A Year of Grace at Covenant Life Church

Each December, my family tries to sit down and recap the year that is almost gone. We list the big and little events that defined the year. It's a chance to reflect on answered prayers and give thanks for God's goodness. This month, I did the same for our church family's year, which I shared in our December "Family News." Here's a short of list of highlights in no particular order:

1. The look on everyone's face when we did a "reverse offering" at the end of our Affluenza series and gave out money to invest in God's kingdom.

2. Changing our meeting times to 9 and 11:30am. Boy, did 8:30am feel early!

3. Encountering Jesus' love and compassion for sinners in our series through the Gospel of Luke.

4. Karin Layman, Valori Maresco and my wife Shannon led their first series of Titus 2 meetings.

5. Emma attended Summer Celebration led by Mike Bradshaw and asked me the day after it ended how long it would be till the next one!

6. Grant Layman and his team launched the Family Room meetings and had so many parents and couples say, "Why didn't we start this years ago?" Good question!

7. John Loftness and Robin Boisvert began Covenant Life College, where members can go deeper in theological study every Wednesday night.

8. Attending Together for the Gospel and seeing CJ's friendship with--and leadership alongside--men like Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, and John MacArthur.

9. Having New Attitude back and better than ever under Eric Simmons' leadership and the creativity of our amazing singles.

10. After many years of prayer, we sent out Chris Silard and many Covenant Life members to plant a church in Frederick, Maryland.

11. In February, the children's ministry at Covenant Live grew with the addition of Mary Kate Harris. (Okay, I so snuck in a personal one. I couldn't help it!)

God has been very kind to us, and we say goodbye to 2006 with grateful hearts for all His mercy.