Covenant News

New Additions to North Park Seminary Faculty

CHICAGO, IL (August 29, 2005) - Timothy "Yak" Johnson has joined the faculty at North Park Theological Seminary where he will serve as the director of field education and associate professor of ministry.

He joins Paul DeNeui as the newest professor at the seminary. DeNeui already has begun work and will serve for three years as the visiting associate professor of world mission as part of an arrangement with the Department of World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Johnson will begin October 1 and take over the field education duties from Prof. Richard Carlson, who has served as director for 26 years, according to Stephen Graham, dean of faculty. Carlson will continue to teach at the seminary.

Johnson most recently has served as pastor of Brookdale Covenant Church in Brooklyn, Minnesota. Prior to serving at Brookdale, Johnson was pastor for 11 years at Haddam Neck Covenant Church in Haddam Neck, Connecticut. He graduated from North Park University in 1975 and from the seminary in 1980. He also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in congregational studies from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. Johnson's dissertation focused on the historic understanding of members of the Covenant as "mission friends" and the implications of that description for congregations. A portion of the dissertation appeared in 1997 in The Covenant Quarterly.

Johnson has been extensively involved in ministry across the Covenant. He served on the CHIC executive committee for seven years and as president of the Covenant Ministerium from 1997 to 2000. That role also included membership on the Board of the Ordered Ministry. He played a significant role in events that led to the establishment of the Commission on Biblical Gender Equality and was elected to the Covenant Board of Benevolence at the 2005 Covenant Annual Meeting.

Johnson says his nickname "Yak" comes from his being raised in Yakima, Washington, where his parents were involved with the Covenant.

DeNeui is known to much of the Covenant for his years of mission work in Thailand. Paul and his wife, Gretchen, were commissioned in 1987 to be missionaries to the Southeast Asian nation. He was ordained in 1991 during the couple's first home assignment.

From 1987 to 1991, the couple worked with the Isaan Development Foundation (IDF) begun by Jim Gustafson in Udon Thani, Thailand. This ministry focuses on the poorest group in Thailand - the Lao speaking northeasterners known as Isaan - a people group of more than 20 million individuals. Paul's role was primarily with the agricultural support system raising fish and pigs.

Paul's work in Thailand also has included joining a church planting and enablement ministry that became the Lower Isaan Foundation for Enablement (LIFE). From 1991-2000, Paul worked with Thai staff to begin a fish farm support base and outreach ministry, a youth ministry, a leadership training program, a handicraft project for women, a development project involving a youth camp and forest preserve and a ministry to those suffering from AIDS.

  In 1994 he presented a paper on the integrated holistic development work of LIFE at an Asia-wide consultation on holistic ministry. In 1995 he wrote a profile on the Isaan people group. During 2000, Paul was reassigned to the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) in Udon Thani and worked with Thai leadership in developing training seminars for missionaries and local leaders. He also began a ministry to prisoners in a local jail, which he was able to turn over to Thai leadership.

Paul graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in ornamental horticulture from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo in 1982. He graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1987 and recently completed his doctoral work through Fuller.    

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