“I am planting a Covenant church,” said Pastor Catherine Gilliard. “I believe one of the best ways to begin is to start with Covenant people,” said Catherine, a Covenanter for over 30 years, who accepted Christ as a youth at Oakdale Covenant Church in Chicago. Catherine is married to Deric Gilliard, an author and lay minister in the Covenant. They have two college-aged sons, Adam and Dominique and an 11-year-old daughter, Veronica.
The vision of the ministry is to begin intentionally at its core group stage as a multicultural, biblical community. “We are in special need of Covenanters who are not African American to continue the multicultural aspect of our vision,” said Gilliard, noting that Tucker is easily accessible to three major Atlanta thoroughfares.
The CDC2 core group has adopted the mission statement, (adapted from St. Francis of Assisi): “Preach Jesus Christ wherever you go and when necessary, use words.” CDC2 is committed to demonstrating the powerful, redemptive love of Jesus Christ in everyday life, said Gilliard.
“We ask our members to grow, give and go both personally and as a corporate body. Each member commits to growing personally by being mentored, and also commits to discipling someone else.” she said. “We commit to go as a local body into partnership with local, regional and global Christian, civic, social and justice organizations that provide opportunities for education, training and service.”
Each month, CDC2 selects community organizations that are in need of helping hands. During these past months, they have built benches for school children in Haiti, collected kitchen supplies for the county’s battered women’s shelter, painting (pictured left) a transitional house for a homeless family, sorted medical supplies for shipment to hospitals and clinics in Third World countries, sponsored functions at a local nursing home and provide and serve dinner for a women and children’s homeless shelter.
When the community hears our name, I want our reputation to be strong in our demonstration of the love of Christ to those in need,” said Gilliard.
“Our ministry is inclusive, meaning children through adults are being prepared and equipped in intergenerational study sessions and participating together in service opportunities,” she continued. “We learn from those older and younger how we bring our personal worlds and our larger community to Christ. Being in relationship holds us accountable in community. The more diverse the biblical community, the better educated we become through our relationships with each other. We learn from one another how to reach the world for Christ. That also means finding someone to come and teach Spanish as a second language so we can also minister in multilingual situations.”
If you are a Covenanter in the metro-Atlanta area or have contacts who want to learn more about this new church plant, please contact Pastor Catherine Gilliard at comdiscc@quixnet.net , call (770) 987-0157 or visit their website www.cdc2.info.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
