Covenant News

Stanton (IA) Celebrates 125 Years of Ministry

STANTON, IA (April 17, 2004) - Midwest Conference Supt. Kenneth Carlson will preach during the morning worship service and the Evangelical Covenant Church of Stanton will host a dinner on May 2 to commemorate 125 years of ministry.

Stanton Evangelical Covenant Church is one of four Covenant congregations scheduled to celebrate 125th anniversaries, according to yearbook records for the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). The others are Community Covenant Church in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts; Bethesda Covenant Church in New York City, and the Evangelical Covenant Church in Dassel, Minnesota.

Organized with 16 charter members on April 3, 1879, under pastor N.G. Franzen, the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Church built its first church a year later for $1,077 - the church grew out of revival services in the early 1870s. It joined what is now known as the ECC in 1885.

Early pastors who were instrumental during the church's first three decades included C.M. Youngquist (1882-85); the church's first permanent full-time pastor Adolph Noren (1887-1902); S.E. Roslin (1903-07); C.R. Martin (1907-09), and C.O. Isakson (1909-18). Eric Linder, who served from 1918-23, helped the church grow to 138 in membership and helped the church as it began coordinating Sunday school meetings in English for the first time during World War I. E.D. Strandberg served from 1923-35 and helped the congregation as it continued to transform itself.

Fred Jansson served as pastor from 1946-59 and a Hi League began ministry to teens and youth at that time under the leadership of Melvin and Doris Hogberg. That ministry made its mark on the Covenant in big and small ways. Verle Peterson, Darlien Johnson and Mary Palmquist served the denomination through Covenant Caravan for Christ, a short-term mission team that ministered to churches throughout North America. Peterson is now a Covenant pastor, serving Mt. Miguel Covenant Village in Spring Valley, California.

Lillian Burkhart, a confirmand at the church, later served in mission work in Peru, working with Native tribes for a non-Covenant organization. Clarice Hogberg, another confirmand, eventually served as a Covenant missionary teacher in Gbado, Zaire, and died April 27, 1973, of acute hepatitis. Naomi Sundberg served for a time as a teacher missionary to Covenant Mountain Mission in Jonesville, Virginia.

The Evangelical Covenant Church of Stanton is a congregation located in western Iowa, about 100 miles southwest of Des Moines and 60 miles east of Omaha, Nebraska. Its current pastor, Paul Warder, says the church will host another large group anniversary celebration November 13-14 with ECC Executive Vice President Donn Engebretson scheduled to preach that weekend. An anniversary booklet and other commemorative item are being organized and other events in the summer and early fall will also be coordinated with the anniversary in mind.

To learn more about the church and its anniversary events, call 712-829-2543. The church website can be found by visiting www.covchurch.org and looking in the Iowa section of the local Covenant church directory under the "Directory" tab.

To send information about church anniversaries for consideration in this online Covenant news report, email Covenant Communications at newsdesk@covchurch.org or send by postal mail to Covenant Communications, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. Information may also be provided by telephone at 773-478-4676, extension 117, or 773-478-4631.

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