(704) 599-9810 | Worship Sundays @ 10:55 a.m.
(704) 599-9810 | Worship Sundays @ 10:55 a.m.
Pastor Chris Brings the Good News!
Go and do likewise.
Jorge Cocco Santangelo’s rendering of the Good Samaritan invites reflection on mercy that transcends expectation and borders.
2-Step Instructions – Sermon – July 13, 2025
Bulletin-07-13-2025
Christian Lesson: Luke 10:25–37
This week, guest preacher Rev. Barbara L. Thomas delivered a theologically grounded and prophetically challenging sermon titled “2-Step Instructions.” Preaching from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Pastor Barbara reminded us that the call to discipleship in the United Church of Christ is not about theological precision or performative charity—it is about embodied compassion and transformative solidarity.
The “two steps” are deceptively simple: Go and do the same. But as Pastor Barbara showed us, these steps demand everything: empathy, humility, courage, and a willingness to be changed. In Jesus’ story, the neighbor is not the priest or the religious elite, but the one who acted with mercy—someone marginalized, unexpected, and systemically excluded. That choice, she reminded us, is not incidental. It is revelatory.
This parable is not a private moral tale—it is a public theological confrontation. It invites us to affirm that the **Kin-dom of God** is not built on religious status or doctrinal gatekeeping but on relational justice, community repair, and the full inclusion of all people. The Jericho Road—like so many of our modern systems—needs restructuring. We are not merely called to help the wounded, we are called to change the road.
Pastor Barbara closed with a challenge and a hope: The church—this church—is needed now more than ever, not as a sanctuary of avoidance, but as a community of action. Our covenant with God and each other is not passive. It is participatory. We are called, together, to become the Samaritan: to show up, cross the road, and build a world where healing is possible and neighbor truly means everyone.
Our gratitude to the Bold and Beautiful Covenant Group for providing refreshments following worship.
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar.
It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam, 1967
In stillness and strength.
An evocative portrayal of reflection and resilience, honoring the sacred connection between spirit, earth, and ancestry of radical welcome and inclusion.
Are You Standing in God’s Way? – Sermon – July 06, 2025
Hebrew Lesson: 2 Kings 5:1–14
In this deeply reflective and progressive message, Pastor Chris explored how the grace of God often appears not in the dramatic or obvious, but in the small, strange, and easily overlooked. Preaching from 2 Kings 5:1–14, he recounted the story of Naaman—a powerful military leader whose healing came only when he set aside his pride and surrendered to an unexpected path.
Pastor Chris wove together the wisdom of Howard Thurman, Barbara Brown Taylor, and contemporary liberation theology to ask: How often do we resist transformation because it doesn’t arrive on our terms? We were invited to examine the ways ego, fear, and certainty can obstruct God’s movement in our lives—and to open ourselves to the surprising places where healing begins.
This sermon reminded us that God’s kin-dom often unfolds not through spectacle, but through quiet acts of courage, vulnerability, and grace. True liberation, Pastor Chris said, begins when we stop standing in the way of our own becoming.
“🌈 “God’s Doors Are Open to All” – A vibrant declaration
of radical welcome and inclusion.”
We Are All One in Christ Jesus– June 29, 2025
Christian Lesson: Galatians 3:26–29
This Sunday’s worship was a powerful, joy-filled celebration of 25 years of radical welcome, courageous witness, and LGBTQ+ affirmation at Holy Covenant. Every element of the service — from scripture to story, music to message — was layered with gratitude and a call to keep becoming the inclusive church we are called to be. We were also blessed to welcome former pastor Rev. Dr. Nancy Ellett Allison, whose presence brought joy and reconnection for many.
🎻 The service opened with a beautifully rendered violin prelude of “How Great Thou Art” by Mary Tarr, preparing our hearts with reverence and peace.
🌈 The Call to the Heart and the reading of our historic Covenant of Openness and Affirmation brought congregants into deep reflection on our shared identity as an Open and Affirming community. Spoken in unison, these words reminded us not just of who we were in 2000, but of who we are still becoming — a church where every person can live fully, authentically, and in love.
🎶 The hymn “As Colors in the Sky” and later “God of Many Faces” proclaimed a theology of expansiveness, transformation, and sacred embodiment. The handbell choir offered a lively, resonant rendition of “’Tis a Gift to Be Simple” that lifted hearts throughout the sanctuary.
🪕 Kathi Smith and Lisa Cloninger brought a gentle depth with their special music offering, “Chico Gospel.” The song’s easy rhythm and grounded harmonies carried a quiet kind of reverence — like a prayer set to a folk groove. Their performance offered the sanctuary a breath of calm joy, and the spirit of the piece lingered in the room long after the final notes. It was beautifully done — soulful, steady, and sincerely felt.
🎬 Eric Miner introduced his short film, HCUCC Everywhere: A New Digital Sanctuary. Framed as a bold call to become digital disciples, Eric’s heartfelt words and the film itself cast a vision for the church’s future — one that meets people where they are, shares God’s love through every screen and platform, and builds spiritual belonging across digital spaces. The film’s message was one of joy, justice, and holy reach.
🎥 Just after, we were blessed by a masterpiece film: 25 Years of ONA, produced by Jana Harrison. This moving visual journey featured voices from across the generations — longtime members, newer faces, and those who helped shape our covenantal witness. With deep authenticity, the film offered testimony to the real lives transformed by Holy Covenant’s commitment to LGBTQ+ affirmation. Watching our community speak so vulnerably and powerfully about what O&A means was profoundly moving and unforgettable. Jana’s work was not only beautiful, it was ministry.
🎶 The choir’s anthem, “Come Build a Church” by Ken Medema, rang out as a call to action — building with love, with justice, and with the Spirit as our guide.
📖 The Christian Lesson from Galatians 3:26–29 set the theological heart of the day: “There is neither Jew nor Greek… neither male and female… for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
🕊️ In Rev. Christopher Czarnecki’s sermon, titled “We Are All One in Christ Jesus,” Pastor Chris preached with humility and courage, reflecting on his identity as a cisgender straight white male and his awe of the congregation’s boldness in living out their faith. Drawing from Galatians 3, he reminded us that in Christ, there are no divisions — only a call to embody love, justice, and unity.
🔔🎶The Handbell Choir offered a glorious rendition of “’Tis a Gift to Be Simple,” the beloved Shaker tune known for its message of humility, grace, and spiritual clarity. With bright tones and layered resonance, the bells danced through the sanctuary, each note echoing the beauty of simplicity and sacred rhythm. The ensemble played with both precision and warmth — a performance that felt as meditative as it was joyful.
🙏 The service closed with prayers of dedication, acts of generosity, and a vibrant benediction. As the final postlude, “Rainbow Connection” played — reminding us, in Jim Henson’s timeless lyrics, that we are all still dreaming, still believing, still building the rainbow bridge of love and belonging.
Together, we celebrated our past, bore witness to the present, and stepped boldly into the future. Holy Covenant is not just open and affirming — we are alive and becoming. Everywhere. 🌈✨
What Possesses You? – June 22, 2025
Gospel Lesson: Luke 8:26–39
This Sunday, Pastor Chris took us into the haunting landscape of Luke 8, where Jesus confronts not just a man in torment, but a system of possession—a legion of forces that isolate, dehumanize, and silence. For many, this story of demons and drowned pigs might seem distant. But through the lens of lived experience, it is painfully present.
The man among the tombs represents every soul shackled by shame, trauma, or the lingering weight of injustice. And the pigs? They represented profit—economic value. When Jesus liberates the man, the cost is immediate. The community’s fear is not about the healing—it’s about the disruption. Liberation always unsettles those invested in the status quo.
Rooted in Jesus’ piercing question—“What is your name?”—Pastor Chris challenged us to examine what possesses us. What binds us? What are we protecting by refusing to name the demons among us? In our time, Legion has a name: white supremacy. And evil, when confronted, resists being named. We see it in white fragility. In denial. In our silence. But refusing to name evil is itself a kind of possession—a surrender to the very systems we claim to resist.
Throughout worship, the bulletin’s prophetic voices—Cole Arthur Riley, Kaitlin Curtice, and Kelly Brown Douglas—echoed this truth: healing begins with honesty, and liberation with courage. Jesus doesn’t turn away from the man’s agony. He steps toward it. He restores him. And then he commissions him to testify.
We are called to do the same. Like the man once chained, we are sent not just to be whole—but to bear witness. To tell the hard stories. To speak what evil begs us not to say. To name the demons we’ve buried in systems and silence.
By God’s grace, may we become truth-tellers. Fearless and free.
Thanks be to God.
A Spirit for These Times – June 15, 2025
Gospel Lesson: John 16:12-15
On this Trinity Sunday, Pastor Chris delivered a powerful reflection on trust, memory, and divine presence in uncertain times. Rooted in Jesus’s promise from John 16—“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”—the sermon explored the gift of the Holy Spirit as both continuity and comfort, challenge and companion.
With vulnerability and grace, Pastor Chris shared how his father’s steady voice—often captured in the simple, loving refrain, “just do the best you can”—has remained a guiding presence in his life. That quiet wisdom, spoken in love, mirrors the kind of guidance the Holy Spirit offers: not control, but relationship; not certainty, but reassurance. When someone we trust steps away, we might wonder how to go on. The disciples surely felt the same. And so Jesus promises another voice—one that will remind them, and us, of who we are and who we are called to follow.
In a time when Jesus’s name is too often weaponized to justify exclusion or harm, Pastor Chris offered this critical reminder: the Spirit will never contradict the life and teachings of Jesus. The Spirit will never sow hatred, division, or domination. Instead, she leads us deeper into truth, compassion, and beloved community.
Drawing on the bulletin’s poignant quotes, we were reminded by theologians like Barbara Brown Taylor, Shannon Kearns, and Carter Heyward that the Spirit shows up in unexpected ways: not to solve our problems, but to remind us that God is already here. The Spirit nudges us toward justice, calls us to community, and stirs us toward our truest selves.
This Spirit is not abstract. She’s real. She may even sound like the voice of a loving parent whispering, “just do the best you can.” And in that voice, we remember that we are not alone. The Spirit is still speaking. Still guiding. Still making us whole.
Thanks be to God.
Sermon – June 08, 2025
Christian Lesson: Acts 2:1 – 18
This Sunday, Holy Covenant gathered in the spirit of Pentecost to celebrate the wild, wondrous movement of God’s Spirit — a Spirit that shows up in “strange places, at unexpected times, and uses unlikely people,” as Bishop Yvette Flunder reminds us. Guest preacher Rev. Melissa McQueen-Simmons led us in a service filled with sacred disruption, radical welcome, and communal renewal.
The sanctuary was alive with fire and breath: from the Introit “Like the Murmur of a Dove’s Song” to the shared affirmation, “God accepts us exactly as we are, in all our beauty, pride, and love.” Our reading from Acts 2:1–18 invited us to listen deeply as the Holy Spirit poured out among “all humankind.” As scripture declared:
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as she enabled them.” (Acts 2:4)
Rev. Melissa’s message, poetry, and prayer illuminated the Spirit’s call to gather, to breathe together, and to speak words “strange to our ears” — not for comfort, but for transformation. In music, in silence, and in shared blessing, we remembered that Pentecost is not a one-time miracle, but an ongoing movement of liberation and love.
Let us continue to move with that Spirit, together.
Forgotten by Empire, but Not by God! – June 01, 2025
Christian Lesson: Acts 16:16 – 34
This week, Pastor Chris offered a powerful message drawn from the story of Paul and Silas — imprisoned by empire, yet liberated by faith and divine presence. But the call reached far beyond the pages of scripture.
Empires, Pastor Chris reminded us, are not always armies. They show up as Christian nationalism, white supremacy, corporate greed — systems built on fear, silence, and domination. These empires still punish truth-tellers and suppress voices that call them out.
Yet God has not forgotten those who have been erased. And neither can we.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to speak truth to empire — to expose injustice, challenge the economics of exploitation, and stand in solidarity with the silenced. Our faith calls us to disrupt, to restore, and to resist with love.
Just as the Spirit shattered prison walls for Paul and Silas, we are empowered to move with holy fire — not fear.
“Go forward,” Pastor Chris proclaimed, “not with fear… but with fire.”
May we carry that fire into the world — unafraid to name empire, unwavering in our hope, and alive with the Spirit of liberation.
Click to watch on YouTube
A wheelchair-accessible path leads across the sand to the water’s edge, affirming that all belong — wherever the journey leads.
Do You Want to Be Made Whole? – May 25, 2025
Gospel Lesson: John 5:1 – 9
In this week’s stirring sermon, Pastor Chris invited us into the deep waters of John 5—a story of a man at the pool of Bethesda, waiting not just for healing, but for wholeness. With compassion and clarity, we were asked to reconsider what it means to be made well—not merely fixed, but fully seen.
Drawing on voices of disability theologians and advocates, Pastor Chris dismantled the false equation of healing with worth. “Do you want to be made whole?” is not a question of bodily perfection—it is a divine invitation into belovedness, dignity, and community. Wholeness, we were reminded, is not the absence of pain or difference, but the presence of justice, equity, and radical belonging.
Through the lens of Judith Heumann’s call for equity, Nancy Eiesland’s image of the resurrected body, and Eli Clare’s affirmation of self-worth, we were challenged to embrace a theology that honors all bodies and all minds. In Christ, every body is blessed, every mind is beloved, every spirit is embraced.
To be made whole, Pastor Chris proclaimed, is not to be changed into someone else—it is to be gathered up in love and called into new ways of being community together. Wholeness is not a miracle reserved for the pure—it is the everyday grace of God who makes no exceptions and holds no conditions. He closed his sermon with a powerful call to action to Get Up! Get up and Rise because we are needed in the healing of this world! “Holy Covenant, the Spirit is already moving within Us…Get Up!”
Thanks be to God, who makes us whole. Amen.
John of Patmos watches the descent of New Jerusalem from God. From La Jérusalem céleste, a 14th-century panel in the Tapestry of the Apocalypse, Château d’Angers, France.
Things Change – May 19, 2025
Christian Lesson: Acts 11:1 – 18
In a stirring reflection on Acts 11, guest preacher Rev. Terry Perrish invited us to consider how the early church faced transformation—and how we, too, are called to embrace change with faithful hearts. Through the lens of Peter’s vision, he unpacked the tension between tradition and revelation, showing how the Spirit expands our understanding of who belongs in God’s beloved community.
With gentle wit and a wide-ranging journey through scripture and story, Rev. Perrish reminded us that while our world, our theology, and our circumstances shift—God’s nature does not. In progressive Christianity, we affirm that God does not make mistakes. The challenge and gift of faith is learning to let go of the illusion of permanence, and trust the Spirit’s movement toward justice, inclusion, and newness.
Colorful threads woven together with hands, symbolizing love, nurture, and community in the Ministry of Mothering.
The Ministry of Mothering– May 11, 2025
Christian Lesson: Acts 9:36 – 43
On this Mother’s Day, Pastor Chris offered a moving and expansive reflection on what it means to embody the ministry of mothering — a sacred vocation not limited by gender, biology, or social expectation. Grounded in the story of Tabitha (also known as Dorcas), whose life of compassion and care rippled outward through a grieving community, we were reminded that mothering is more than a title — it is a way of living God’s love into the world.
With tenderness and truth, Pastor Chris acknowledged that Mother’s Day stirs a wide range of emotions — joy, grief, gratitude, pain — and affirmed that there is room here for all of it, and all of us. We honored the mothers who raised us, the ones who failed us, and the ones who found us. We honored those who have mothered through love, mentorship, solidarity, and service — regardless of biology or title.
To mother, Pastor Chris shared, is to weave a divine tapestry of care, one sacred thread at a time. It is to nourish life, to protect joy, to mend brokenness with grace. In this holy calling, we are all invited to be life-bearers — to nurture justice, offer tenderness, and rise to the divine caretaking that changes the world.
This is the ministry of mothering. And it belongs to us all.
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