The Fall Sunday School is starting with a four-week series on “The Gift of Friendship”and will be taught by some of our pastors. What is friendship? Why do we need it, and how do we nurture it in our lives? This Sunday School series will explore the ways that God has designed friendship to bless and strengthen us in the life of faith. Join us as we reflect on the importance of friendship and its role in the Christian’s life today.

Join us this Sunday, September 13, at 9:30am with Derek Wells teaching “How do you nurture friendship?”

You can watch/listen to any class on all our digital platforms at your convenience.

Tom Buiter serves the church as the Assistant Director of Small Groups by coming alongside our pastoral staff and working to develop, champion, and administrate the Small Groups Ministry of Christ Covenant.

Tom Buiter recently graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary Charlotte with a Master of Divinity. For the last three years Tom has served as a Pastoral Intern here at Christ Covenant Church.

Tom was born and raised in a large family near Grand Rapids, Michigan. By God’s grace he came to know the Lord at a very young age. Tom attended Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, where he graduated with a degree in History in 2016. After college he spent a year as a Pastoral Intern at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, under Pastor Kevin DeYoung. Tom moved to Charlotte in 2017 to begin the Master of Divinity program at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Tom and his wife, Lindey, have been married since September 2019.

Abigail Cerrato serves the church as Creativity & Curriculum Coordinator for the Children’s Ministry. Abigail’s role consists of writing and editing curriculum to ensure that lessons are educationally sound, theologically accurate, and written in a way children can understand and enjoy. She also ensures that lessons and activities are prepared each week for various classrooms.

Abigail is a graduate from Covenant College with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Psychology.

Abigail grew up at Christ Covenant Church and attended Covenant Day School from kindergarten until graduation. Abigail is excited to be able to serve the church she grew up in and in the Children’s Ministry where she served as a youth.

Abigail married Devon in 2019, and they have a daughter, Avery.

Many of you know Mary Jo Culver as our Welcome & Connecting Ministry Manager. She recently entered into retirement after serving faithfully on our staff for thirteen years in this role. Mary Jo will continue serving our church as the Support Group Coordinator by working to establish spring and fall support groups that include GriefShare, DivorceCare for Men, DivorceCare for Women, and Caregivers Support. Mary Jo will serve as a recruiter by assembling relatable leaders, inviting group members, putting together study materials, scheduling meeting dates and locations, and being available whenever groups are meeting.

Mary Jo has been a member of Christ Covenant since 2007, and we are thankful she is continuing ministry here at Christ Covenant.

Michelle Gustavson serves the church as the Engagement and Connections Ministry Manager. With the help of the new Connector’s Ministry, we will be enhancing the visitor’s experience at Christ Covenant. Michelle’s goal is to have every visitor be warmly greeted, have an intentional follow-up, participate in the New Member’s Class, and then connect to a small group and/or participate in a ministry of the church. Her prayer is that each visitor will have the blessing of this church feeling like home.

Michelle has worked in youth ministry for the past ten years, including five of those years right here at Christ Covenant Church. Prior to working at Christ Covenant, she worked at Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN.

Michelle graduated this past May with her Masters in Biblical Counseling from RTS Charlotte.

She has been married for one year to Drew, who is in Physician Assistant School at Gardner-Webb University.

Asher Pope serves the church as the Sound & Media Coordinator.

The Lord brought Asher to Christ Covenant at such a pivotal time for our church and ministry. Before the pandemic reached Charlotte, Asher was running sound for our church on Sundays and working on a part-time basis for our church. When we had to quickly shift gears to live-stream worship services, Asher was able to put some of his expertise to use to help us smoothly transition to new technology and continue morning and evening worship. Asher will be working with the Communications team, the Worship team, and Covenant Day School in his new role.

Asher is skilled in graphic design, all things sound and lighting, and videography. Asher also plays the bass guitar, and it is not uncommon to find him playing bass on a Sunday morning either in the sound booth or on the stage when bass is needed.

Asher and Elaine were just married this past July in Franklin, TN, which is Asher’s hometown.

Janice Upchurch serves the church as Ministry Administrator of the Operations Department. Janice works with both the church and Covenant Day School to schedule and coordinate facility requests.

Three years ago, Janice visited Christ Covenant Church with family located in Charlotte, and she “immediately fell in love with the people who warmly welcomed me, the teaching of/from God’s Word, and the Spirit-filled atmosphere that I experienced.” After relocating from Indiana to Indian Trail, NC, in May of this year, she was excited to be able to attend the first in-person reopening morning worship service at Christ Covenant.

Janice previously served for 15 years as an Admissions Coordinator and Assistant Librarian at a private Christian school and as an Administrative Assistant with Community Health Network. As a Substitute Teacher Leader with Bible Study Fellowship for 10 years, she taught workshops, facilitated weekly leaders’ meetings, and wrote and gave lectures to approximately 500 women. She has a heart for ministry and is passionate about serving the Lord!

Janice has 2 adult children: Lauren (27), who lives in Indiana and Kevin (23), who lives in Illinois.

In partnership with the RTS Paideia Center for Theological Discipleship, Christ Covenant is hosting a theological reading group this Fall. Do you desire a rich theological diet so you can develop maturity in Christ? Do you want to read Christian classics but don’t know where to start? Would you like to grow with people who share your love for theology and learn from those who have gone before you? If this is you, join the Paideia Center book discussion! In the Fall, we will read and discuss Augustine’s Confessions, a book every Christian should read - and reread - in their lifetime. For this Fall’s group, we hope to meet three times: September 16, October 21, November 18. If so, register today at http://paideiacenter.com/.

Save the date for our Faithful Conference!

Faithful will be hosted at

Christ Covenant Church

on November 6-8, 2020,

with guest speaker,

Ligon Duncan.

More information coming soon!