Home Altar

Welcome to the Covenant Home Altar, a devotional guide designed to help you visit the word of God daily, reflect on the teaching of the Spirit, and spend meaningful time in prayer.

One of the frustrations of daily devotionals can be the disjointed feeling of looking at Scripture only in bite-sized pieces. The Covenant Home Altar addresses this by linking each week’s readings to one of the Bible’s macro-themes. People who use the Home Altar regularly for three years will have taken a broad tour of the entire Scriptures and of God’s message to humanity. The goal is to increase our collective biblical literacy and understanding of God’s message to us. After three years, the same readings will cycle back, but different writers will shed new light on the familiar. Readings are of uneven length, reflecting the variety of literature found in Scripture: poetry, narrative, history, parables, and teachings. Some parts of the Bible require longer readings for understanding, while others can be read a few verses at a time.

Each week is written by a layperson or pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church. The readings for the week are assigned according to a lectionary or reading list. Lectionaries have been used by the church since the fourth century. The Covenant Home Altar daily lectionary is based on the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) with additional readings.

Editorial correspondence, including inquiries about or recommendations for writing for Home Altar, may be sent to editors@covchurch.org.