Son Follows in Father's Pastoral Footsteps

KEYSTONE, CO (June 27, 2002) - Pastor Kendall Dahlstrom of the Evangelical Covenant Church of South Bend, Indiana, thought that his son might become a Covenant pastor.

Peter Dahlstrom thought it might happen too - he started seriously considering the idea in college. Now, it's official. Peter is an ordained Covenant minister. He was blessed by Covenant leaders during a special prayer time in Thursday's ordination and commissioning service. Peter, a pastor in Marquette, Kansas, was one of 16 Covenanters approved for ordination by delegates at this year's Annual Meeting. Six staff ministers were approved for commissioning at Wednesday's business meetings in Keystone.

Kendall Dahlstrom recalled that he and wife, Nancy, thought ministry could be in Peter's future early in life. He told a story about how his four-year-old son quoted scripture to a boy who was threatening him with a baseball bat. Peter said that he told the boy to be kind to one another and his son listened. "He threw the bat down and replied, 'Aw, cut that stuff out, or something like that,' " Peter said. "I gave my testimony recently (at the Midwest Conference annual meeting) and said that incident was my first sermon . . . and then I took 25 years off."

Peter Dahlstrom became interested in drama as a youngster and was a regular in plays while a student at North Park University (then College). Kendall believes that Peter's ability to be on stage has aided him in ministry, along with a knack for resourcefulness that has allowed him to meet the challenges that have come his way.

After a time, however, Peter began thinking that ministry, not drama, would be a calling. He said some people at North Park encouraged him to think about ministry and while he told them he wasn't interested he admitted, "I was lying to them."

After college, Peter worked for a year at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, "At Covenant Harbor, I got a chance to ask what the Lord had intended for me in the future," he said. After Covenant Harbor, he decided to head back to Chicago to North Park Theological Seminary. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from North Park and now serves in ministry in Kansas with wife, Juliana, a registered nurse who works at a local nursing home.

Kendall recently wrote a church newsletter article, recalling the three years his son spent in the ordination process, which includes writing papers on theology and ministry philosophy and a host of interviews that can leave even the most confident person feeling pretty inadequate.

"At times, a person can feel pretty lonely in the process," Kendall wrote. "You wonder if you have ever done anything right in your whole life . . . this is where the hard questions are asked. Occasionally one interviewer will grill the candidate exceptionally hard on one issue, usually an issue that the other interviewers do not see as being quite as important..."

Later in his newsletter article, Kendall Dahlstrom recalled hearing the news that Peter had passed his ordination interview.

"I remember to this day how wonderfully affirming my interview was with the Covenant Board of Ministry (in 1972). They knew the struggles. They knew the facing of one's own demons that had gone on. And they affirmed the wonder-working power of the grace of God. That's how it was when I heard from those who had interviewed Pete. The words of affirmation were good to hear . . . I, for one, will be a proud father who welcomes his son into the ordained ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church . . . "

The ordination of his son isn't the only event that pleases Kendall Dahlstrom. His daughter, Kirsten, the CHIC2K3 coordinator for the denomination's Department of Christian Formation, recently became engaged and will be married in the coming months.

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