DETROIT, MI (June 24, 2017) – President Gary Walter told delegates to the ECC’s 132nd Annual Meeting that the denomination’s roots in historical Pietism can enable it to help bring healing to “a deeply fractured society.”
Walter said four values—which he also called “four loves”—arising from Pietism have been foundational to the Covenant and “will help us contribute to the shalom of a broken society.”
“First, we are a biblical people,” Walter said. “We love God’s word. We ask, ‘Where is it written?’ and do our best to align with it, even when it is costly to do so.”
That value means “it is incumbent upon us to put discipleship above partisanship,” Walter said. He repeated what he has told other gatherings: “We don’t follow an elephant, we don’t follow a donkey, we follow a Lamb.”
He urged Covenanters to ask, “How we can follow the Lamb as ambassadors for the values of the kingdom of God?”
Second, Walter said, “We are a devotional people. We love God and believe in a living faith. That means when we are confronted with the brokenness of our world, we bring it before God in lament, in confession, in repentance, searching our own lives, and seeking forgiveness where we have been complicit in what we have done, and just as much in what we have not done, in reinforcing divisions and derision that divides and disparages.”
Our commitment to being missional has been another core value, Walter said. “We follow the heart of God into the world to the lost and hurting, not so much to express an opinion, as to make a difference. Making a point and making a difference are not the same thing.”
Last, he said, “We are a connectional people. We love God’s people, and so we are called to better understand the pain. If we will not understand the pain, we cannot help bridge the divide.”
Walter said it is important for Covenanters to expand their relational circles and be engaged in the social realities of others.
Walter referenced David Nyvall, an early Covenant leader and the first president of North Park University, saying, that it as we attend to values of being biblical, devotional, missional, and connectional, we become “a center from which radiates the light of Christ’s truth, warmth of Christ’s love, and the beauty of Christ’s character.”
In addition, Walter reviewed the impact of the Covenant’s mission and ministry in the past year and interviewed leaders around initiatives getting underway.
A video of the presentation can be viewed here and beginning at 1:34:35.
