{"id":1154,"date":"2012-11-09T20:25:08","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T20:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/?p=1154"},"modified":"2012-11-09T20:25:08","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T20:25:08","slug":"feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John&#8217;s Covenant Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, St. Johns Covenant Church, a new church plant in the city of Portland, OR hosted one of Covenant Kids Congo&#8217;s first Hope Sundays. Here, Pastor Andy Goebel shares his reflections on the importance of partnering with CKC as a church plant, early in their life and mission together.\u00a0We hope it will inspire your church as you consider how to host a Hope Sunday. More feature church stories are coming so keep checking back here. If your church has a story to share, email us at covenantkidscongo@covchurch.org.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stjohnscov.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-1158\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2012\/11\/sjcc-banner.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"681\" height=\"252\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2012\/11\/sjcc-banner.png 851w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2012\/11\/sjcc-banner-300x111.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Written by Andy Goebel, pastor of St. Johns Covenant Church<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When Adam Phillips, project consultant for CKC, first talked to me about having a Hope Sunday here at St. Johns Covenant Church, I have to admit I was hesitant. After all, our church is brand new (we\u2019ve only been meeting weekly since Easter), quite small (we only average about 40 people on a Sunday), and made up of a lot of young families with limited financial resources. I didn\u2019t think we would be able to garner a lot of sponsorships from our little congregation.<\/p>\n<p>I was thrilled to discover how much I had underestimated our people. Adam came and preached a challenging message, followed by a call to help Covenant Kids Congo provide for 10,000 children in the DR Congo. Our church responded, scooping up sponsorship kits and committing as individuals, families, and small groups to improve the lives of children in the most desperate part of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Our church\u2019s mission statement comes from Micah 6:8, where we are required by God to \u201cdo justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.\u201d Hence, compassion, mercy, and justice are a part of our DNA here at St. Johns Covenant. We\u2019ve been a part of living this out in the St. Johns community since our inception, so hosting a Hope Sunday made sense in terms of our mission, despite my initial hesitation.<\/p>\n<p>The bonus? It was a reminder that the Kingdom of God in which we are required to live out Micah 6:8 is much bigger than our little corner of North Portland.<\/p>\n<p>As church plants, we can easily become self-focused. We begin to worry about numerical growth and financial stability, instead of remembering our mission and our call to be a part of God\u2019s kingdom coming and God\u2019s will being done throughout the earth, as it is in heaven. Our church being a part of Hope Sunday was an easy and exciting way to expand our vision and rekindle that Kingdom fire on a global level.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m really glad I didn\u2019t yield to my hesitation.<\/p>\n<p>[You can read more about St. John&#8217;s Hope Sunday here: <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/kingdom-in-north-portland\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/kingdom-in-north-portland\/<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=1154&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, St. Johns Covenant Church, a new church plant in the city of Portland, OR hosted one of Covenant Kids Congo&#8217;s first Hope Sundays. Here, Pastor Andy Goebel shares his reflections on the importance of partnering with CKC as a church plant, early in their life and mission together.\u00a0We hope it will inspire your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16690,16688,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-churches","category-hope-sunday","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John&#039;s Covenant Church - Covenant Kids Congo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John&#039;s Covenant Church - Covenant Kids Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last month, St. Johns Covenant Church, a new church plant in the city of Portland, OR hosted one of Covenant Kids Congo&#8217;s first Hope Sundays. Here, Pastor Andy Goebel shares his reflections on the importance of partnering with CKC as a church plant, early in their life and mission together.\u00a0We hope it will inspire your [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Covenant Kids Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-09T20:25:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2012\/11\/sjcc-banner.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8\"},\"headline\":\"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John&#8217;s Covenant Church\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-09T20:25:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":465,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Featured Churches\",\"Hope Sunday\",\"News &amp; Updates\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/\",\"name\":\"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John's Covenant Church - Covenant Kids Congo\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-09T20:25:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John&#8217;s Covenant Church\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/\",\"name\":\"Covenant Kids Congo\",\"description\":\"Powered by World Vision\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/covenantkidscongo\\\/author\\\/covwebster\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John's Covenant Church - Covenant Kids Congo","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John's Covenant Church - Covenant Kids Congo","og_description":"Last month, St. Johns Covenant Church, a new church plant in the city of Portland, OR hosted one of Covenant Kids Congo&#8217;s first Hope Sundays. Here, Pastor Andy Goebel shares his reflections on the importance of partnering with CKC as a church plant, early in their life and mission together.\u00a0We hope it will inspire your [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/","og_site_name":"Covenant Kids Congo","article_published_time":"2012-11-09T20:25:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2012\/11\/sjcc-banner.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/#\/schema\/person\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8"},"headline":"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John&#8217;s Covenant Church","datePublished":"2012-11-09T20:25:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/"},"wordCount":465,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Featured Churches","Hope Sunday","News &amp; Updates"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/","name":"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John's Covenant Church - Covenant Kids Congo","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-09T20:25:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/#\/schema\/person\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/feature-church-st-johns-covenant-church\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hope Sunday Feature Church: St. John&#8217;s Covenant Church"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/#website","url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/","name":"Covenant Kids Congo","description":"Powered by World Vision","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/#\/schema\/person\/2a26f1b1df304098ad9cbae0bbf2c6e8","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed9f85aca58d0540113c3fcae90abb716831fd0b1d806d275666cf7052268ea9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/author\/covwebster\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1154"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154\/revisions\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/covenantkidscongo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}