Covenant News

Dinner Honors Retiring Pastor Wesley Swanson

ARVADA, CO (August 26, 2002) - Arvada Covenant Church's longtime pastor Wesley Swanson was honored by more than 1,000 people at a farewell celebration a week ago Sunday night at the church he led for the past 13 years.

Midwest Conference Supt. Kenneth Carlson was among those in attendance for the event, which included a video collage of pictures from Swanson's children - Paul, Mark and Luke - along with Swanson's 96-year-old mother, Helga. Swanson preached his final sermon at Arvada Covenant Church earlier that day.

His official retirement date is August 31, but he was spending his final week in full-time ministry on an evangelistic mission trip in Halle, Germany. It seemed an appropriate ending for a man whose passion for mission and evangelism was evident throughout his more than 40 years of ministry.

A graduate of North Park Theological Seminary (NPTS) in Chicago, Swanson was ordained by the Evangelical Covenant Church in 1966. Before graduating from seminary, he began ministry with service at Covenant churches in Dassel and Duluth, Minnesota, and Edgewater Covenant Church in Chicago.

Swanson served Grace Covenant Church in Little Falls, Minnesota, from 1965 to 1970 following graduation from seminary. From 1970-1977, he served Northbrook Covenant Church in Northbrook, Illinois, and was senior pastor from 1977 to 1989 at First Evangelical Covenant Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He began ministry in Arvada in June 1989 and has seen the church through a relocation period and an ambitious church building project as the congregation has doubled in size.

Associate pastor Bruce Finfrock estimated that since his arrival in Colorado, Swanson has delivered 1,421 sermons and completed approximately 2,325 pastoral visits. Church records show that he was part of 104 dedications, 106 weddings, 164 memorial services and services that confirmed 321 children of the church.

Swanson has known sorrow during his ministry. His first wife, Clarice, died of cancer in 1984 and his second wife, Sandra, died of cancer in 1994. Through it all, said Finfrock, Swanson has managed to remain faithful to his calling. Finfrock cites hallmarks of Swanson's ministry as including a passion for God, a love for praise and worship and a desire for mission in the inner city, in his community and in the world.

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