LAKE GENEVA, WI (December 5, 2000) – For years, the idea of establishing an Evangelical Covenant church near Covenant Harbor Bible Camp (CHBC) has been appealing.
That dream moved closer to reality when a group of more than a dozen interested individuals met just before Thanksgiving with Central Conference Supt. Herbert Freedholm and Robert Larson, chair of the conference’s Commission on Church Planting.
CHBC Chaplain Karen Hinz and a handful of others from the camp have taken the initiative in pursuing development of a new church, hoping to begin worship services in Walworth County early next year. The group currently meets the first and third Sundays each month in Hinz’s home in Elkhorn, eight miles from CHBC. The group has even adopted a new for the new church – Anchor Evangelical Covenant Church – and has started publishing a newsletter called The Link. A search for a developer pastor is under way, Freedholm said.
For some 35 years, summer worship services at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp have received high praise from Covenanters who enjoy spending the day at the camp following the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service. When summer ends, however, staff members say they are disappointed not to have a Covenant church close by. “To have a camp here and not have a Covenant church for 45-60 minutes is a weird thing,” Hinz said. “For camp staff, when the summer is over, they don’t find a fit in terms of church.”
During a Sunday worship service earlier this summer at the camp, community and summer cottage residents expressed interest in having a Covenant church established in the area. For the past three years Hinz and others have conducted a service at 8 a.m. on Sundays. The blended musical style, informal dress and more casual worship atmosphere appealed to many – some inquired whether the summer services could continue on a permanent basis. In addition to the core group, another 30 families have inquired about the new church, said Hinz, who is a 1998 graduate of North Park Theological Seminary.
“The church is more staff-driven than anything else, but we don’t see this as the Covenant Harbor Church,” said Hinz, whose husband David is camp operations manager. “People have been attracted to the style of the early service. And it (the formation of a church) is because we think that we can reach people with the gospel in this area.”
Freedholm admires the budding congregation’s spirit. “It began with a number of folks working at Covenant Harbor,” said Freedholm. “There was a group of people who attended an early service in the summer and they wanted to know (after summer worship services ended) what was next. We’ve talked for a long time about a church in that area. They’re really moving aggressively on this, and that’s encouraging.”
For more information on the new church effort, contact Hinz by telephone at 262-723-7164 or by email at hinz57@elknet.net.
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