Covenant News

Winnetka (IL) Church to Celebrate 75 Years of Ministry

WILMETTE, IL (April 11, 2003) - Winnetka Covenant Church will celebrate its 75th anniversary June 28-29 with Arthur A.R. Nelson, senior pastor at North Park Covenant Church in Chicago and a previous pastor at Winnetka Covenant, preaching during the Sunday worship service.

Nelson was senior pastor at Winnetka Covenant for 19 years. A noted speaker in the Covenant, Nelson also served as interim president at North Park University (then College) and as dean of students for North Park Theological Seminary.

Following Sunday worship, the congregation will host a family brunch at the church. The church will kick off the weekend with a 2:30 p.m. open house on June 28. It will be followed by a 5:30 p.m. dinner and a program beginning at 7:15 p.m. Costs for the weekend have been underwritten, according to church staff, but reservations for dinner and the family brunch are needed due to space limitations.

Winnetka Covenant began its ministry in the fall of 1927 as a small group of believers met in the home of Gunsten Gunsteen. Church historian Dottie Carlson wrote in the church's 60th anniversary program that Winnetka Covenant owed its start to the "intense faith displayed by a handful of Scandinavian servant girls, chauffeurs and gardeners, struggling first to organize a church and then to keep it alive."

Maids in the North Shore area had Thursdays off and those evenings were spent in Bible study at a local chapel, Christ Church. In a correspondence to Carlson, pastor Warren Swanson said of the faith of some in the church, "I can remember kneeling at the front of that little sanctuary and saying to myself, 'This is foolishness,' and I'd hear Jenny Carlson and Josie Erickson and the rest of these people plead with God to answer their prayers."

Indeed, the prayers were answered as the church signed its original charter on December 14, 1927, under the leadership of Rev. A. Earnest Rohrbach who stayed until the following year. Seminary students filled the pulpit for a time as the congregation struggled financially. Sunday morning services (spoken in Swedish) were sparse as servants had to work until Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening services, spoken in English, were well attended and the church served as a social hub for many Swedish immigrants in the area. One seminary student who served as pastor, John Bengston (1928-35), started an English class and had 30 students as transient servants came and went in search of better employment.

The congregation began meeting at the Winnetka Community House after Christ Church was sold before they decided to build their own facility, which was dedicated on July 10, 1932. Maid Josie Erickson was able to get an $8,000 loan from her employer to start the work and architect Gunsteen volunteered his services for the project.

Bengston left the church and another seminary student, Aaron Markuson, served as pastor from 1937-42. He became executive secretary of the Youth Department (later renamed Christian Education) for the Evangelical Covenant Church and (in 1956) helped start the Covenant High Congress youth events that eventually evolved into Covenant High In Christ (CHIC) high school conferences. Other pastors who served during the early years were Warren Swanson (1949-53), LeRoy Benson (1953-58) and Charles Nelson (1959-66).

Nelson and Robert Dvorak, now superintendent of the East Coast Conference, served as senior pastors during the past three dozen years. Interim pastors included James Hawkinson, executive minister emeritus of the Department of Communication; noted Covenant pastor, speaker and author Wesley Nelson; and Bill Hausman, who once served as president of North Park University (then College). Steve Elde is now the senior pastor and Peter Hawkinson is associate pastor at the church, which has an average worship attendance of approximately 250.

For more information about Winnetka Covenant Church and its anniversary weekend or to register for the dinner and family brunch, call 847-446-4300.

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