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Winnetka Covenant Celebrates 75th Anniversary
WILMETTE, IL (July 7, 2003) - Winnetka Covenant Church welcomed former pastor
Art Nelson as guest preacher during the Sunday June 28 worship service,
part of the church's 75th anniversary celebration.
Nelson, who recently retired as pastor at North Park Covenant Church in
Chicago, was senior pastor at Winnetka Covenant for 19 years. He also
formerly served as Interim President of North Park College (now
University) and as Dean of Students for North Park Theological Seminary.
Winnetka Covenant began its ministry in the fall of 1927 when 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."
The church signed its original charter on December 14, 1927 under the
leadership of Rev. A. Earnest Rohrbach. It was blessed with a variety of
pastors who later served in denominational leadership. Aaron Markuson
served as pastor from 1937 to 1942 and went on to become executive
secretary of the Covenant Church's Youth Department (now Christian
Formation) and in 1956 helped start the Covenant High Congress youth
event now known as CHIC (Covenant High In Christ).
Robert Dvorak, now the superintendent of the East Coast Conference,
followed Nelson as pastor of Winnetka Covenant. Interim pastors who have
served the church include James Hawkinson, executive secretary emeritus
of publications; noted Covenant pastor, speaker and author Wesley
Nelson; and Bill Hausman, who once served as President of North Park
College.
Steve Elde is currently 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,
call 847-446-4300.
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