulting in our brokenness being redeemed and rendered beautiful.

Unity and wholeness are among God’s many gifts to the Body of Christ, even though we have lots of differences as members of that Body. We’ve been joined to our brothers and sisters to live out our kingdom calling in ways that bring glory to God and bless our neighbors, and we follow the example of Jesus by doing that in person. Our presence in people’s lives is at the heart of our love and service. In this new year, as we focus on serving our near and faraway neighbors, we recognize that when the Body of Christ shows up in the world in the form of our human bodies, the medium is the message.

So much of Christmas feels wonderfully, warmly familiar… the colors, traditions, festivities, stories and carols. Even as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we can forget how truly earth-shattering his arrival was and how longingly it had been anticipated. In this season of Advent and Christmas, we’ll anchor our time in the prophetic words of Isaiah, who proclaimed the coming of One who would be “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The earth-shattering arrival of that promised Messiah continues to reverberate today.

Jesus spent about three years with his disciples, and they covered a lot of ground during their time together. Often, Jesus taught his friends while they were on the move, pointing things out along the road and using encounters and interruptions to communicate truths about God’s Kingdom. In this series, we’ll journey with Jesus and the disciples through the Gospel of Mark, learning from the Master and attentive to God’s work along the road of life today.

At Bethany Covenant Church, we are committed to inviting people to know God. But what exactly does that mean and look like, especially if the idea of “evangelism” sounds scary or best left to someone else? BLESS is a way to share the good news about Jesus with others by sharing our lives with them through five missional, everyday practices. Together we’ll discover how natural it can be to allow the truth and impact of the Gospel to be the overflow of our lives.

Jesus told his followers to go and make disciples, to baptize them and to teach what it means to follow him for a lifetime. At Bethany Covenant Church, we live into this mission by inviting people to know God, inspiring people to follow Jesus and involving people to serve our neighbors both near and far. In this series we’ll dig into each of these elements to see how God’s Word guides us, to celebrate how God’s Spirit is at work in and through Bethany’s people and ministries, and to listen for where God is calling us next.

The context of ancient Israel frames everything we read in the scriptures; join us for this two-part series as we explore the people of Jesus’ day – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, the Zealots, and the Herodians – who they were, where they came from, and how much about their time is similar to ours.

In this series, we follow the twelve-step process as developed by Alcoholics Anonymous as a tool that God can use to help us grow in Him.

Join us as we follow Jesus beginning in Matthew 16, as he heads towards Jerusalem and the cross.

Jesus said, “I am …” seven times in the book of John. This series will explore what Jesus meant, who he called himself, and what that means for us today …

This is this year’s Advent series.

This is this year’s stewardship series.

Spiritual practices make space for us to hear God’s voice. The habit of recognizing God’s presence in every moment of our lives and in every part of creation allows us a proper perspective on all things. As spiritual practices begin to help us to hear God’s voice more clearly, and, to experience His love and care for us more fully, they also help us hear God’s voice more frequently and with familiarity. Like any friendship, the more time we get with a person the more we know them. The more we know what God is like, the more we can echo the character of Christ and His kingdom to the world around us. This is discipleship.

There is no single method, no wrong time or place to accept God’s invitation to enjoy his presence. The spiritual practices we will share with you over the next few weeks have been significant to us as staff, but they are only a few of many that have been practiced by our faith ancestors in many cultures and locations and times. Not all practices are helpful for all people at all times. Allow these ideas we share with you to spark your imagination and consider trying some variation of them that make sense for you to enjoy God’s presence in a new way, to hear his voice speaking love and truth to your heart. May these spiritual practices and the reminder of God’s invitation to you make space for deep listening and life-giving transformation.

We are living in troubling times.

… a pandemic that has crippled much of the world and has throwing people into panic that produces anxiety — socially, economically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually;

… racial tension fueled by police misconduct;

… violence in our communities, including riots, looting, arson, and shootings;

… a local and national election cycle that has been riddled on all sides with name calling, bullying, fear mongering, and outright lying.

It’s safe to say that the culture of America is under considerable duress.

Culture is the summation of the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. America has a culture, the foundation of which is described most explicitly in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In these documents we find how things are to get done, how changes can be made, how people are to behave with one another, where the power is given, and how the use of power is kept in check in order to fulfill the principles and practices described in those founding documents.

There are many cultures in our world. I believe, however, that for those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, there is one culture that is meant to be above all others. This Culture of the Kingdom of God is most clearly described in the Holy Bible. It contains all that is needed to encourage, equip, and by the Holy Spirit, empower people to live into and up to its standards. This brief series will unwrap some (not all) of the cultural distinctives of God’s Kingdom.

Pastor Craig

There’s a lot of hard stuff going on in the world today. A pandemic … racism … and so much else. The art of lament is the art of expressing our grief, sorrow, and anger in the face of tragedy. It is a spiritual act as much as a mental and physical one. Join us for a time of exploring how God’s people navigated times of grief and tragedy in the scriptures, and what we might learn to apply to our lives today.

Transitions are challenging. Transitions can be thrust upon us … pandemics like Covid-19 … tragic and life altering accidents … the death of a loved one – to name a few.

Transitions can also be chosen in order to reach goals; rigorous workouts are chosen that take us from out-of-shape to great-shape; choosing the “vitality pathway” to become a healthy and missional church; electing a Pastoral Search Committee to find a new Lead Pastor … to name a few.

Transitions are also inevitable. Change happens – nothing stays the same; infants become children, then adolescents, then young adults, then middle aged; many employees become managers … and some become employers; many people move from the single life to married life … and vice versa. And of course, we all get older – which brings with it many changes.

The above thoughts sprang from a book by Jeff Manion entitled “The Land Between”. Written a decade before the days of the Coronavirus, or the “vitality pathway”, or a transition Pastor, the author uses the experiences of the Hebrew people in the years they spent between slavery in Egypt and arrival in the land of Canaan (the Promised Land). He reveals the inevitability and the challenges of transitions.

The book resonated in me a helpful launching point for a sermon series following Easter.  As we continue in transition with Covid-19 and a “new normal” (which doesn’t seem normal at all);  as we continue to roll out the work of the Vitality Team and subsequent Dream Again Team; and as we continue in transition at Bethany as the Lead Pastor Search Team seeks a new Lead Pastor it might be helpful for us to learn again from God’s “chosen people” the kinds of reactions to change that diminish and reveal our lack of trust in God as well as the kinds of responses to change that increase and reveal our trust in Him.

I encourage you to consider reading the book “The Land Between: Finding God  in Difficult Transitions” by Jeff Manion.

Better yet read the original material on the ‘land between’ in the Bible. For avid readers who want detail read Genesis 12-50, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. For those who prefer an overview and summary read Deuteronomy.

Let’s learn and grow together in these challenging days of transition how to trust in God. Listen to the author’s prayer for us in these days … “(I pray) that God will visit you with grace in your season of transition. I pray that the barren landscape of trial will become the fertile soil for new growth.  May our gracious God revive your spirit and restore your laughter.  May you find Him in your pain and trust Him in your waiting.  May the One who redeems all things meet you powerfully as  you journey through the “Land Between”. [Jeff Manion]

Every so often we come to a time of year when there just isn’t a way to put everything into a nice little package. The solution? “Summer Singles,” where each of the messages are different but the goal remains the same: to bring us into a deeper understanding of the character and quality of the Creator of the universe.

What did the accounts of those who first saw Jesus have in common? “And their eyes were opened.” Join us as we explore, in the wake of the resurrection, the stories of those who first encountered Jesus, and how we continue to see how Jesus is working in our midst.

The world is broken, we are broken, and we often find ourselves in prisons of our own making. What puts us in prison? Join us this lent as we explore the vices and virtues of Proverbs 6, and ask, what makes us guilty … and how does Jesus free us from bondage?

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes (or “eyes that look down on others”), a lying tongue (or “a tongue that can’t be trusted”), hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes (or “conceives evil plans”) and feet that are quick to rush (or “sprint”) into evil, a false witness who pours out lies (or “a false witness who breathes out lies”), and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. [Proverbs 6:16-19]

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” While this is true, the biblical story of a savior in a manger is not without credible evidence; the story of Jesus happened in a time, in a place, for a reason. And the story still has an impact today. This advent, join us as we unpack the eyewitness, scientific, profile, and cultural evidence of Jesus’ birth.

It’s been said with no small amount of irony that the one constant in life is change. But with change comes the opportunity to grow, and it is most often those times of change that God uses to help us become more like Him. Once upon a time, Abram was called by God out of his good, comfortable life and told to go to a new land, to found a new nation and a new people. Once upon a time, God freed Israel from their enslavement in Egypt and Called them to the Promised Land. Join us as we follow Israel as it journeys through the wilderness of Sinai, out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, as the trappings of the world are burned away and in its place, a new name and a new identity: the People of God. In this series, we’ll navigate the ECC Vitality Pathway and learn ten marks of a healthy, missional Church, one that lives by the practices and the character of Jesus.

This 2-part sermon series is a fly-over of the “Vitality Pathway” preparing us for the following series (The Forgotten Ways) where we dive deeper into what a healthy missional church looks like. In week one (Sept. 2) we will respond to the Covenant catechism question: What is the highest and most important knowledge? Read the texts – Ephesians 1:15-23 and John 17:3. In week two (Sept. 9) we will respond to the question: What is God really up to? Read the following texts – John 14:26; Philippians 2:7-8; and Ephesians 1:20 & 2:6-10

If I speak in the tongues of humanity or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

[1 Corinthians 13, NIV]

The Resurrection changed everything. Each day, more and more people encountered the Risen Jesus in their own way, and today is no different. Join us as we explore some of the stories of the first encounters people had with Jesus after His Resurrection.

We learn in Acts 9:1-2 that the early followers of Jesus were called People of the Way. They were people who were committed to living the “ways of Jesus.” As followers of Jesus we are to be increasing in our purity, peacefulness, gentleness, mercifulness, fruitfulness, steadfastness, honesty, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and temperance. People wonder, how can we change the world we live in? How can we bring about change? I see no other option than being formed in the ways of Christ. It’s the narrowest road, but it’s the most impactful.

The Book of Mark is written very much like an ancient biography looking to answer three questions: Who was Jesus? What was Jesus like? Why is Jesus worth writing about? Mark focuses his book on Jesus, the power of Jesus and the virtues and deeper character of Jesus’ life with the message, ‘go and do likewise.’

I see many people today trying to navigate the tensions, divides, anxieties and relationships of life under their own power and the world’s best wisdom. In Mark we see that Jesus’ power and Jesus’ ways and wisdom will allow us to do that better than any other way.

There will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan — The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

[Isaiah 9:1-7]