Covenant News
Four Seminary Graduates Receive The Quentin 'Dusty' Larson Fund
CHICAGO, IL (October 23, 2003) - Four recent graduates of North Park Theological Seminary (NPTS) are headed to Town and Country pastorates within the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) and a fund named for a late Town and Country pastor is helping them pay off expenses from their education.Dan Olson, Darrell Cooper, Gavin Ellis, and Mike Poindexter have received a combined total of $22,000 in assistance from the Quentin 'Dusty' Larson Fund for seminary debt relief. The monies (which are sent directly to NPTS to pay off accumulated educational bills) will help defray living expenses as they follow their call into rural ministry. Olson is at Faith Evangelical Covenant Church in Breton, Alberta; Cooper is an associate pastor at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Lindsborg, Kansas; Ellis recently took a call as pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Albert City, Iowa, and Poindexter is in Warren, Pennsylvania, as pastor of Bethlehem Covenant Church.
"Compensation packages for rural churches continue to lag behind the
average for all Covenant churches," said Rob Hall, associate director of
technical and legal services for the Evangelical Covenant Church's
Department of Church Growth and Evangelism and liaison for the Town and
Country Commission. "Without the Quentin 'Dusty' Larson Fund for
seminary debt relief many seminarians would not be able to consider a
rural call due to financial reasons. Because of the Dusty Fund, five
individuals have been able to pursue their call to rural ministry,
without having to be overly concerned about the financial impact that it
will have on their families."
One pastor who has already benefited from the Dusty Fund is Craig Duffield, pastor at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. Duffield has been pastor of his congregation of 50 for nearly seven years. He grew up in the farming community of Malta, Illinois, and said he first felt God was calling him into ministry in high school. He was living in Malta and working as a truck driver before heading to NPTS from 1994 until 1997 for his seminary education.
"I knew I would go back into a town and country setting," said Duffield, who received debt relief of $10,000 over four years. "God had prepared me for that all of my life. And I knew there were some opportunities there (in Town and Country ministry). Knowing that there was going to be some help paying seminary debt helped us not to worry so much about what the salary package was going to be. Duffield is still paying off his education but he has been blessed by how the Dusty Fund has aided his ministry in Ridgway, adding, "It allowed us to get into a small, rural church and work towards revitalization and growth. We're excited about some of the things happening right now and we're looking forward to what God's going to do in the future."
The Dusty Larson Memorial Fund assists pastors who graduate from NPTS and accept a call to a town and country church. The award dates back to 1997. The accompanying photo shows Virginia Larson, the wife of the late Dusty Larson, accepting a Town and Country ministries citation from commission chair Rob Satterberg for the efforts of Grace Covenant Church in Iron River, Michigan, in supporting the Dusty Fund.
For more information about the Dusty Larson Memorial Fund and Town and Country ministries in the denomination, call Hall at 773-907-3341.
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