The Covenant Podcast

 This week on Table Talk, Pastors Kyle Gatlin and Nick Shepherd begin a new series exploring the origins and significance of Advent. They discuss the history of the season, noting its roots in the Latin word for "to come," and explain how it originally served as a time of fasting and preparation for baptism, much like Lent, before evolving into the Christmas preparation season we know today. The pastors emphasize that Advent is about more than just the birth of Jesus; it is a season of waiting that acknowledges the tension between Christ's first arrival and His future return. 

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk, Pastors Kyle Gatlin and Nick Shepherd discuss the concept of addition by subtraction as the final step in their series on going deeper with God. They argue that to truly grow spiritually, one must often remove things like distractions, time-consuming commitments, or unhealthy habits to create the necessary space for a deeper relationship with Jesus.The Pastors also explore the internal barriers of ego, pride, and people-pleasing. They examine how pride acts as a blinder to spiritual maturity and suggest that true depth requires the humility to admit when we are wrong. Finally, they tackle the danger of seeking approval from others, warning that while the church should value people over programs, the need to please everyone can ultimately hinder one's ability to be a true servant of Christ.HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant

This week on Table Talk. Pastors Kyle Gatlin and Nick Shepherd discuss how serving and giving can deepen one's relationship with God, arguing that it takes you to a different and deeper level than prayer or Bible reading alone. They explore why this kind of service, especially when it involves giving of one's time, gifts, or body for others, is so impactful, suggesting it aligns with our core purpose as humans.The hosts also tackle the issue of burnout in the church. They believe exhaustion often occurs because people who are willing to serve are continually asked to do more, while others hesitate because they feel they can't perform the task exactly like the person currently doing it. The hosts agree that burnout is a matter of wisdom, urging the church to encourage everyone to serve in their own unique way to prevent a few people from carrying the entire load.

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

 This week on Table Talk: Pastor Kyle Gatlin sits down with Dr. Carl Creasman to discuss Dr. Creasman's new administrative role and the challenge of reading the Bible. Dr. Creasman shares his approach to a deeper study, drawing a parallel between "collateral reading" in college and the common struggle Christians have with making time for God's Word. The conversation highlights that the Bible is the only book with the power of God, and they encourage listeners to find new ways—like listening chronologically—to renew their hunger for its singular, overarching story of redemption. 

Bobbi brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

 This week on Table Talk. Pastors Kyle Gatlin and Nick Shepherd discuss the common challenge of prayer "dryness" and the metaphor of "leaving the shallows" to go deeper in one's spiritual life. They emphasize that overcoming dryness requires persistence and experimentation with different prayer methods. The hosts conclude that the depth of one's faith is tied to the depth of prayer, which involves listening and ultimately changes how we see others. 

Kyle brings us the sermon recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk. Pastors Kyle and Bobbi are back on the podcast this week over the telephone. In this episode the Pastors give a full review of our 2025 Covenant Methodist Church Serve Day. Serve Day is the day when our congregation goes out together into our local communities and serves others just as Jesus did.

This week on Table Talk. Pastors Kyle and Bobbi discuss the middle man of the Holy Trinity, Jesus. The pastors discuss the significance of Jesus making his dwelling among us contrasting it with the Old Testament God who was Holy Other. They explore the 30 undocumented years of Jesus's life, where he lived a normal life in obscurity before his ministry. The Pastors conclude that Jesus is "God's self-portrait", showing humanity the attributes of the Father. 

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk. Pastors Kyle and Bobbi discuss the middle man of the Holy Trinity, Jesus. The pastors discuss the significance of Jesus making his dwelling among us contrasting it with the Old Testament God who was Holy Other. They explore the 30 undocumented years of Jesus's life, where he lived a normal life in obscurity before his ministry. The Pastors conclude that Jesus is "God's self-portrait", showing humanity the attributes of the Father. 

Bobbi brings us the message recorded live from Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Pastors Kyle Nick discuss the many names of God. The Pastors dive in to Jesus' use of the word Father to represent God, how others like David refer to him as Lord, and the many titles of God. The Pastors discuss the importance of the use of the word Father and why they believe it was the title chosen by Christ.

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk we are joined by Pastors Kyle and Nick. In this episode Pastor Kyle asks if we can look at the story of Lazarus from different points of view. The Pastor's discuss the ways Jesus meets Marie and Martha, how the meetings differ, and why this might have happened.

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

Bobbi brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

Kyle brings us the Message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Pastors Kyle and Nick are talking about our current sermon series Ghosted. In this episode Kyle and Nick dive in to Pslam 13 where the writer David prays to God "How long Lord? Will you forget me forever?", and how this compares to the modern feeling of being ghosted by someone. The Pastors discuss events in their own lives where they have felt this way with people in their lives, and times where they have felt that way with God. And how God's unfailing love always prevails through his will and grace.

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant.

This week on Table Talk we are joined By Assistant Pastor Nick Shepherd and His wife Lauren Barfield-Shepherd who is our Youth Ministry Director. In this episode Nick and Lauren discuss the wellspring group's whole hearted living elevator model of the heart and how it has assisted them in learning each others feelings and desires, and how to work through them with Christ Jesus.

Nick brings us this weeks message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk we are joined by Assistant Pastor Nick Shephard, and Pat Heldman our Church Administrator. In this episode Nick and Pat discuss servant leadership, what it means to lead with a whole heart and a servants mindset, and how to show grace, forgiveness, and love in a leadership position as a Christian.

Kyle brings us the message with special guest Nick Shepherd. Recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Pastors Kyle and Nick continue their discussion on Wholehearted Living from the Wellspring group. The pastors discuss the power of biblical community, what a biblical community looks like, and how it differs from a typical community.

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk we are joined by Pastor's Kyle and Nick, as they discuss the first week of our Whole Hearted Living devotional going along with our current sermon series. The pastors discuss what it means to be disconnected from God, how this is a recurring theme since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, and how we can grow closer to God with a heart that is made whole.

Bobbi brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk we are joined by Pastors Kyle, Bobbi, and Nick. In this episode they dive into the Whole Hearted Living program by The Wellspring group. They introduce whole hearted living and how it is going to be apart of our August 2025 sermon series. Pastors Bobbi, and Nick share how they became envolved in the Whole Hearted Living, their friends and colleagues at The Wellspring group as well as their own small groups they have been apart of in the Whole Hearted Living Journey.https://www.wellspringgroup.org/

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk we are joined by Pastors Kyle and NIck. In this episode the pastors go over our sermon series of Finding the Gospel in Starwars. They take a look into the plot and themes found in Starwars. George Lucas who like many others  C.S Lewis, and J.R.R Tolkien to name a few, take the values and stories found in the Bible and bring them to a new fictional story to act as an avenue to the story of Good vs Evil found in the Bible.

Clay brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

Nick brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

Pastor Bobbi brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Pastors Kyle and Nick speak about searching for contentment in life with Christ instead of searching for content in other places. The Pastors talk about contentment in the workplace, relationships, and in the soul. They talk about how the content we ingest spreads to other parts of our lives, and how to take a break from it and come back to reality to commune with God.

Kyle brings us the Message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on table talk Pastor Kyle is back joined by Pastor Nick. On this episode they talk about the good life versus a God life. They show how people who seem to be having a good life from the outside are actually facing spiritual or internal strugggles that could be mediated if they chose to live for God instead of greed.

Pastor Kyle brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Assistant Pastor Nick Shepherd is joined by his Wife Lauren Barfield-Shepherd. Lauren is Our CovStudents Ministry Director at Covenant Methodist. In this episode Lauren and Nick talk about working together as a married couple in ministry, their past and current ministry roles, how it effected there relationship, and how it brought them closer to Christ.

Bobbi brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Pastor Nick is joined by two members of the covenant congregation Bill Smith, and Joel Boyd. Pastors Kyle and Bobbi have tasked these men to begin a Men's Ministry group in our church and they have been doing a wonderful job in facilitating gatherings, small groups, and new facilities here at Covenant Methodist.

This week on Table Talk, Pastors Kyle and Nick introduce a new member of the Covenant Methodist staff Sarah Francis. Sarah is a Ministry Intern studying at Troy University and she will be spending the next 10 weeks here at Covenant helping across all of our Ministry areas, we are so excited to have her on board. The topic of todays episode is the ascension of Christ into heaven, and why it is seemingly overlooked when compared to Christmas, Easter, or Pentecost, and how we can reflect on and celebrate it as a church.

Kyle brings us the sermon recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Pastor Kyle is joined by Covenants Children's Ministry Director Ashley Stokes. Together they go over Ashley's 12 year career at covenant, the ministry that she provides to the our CovKids, and also how members can reach out to help in the Children's ministry area.https://covenantdothan.org/kids/

Bobbi brings us the message recorded live at Covenant. 

This week on Table Talk Pastor Kyle is joined by Mr. Bryan. Bryan is with the Free Methodist Church and he has been at work with his family for many years training Pastors and Church Leaders in many countries across Asia. to learn more please visit:https://fmwm.org/asia/bryan-tammy/https://bryanandtammy.substack.com/subscribe