Holy Week is the most important time in the church year. This is when where we turn our attention to walking these last steps with Jesus. We draw near to the home of the high priest, we follow him to [...]

Lent is a peculiar time in the Church year. The season kicks off with Ash Wednesday, a service during which we are called to truly acknowledge and hold our mortality before God and each other. We are marked for mortality [...]

Family of faith, This February we are headed quickly into Lent even as we finish up our worship series S.A.D. Spiritual Affective Disorder. This series has been focusing on everyday practices that help us combat the affects of the prolonged [...]

Family of faith, In just a few short weeks, we will begin our Advent journey together. For us at Covenant UMC, Advent will start this year on November 26th. We will spend four weeks waiting, anticipating, and preparing ourselves for [...]

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, which is the day we remember the sending of the Holy Spirit upon Christ’s earliest disciples. In Acts 2, we hear the story of the disciples gathered at the Festival of Pentecost when suddenly the [...]

I’ve been talking with some dear friends of mine about Lent these past few weeks. What we plan on doing for it, how we’re leading our churches, whether we used the proper bowls to burn the palms to make ash, [...]

Lent is coming up fast this year. It sort of feels like someone sped up the clock on 2023. Does anyone else feel this way? The season of Lent comes around each year, calling us to repentance and discipline. Inviting [...]

Today, just before I sat down to write a Pastor’s Desk, I read a bit of the news. A dangerous task, sometimes. Today, I read about homelessness in our beloved Spokane. I have been following the contentious fight around Camp [...]

The prophet Joel is not the most uplifting book of the Bible. It focuses on the ecological disaster facing Israel—a locust horde had devastated the land. In an agrarian and subsistence farming culture, this was beyond dangerous. Entire harvests gone.  [...]

June is Pride Month. It is a month where we honor the resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community and celebrate their unique reflection of God’s image in the world. It is a month where we tell the truth about the horrors [...]

Today is May 24th, celebrated as Aldersgate Day in Methodist and various other Wesleyan traditions. Today we commemorate the experience of one of our tradition’s founders, John Wesley, which he recorded in his journal: “In the evening I went very [...]

As members of The United Methodist Church, we stand in a long tradition that believes and confesses that the consistent witness of Scripture and God’s people is that God is the God of the oppressed. God chooses an enslaved people [...]

As February begins, we enter Black History Month. We are also in the week of the Lunar New Year, celebrated in many different expressions by diverse East Asian cultures.  

This month is also the month of “love.” Growing up with [...]

I read once about the Prisoners of War during WWII, Vietnam, and Korean Wars. When they asked the survivors about those who died, what they discovered is that those who believed they’d be home “by Christmas” did not survive long [...]

As we draw closer and closer to Christmas, I’ve been thinking a lot about traditions. One of my favorite family traditions is watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation after Thanksgiving dinner. Another “unofficial” tradition was wrapping covered boxes that my mom [...]

Friends, we celebrate the dedicated leadership of Joel Ferris as our outgoing council chair. I wanted to share his note to all of us. Joel, we thank you for your service. The good news is Joel will still be active [...]

This last weekend, we took a hike along the Spokane River. We got a little turned around on the spider’s web of trails, and I was frustrated. But then we rounded a bend in the path and came out at [...]

This edition of " From the Pastor's Desk" comes a little later in the week, but I hope you will forgive me for that. Throughout this pandemic, I've found myself returning to comfortable and familiar things. This is a very [...]

Today my heart is heavy for the people of Afghanistan and the people of Haiti. My heart is heavy for our medical workers who are facing (again) an unending onslaught of Covid patients. I am weary from the smoke and [...]

Church family, today I started a new podcast called “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” It is a long-form journalistic exploration of the planting and eventual demise of Mars Hill, the mega-church in Seattle that infamous Mark Driscoll planted [...]

This is the second week of "From the Desk of the Pastor Blog." I hope you enjoy my musings about the Olympics and what the Church can learn from these incredible athletes. As a reminder, I will be on vacation [...]

Church family, It has already been such a pleasure and a privilege to be your pastor over these past few weeks. Truly, you are each a gift to me. Today is the first installment of the new Monday Blog! Each [...]

Church family, today a number of hummingbirds took their time outside of my study’s window. They drank the nectar from the flowers in the Courtyard and were completely unbothered by my staring. I was struck by the wondrous gift of [...]

Hello Covenant Church Family! It is an absolute pleasure to finally be here with you. For those I haven’t met yet, I am Pastor Megan Madsen! I am the new pastor here at Covenant United Methodist Church. This upcoming Sunday, [...]