D. Lamar Hawkins / CMC

Covenant Ministries Church

This has been my church home since 1996. For some people, CMC is just another church. For many including myself, CMC is more like a college. There are classes and lab work and tests. I think it's quite fitting that the church is currently housed in what used to be a gym because CMC is definitely a place for training.

CMC is a non-denominational Christian church founded in 1993 by Annas Aytch, Ph.D. Canonized as a Bishop in 1996, Dr. Aytch continues there as senior pastor. Because of Dr. Aytch's firm belief that every ministry should have a spiritual covering, CMC is under Bill Winston, founder and pastor of Living Word Christian Center located in the greater Chicago, IL area.

The mission of CMC is to prepare individuals for the work of the ministry and to bring them into the fullness of the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13). To bring that concept full circle, CMC also serves as a spiritual covering and launching area for other ministries.

When I first met Dr. Aytch, I had no idea how our paths would one day be intertwined. I spent the first 26 years of my life at the same church that most all my family attended. My pastor at that time had been my pastor for half of my life. Then one day, a good friend of mine invited me to a Bible study at Dr. Aytch's house. I went to the Bible study that evening and something about Dr. Aytch caught my interest. As I later discovered, the Bible study was actually the beginnings of CMC.

Some time afterwards, I began to feel that I needed to leave the church where I had grown up and begin attending CMC. Although I'd had no other contact with Dr. Aytch since that Bible study, another friend of mine had been attending CMC for several years and was always talking about how much she appreciated Dr. Aytch as her pastor. So, I made an appointment to talk with Dr. Aytch about coming under his supervision. After we talked, it was still a full year before I felt God's release and blessing for me to make the move to CMC. That was in the summer of 1996.

Now, many years later, I am simply amazed to see how much I have grown in Christ. For years, I'd prayed and worshipped God and studied the Bible myself. I'd ministered in song, taught Sunday School classes and even matched wits with our Pastor's wife, who was no mean Bible scholar. Yet as I came under Pastor Aytch's supervision, my life and ministry entered a new dimension. My walk with God was no longer merely theoretical. It was becoming practical, even supernatural. In addition to the regular teaching and ministry classes, I was given responsibilities within the church that required me to walk in the principles I was learning. I was being put in situations where my own abilities and resources were insufficient and I had to call, and rely, on God to get me through. Needless to say, He has been faithful. I can recommend CMC, without reservation, as a place of Christian discipleship and spiritual covering to any individual or ministry.

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