On September 25, 2022, 17 eager members met at our sending church, Covenant Life Church in Tampa, to officially become “Covenant Hope Church,” a new church plant in St. Petersburg, Florida. Our mission was simple: to be a community that treasures Christ as King and displays His truth, beauty and love to St. Petersburg and the nations.
By God’s grace, we’re celebrating one year of God’s faithfulness as we strive to live out this goal daily and reach St. Pete with the good news of Jesus.
“In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” 2 Corinthians 5:19-20a
Humble Starts, Unhurried
St. Petersburg is the fifth largest city in Florida, and as a part of the Tampa Bay area, is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. With this growth, an estimated 70% of St. Pete residents are unchurched. And that number continues to grow.
We know God graciously uses churches—and church plants, like ours—to reach the unchurched. We desire to be a St. Pete church that effectively partners with others across our city for gospel renewal.
But gospel renewal takes time. The progress is often slow, and it doesn’t always come easy—it’s a labor of love, commitment and lots of patience. In a day where “God” and “going to church” are far from our culture’s desires or expectations, we haven’t seen dozens of people flood the seats on Sunday. While we are tempted to become discouraged, we remember our faithful God has chosen us, His church, to carry out His mission. And He’s given us the means to do so. He’s even chosen people to be part of our Covenant Hope family and community, even if we haven’t met them yet. We’re just getting started.
Our First Year, Filled with Faithfulness
Our first year together is just the beginning. And today, we’re celebrating the progress we’ve made on living out each part of our mission.
Being a community is essential to our life at Covenant Hope Church. With so many people longing for community, we desire to make our church the compelling community it’s called to be.
This last year, we met in homes for intentional discipleship in our community groups. In this setting, we allow God’s word to convict us, while also getting to know each other deeper. As a church, we also spent time in parks and neighborhood playgrounds, seeking to meet neighbors and invite others to our church gatherings and be part of a community that’s bigger than ourselves. Our city cannot be changed by one person. It takes the gospel. And we desire to proclaim it.
When we gathered, we did so with a purpose. Our purpose these last twelve months has been to treasure Christ as King. We’ve been able to do this in many different formats. Every Sunday morning in the Fellowship Hall of Legacy Church at North East Park, we gather as a church to sing songs of hope, offer prayers to God, and hear from His word, the Bible. Because Christ is the King, we want to celebrate and hear from Him. We also hosted Bible and book studies to help our members and visitors grow in their knowledge and love for the Lord. We made efforts to provide multiple opportunities for Christians to treasure Jesus and for others to find Him.
Over the course of our first year together, we found ways to display Jesus’ truth, beauty and love to St. Petersburg. We do this knowing that people need to see authentic followers of Christ faithfully living out what they believe. As a church, we hosted a back-to-school event for local students, neighbors and families. We also participated in a park nights, a park cleanup and even began supporting a local neighborhood association by hosting their meetings. NextSTEPP Pregnancy Center has also been a local ministry that we’ve partnered with since planting in St. Petersburg.
And what about showing Jesus’ beauty and love to the nations? We’ve been blessed to partner with a new missionary family, who we hope to support for many years to come as they take the gospel to Asia. We recently hosted our first mission’s luncheon to get to know the family on a deeper level, ask questions about their ministry, and pray for their gospel work.
We look forward to many more opportunities, like these, in the future.
Much More to Come
The road to planting a new church in an unchurched city hasn’t always been easy. While we watched new faces come, we saw other faces—loving members of Covenant Hope—go and move on to other states. Many members have walked through heartaches and trials. Others have celebrated triumphs. And through all of it, God was gracious to us during “year one.”
By His grace, we’ve grown closer as a community, treasured Christ as King and displayed His truth, beauty and love to St. Petersburg and the nations. We know He has more in store for this small community of faithful servants. And we can’t wait to see what is to come.
About Covenant Hope Church
We’d love to meet you and get to know you better. We can help answer questions—big or small—and care for your needs.
Learn more about our vision, values and statement of faith, and visit us on Sundays at 11 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall at Legacy Church at North East Park (3737 1st St NE, St. Pete, FL 33704—Google Maps).
We hope to see you soon!