Heirs of the Covenant
Dear Friends,
Susan Hunt, my friend, entered my life right after my husband, Chuck, was ordained as a PCA pastor. I loved women’s ministry, but my experience in another denomination soured me on traditional institutional women’s activities. Additionally, I felt like I had enough ministry work—I did not really want to add denominational obligations to that plate. Yet Susan Hunt had just been appointed as the Women’s Ministry Director of the PCA, and her philosophy of women mentoring women captured my imagination, especially when she encouraged women to minister to women in the church through the grid of the local church life, not necessarily through a formal women’s program.
Through a series of events only the Lord could orchestrate, I soon found myself representing the Northeast Region on what was then called the Women’s Advisory Sub-Committee of the PCA. Little did I know that the Lord placed me in the middle of these extraordinary Jesus-loving women as a way to keep me grounded and focused on Him in the darkest season of my life. Shortly after my first regional meeting, our sixteen-year-old son, Mark, and his friend Kelly were in a fatal car accident. Suddenly, everything I believed was thrown into the Refiner’s Fire. In the coming months, Susan stayed in close touch, always pointing me to scripture and sound theology. She encouraged me to lament freely, and she gave me a platform for sharing my journey with others.
Over thirty years later, the first words I hear from Susan in every conversation are, “I am experiencing such peace and contentment in this season of life, God is so good to me,” and I can hear joyful tears in her voice. Susan is a little ahead of me on this life journey, and I treasure the way she continues to call back to me and so many others, “God is sovereign, and we can trust Him.”
Susan is the widow of PCA pastor Gene Hunt, a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother; the former PCA Coordinator for Women’s Ministry; and author of many books, including TRUE, the discipleship series on biblical womanhood for teen girls. She co-authored Transformed: Life-taker to Life-giver and Life-giving Leadership with Karen Hodge, Daughters of the Covenant with Barbara Thompson and Karen Hodge, and Susan and I co-authored Aging with Grace.
I am so delighted to share Susan with you this week as she introduces us to the revised version of Heirs of the Covenant, that she revised along with the help of Stephen Estock and Karen Hodge.
As I review this classic book, I feel as though I am a living example of its biblical truth as written on page 26: “This book considers how the content of the covenant is lived out in the context of the covenant community, and how it culminates in transformed lives that are passionate to glorify and enjoy God by making disciples who also glorify and enjoy Him” (p. 26).
Friends, theology matters. We can’t say it enough times. And this week, Susan leads us to a banquet table of why that statement is true. I want to give you the full picture, so we’re starting today with Susan’s first devotional. I hope these devotionals, excerpts from her book Heirs of the Covenant, will whet your appetite, and you will order this book to dig deeper into such rich, life-transforming truths. So let’s get started.
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Heirs of the Covenant
Susan Hunt
Today’s Treasure
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Galatians 3:29 (ESV)
I grew up in church. I was religious, but did not know Jesus as my Savior. I assumed I would go to heaven because I was a good church girl, but I was twenty-two when Jesus saved me. I became passionate about teaching children because I did not want any child to grow up in church and not hear they needed a Savior. My husband Gene, a pastor, was equally passionate, but his story was different.
I was not born into a Christian family. I don’t remember my parents ever taking me to church. The doctrine of God’s sovereign election has never been a problem for me. I am a living illustration of this wonder.
When my dad died, we moved to my mother’s hometown. In God’s providence, we moved to a neighborhood where there was a Presbyterian church willing to reach out to a young boy whose life could have gone in any direction. Sonny was my boyhood friend. His family went to that church. He had no evangelistic fervor, and I had no consuming desire to know about God. Sonny didn’t want to go to church alone, so he would drag me along.
I spent a lot of time at church. The church kids were my best friends, and their parents welcomed me to their homes. I was enfolded into this community. Gradually, I saw my need for a Savior and committed my life to Jesus. I’m grateful they never resented the boy who tagged along with one of their own and who had no resources to contribute to the church. They invested in me because that’s the covenant way.
Throughout the Old Testament, God commanded His people that “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Ps. 145:4).
Then in the New Testament, the risen Christ commissioned His Church:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matt. 28:18-20 (ESV)
Countless pages and methods have been written about discipleship, but I think Paul gives a beautiful summary of what God’s Word teaches. This seems to describe how Jesus discipled the apostles, and how they discipled the developing church.
We were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
1 Thess. 2:7-8
Discipleship is informational—it is Word-based; it is sharing the gospel.
Discipleship is relational—it is relationally driven, like a nurturing mother sharing her life with her children.
Discipleship is transformational—as Paul discipled them, they became dear to him. We do not know if they were dear or dreadful people, but as Paul shared his life and the gospel with them, his heart was transformed. The Holy Spirit produced His fruit of love in Paul’s heart, and they became dear to him.
Discipleship is about all of life, all the time. Discipleship is about using God’s outward means of grace—the Word, worship, prayer, sacraments, fellowship—to cultivate an intergenerational discipleship culture where all ages and stages flourish and multiply.
A covenantal framework of discipleship is Word-based and relationally driven, so it disciples God’s people to think biblically and live covenantally.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT FOR CHURCH LEADERS
(as written by Stephen Estock)
Covenant theology shapes how we lead the people of God… Leaders easily stumble into two errors that undermine relationships in the covenant community: 1) a coldly pragmatic or programmatic ministry and 2) a ministry that resembles independent silos rather than an integrated system. In short, leaders are so busy planning and managing ministry that we lose sight of the people.1
Friends, as we wrap up today’s daily treasure. I hope that you will prayerfully consider these really important truths that Susan has shared with us. What does it mean to disciple another? And let these truths flow over into your personal lives. Think first of your own home, your own family, your own children, and then start thinking about the local church. How can we, as God’s people, pass on to the next generation the incredible glory and beauty of our covenant theology, of our covenant God? Covenant theology shapes how we lead the people of God, even our children.
PRAYER
Let’s pray: “Even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim Your might to another generation, Your power to all those to come…” (Ps. 71:1). Amen.
1) Susan Hunt with Stephen Estock and Karen Hodge, Heirs of the Covenant: A Framework for Discipleship in the Church (Committee on Discipleship Ministries, 2025), 33.
Additional resource: Heirs of the Covenant Hub
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Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.
