"When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. You are my friends if you do what I command."

         Last Friday, just before the Ordination service at the Covenant Annual Meeting in Grand Rapids, all those being ordained were gathered with the Board of Ministry, ready to file into the service on the first hymn. David Kersten asked me to pray before we left, since I was now ending my time on the Board. It was the end of five years for me, but also that night the 30^th anniversary of my own ordination.

I don't remember too much from that service, held in Tacoma, Washington, at Pacific Lutheran University in June of 1976. I remember John Wiens' being the preacher that night, and that he spoke in part about the dark night of the soul, and how we would all encounter it at some point. And I remember that after the service our little group formed a receiving line outside. I was struck at how many of the pastors did not say "congratulations" but, rather, "welcome." These became over the years my role models, my teachers, my friends. Most of them are retired or gone now.

         I remember Sunday school teachers and youth leaders who were present that night, how much it meant to see them. One of my camp counselors, from my sixth grade year, was there, Ron Fisher. In those days men often took a week of vacation and went to camp to be a counselor. Ron was helpful in my coming to faith and in my growth as a Christian.

         There were many that night who were friends of Jesus that had been an encouragement to me. I thought last Friday night about what it has meant to live among the friends of Jesus these past 30 years. One day at breakfast I sat with a few pastors whom I had known since Covenant Beach days as a young person. We talked about the influences that each other's parents were on our lives; they were in many ways parents to all of us. We talked about the pastors who came from that camp connection, Bob Bergquist, Jim Sundholm, Craig Carlson; we grew up in summers along the creek that washed through that little valley, not much of a camp, really. And this year, one more from that time, Cathy Sovold Johnson, was ordained.

         The Holy Spirit forms the church out of followers of Jesus, people who by their faith and obedience are friends of Jesus. And who were the people who were formed into that first church?

         Within 40 days after the Resurrection a group of 120 friends of Jesus had formed. Eleven disciples of Jesus, plus some men who had been with them the whole time, men we did not know by name in the Gospels--but now we find out two of them were named Justus and Matthias. Then, the women, who had been so faithful through the ministry of Jesus, and were present at the cross and empty tomb. Craig Keener comments on their inclusion, "Given the culture's usual downplaying of women's public roles, the equal participation of women is noteworthy, especially their apparent mixing with men."

         Mary the mother of Jesus is mentioned, along with the brothers of Jesus. In the Gospels they thought Jesus was crazy. Now they believe. What is interesting is that only some from this number of apostles, family and women close to Jesus were to become leaders in the church. Most of them are not mentioned again. Ajith Fernando writes, "As Acts proceeds, the Apostles receive less prominence. The twelve do not become the leaders of the early church." It turns out that people like Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Timothy lead the early church.

         During his ministry, Jesus did not pour his life only into the 12 disciples. Jesus had a lot of followers, and he taught them, and some of them became leaders, too.

         Before the Holy Spirit forms them into the church there were 120 believers, people who were eyewitnesses of the risen Lord, people who believed, men and women who made a consistent habit of praying together.

         On Pentecost, 3,000 more believers were added when the Holy Spirit came. These new ones must have been ready to become followers of Jesus. They must have known him or of him in some way. So the church is people who love Jesus, who are glad to be numbered as his friends, and so do what he commands.

There has always been a tendency to try to limit the friends of Jesus. At one point in church history it was thought that only those willing to enter the monastery were truly like Jesus. Later it seemed only those with professional theology degrees could truly understand and lead. Some feel that only men can be pastors. Others limit the truly spiritual to those who possess outgoing, "sales" type of personalities. There has always been a tendency to limit the friends of Jesus. But that is not what Acts says. It says Jesus calls you his friend when you do what he commands.

         In our denomination we have struggled to get over our "Swedishness," to get past our "Covenant-Beachness" (or "Covenant Harborness" in this conference). We have struggled to move past the North Park circle, or the many forms of "groupiness" that can stifle us. But Jesus is the friend of all who do what he commands. So we find more and more added even to our number, as we welcome friends and followers of Jesus.

         My favorite time in every Annual Meeting is when the new churches are introduced, and representatives from each church come forward, and soon fill the platform. This year 25 new churches were added, and 14 of those churches are made up of people of racial minorities.

         But not only is there a great influx of new populations into our churches, as now over 20% of Covenant churches are racial minority or multi-ethnic in membership; but also the kinds of ministries such churches are involved in shows the work of the Holy Spirit in reaching far beyond tradition to make new friends of Jesus.

• "The House" Covenant Church is located in Lawndale in Chicago, and it targets teens and young adults, using hip-hop music, dancing, poetry, drama and hard-hitting evangelistic messages, drawing 500 to its Saturday night meetings.
•  New Jerusalem Life Covenant Church is an African-American church planted by Oakdale Covenant. They are moving to the community of Worth in an effort to become more multi-racial as they seek reconciliation in that predominantly white community.
•  Metro Community Covenant Church in Fort Lee, N.J., was planted by New Song of Irving, California. They are based on a small group model, and have a ministry called Justice, Advocacy and Compassion, with dinners for homeless people, and an outreach to illiterate children and single mothers.
• Brooklyn Covenant in New York City is an African-American church fully involved in their community with after school programs, adult education, family literacy, computer training and summer youth programs.
• Queens West Covenant is an Asian-American church on Long Island that reaches out to residents of local housing projects with counseling, mentoring and tutoring for students.
• St. Paul's Church in York, Pa., is an established church just now joining the Covenant. It has ministries including Helping Hands of the Homeless, Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen, Lehman Center for Abused women and children, York Rescue Mission, and Bible distribution at the county jail. The church owns 50 acres of land housing a food bank, a cemetery, a picnic grove with amphitheatre and pavilion with a hamburger stand, and a ball field.
•  The new church in Paducah, Ky., has a video production company making short teaching films used in worship.
•  Then there are Artisan Covenant in Rochester and Designers Covenant in Nashville. Both value art, creativity and justice ministries.
•  Vibrant Covenant in Portland, Ore., focuses on Young Adults and has small groups in neighborhoods. Each small group gets involved in a ministry in their neighborhood.
•  The Quest in Seattle also focuses on young adults in what they call a "post-church" culture. Nearly 400 young people meet for worship in a converted warehouse.
•  The Pacific Southwest conference welcomed 4 Hispanic churches this year, as well as adopting an older church in Hawaii.

         This of course does not begin to speak about what is going on in the world. It is simply to illustrate that the church is the friends of Jesus, people who love each other and do what Jesus commands. It began when the disciples of Jesus welcomed the family of Jesus; when men and women who knew the risen Lord agreed to obey the Lord together; when those who became convinced of the resurrection of Jesus began to pray together.

         May we always be that church.

         Amen.