Covenant UM and pastor are ready to serve
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LOCK HAVEN -- You probably know the building near the shopping district. You may pass it often. Covenant United Methodist Church at 44 W. Main St. hosts the Lock Haven Area Shoe Bank as well as the Covenant Cafe activity group. It serves as a "Hub," a place that collects donations for health kits and flood kits.
The congregation's willingness to help others in a variety of ways "really makes my job easier," Rev. Justin Frear said.
The pairing of Pastor Justin and Covenant Church is perhaps a love story, in more ways than one. He gets the church members and they get him. If you attend worship there, you'll feel warmth and communication flowing from the pews to the pulpit and back again.
And it's a traditional love story, too -- Justin graduated from seminary at Duke University with a Master of Divinity in May 2022, married his sweetheart, Sarah Anderson, in June and became Covenant's pastor on July 1 of that year.
Covenant Church may look the same as always on the outside, but inside the congregation is growing and feeling new enthusiasm.
Pastor Justin is encouraging that feeling, just as he encourages more people to attend worship in person again.
"We are returning to being the church," he said. "We have made it a priority to return to things as close to pre-COVID normal as possible."
The Sunday service is at 8:45 a.m., followed by coffee and snacks. The pastor dresses informally. His sermons are easy to follow, with messages that meet you where you are.
And if you don't worship in person, you're not shut out by any means. You can watch services on the church's Facebook page. Find it at Covenant UMC Lock Haven.
Videos also are posted on the church's YouTube channel.
Pastor Justin brings more than a good use of social media to the church. His previous job was at Penn State University where he ran intramural and club sports.
"Yes, I watched college kids play sports for a living," he said. "It was a dream job, coming back to my alma mater."
It was fun but he couldn't stay any longer, he said. He needed to do the Lord's work.
"I quit fighting the call from God I'd been wrestling with for a long time, basically since high school," he said.
Born in Bristol, Tenn., where his dad worked in natural gas, he went to high school in Beaver Falls, Pa. In those years, fellow church members encouraged him to become a minister. He wasn't so certain then.
"God puts you where you need to be, but the process is not always a straight line," he said.
A Penn State graduate with bachelor degrees in psychology and history, he went on to earn a master's in public administration from Grand Valley State in Grand Rapids, Mich., then returned to work at PSU. Much of his adult life was based there.
He met Sarah at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in State College where both were in the praise band. Justin played drums. ("Singing is not a gift I possess," he freely admits.)
He lived in State College for nine years, but Lock Haven is home now.
"Sarah and I like it better here," he said.
He is still active in youth sports, as a referee for high school and college basketball and soccer in the wider region. Yet he left a career he liked and was good at, choosing to pursue something he could not ignore.
Is being a minister very different? Maybe not in every way.
"I brought certain skillsets with me from my previous job -- they're surprisingly similar to the skillsets a pastor needs -- and I feel those skills have been strengthened," he said.
"I have grown personally and professionally over the past year and a half," he added. "The members of this congregation care. They're great people, they're passionate. That's pushed me to be better."
With this spirit of caring, Covenant Church revived its hometown mission week last summer, organizing and running a project of basic home maintenance for the elderly and others in need. Other churches and members of the general public got on board. One of Pastor Justin's friends from his seminary days even brought his church's youth group to join in. Everyone working together made a real difference for 14 families and two non-profit groups.
A similar mission week is in the works for this summer, Pastor Justin said.
The project is aptly named One Family at a Time. "It's about being a good neighbor," he said.
From that week long project to passing out free bottles of water during the Homecoming Parade, church members look for ways to help, large and small.
"The plan is to continue to be a positive, shining light and make our contribution to the strong feeling of community this town already has," their pastor said.
"I feel blessed by the passion of the people, the mission of this church, to carry out God's purpose here on earth. I don't have to remind them to care for other people. Not every pastor has that luxury," he said. "We are ready for God to use us in the ways that He needs us."
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Find Covenant at: https://covenant.susumc.org; On Facebook:; www.facebook.com/covenantumclockhaven; On YouTube: www.youtube.com/@covenantumc-lockhaven