Covenant Conferences Change Lives!

I was not raised to love the Christian Church. In fact, as a child I heard many sharp criticisms of institutional Christianity- of its destructive beliefs and practices. And even as I felt inexplicably drawn to the idea of an incarnate God, my early experiences with the Church left me struggling to figure out whether belief in Jesus and a narrow, conditional understanding of love were a package deal. It was explained to me that I must hate the sin and love the sinner. This was confusing, especially when the sin and the sinner seemed inseparable.Isn't the love we feel and offer another part of who we are? If God could reject that love, any love, then God is not someone I can have faith in. I grieved the loss of the God I'd yearned for and the Church that represented that God.Then I met a Presbyterian minister. Her Presbyterianism meant nothing to me at the time, but her understanding of divine love redeemed God for me. She challenged me to construct my own picture of who God loves and how God loves, and my grief abated as I realized I could keep God, even if it felt like I could not keep the Church.Then that same minister took me to a conference. The people at this conference all loved the Church, but they all wanted the Church to change. They had the same discomfort with the Church that I had felt- that its beliefs and practices do not mirror the unconditional love proclaimed by and through Jesus Christ. Suddenly, I had a new vision of the Church, one I felt I could belong to, one that I could contribute to, one made up of people I wanted to work alongside. I realized God had been leading me here all along.I have since attended five more Covenant Network conferences, been baptized into the Presbyterian Church, attended a Presbyterian seminary, and currently serve a Presbyterian congregation. I am in the ordination process, and struggling to understand what that means in a Church that does not ordain everyone who is called by God. However, I have come to love this Church, to love it so much that I am committed to helping it become the true reflection of God's love that it is called to be.Kate TaberResident PastorCentral Presbyterian ChurchAtlanta, GA