Covenant News

Rockford Church Celebrates 125th Anniversary

ROCKFORD, IL (May 19, 2000) - When the fledgling ministry started, the pastor was paid $24 dollars per month, a couple dozen people comprised the core group, and the language of choice to communicate the gospel was Swedish.

Seventeen pastors, one language, and 125 years later, First Evangelical Covenant Church in Rockford, Illinois, is still thriving with more than 600 members. The church is celebrating its 125th anniversary with a host of activities that began May 28 and will continue through June 25.

"It's a special privilege to be able to celebrate our roots here in Rockford," said pastor Roland Boyce. "It is a commemoration of what has happened, and the anticipation of what is yet to happen. The church's mission is 'to care for each other so that we can reach the world.' Our longevity is a celebration of our mission," he continued.

"Another thing that's exciting for us is that we're not depending on an anniversary to give our congregation verve and dynamic direction," he said. "There's a sense of our broader mission, both in the city and beyond, to the world. I think we have a very good sense of ministry internationally and locally."

Founded in 1875 as the Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society of Rockford under pastor J.P. Lindell, the church joined the Evangelical Mission Covenant (now the Evangelical Covenant Church) 10 years later and by the turn of the century had 500 attending church and some 700 attending its Sunday School.

The church has continued to reach the community since then, most notably through starting other churches in the area. North Park Covenant Church (formerly Harlem Covenant), Broadway Covenant Church, Evergreen Covenant Church, Morningside Covenant Church, Lovejoy Church, and South Park Covenant Church were spawned from Sunday School programs started by First Evangelical Covenant.

This summer, a First Evangelical Covenant-sponsored church, New Life Deliverance Ministries, is seeking membership approval at the 115th Annual Meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 22-25.

Like most Covenant churches, First Evangelical Covenant Church held worship services exclusively in Swedish, until the congregation began an English-speaking Sunday night service once a month in 1920. Six years later, several members voted to start an English-speaking Sunday school, from which Bethesda Covenant Church was born.

Besides communicating the gospel message through growing Sunday schools, the church founded Rockford's first radio station, KFLV (later to become WROK), in 1924 under pastor A.T. Frykman and began broadcasting church services. Since then, the church has continued to help shape its community, eventually moving to a 17-acre site in the mid-1960s. First Evangelical Covenant Church designates approximately 25 percent of its annual budget to support missions, both locally and abroad.

The congregation is actively involved in mission work via adult and youth mission trips to Mexico, mission trips to the Ukraine, a Friday night high school ministry called "His Cup," and a "Kid's Klub" summer children's ministry. In downtown Rockford, the church is ministering to the homeless and those who have patterns of addictive behavior, incorporating job training and spiritual guidance in tandem to meet specific needs. Short-term missionaries have also been sent to Alaska and India during the past two years and one member is headed to North Park Theological Seminary for education this fall.

"We are continuously looking at new areas of ministry," said Boyce. "Since the world continues to change around us, so must we change the mode of ministry to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ," he added. "For a church of this age and vintage, we've put on an exciting new face and a direction that is complimentary to the time in which we live."

On Saturday, June 17, the church will hold a banquet, hosted by ABC News medical expert Dr. G. Timothy Johnson, who attended First Evangelical Covenant Church as a youth. At the 10 a.m. worship service June 18, ECC President Glenn R. Palmberg will be the guest preacher. A special luncheon will follow.

Additional information about 125th anniversary events may be obtained by calling the church office at 815-398-4247 or by visiting the church website at www.RockfordFirstCov.org,

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