General Info:
About Christ Covenant Church A few years ago a number of people began to talk about starting a new church in our community. While Midland is known as a city of many churches it was determined that something was missing. Generally speaking, Protestant churches in our area fall into two broad categories: Bible believing churches who focus on outreach and historic mainline churches. While many of our evangelical brethren affirm the inerrancy of Scripture their worship services are casual and border on being irreverent. Such churches can be commended for reaching out to non-believers but they seem to have forgotten that the real seeker in the worship service is God Himself ( John 4: 23-24 ). Furthermore, the Scriptures tell us that He is a consuming fire who is to be worshiped with reverence and awe ( Hebrews 12: 28-29 ). On the other end of the spectrum are mainline churches who maintain a reverence for God by following historic orders of worship. However, such an approach to God is compromised because most of these churches refuse to affirm the inerrancy of Scripture. We saw a need to combine the best of both traditions: reverent worship wedded to a high view of Scripture. Christ No one would deny that Jesus Himself is the central figure of the New Testament but few realize that He is also the central figure of the Old Testament ( see Luke 24: 13-35 where Jesus makes this very point ). Our choice to use this title in our church name reminds that the Bible is not chiefly a how to manual, nor is it a book of hidden principles, but rather it is a book about a person: Jesus Christ. All of our preaching and teaching must be related to Him and His work as our Prophet, Priest and King. Covenant Throughout the Bible God relates to His people by means of invoking covenants. In Genesis 3 we learn that our first parents failed to keep the covenant God made with them thus plunging themselves and all humanity into sin. Fortunately in Genesis 3: 15 God initiated a covenant of grace to rescue sinners from His wrath. This new' covenant was administered by types and shadows through national Israel. With the incarnation of Christ it was administered finally and completely ( see Luke 22 and the book of Hebrews ). In Romans 5 the Apostle Paul draws a comparison between Christ and Adam thus linking the two. In short, what the first Adam failed to do ( keep God's covenant ) Jesus, the second Adam did by keeping God's law completely and graciously dying to atone for sin. About Our Denomination... Our denomination was formed in 1973 by those who wanted to start a church that is "Faithful to the Scriptures, True to the Reformed Faith, and Obedient to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ." The PCA is an Evangelical and Reformed denomination. By Evangelical, we mean that we emphasize the gospel ( good news of salvation ) through faith in Jesus Christ, as well as affirm other orthodox Christian doctrines and hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. By Reformed, we mean that we are connected to the teachings of the historic church and the doctrinal beliefs recovered by the Reformation ( also known as "reformed theology" or sometimes called "Calvinism" ). These doctrinal beliefs are expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. All officers of the Presbyterian Church in America must personally subscribe to and uphold the teachings of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Well known ministers who are or who have served in our denomination include R.C. Sproul, Tim Keller, Ligon Duncan, D. James Kennedy, James Montgomery Boice, and Francis Schaeffer.