“Those churches that have included a covenant renewal service in their church calendar often include, not only appropriate prayers of devotion in response to God’s covenant commitment to his people; but also renewal of vows on the part of the congregation.”

The language of ‘covenant’ has a much wider history in the church than merely those churches and congregations that self-identify as ‘covenantal’. Some include it merely as a reflection of the contractual dimension they see in how Christians relate to God in his church. It is more than a casual arrangement; but one that entails conscious, self-sacrificing commitment. In other churches, a similar idea is there; but in a way that picks up more overtly on the Bible’s use of ‘covenant’ and ‘covenant renewal’ in the history of God’s dealings with his people.

John Wesley began to teach the idea of covenant renewal to the Methodist movement in 1753 with a view to encouraging Christians to towards spiritual discipline and consistency of life. Two years later he introduced it more formally as a special service built into the church calendar. Over the years other churches, Baptist, Congregational as well as Presbyterian, have seen a place for it – often on the first Sunday of the new year, with a view to encouraging deeper devotion to God.

It was the Puritan, Richard Alleine’s work, A Vindication of Godliness in the greater Strictness and Spirituality of It (1663) that inspired Wesley to take this initiative. As the title suggests, Alleine, in true Puritan fashion, was eager to encourage professing Christians towards the kind of devotion to Christ that was more than mere profession. He was fully aware of God’s absolute sovereignty in salvation; but did not see this as somehow taking away from a Christian’s duty before God to live out their new life in Christ. This was entirely in line with the apostle’s exhortation, ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works within you to will and to act according to his good purpose’ (Php 2.12-13). There is nothing casual about Christian living.

Those churches that have included a covenant renewal service in their church calendar often include, not only appropriate prayers of devotion in response to God’s covenant commitment to his people; but also renewal of vows on the part of the congregation. The simple exercise of publicly articulating a fresh devotion to God has its own way of refocusing and reinforcing our desire to truly live as the people of God – in community as much as individually.

Recently I came across the liturgy for such a service used by a prominent Presbyterian Church in Scotland. (Scottish Presbyterianism has had a long history of covenanting, especially in the 17^th Century.) Some of the elements of this service are worth sharing – even as a glimpse of what we can so easily forget.

Prayer of Confession: O God our Father, you have set before us the way of life in your beloved Son. We confess with shame our slowness to learn from him and our reluctance to follow him. You have spoken and called, and we have not listened.  Your beauty has shone forth and we have been blind; you have stretched out your hands to us through the needs of others, and we have passed by. We have taken great benefits, but given little thanks.  We have been unworthy of your changeless love. Have mercy Lord, and forgive us.

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