Christ Community Church of the South Hills

Who We Are

Covenant Partnership

At Christ Community Church of the South Hills we desire to arrange our lives both personally and corporately around the life of God. The Triune God, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, dwell together in a community of love and unity and God invites us to experience within the church that same sense of love and unity with one another.

While there is significant work required to share our lives in community, we are convinced that it is the best way to live because it is consistent with God’s purposes for our lives. We believe that this is best accomplished by making a commitment as a covenant partner of Christ Community Church of the South Hills.

While covenant partnership is not intended to be a prerequisite for participation at Christ Community Church, it is an important and faithful next step of involvement in the life of the church and the lives of the people who comprise Christ Community Church.

If you consider Christ Community to be your church, we strongly encourage you to take the next step of involvement by becoming a Covenant Partner.

Covenant Partners

• Realize that the love of God and neighbor is at the heart of the Christian faith and are desirous of moving toward a deeper love for God and one another

• Recognize their need for the grace of God in Jesus Christ and the support of the community of faith in their movement forward on their spiritual journey

• Believe that growth is normative for the follower of Jesus Christ and will live out this commitment by growing in their beliefs, practices, and experiences of the Christian faith

• Are available to others in the community to encourage and support them in their spiritual journeys and earthly struggles

• Are convinced that the church is the hope of the world and are committed to investing in God’s mission by generously sharing their time, energy, passions, gifts, prayers and personal resources in the dreams and ministries of Christ Community Church

Why Does Christ Community Church Offer Covenant Partnership?

Scripture contains a number of references to a Christ follower’s once for all union with Jesus and His Body that occurs at the time of one’s profession of faith (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Ephesians 2:12-22, 4:3-6, Colossians 1:13-22). At that moment, a person becomes a member in the universal (one, holy, catholic church) of Jesus Christ. Positional membership, based solely on the work, merit, and grace of Jesus Christ is eternal and unchanging.

A person may be a participant in a number of different churches over the course of his or her lifetime (or even during the same season of life) while maintaining permanent positional membership in Christ’s universal Church. While we cannot see the invisible bonds of membership in the Body of Christ, we can identify those who are covenant partners here at Christ Community Church.

Followers of Jesus Christ in the New Testament (and throughout 2000 years of church history) clearly identified themselves with a specific local group of believers and were challenged to become committed participants. Our desire at Christ Community Church is to follow that biblical and historical precedent, and covenant partnership is our approach of doing that.

Secondly, it is important to identify the core of people that can be counted on to help accomplish our mission and vision. Covenant partnership is one benchmark the leadership can use to determine whether we're accomplishing the church's mission of connecting people to God, one another, and our world.

Finally, (and this is no small point) becoming a covenant partner benefits you. It's an important spiritual milestone that moves each of us out of the vagaries of good intentions and into the clear light of committed belonging. The covenant partnership process can be a significant defining moment in your spiritual journey.

Responsibilities of Covenant Partners

Personal Integrity – Covenant Partners will bring to the community of faith a life yielded to God that reflects the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; Galatians 5:22-23).

Relational Integrity – Covenant Partners will pursue loving and meaningful relationships both inside and outside the Body of Christ. Covenant partners seriously both Jesus’ and Paul’s words: “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35) and “So far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all people” (Romans 12:18).

Organizational Commitment – Covenant Partners will contribute generously of their time, energy, passion, gifts, prayers and personal resources in the dreams and ministries of Christ Community Church as well as being responsive to the leadership God has established.

How Does One Become a Covenant Partner?

Here are the recommended steps for those wishing to become covenant partners at Christ Community Church of the South Hills:

1. Try us on for a while and make our worship gatherings on Sunday a regular part of your weekly rhythm.

2. Participate in a connection group, dialogue group, learning experience, or ministry team.

3. Contact ,Marlaena Cochran. our Director of Spiritual Formation, to begin the journey towards covenant partnership. The process includes completing a self-study covenant partnership guide and dialoguing about it with another individual. Marlaena will guide you towards a person who can come alongside you and walk with you on the journey.