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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question 1. It says in the vision statement that Covenant Fellowship has no plans to purchase or build a multi-purpose church building. Why is that?
Answer 1. When Covenant Fellowship began, it was important to emphasize that there would be no particular plans to build or purchase a church facility. We did not want people thinking that we would not be a “real” church until we had a building; nor did we wish or have any intention to embark quickly on fund raising and all that goes with that. Now, as of this writing eight years later, we continue to rent space for our Sunday meeting, and we still have no plans to build or purchase a church building. Our Sunday-only usage of a building has worked out well for us and we intend to continue to rent space for our Sunday morning meeting. There have been certain advantages or blessings associated with our Sunday-only approach. First, as much as is reasonably possible, we have kept our money and our ministry energy from being diverted into facility related issues. Second, because we are a cell group church without myriads of programs that require use of a facility, we wouldn’t know what to do with a facility all week if we had one. We really only have need of a facility for five hours each Sunday morning, and it has not seemed to be a wise investment of time and money to own or build a facility for such limited use. Third, we have been able to keep a church office out in the community rather than on a church property which has opened up certain opportunities for ministry. Fourth, our Sunday-only rental approach helps us to emphasize in a practical yet symbolic way that the Church of Jesus Christ is not a “place” to which you go, but a community of people committed to following Jesus Christ together. As much as possible we want to be a “church without walls,” keeping things as simple and the ministry as relational as reasonably possible. All that being said, we have continued along the way to look for a long term lease arrangement that would give us a measure of locational stability. We have been blessed with being able to meet at the clubhouse of Bur-MilPark for several years now.
Question 2. Covenant Fellowship calls itself a “cell structured” church. Why?
Answer 2. The phrase “cell structured” speaks to how we organize ourselves as a local fellowship and ministry. On the one hand it is meant as a contrast to the phrase “program oriented. ” On the other hand it speaks to our relational approach to ministry. The people of Covenant Fellowship, in addition to joining together on Sunday mornings, meet in smaller groups in homes during the week. These groups consist of 8-20 people (including children of course). These cell communities are sort of like little churches. Their purpose is worship, teaching, fellowship, and outreach. They are inter-generational and participatory. Each cell group has its own special personality which means that the groups emphasize these different elements to different relative degrees. Covenant Fellowship is structured so as to give priority to these groups. The cell structured approach also addresses an increasingly significant problem in our general culture, and that is the breakdown of community and the associated relational instability and lack of relational commitment. Due to a large number of cultural factors (such as increased mobility, the erosion of the extended family, high neighborhood turnover, two-income families, television and other life patterns which keep people inside their houses), our culture has become increasingly individualistic and relationally fragmented. At the same time a mushrooming consumer mindset has grown to encompass even ordinary “religious choices.” The combination of this relational fragmentation and ingrained consumer mindset has had profound consequences everywhere, even upon the church. Thus for years the trend in the Christian church has been towards very large churches which can offer a wide range of programs and services. Though there are distinct advantages to large program-oriented churches, the multiplicity of their offerings tends to fragment family participation while playing into the consumerist and individualistic mindset of the surrounding culture. In addition the complex programs and multiple offerings require much in the way of staff and facility and often require that staff and volunteers be at the building many evenings a week. The cell structured church offers a somewhat different way of being the people of God gathered together and ministering outwardly in the world. Cell churches tend to be more organizationally simple. They tend to have far fewer programs and fewer meetings. They tend to have a more relational rather than program oriented approach to ministry. They tend to stress intergenerational participation. They tend to require more of each individual participant. In summary, the purpose of our cell structured approach at Covenant Fellowship is to enable us to do two things which can be very hard to do at the same time – experience real, genuine, and biblical Christian community while at the same time having the time and energy left over to follow Christ and bear witness to Him where we are out there in the community and world around us.
Question 3. That sounds nice, but won’t you lose the sense of being a community of believers if you grow numerically?
Answer 3. In the Spring of 2000 our elders took an entire day to address the question of congregational size and the impact of growing congregational size on our church vision. In a nutshell we determined that our ability to fulfill our vision at many different levels would begin to diminish as our congregation approached about 200 regular participants. If we did experience such growth that we began to push this limit, our plan and our prayer would be that God would provide a natural way for us to send out a group of people to plant a second Covenant Fellowship congregation which would at least initially remain under the oversight of the Covenant Fellowship session. By a “natural way” we mean something like a second pastor who could go out from us to serve this second congregation, or perhaps an obvious geographical divide within our congregation. We do not know exactly how this would work in detail and are praying that if we reach that point the way will be made clear to us then.
Question 4. What is the Sunday morning gathering like at Covenant Fellowship?
Answer 4. Our Sunday morning gathering begins at 10:00am with several minutes of greeting and fellowship. Starting at about 10:10 we then have about thirty to forty minutes of “praise and worship,” which consists mostly of the singing of psalms, hymns, and choruses, with responsive readings, prayer, and Scripture readings mixed in. We then have a short break while the younger children go to Sunday School. This is followed by a sermon of thirty-five to forty minutes or so. After the sermon we have what we call our “Open Time,” which ends at about 12:00pm or a little after. During this “Open Time” the very young children may participate or go on a walk or enjoy some other kind of activity, usually outside, weather permitting. After our Open Time we set up for a meal. Most people stay for the meal which provides the best time during the morning for people to spend time together and get to know one another.
Question 5. A three hour gathering sure sounds long. Don’t people get weary?
Answer 5. Actually, there are several breaks during which people can stand, stretch and talk together, much as in a traditional church that has a break between “worship” and Sunday School. Between the praise and worship time and the sermon there is a short break, and between the sermon and Open Time there is another short break. There is also a break as we set up for the meal. The whole atmosphere is relaxed and somewhat leisurely, and time passes quickly. Because of our organizational simplicity, we do not have as many meetings and events as in a traditional church, thus when we are together we want to make the most of it.
Question 6. Why is Covenant Fellowship affiliated with a denomination, and why with the ARP denomination in particular?
Answer 6. Every group of Christians in a local church must make a choice either to be independent or to be connected to other churches in some official way. There are pros and cons to each approach. We have chosen to be connected in order that we might have greater accountability, and in order that we might benefit from the wisdom of a larger body of believers. We do not have a narrow or competitive “denominational” mentality. We are not “Presbyterians;” we are “Christians,” followers of Jesus Christ. We want to have the very best possible relationship of cooperation and mutual accountability with our fellow evangelical churches in Greensboro. The ARP denomination is an evangelical denomination committed to the authority of Scripture, to world evangelization, and to church planting, and has a long history of faithful witness to Christ. We believe that our affiliation with this body will bring encouragement to us and will be an effective ministry channel from us into the world.
Question 7. Does Covenant Fellowship have a youth program? What does the youth group do?
Answer 7. Covenant Fellowship does not have a youth “program” or a youth group, per se. Such would not be consistent with our intergenerational approach to Christian ministry and Christian community. We do however have many teens who are a vital part of the life of the church. The teens participate in the cell groups with their families, and are part of the Sunday worship with everybody else. They are a integral part of the life of the congregation. On Sundays the teens help set things up, participate in the worship, help out in nursery and Sunday School, help serve the meal to the young children, and often gather together after the meal either to play ball or enjoy some other outdoor activity, or just hang out together. In addition, every two weeks the teens participate in a Sunday night teen worship/bible study led by a young couple in our congregation, and occasionally have a weekend outing, such as skating, bowling, hiking, football, etc. with oversight given by parents and other individuals who have a keen interest in young people. The teens also engage in service projects in the community.
Question 8. What is the meaning of this word “reformed” that keeps popping up in the vision statement?
Answer 8. The word “reformed” is a theological tag or label. What having a tag means is that theologically we stand in one of the main streams of perspective that has flowed out of the Protestant Reformation. That is, on some issues we understand the Bible and the Christian life differently than some of our other Protestant brethren. But this needs to be made clear: We stand in solid agreement with other evangelical churches on the central elements of the Christian faith. Our desire is to work in harmony with our fellow Christians, not to emphasize the differences that might exist between us. Nevertheless, we believe that there are several things about the “reformed” tradition which are particularly important in this day and time, and thus we believe that the overall church will be well served by a contingent of healthy reformed churches. The reformed tradition has always been keen to emphasize that God (in and through the Lord Jesus Christ) is ruler of the universe, king of the Church, and lord of salvation. In a nutshell, He is in charge. Nothing slips by Him. He is taking history somewhere. He made the world and He is going to redeem the world. He is going to call out a people to Himself through whom He will bless the world. We know He will do this because He said He would and because He has the power to fulfill His promises. Also, in the reformed understanding of the Christian life, much stress is placed on the believer’s submission to the lordship of Christ in every area of life. All parts of life are seen to be important and “spiritual” and in need of transformation. The reformed perspective sees human culture as a legitimate outworking of the creation mandate (to multiply, to exercise dominion over creation, to work, etc.) and not as something inherently evil. Believers are to work to transform culture in order that it may be as pleasing to God as possible. The reformed view also sees that human beings are in rebellion against God, and have neither the desire nor the ability in themselves to be restored back to God. But God, who is rich in mercy and power, is able to fulfill His promise to save a people unto Himself. This is why we pray for God to save our friends and family. We know that He and He only has the power to overcome our resistance to Him. From first to last, salvation is of the Lord. Excellent summaries of the “reformed” theological perspective can be found in such classic historic Protestant confessions as the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.
Question 9. Is Covenant Fellowship committed to foreign missions?
Answer 9. The Lord Jesus says that the fields are “ripe for the harvest,” but that the laborers are few. It is very much the goal of Covenant Fellowship to be committed to foreign missions. Many of our members significantly contribute to and regularly pray for missionaries whom they support. Each month we emphasize different missions/missionaries supported by people within the congregation. It would be our long term goal to raise up people from our own midst to go out from us into the mission field.
Question 10. What kind of music characterizes the morning worship?
Answer 10. We are committed to having as part of our worship a combination of traditional and contemporary hymns, psalms (traditional settings and newer arrangements), contemporary praise choruses, and ancient doxologies. We desire not only to worship in music forms that are contemporary, but in forms and genres that have been of encouragement to the church over the centuries. Some people refer to this as a “blended” worship approach. Usually we sing two or three hymns and psalms, and three to four praise songs or choruses. Right now our Sunday singing is usually accompanied by either piano or guitar, or both together. Whereas we welcome a diversity of instrumentation, our emphasis is upon the voice as the primary “instrument” of praise. This means that we lean away from having sophisticated sound systems that would drown out or overwhelm our voices.
Question 11. Is Covenant Fellowship a “charismatic” church?
Answer 11. Although the word “charismatic” means different things to different people, in the most common sense of the word Covenant Fellowship would probably not be considered a charismatic church. We owe a debt of gratitude however to our charismatic brethren for reminding the Church of Jesus Christ about the significance of every-member spiritual gift ministry, and of the vital role that the Holy Spirit plays in the life of the Church. The following also needs to be said: First, we believe that all of the gifts of the Spirit spoken of in the New Testament are operative today, and we welcome whatever way the sovereign Holy Spirit would seek to distribute these gifts in our midst. It is our belief that just as individuals have different gift mixes, so also churches also have different gift mixes, and thus it is not vital to the health of a particular body to have manifested every possible gift, but each local church should desire all that God would see fit to bring to them. Second, we welcome certain worship expressions sometimes thought of as “charismatic,” such as raising hands while singing or praying. Third, we are decidedly not Pentecostal in our doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We believe that all believers are baptized by and into the Holy Spirit upon conversion, and that growth in Christ-likeness is a progressive gradual process over the course of the believer’s life.
Question 12. Covenant Fellowship does not seem to have extensive children’s programs. Does this mean that it is not committed to ministry to children or to families?
Answer 12. Covenant Fellowship does not have extensive children’s programs because of the particular way that it is committed to children and to families. Let me explain. We believe first of all that God has given primary responsibility for the Christian nurture of children to parents. It is in the midst of everyday life that children will learn from their parents what it means to be a Christian, what is right and wrong, how to trust God, pray, and learn from Him. This training process, we learn from the Scripture, is to be an important part of everyday life. Thus the most important thing we can do for children is help build up their parents in the faith. We do not think that the present trend of handing over more and more responsibility for the training of children to the state or to the church is a good thing for children or for families. Second, children in the context of the corporate life of the church need to experience their parents and other believers living out Christian community together. We consider this modeling to be crucial for the child’s own development as a professing Christian. And so, as much as is reasonably possible, we want families to gather together in cell groups and on Sundays. But we also want children to build relationships with older people in the congregation, whether older children or adults, and so we want children to have time with these older people. This is what we mean by Covenant Fellowship being “intergenerational.” We try to make what we do as accessible as possible to children, and we pick out songs and activities with all ages in mind. Third, we believe that children can offer so much back to others. Thus our children participate in Scripture reading, in sharing and praying, and in almost every other aspect of the life of the church. Fourth, we strongly encourage parents to have their children active in the Greensboro community, through service projects and also through activities like sports and music lessons and school. We do not want church to become the only place of activity and relationships for our children. All that being said, we do have nursery on Sundays for the very young children, and Sunday School for children up through fifth grade. During the Open Time we take the young children on walks or spend time with them separately in other ways. You would have to see it for yourself, but all of this adds up to a lot of joy for the children.
Question 13. What is the “dress code” for Sunday gathering and cell group meetings?
Answer 13. Some have identified our average “dress code” as being similar to what is called “dress casual.” On Sundays some men wear coats and ties, most wear khakis or casual dress pants, some wear jeans, and in the summer some wear shorts. Women wear dresses, skirts, jeans, or shorts. We encourage modest, neat, and comfortable attire for our Sunday gathering. Cell group meetings are more informal, most people wearing their everyday clothes.
Question 14. What if my job or some other circumstance keeps me from attending the Sunday gathering or cell group meetings?
Answer 14. We have some people who have weekend jobs and some who work at night during the week. For those that work on Sunday, the cell group functions as a weekly worship time and Christian community. We want you to think that in going to cell group in a real sense you are going to “church.”
Question 15. You keep using the phrase “out there” in the vision statement. Why are you so big on this theme?
Answer 15. The phrase “out there” is meant to contrast with the phrase “at church.” Most Christians already have full and busy lives in home, workplace, neighborhood, and community. We do not want to encourage the notion that to get serious about God one has to get ever more busy “at church.” We consider it to be crucially important that the believer become like Jesus and learn to live all of life as unto Him in the context of where he already is in day to day life. The home and the workplace and neighborhood are where the Christian life must be lived out day to day. This is where the Christian has been called to be salt and light to the world. And so, one of our primary duties as a community of believers is to equip and encourage one another in dealing with the many challenges of life that already come each day in these spheres. We also believe that it is through living out the Christian life “out there” that we develop relationships with non-Christians and gain the credibility to talk to them about Christ. We do not want local evangelism to be a church program, but something every person and family is engaged in on an ongoing basis. Our overall structure is simple therefore because we think that most believers are already quite busy enough, and we want each person involved with us to be able to concentrate on growing and serving Christ in those places He has wisely placed them in home and neighborhood and workplace and school and community.
Question 16. How does Covenant Fellowship receive tithes and offerings from the congregation?
Answer 16. Right outside the door of our primary meeting room is an informational table. On one corner of this table is a wicker basket. People place their tithes and offerings in that basket.
Question 17. How often does Covenant Fellowship celebrate communion?
Answer 17. We celebrate communion together once per month, usually on the first Sunday of the month. Our communion table is open to all who would repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, bowing to Him as Lord and Savior, and receiving by faith the merits of his atoning death symbolized in the communion elements. As to children and communion, we leave it up to the discretion of the parents to determine their children’s readiness to participate in communion.
Question 18. Why do you have this thing called the “Open Time” during the morning gathering? What sorts of things do you do in the “Open Time”? And why do you call it that?
Answer 18. This part of the morning gathering we call the “Open Time” because the “floor is open” for participation by all the folks in the fellowship and because the nature of what goes on is to some degree “open ended.” So what do we do in the Open Time? First of all, the Open Time provides opportunity for participants to offer individual praise and thanksgiving to God. We draw upon the words of Psalm 40:9-10: “I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.” Second, the Open Time offers opportunity to bring encouragement to the brethren, after the pattern of Hebrews 10:25: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” This encouragement comes by way of sharing from the Scriptures, by sharing anecdotes from daily life testifying to the work of God, and by updating the congregation regarding issues previously mentioned, etc. Third, the Open Time offers opportunity for the saints to bear one another’s burdens, sharing struggles and confessing sins one to another. Fourth, the Open Time offers opportunity for congregational prayer to be offered on behalf of one another, as well as on behalf of the city and nation. The format of the Open Time changes somewhat from week to week. Sometimes there is simply open sharing. Sometimes there is a theme guiding what is shared. Sometimes the congregation gathers in small groups for sharing and prayer.
Question 19. How do you go about shepherding the flock at Covenant Fellowship?
Answer 19. Because of the importance that we place upon personal pastoral care, we have a shepherding model that allows for pastoral care to take place at multiple levels. At each of these levels we see ourselves participating in and cooperating with that care which the risen Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, extends to his people, the flock under His care. First of all, those who participate in the life of Covenant Fellowship have a mutual responsibility to encourage, love, teach, admonish, and care for one another. Second, each cell group has a cell shepherd with a responsibility to care pastorally for each participant in that particular cell group. Third, each elder/shepherd, though responsible for the entire flock generally, has a list of families and individuals over which he exercises particular care. Fourth, the paid elder/shepherd has responsibility for each of those individuals and families associated with the flock of Covenant Fellowship.
Question 20. What is the process for identifying, encouraging, and selecting elders at Covenant Fellowship?
Answer 20. As stated in our Vision Statement, we understand the office of elder and the office of pastor to be in essence the same office. Indeed, the elder is a pastor and the pastor is an elder. Thus we see elders less as “board members” and more as pastors, or shepherds, of the flock, called to feed, care for, lead, know, and protect the sheep. Our “session” as we call our elders as a group, consists of elder/shepherds equal in rank and dignity and office and charged with a most solemn responsibility before God. We do not have a set or fixed number of elders which we think we must maintain on our session. And yet we believe it to be a very serious responsibility to identify and encourage those whom God seems already to be preparing and raising up into this role and office. Not only do we want to affirm God’s prior work, but we want to be used by Him to bring along those that He has been preparing for pastoral ministry as elders. And so we keep our eyes out for certain things. A potential elder would need to match up significantly with the personal character traits put forth in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. He would need to be committed to growing in his personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We would look to see if the person had already exhibited a shepherd’s heart with respect to the people of the congregation, that is, whether he was in fact already functioning, apart from title, in a pastoral or shepherding manner, both in the course of the public gathering and in behind-the-scenes ways. He would have a basic theological and biblical maturity, and at the same time be willing to be mentored theologically and biblically through various potential processes. His understanding of Scripture would put him in substantial agreement with the doctrinal teaching of Scripture as systematized and summarized in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. This person would need to be apt and able to teach. He would need to have a basic wisdom about the Christian life, as well as an appropriate biblical understanding of the office of elder. He would need to be strongly committed to the basic ministry approach outlined in the Covenant Fellowship vision statement. Before being considered for the office of elder/shepherd he would have to have shepherded a Covenant Fellowship cell group for at least one year, and formally have been a member for at least one year. At some point the session would officially approach that person to see if he might be interested in pursuing the possibility of serving as an elder/shepherd of Covenant Fellowship. This process could include being placed on a preparatory track for a period of time overseen by the session. He would of course need to have an inner affirmation of the call of God in his life to the office of elder/shepherd. If so, then at some point after meeting with the elder candidate (and his wife if he is married), the session would present to the congregation its desire to bring this person onto the session, and invite feedback and input from the congregation. A public date would be scheduled for affirmation by the congregation during the Open Time on a Sunday morning, followed by a service of ordination, to take place during congregational worship also on a Sunday morning.
Question 21. What is our view of church membership at Covenant Fellowship?
Answer 21. It is our view that every Christian should be a committed participant in a particular local church. Every professing Christian should be in a committed "love one another" relationship with a particular group of believers in a specific local assembly; he should be shepherded by, and under the authority of, a particular group of pastor/elders in a local assembly; he should be a committed participant in the worship and life of a particular local fellowship, in order that he or she may be able in that worship and life to edify the body according to the gifts given by the Holy Spirit; he should be a committed participant in the process of a local assembly becoming a pure and holy bride of Christ, adorned and ready for His appearing, growing and repenting and dealing with issues of corporate life together; and he should be committed along with other Christians in a local fellowship to the "mission" of the church in the world, since carrying out this mission is primarily the duty and responsibility of the local assembly. Church membership is merely a sign or symbol of this commitment, much as a wedding ring is a sign or symbol of one’s commitment to his or her spouse. We would encourage any person visiting Covenant Fellowship to visit with a view to becoming committed members if they should stay and participate, or to find a local church where they can become committed members.
Question 22. What are some of those factors which, based on your experience, seem crucial as to a person flourishing within the ministry of Covenant Fellowship?
Answer 22. The doors of Covenant Fellowship are of course open to all who would come, and many people who have otherwise not been totally committed to every aspect of our ministry vision have experienced fruitful life and ministry in our midst. However, for the more experienced Christian looking at various church options in our community, there are some realities about our life that could prove significant as to his long term contentment and fruitfulness. For example, sympathy with our intergenerational approach to corporate life could prove crucial. In other words, a desire to see people segregated out into various groups according to age and marital status and gender would not be realized in our fellowship. Appreciation for our relational rather than program approach to ministry would be very important as well. Some people who have visited have found in time that they really want to have more going on in terms of programmed ministries. An interest in somewhat meaty and occasionally lengthy expositional sermons would also be important. An ability to participate freely in singing hymns and psalms and praise songs of different genres and from different periods of the church’s history would be helpful as well. In other words, a very strong preference for only traditional or only contemporary music in worship could leave one frustrated during our corporate singing. A desire to be available to be used by God in the lives of others where you are in your family and community, rather than looking to the church to provide evangelism activities and programs, would be in keeping with our vision. Many have found that we are we are not a good church in which to hide or be anonymous or hang out behind the scenes. There is an atmosphere of mutual responsibility to one another that makes it hard to participate without being committed in ministry to the other people. And yes, there is always work to do – bringing food for meals, signing up to help with set up and clean up, helping with nursery or Sunday school, looking out for one another’s well being, helping look after the many aspects of our corporate gatherings – all of which requires a level of consistent weekly involvement that is not easy for everyone, and could frustrate those who would rather see a church staff take care of these many items. Certainly a desire to get plugged in at the level of a church building program could be frustrated at Covenant Fellowship as well. We understand that Covenant Fellowship is not for everyone, nor everyone for Covenant Fellowship. Thankfully there are many excellent evangelical churches in the Greensboro area from which the Christian may choose. We pray regularly that God would bring to us those who would be helped by our ministry as well as those who would be of help to our ministry, and we leave it in His hands as to whom these people might be.
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