Covenant News

ECCAK Joins in Planting Bible College

ANCHORAGE, AK (September 26, 2000) - An Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) youth pastor and the Evangelical Covenant Church of Alaska (ECCAK) are combining forces to plant a Christian Bible college in the region.

Keith Hamilton, youth pastor at Arvada Covenant Church in Colorado for four years, has accepted the call to serve as president and founder of a Bible college sponsored by the region. Hamilton hopes to open the one-year Native American/Caucasian institution by fall 2001.

ECCAK called Hamilton as a missionary, getting unanimous support from its ministry team. He will spend much of the next nine months raising support to pay for half the costs to start the college and providing for family needs. The goal for year one is to have 30 students at the new school, which will be located in the Anchorage Bowl, an area including four cities.

"Over the past handful of years I have interviewed approximately 200 new seminary graduates and other leaders," said ECCAK region field director Paul Wilson. "I ask them who they have been influenced by in their vocational ministry. More than any other, Keith's name is mentioned most," Wilson said. "You combine Keith's proven effectiveness in the ministry of developing leaders with his personal mission priorities of youth ministry, discipleship and mission, and you can begin to understand why he was the first candidate we wanted to talk to."

Hamilton has led a number of mission teams to Alaska. "No one has organized mission teams better than Keith and he's become very much a part of our wider ministry team," Wilson said. "He's also been encouraging in the development of Covenant Youth of Alaska (CYAK). And because he's been up here so much, he had the confidence of our team members."

Hamilton comes to Alaska with quality credentials, having led 37 mission trips worldwide during two decades of youth ministry. The mission emphasis will be central to the curriculum of the new college, says Hamilton, who hopes the hands-on element of the college will benefit local churches.

"We're going to be out and about doing missions," said Hamilton. "We're going to be quarterly doing mission experiences throughout Alaska and putting into practice what we learn in the classroom to help these villages that have no youth ministry or good role models as students. That might be in the form of an abstinence seminar, a vacation Bible school or an anti-alcohol abuse program. And we've also had a connection with Russia and we wonder where that will take us."

Calling Hamilton is the next step of a 1997 strategic plan for ECCAK geared toward the formation of a training program for Native Alaskan young adults. ECCAK recently instituted a 90-day pilot educational program for six young adults, an extension of the faithful ministry of CYAK and director Curtis Ivanoff. Traditional Bible college curriculum was used and spiritual and mission elements were added, including service to a number of ECCAK churches.

"Nowhere is there a bible college for Native young people – and this state is twice the size of Texas," observed Hamilton. "We've lost a whole generation of leaders in Alaska because of that. I've never done this before, but I'm going after it like a youth pastor would. "I recruit students for my (current) ministry and I'll need to use that skill for recruiting students for the college. I've learned how to work with student interns and do fund-raising for mission trips and I'll need to do the same thing to raise money. And I teach regularly here and I'll try to use those skills at the college."

Wilson hopes the ministries at the new college will reach 50 villages, including portions of the state where young people have not heard the gospel or seen the gospel demonstrated in their culture. There are more than 200 villages in Alaska and Wilson says only about 10 percent have experienced a healthy youth ministry program. "If the program gets off the ground, it will be the most significant thing we've done missionally in the past few decades," said Wilson.

After finishing his youth ministry work at Arvada Covenant Church, Hamilton will begin fund-raising in Chicago beginning October 30. He will head to Anchorage, Alaska, for a week before traveling to Kansas City (November 10-12) and Northern California (November 16-19). After Thanksgiving, Hamilton will travel to Washington, Minnesota and Southern California.

For more information about the mission of the proposed ECCAK-sponsored Bible college, contact Hamilton by telephone at 303-514-8903, by mail at 13807 W. 65th Dr., Arvada, CO, 80004, or by email at kjhamilton@aol.com.

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