Covenant News

Maldonado: Long Association With Covenant

CHICAGO, IL (May 19, 2005) - Jorge Maldonado, who will receive an honorary doctorate at North Park Theological Seminary's commencement and consecration service on Saturday, first learned of the Evangelical Covenant Church at a mission church when he was a five-year-old in Ecuador.

"They rented a storefront church on the block where our house was," says Maldonado. His mother came "to know the Lord" through the church and brought him every Sunday.

Maldonado has served the Covenant in many ways in Ecuador and the United States. He currently is the president of the El Centro Hispano de Estudios Teológicos (CHET), which trains Hispanics for ministry.

The biggest challenge facing the growth of Hispanic ministries is training enough leaders, he says. There are many who want to serve, they have to get proper training. "They have to work hard to support their families and go to school," Maldonado says. More than 95 percent of the CHET students are first-generation immigrants, which makes finding work even more difficult, he adds. "We need to be flexible and still hold on to academic standards."

Maldonado says the denomination is attractive to Hispanics because "the Covenant has shown respect and demonstrated real commitment to multi-ethnic ministries. It has opened its arms and doors. It has been received as genuine."

Maldonado also is a musician and hymn writer. One of his songs, "Seguirte Solo a Ti (We Worship Only You), is included in The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook. He hasn't had as much time to devote to his music, as he would like, he says. "I still play a little guitar and a little writing."

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