A Golden Anniversary for Montecito Covenant Church

Post a Comment » Written on May 1st, 2009     
Filed under: News
SANTA BARBARA, CA (May 1, 2009) – Members of Montecito Covenant Church got some exercise as they celebrated how far the church had come since its founding 50 years ago.

The congregation gathered Sunday afternoon in Deane Chapel on the Westmont College campus, where the church first started worshiping in 1959. Former pastor Bryan Jeffery Leech and one of the founding members offered reflections.

Afterward, the celebrants processed down a hill to its multipurpose gym for dinner. The church met for years in the multipurpose facility after relocating from the Westmont campus.

The dinner was followed by a service in the newest building, the church’s sanctuary. The evening included a poem composed for the anniversary by Paul Willis, a church member and English professor at Westmont. The church also premiered a DVD of the congregation’s history. Former pastors, including Curt Peterson and Jon Ireland, also offered reflections.

A large stone with the name and dates of the church as well as the reference “Joshua 4:6” etched onto the face was placed in the area the congregation hopes to turn into a prayer garden. “In the story of Joshua (4:6) the meaning of the stone(s) is that the hand of the Lord is mighty and we should fear the Lord God forever,” pastor Don Johnson wrote on his blog. “Our past experience with God reveals that he has been mighty among this congregation and the members and friends. And he is mighty still.”

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