The Compass Makes History

Check out some of the highlights (on our Multi-Media page) from the 2010 Evangelical Covenant Church Annual Meeting, which was held right here in St. Paul.  The Compass was officially voted in as a full member to our denomination and the Northwest Conference.  We also celebrated with Pastor Terrance as his ordination was officially transferred to the ECC!

Sunday June 27th Worship

We will be joining with people from Covenant Churches from all over the world to worship together on June 27th at the St. Paul River Centre starting at 10:00 A.M.  This service is part of the 125th Annual Meeting of our denomination, where we are celebrating the transfer of Pastor Terrance’s ordination and the approval of The  Compass into full membership with the Evangelical Covenant Church.  Come celebrate with us!

For more info, click here http://www.covchurch.org/am.

God’s Lost and Found Department

Series Introduction:

Luke 15 has been called God’s Lost and Found Department. In these 32 verses, Jesus uses no less that 4 illustrations dealing with the lost and with God’s desire to see them saved and restored to fellowship with Himself. Verses 3-7 record the Illustration of the Lost Sheep. Verses 8-10 record the Illustration of the Lost Silver. Verses 11-24 give us the Illustration of the Lost Son. And, Verses 25-32 relate the Illustration of the Lost Sibling.

The backdrop for these “heavenly stories with earthly meanings” is found in verses 1-2. In these verses, Jesus is seen reaching out to the lost and dying. We are told that “publicans and sinners” came to hear Him preach. Publicans were also known as “tax collectors”. These people worked for the Roman government and were despised by the Jews because they were friendly with the enemy and they placed on the people harsh and unfair tax burdens. Sinners, on the other hand, referred to the Jews who did not keep the Mosaic Law, and were looked down on by the Pharisees and other religious peoples.

It was these poor people who no one cared about that Jesus reached out to! In fact, He stated that as His very reason for coming into the world, Luke 19:10; Mark 2:17. Yet, when these people gathered themselves around Jesus, to hear Him teach, the religious establishment went crazy and began to criticize Jesus for “receiving” sinners. The word “receiveth” means “to allow access to oneself”. The very people the religious world should have been reaching out to, were the very ones they shunned. Jesus, on the other hand, came to the world for lost, hurting, sinful people, and He reached out the them.

Jesus, knowing the hard hearts of these religious people, told them the parable that makes up the verses of this chapter. In this parable, Jesus uses four illustrations to teach them the value of every lost soul. He even uses this parable to teach them that they themselves might not be as secure as t hey thought they were.

I will take the next few Sunday mornings and look into this chapter in detail. I want us to enter God’s Lost and Found Department together and learn the truth that every soul matters to God, even yours!

2009 Year In Review

Check out some of what God has done at The Compass!

2009 Year in Review - watch

The 125th Covenant Annual Meeting

The 125th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church is coming to St. Paul!

The Evangelical Covenant Church will be celebrating 125 years of mission and ministry in St Paul, MN. The denomination’s annual meeting will be held at the RiverCentre June 24-27, 2010. The Northwest Conference has been asked to support this event by providing lots and lots of volunteers to serve in a variety of different ways.

To learn more about the meeting and events surrounding it, visit http://www.covchurch.org/am.

May 23 - Current Sermon Series - One Step

Let’s be honest. When it comes to evangelism we often feel overwhelmed and inadequate. This is usually because we have not understood that salvation is God’s work and we are just cooperating with what God is already doing in the lives of people. It is not up to us to convince, convict or conquer anyone for Christ. Moreover, I am certain because we have often relegated evangelism to a formula, strategy or some sort of method; we feel guilty or like a failure if the person didn’t pray the prayer at the end of the presentation. Likewise, we have determined one must be gifted or have a certain personality to lead someone else to become a follower of Jesus. All of these factors have led us to believe that we are just not good at evangelism. What’s Your One Step sermon series will help us to take up our post with evangelism.

 

What’s your one step?

May 23: Introduction to Evangelism

May 30: Prayer

June 6: Care

June 13: Share

Prayer Gathering This Wednesday!

Join us for prayer this Wednesday, the 24th, 6:30-8:00 at First Covenant Church, St. Paul.  Activities are available for kids/teens, and directions are available here.

Authentic Community Devotional

What is “Authentic Community?  And what steps can we take to get there?  We have a devotional available that will help you answer those questions, and help us a church build a truly Authentic Community.  For more info, check with Pastor Terrance.

Member Info form

If you are interested in becoming part of the Compass Core team and volunteering your time on Sunday mornings, please follow this link to get to the info form.  It is a PDF document so you will need to print it to fill it out, and then bring it Susan Carlson.

Celebrate Black History Month

Come Celebrate Black History Month at a free, multi-ethnic, inter-denominational worship worship concert at First Covenant Church in Minneapolis.  The concert will be at 7:00 p.m. on February 26th.  Click here for more info.

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