Last Sunday, September 28, the Hilmar Covenant Church choir went on a mini-mission trip. We headed over to Pittsburg to Edgewater Covenant Church, the new church plant that our congregation is helping to start with money from our “Building For Christ” loan.

This is a great policy that the Covenant has put in place: when a church takes out a building loan from National Covenant Properties, 5% of it must go to assist the planting of new churches in that Covenant conference. In this way, established churches are helping to daughter churches, more opportunities are made available to plant new churches, and the Kingdom is expanded. Hilmar Covenant first partnered with Life Covenant Church in Torrance, California when they organized five years ago. This congregation has already daughtered two churches of its own! Now the last of our building fund money is going to help Edgewater Covenant get started.

Edgewater’s pastor, John Fanous, came to Hilmar last winter and preached one Sunday so we could get to know him and about this new group that is excited about starting a new church in Pittsburg. At the Pacific Southwest Conference annual meeting in April, Bruce and I also met John’s wife, Becky, and we had more time to share together and learn about the vision that Edgewater has to impact its community for Christ. All four of us experienced a special moment when we were called forward at the meeting to receive a plaque and be recognized for starting this new church--and for supporting it. As we talked together, I suggested that we bring people from Hilmar over to Pittsburg to help them out in some way, and to get to know this young congregation better. In August, a group of us provided child care for Edgewater, which gave their regular child care team a rare chance to be in worship on Sunday morning! They were very appreciative.

Then last Sunday, the HCC choir finally made it to Edgewater to sing for their morning service. We tried to do this earlier in the summer, but we couldn’t get the dates to work out properly. However, September turned out to be a better time for the choir to go because we were able to be part of their six week grand opening “Celebration” time, when Edgewater is officially launching as a church.

We got up early so we could leave from the HCC parking lot at 7:15 a.m. We brought coffee and food to eat on the road, and off we went on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. The trip to Pittsburg takes more than an hour and a half, so we had plenty of time to talk, laugh, discuss issues, and just enjoy our friendship as choir members. The route took us past farm land, orchards, over the Altamont Pass, and through the rolling golden barren hills north of Interstate 580 to the Rt. 4 bypass that brought us to Edgewater’s meeting place: Stoneman Elementary School. We unloaded everything from the vans and went inside, where we were warmly greeted---and promptly joined Pastor John and the leadership group in prayer for the service that morning.

It was wonderful to see this commitment to start off the service--even before the congregation had arrived--with prayer. Then our group started rehearsing with the Edgewater worship team, led for the first time by newly ordained Covenant pastor, Amy Mark.

She had asked us to help lead the congregational songs, so we joined in on the very familiar “Come, Now Is The Time To Worship” and “Joyful Joyful, We Adore Thee” (with the not-so-familiar added chorus by Charlie Hall). People continued to arrive, so we had only a few minutes to warm up on our anthems for the morning. At 9:45, worship began.

There’s something amazing and powerful about a brand new “baby” church, so young and fresh, excited, vulnerable, and so full of anticipation. Why do people decide to come into this environment? What draws them? Who are they? I think they are very brave! It is no easy thing walking into any new group or organization--especially a “religious” gathering. People who come into such a setting do not have a history together, so they are obviously willing to risk being uncomfortable--especially to enter into new expressions of worship. By choosing to attend a new church group, they are obviously searching for something too; something that a fresh young congregation can offer without the habits, behaviors, and attitudes that so often define churches that have been around for awhile. Edgewater describes itself as “a new multi-ethnic church...designed to be a safe place to help you on your spiritual journey.” I was pleased to see the diversity that is already present in Edgewater too, both ethnically and age-wise. There were Anglos, Hispanics, and Asians, older people, young people, families, and children, whom John asked to come forward to be prayed for before sending them off to their Sunday School classes, acknowledging that “these are the future of Edgewater!”

The service had an informal, yet focused feeling about it; of people glad to be together in worship and expecting to meet God there through all the actions of worship. John’s preaching series during this “Celebration” time is quite interesting too: Song of Solomon! When is the last time you heard this Old Testament wisdom book preached?! He is calling this series “Sacred Romance” and it is centered on relationships: relations between wives and husbands and between people and God.

This was the setting that the choir came into as we joined Edgewater Covenant in worship last Sunday. For our anthems, we chose what is probably our “signature” song, “Come Build A Church,” so appropriate for a new church congregation with the lyrics, “Come build a church of flesh and bone; we need no tower rising skyward, no house of wood or glass or stone.” For this is exactly what a brand new church is all about: people, not buildings!

We also sang the delightful, celebrative, traditional Zulu song, “We Are Singing.” We use an original percussion and mallet accompaniment track created by Chris Handy, which gives it an authentic African flavor. We also move between English and Zulu as we sing, adding handclaps as the song progresses, so it was also a very fitting song to share with Edgewater. They really appreciated it too. As the choir was singing through the piece, I noticed more smiles than usual and more of them letting go of their folders and just singing from memory, clapping and even moving to the beat. It sure made it more fun to direct! When we finished, in the midst of tremendous applause, Penny Forgnone quickly said to me: “Dan, turn around!” When I did, I saw that almost the entire congregation was on its feet! As the anthem progressed more and more of them had gotten up, joining in the clapping and freely moving with us--something you would never see in our church at home!

Finally, at the end of the service, there was a time for the congregation to consider how they can serve others as well. This was wonderful to see too: that a brand new church is building into its identity and purpose and DNA the vital component of action when it comes to following Jesus. This body of Christ in Pittsburg is already clear that being a Christian is more than focusing on getting people saved--important as that is (and indeed, Edgewater has already seen new believers come to Christ). It is also about living out that relationship with Christ in practical ways, impacting people’s lives tangibly and meaningfully. And what has Edgewater decided should be their focus? Stoneman Elementary School--the place where they meet to worship each week! Pastor John said he had asked the school what it needed most, and how Edgewater could best help out. The quick answer was school supplies! Following the service that morning, tables were set up with all kinds of brand new left-over school items from a local Target store that people could purchase for the various grades. Also, for those who wanted a more active kind of service opportunity, people could sign up to work on Saturday with the school janitor and grounds people to clean up the school, inside and out. John said the school had experienced some lay-offs because of budget cutbacks and so Edgewater’s help in these areas would be much appreciated too.

Yes, Sunday at Edgewater Covenant was a great experience for us who went from Hilmar Covenant. Coming from an older, established, 106 year old congregation full of traditions, patterns, understandings, and expectations, it was refreshing and FUN to see, experience, and participate in such a new, unusual setting and spirit. It was a valuable taste of the bigger Church of Jesus Christ and I know we all appreciated it. I called the day a “mini-mission trip” because that was what it was like for us who went and participated in this very different church environment: we left our familiar setting to enter a foreign one. And like most mission trips, we who went probably learned more and were blessed far more than the people we went to inspire and help.

Isn’t that just like God? His economy is so upside down from ours!

Think of the Incarnation......

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to participate in what You are doing, here in Hilmar, over in Pittsburg, and around the world!