The History of New Covenant Lutheran Church
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), 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. The congregation has continued to collect items for the NALC Disaster Response, food for local food pantries, diapers and wipes for the Burke County Pregnancy Center, and many other outreach ministries.
New Covenant moved to Sossoman's Chapel in 2020, just before the pandemic occurred. Sossoman's was very gracious and allowed New Covenant to continue worshiping during the pandemic, with some of the services being held in the parking lot. While at Sossoman’s Chapel, New Covenant held its Charter Sunday on August 30, 2020.
New Covenant changed its worship location to 522 W. Fleming Drive (the current location) in the spring of 2021. The congregation worked together to transform this office building into a church.
The Rev. Dr. Gil Gilbert served as New Covenant's organizer and first pastor. He led New Covenant's first service and arranged for pastoral coverage every Sunday with local NALC pastors taking turns to lead worship service through September 2019. The church called its first Pastor and Mission Developer, Pastor M. Henry Pawluk in October 2019. Pastor Marty Ramey became the second interim pastor and the Rev. Dr. Andrew Weisner became the third interim pastor.