{"id":488,"date":"2009-05-01T20:03:27","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T20:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=488"},"modified":"2010-12-22T13:07:26","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T18:07:26","slug":"7033","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/05\/01\/7033\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Conference Serves Community, Celebrates Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cathy Norman Peterson<\/p>\n

LAKE GENEVA, WI (May 1, 2009) – \u201cCalled to Serve\u201d was not just the theme in the brochures of the 123rd Annual Meeting of the Central Conference\u2014it was also an invitation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Delegates began the two-day meetings held April 24-25 at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, by serving the camp and its surrounding community. Among the many projects, they sorted clothes and food for a local food pantry, engaged with residents at a local nursing home, knit prayer shawls and baby caps for Swedish Covenant Hospital, and helped paint bathrooms at the camp.<\/p>\n

The Friday evening worship service featured bluegrass music from Country Evangelical Covenant Church<\/a> in Elgin, Illinois.<\/p>\n

Debbie Blue, executive minister of the denomination\u2019s Department of Compassion, Mercy, and Justice, shared stories of seeing children living in garbage dumps in India, village women who had been denied medical treatment in Sierra Leone, and the town of Phoenix, Louisiana, which remained underwater for more than a month after Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo these stories make you uncomfortable?\u201d she asked. \u201cFor me, yes. They are very uncomfortable stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue recalled her former inclination to address poverty and injustice simply by writing a check. The experiences broke her heart, however, and she challenged listeners to let the world break theirs.<\/p>\n

Willie Comer, pastor of the new Berean Covenant Church in Champaign, Illinois, spoke candidly about his reluctant response to God\u2019s call to serve as a church planter. \u201cI told God, \u2018You have to open all the doors. I\u2019m not opening any of them, so you have to do it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Comer and his wife, Zabrina, are partnering with the Evangelical Covenant Church<\/a> of Hinsdale, Illinois to plant the church. Associate Superintendent Jolene Bergstrom-Carlson led delegates in prayer for Comer and for Sergio Gonzalez and Daniela Flores, pastors of Iglesia del Pacto de Vida Plena, a church plant currently meeting at Fellowship Christian Church<\/a> in Oak Park, Illinois<\/p>\n

Superintendent Jerome Nelson led the delegates in prayer for Christ the King Covenant Church in Crown Point, Indiana, which closed, and for Iglesia del Pacto el Redentor in Indianapolis, which transferred out of the denomination.<\/p>\n

Linda Cannell, dean of academic life at North Park Theological Seminary<\/a>, shared how the school was working to better serve the denomination.<\/p>\n

She addressed the questions, \u201cIs there a future for theological education?\u201d and<\/p>\n

\u201cIs theological education the same as seminary?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou and I both know that seminaries cannot and will never be able to provide all that is needed in the development of men and women to fulfill the mission of the church in the world,\u201d she said. Still, Cannell, who joined the faculty last September, added, the school has a duty to serve the church by supporting ministers around the world throughout their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means that we take some responsibility in working with Covenant departments to make sure that the kind of resources that are needed by people in congregations and other organizations are there, that they are healthy, that they are adequate, that they are available and accessible. The seminary will have a role to play in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"One resource that Cannell hopes to strengthen is the seminary\u2019s doctor of ministry programs. A doctor of ministry of preaching is currently offered, but \u201cwe can go beyond that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In other business:<\/p>\n