Covenant News at www.covchurch.org

Twenty-Five Churches Welcomed into Membership

GRAND RAPIDS, MI (June 15) - Welcoming new churches into membership of the Evangelical Covenant Church always is a highlight at the annual meetings, and this year was no exception during the denomination's 121st Annual Meeting.

Delegates welcomed 25 churches with a cumulative approximate membership of 1,570 and cumulative average attendance of 4,347.

Several of the churches are adoptions into the denomination. These include St. Paul's (Wolf's) Church of York, Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1763 and formerly was a member of the United Church of Christ; Four Rivers Church of Paducah, Kentucky; Cornerstone Church of Boston, Massachusetts; Community Evangelical Covenant Church of Chicago, Illinois; Puna Congregational Covenant Church of Kea'au, Hawaii; and New Jerusalem Covenant Church of Chicago.

New church representatives Several of the new churches continue to represent ethnic diversity, as 55 percent of them minister to congregations of color. These ethnic and multi-ethnic congregations include Community Evangelical Covenant Church of Chicago, a first-generation Filipino congregation; and QueensWest Covenant Church, with a large Asian population; a largely African-American congregation.

The churches also are varied in their worship styles and ministries. The House Covenant Church of Chicago has a hip-hop service that reaches approximately 500 youth and young adults each week. Artisan Covenant Church offers a variety of worship styles to reach a postmodern generation. Lifehouse Covenant Church has a strong recovery ministry. Metro Community Covenant Church of Fort Lee, New Jersey, meets in a Jewish community center and has a ministry called Justice, Advocacy and Compassion that has organized homeless dinners and ministers to illiterate children and single mothers.

Several churches were launched with the help of other Covenant churches. A cluster of Covenant churches supported the pioneer ministry of Hope Covenant Church in El Dorado, Kansas. First Covenant Church of Portland, Oregon, sponsored Vibrant Covenant Church.

Following is the list of new churches, grouped by conference, with average membership and attendance figures following each church's name:

Central Conference

East Coast Conference

Great Lakes Conference

Midwest Conference

North Pacific Conference

Pacific Southwest Conference

Southeast Conference

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