What is the Gospel?
The gospel is the good news of God to man, and it answers our greatest questions about life and death. The Bible says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God created the entire universe by His infinite power, including mankind. Amazingly, God created man (male and female) in His own image, to be the pinnacle of creation. Man was crafted as a personal being who would reflect the image and glory of the Holy God, and who would freely commune with God in purity and love. In fact, God loved man so much that He gave man dominion over all the earth (Genesis 1:26-29).
God placed man in a luscious garden and gave him everything he could want, and God’s only requirement for him was to obey. However, man disobeyed (Gen. 3:6), and, as a result, sin entered the fabric of humanity. From that time, all men have been under the bondage of sin. The Bible declares we are all guilty “there is none who does good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:2-3). Because of this, judgment and death must fall on us all. But, thankfully, God in His grace created a way of salvation (Romans 6:23).
God sent His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to pay our sin debt by offering Him as a sacrifice to atone for our sins (Romans 5:8). Because of His love for man, Jesus humbly came to earth, lived a sinless life, and offered Himself to take the punishment we deserved by dying on a cross to appease the justice of God due us (1 John 2:2). Jesus sacrifice was sufficient to cover our sins, and to prove it, the Father raised Him from dead! And the promise of God is the same eternal life to all who are found in Him (1 Cor. 15:20-22).
Jesus is coming back soon to judge the world. When He does He will cast the unbelieving into Hell, but He will also redeem and remake all creation in a glorious state of peace and harmony with God as it was before our fall into sin. Each of us will spend eternity either at peace with God or in Hell for our rebellion. And the only way to escape God’s judgment and be at peace with Him is through Christ (John 10:9; 14:6).
Though we deserve death for our sin against the Holy God who created us, God has graciously offered salvation (forgiveness and eternal life) to all who: admit their guilt, repent (turn from their sins), believe in Jesus Christ by accepting His forgiveness and receiving His righteousness, and following Him as Lord (Luke 9:23). When in humility we put our faith in Christ and confess Him as Lord we are saved (Romans 10:9-10), born again (John 3:3), made a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), freed from the bondage of sin, and adopted as a child of God forever! (Romans 8:14-17).
This is the gospel. And it’s available to all who will repent and believe (Mark 1:15).
What Are the 9 Marks?
I. Expositional Preaching
II. Biblical Theology
III. The Gospel
IV. Conversion
V. Evangelism
VI. Membership
VII. Discipline
VIII. Discipleship
IX. Leadership
To learn more about each mark visit
Why Family-Integrated?
"'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.' Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house...And immediately he and all his family were baptized"
(Acts 16:31-33 NKJV).
The family is the first and greatest institution God created (Genesis 2:18-25). It is the divinely ordained building block of society and the church. Satan and the world have been dividing and attacking the family from the beginning. Why then should we divide and separate families when we gather for church?
We’re not suggesting that programs or age-segregated classes in church are wrong. It is perfectly acceptable to have age defined classes and curriculum to teach the Bible and provide peer groups for discipleship. We have used them here at Covenant and benefited from them. However, we must challenge the assumption that programs or age-segregated classes are the best or only way to make disciples of Christ today. Maybe we have missed something in adopting this worldly/secular philosophy?
Current data indicates that 80% of children who attend church with age-segregated classes/programs that split up the family unit are leaving the church as young adults. And many of these ultimately abandon the faith all together. Of course, this is not the only factor in the exodus of young people from the church. Weak and shallow theology, decisionism (a mere verbal profession of faith in Jesus), a rush to baptize young children, and the influence of culture certainly all contribute as well. But we must ask ourselves what role separating families in church may be having on making lasting disciples.
Our vision at Covenant is to revive the church through family worship and discipleship. As a result, we believe families should worship together at church because this is the pattern God has given us (Deut. 31:12; Jos. 8:35; Matt. 19:14). Having the children present in the corporate worship of the church includes them in the significance of our time together with God. And, having the little ones among us is a powerful reminder to us all that “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it" (Luke 18:17).
By God’s design, the most powerful means of discipleship is for fathers to learn and embrace the gospel, walk with Jesus in faith, and then teach and lead their families to do the same (Ephesians 5:23, 6:4). Therefore, parents should be the primary disciple makers in the church. Programs and classes should be only a supplement to biblical, Christ centered discipleship in the home/family. This is why we’ve tried to create a church model that embraces this fundamental truth so families can “grow up in all things into Him” (Ephesians 4:15).
This does not mean that those without children or those in non-traditional families are not welcome here at Covenant. We believe a church is a family of believers—young, old, single, married, with children, without children, orphaned, elderly, widowed, etc. The family is temporal—it only exists in this life. The church (the family of God) is eternal and will exist forever. Regardless of your family situation in this life, followers of Christ are to come together in unity and love to build each other in the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
If this appeals to you, we invite you to come and worship with us and learn more about what God is doing here as we follow Him!
For Christ, for the Gospel, for the Family,
Pastor Todd
Church and Family Life. You will especially want to read their declaration for uniting church and family, which we embrace.
