Covenant News

Palmberg: 'Good Things Are Happening, More is Possible'

ROSEMONT, IL (June 26, 2003) - The approval of 22 churches for membership at Thursday morning's business meeting started the 118th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) off to an energetic start, setting the stage for ECC President Glenn R. Palmberg to express appreciation for a joyful year of ministry.

"I am honored to be president of the Covenant at this point in its history because I'm privileged to serve a healthy denomination," said Palmberg to delegates as he recalled the five years of his presidency. "We're not the only healthy denomination, but we're one of the healthy denominations - and not everyone can say that."

Palmberg said he is excited about the breath of energy that new churches bring to the denomination (more about the new churches can be found in another article on this Covenant news report). He stressed that the Covenant's health is based on two factors - its tradition and heritage and its focus on both the Great Commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves and the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations. He said that the work from the Department of Christian Formation with its focus on "turning believers into disciples" and the efforts in discipleship from congregations have made him proud to serve the denomination. He lauded the work of Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago and its new daycare center as one example.

Shortly after Thursday's morning business meeting opened, Palmberg introduced Gbuda Luyada, president of the Congo Evangelical Covenant Church (CEUM) to delegates, stating, "I welcome him with the promise that they are not and will not be forgotten."

After President Luyada prayed for the ECC, Jerome Nelson, who serves as director of church and society for the Central Conference, presented the CEUM president with a check to be used for Christian education materials for the children of the CEUM. The check (and monies still being collected) came as the result of a cooperative fundraising effort between the Department of World Mission, Covenant World Relief, the Department of Christian Formation and the African American Ministers Association.

In his president's report, Palmberg announced that a focus in the upcoming year will be to assist Congo, especially in the area of medical missions. An arrangement with a Portland, Oregon, hospital is being made to send short-term medical mission teams to needed areas. And a 40th anniversary celebration honoring Paul Carlson, a martyred missionary in Congo, will highlight the 2004 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis next June and bring more exposure to the needs in Congo.

He noted that Ted Koppel, host of ABC's Nightline program, recently apologized for ignoring the needs of Congo and for acting as if "no one cared" for the plight of people there. "I wanted to call Ted Koppel and say that we care," Palmberg said. He added that he hoped to raise the equivalent of $10 per Covenanter to aid Covenant's clinics and hospitals in Congo. "I know there are needs in other parts of the world," said Palmberg, "but these are our hospitals, and our brothers and sisters, and our church and we must stand by them."

Another highlight of the meeting was an update on the Keystone Challenge, an initiative launched at the 2002 Annual Meeting (in Keystone, Colorado) to increase funding for World Mission by $500,000. Executive Vice President Donn Engebretson reported that $569,000 has been pledged as a result of the Keystone Challenge. Of that projected total, $312,000 has already been collected. Some of the funds were one-time gifts, Engebretson said, but more than $200,000 came from churches that have made the Keystone Challenge part of their annual budgets. That means that the Keystone Challenge can continue to bolster World Mission in the future. "I think that is an enormous item of praise," Engebretson said.

In other news:

• The ECC's credentialing committee announced that a total of 538 credentialed delegates from 242 churches represented the denomination at Thursday morning's business session.
• Along with approving new Covenant churches, delegates approved two churches that had merged along with the closure of eight Covenant churches (more about the closed churches can be found in a separate article).
• Elliott Johnson represented the Covenant and gave the treasurer's report, noting that giving by local congregations to the ECC totaled $8,183,547 and that giving to Covenant World Relief totaled $1,063,840.
• Also noted were the Covenant's increase in average worship attendance to 140,617 and its increase in membership (up 2.3 percent) to 107,379.
• Charles Walles and David Dwight gave reports on Covenant Trust Company and Covenant Ministries of Benevolence respectively.

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