Advent Lutheran Church - Mentor, OH

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I was inspired by yet another dynamic council retreat this past February and deeply appreciative to those who serve as Advent’s elected leadership.  I have been blessed beyond measure for the past six years for the top quality committed leaders who have served Christ as our council, and this year is no different!

The council and I have deemed the year 2007 as the year of relationship building, mission plans, and leadership development.   Our church is at a crossroad; we have grown by the grace of God and we find the need for fellowship flows from our worship and our stewardship of time and talents.   The challenge is to grow in a deeper relationship with God as we grow in a deeper relationship with each other, with our mission to know Christ and to make Christ known.

"Love grows here" could be a motto for our year.  Love grows here at Advent through a commitment to our mission that empowers our lives to change the world for Christ.   All of us desire to be loved by God and neighbor, and we at Advent thrive on being a family of faith with the goal of dynamic care for the needs of others as the signature of our community of faith.   If anyone comes among us as a new disciple, the hope would be for them to say, "these Christians at Advent love God, love each other, and love the world."   Join me and your council in prayer and participation as we live out these words.

Pray for our mission and leadership development as we seek to lead our church according to God’s will and the mission and vision that give us our purpose.  We are all more than a mere member of Advent because of the fact that we are disciples.   We exist in more than a membership as we are called to exercise our discipleship.   In this light, we are a dynamic community with the opportunity to build our mission through each and every person who shares their God-given gifts.   Thank you for being who you are and thank God for making us who we can become.

Here’s to a great year of growing in God ’s love …for you know that Love Grows Here!

Pastor Kovitch
(March 2007)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I ’ll be home for Christmas hasn’t meant so much to me as it does this year.   The patience and anticipation of Advent season was manifested in hospital beds, waiting rooms, operating rooms, rehab sessions, and in the loving arms of my God, my wife, my family, and my church family.   So the joy of new birth and the presence of a savior of light in a dark world is Marie’s and my saving grace.   It’s a wonderful life and a powerful faith when God can carry Marie and I through respective surgeries with such peace that we are left awed and knowing that we are standing on holy ground.

To say thank you to each and every one of you, dear friends and fellow workers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, seems to me to fall short when it comes to my deepest feelings of gratitude to your support over the last month.   To say it is a wonderful life and I am George Bailey and you are my Bedford Falls might come close to saying that I feel like the richest man in town because of each and every one of you.   I am truly blessed for the journey, and I am counting you as fellow travelers, as we are in this together as a church family.

I first and foremost thank God for a loving and supportive wife in Marie through whom I receive strength and grace beyond deserving.   My sons have shown me the men they are becoming and the gift they are to their parents.   I thank Pastor Larry and our staff for their countless hours of leadership and comfort.   I thank God for being home with my parents and siblings and mother-in-law, for this is one of the reasons why we came back to Ohio.   You, my Advent family, have shown us Jesus, and you are beautiful.   I truly feel that we are bound as a family not only of faith but friendship and love.

Through your prayers and support, I have been held in the arms of God and the peace that overwhelms me in the midst of challenges has come from the power of prayer and faithful believers lifting me up and holding me up.   Thank you.  Thank you.   Thank you.

I am ready to roll, so to speak, as I will live for the moment and let the future of healing come as it comes.   My focus today is how God will use me today knowing that He has my future in his hands.   I am whole in Christ, and I seek to serve now just as I am.   Right now I have a paralyzed left leg, and over the next year, nerves could or could not come around, but that is not my concern right now.   I am concerned about how my life will glorify God.   My desire is to serve Christ now and celebrate the joy of faith in the face of adversity, and I pray that I am worthy to the challenge.

Come what may, my service may be altered, but the cause of the gospel goes on, and I will wheel and deal for Jesus Christ even more passionately than ever before.   I love God and through this journey have discovered an even deeper walk with Jesus.    Let me just say to you, my friends and fellow workers for Jesus, you bless my soul and give me more than I could ever repay.   I thank you for the grace of Jesus that you so freely give.   Peace be with you, and let's wheel on.   I do ask you for now, if you could "give me a leg up," to step up and take a stand for our ministry and work with me for the mission of Advent."

Pray that the lessons each and everyone of us have learned through those times of great trial and adversity this past year will strengthen us to face the challenges of mission and ministry in the gospel of Jesus Christ for 2007.   There is much work in the vineyard for the liberation of souls into the freedom of Christ that I ask you to please join me in the new year in the life changing mission of knowing Christ and making Him known.

With Deep Gratitude,

Pastor Kovitch
(January 2007)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century -- solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others. --- Elie Wiesel

How shall we begin to grow together as a community of Jesus Christ in 2007? We first admit that being a church is more than merely following a set of doctrinal rules and traditions for these are vehicles of religion that aids us in our journey. We proclaim that we are saved by grace through faith and that we exist in right relationship with God and our neighbor. We are a community of Jesus Christ and live according the law of love and reconciliation. What else is this community called Evangelical Lutheran? We are a community of belonging. We are a community of openness. We are a community of caring. We are a community of cooperation. We are a community that is a place of healing and growth. We are a community of forgiveness, mutual trust, and above all, we are a community of love. We are formed by the cross of Christ as a people of sacrifice and redemption. We are a people of the empty tomb where resurrection leads us out of darkness to God's own brilliant light. Let us seek to grow the quality of our mission and ministry on the commitment to growing in our knowledge of God and one another. Stand with me, pray with me, work with me, and together we will build a community in the image of God for the mission of God. In Christ we will accept nothing less than love in the name of Christ.

The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt. - Frederick Buechner

Yours In Christ's Love,

Pastor Kovitch
(February 2007)