New Covenant Lutheran Church, a member of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), held its first worship service on Easter Sunday 2019. Before establishing New Covenant as a formal NALC  congregation, the members met as a Bible study group but at the same time regularly visited several established NALC churches in the Hickory/Newton area as individuals, couples, or smaller groups. Although they visited different NALC churches, these Lutherans were struck by the similar theology, the respect for the authenticity of the Bible, and the way that God’s Word was preached boldly at any NALC church they attended. The future members of New Covenant felt at home at the NALC churches they attended; however, travel distance became a problem. Since there was no NALC congregation in the Morganton area (the closest are in Hickory and Flat Rock), after much prayerful consideration, they felt led to start a NALC mission in Morganton.

 

Its members are committed to Bible Study, community/mission outreach, and spreading the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Two separate Bible studies helped to strengthen their faith and lay the ground work for starting a new church congregation. The church participated in the Valdese Festival in August, sharing their faith and giving away Bibles to those who did not have one.  Later in the year, the members assembled 50 flood buckets to be distributed by the NALC Disaster Response and they packed Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to be distributed by Samaritan’s Purse. 

 

New Covenant holds worship services every Sunday morning in Sossoman’s Chapel at 9:45am with Sunday School for children and adults beginning at 9:00am.  The church called its first Pastor and Mission Developer, Pastor M. Henry Pawluk in October 2019.