By Gustav Skogens<\/p>\n
CHICAGO, IL (May 18, 2009) \u2013 The paths to professional ministry have been different for Bruce Helgeson, Heidi Wiebe, Paul Lessard, and Rick Carlson\u2014some have been more winding than others. But they all share one thing in common\u2014all began with Covenant Heartsong.
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\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/uploads\/Zq\/L-\/ZqL-OvC-MaIxbPKibELsgw\/Heartsong-Group.jpg\")
Throughout the 1980s, the performance group\u2014a one-year, volunteer ministry\u2014traveled across the United States. Through music, drama, and puppetry, they spread God\u2019s word at Covenant churches from Minnesota to Texas, and California to Maine. More than 100 individuals served in teams of eight to 10 people over the lifespan of the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran from God\u2019s call to ministry for many years because I saw it as being too risky for the lifestyle I desired,\u201d says Bruce Helgeson, drummer for the 1987-88 team. \u201cBut the Heartsong adventure changed me because the Lord used it to transform my life and how I viewed ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helgeson\u2019s is not the only life the Heartsong experience changed. Heidi Wiebe joined the 1984-85 team as a singer. At the time, she attended graduate school in Boston, but didn\u2019t know what to do with her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was emotionally fragile from my time in Boston, and Heartsong made me discover what God really wanted me to do,\u201d she remembers. \u201cIt pushed me into ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lessard played bass and guitar in the 1980-81 and 1981-82 lineups. Early on, he wanted to go into ministry, and Heartsong provided a perfect outlet for his passion to bring God to people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt planted the seed for professional ministry,\u201d Lessard says.<\/p>\n
Helgeson, Wiebe, and Lessard came to Heartsong in different ways. Helgeson\u2019s teacher at Covenant Bible College recommended him; Wiebe sent in audition tapes; and Paul\u2019s girlfriend at the time, Rebecca, saw the first Heartsong team perform in Bemidji, Minnesota, and put in a good word for him. (The two married following his second Heartsong stint).<\/p>\n
However, they all have one man to thank for the opportunity\u2014Rick Carlson.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Seattle Pacific University in 1978 with a music education degree, Carlson declined an immediate job offer. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t what God wanted me to do,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
Instead, he dreamed of starting a traveling music and drama group and sent a letter to David Noreen, then executive secretary of Christian Education.<\/p>\n
Known for (according to Rick) being a \u201cvisionary kind of guy,\u201d David jumped onboard the project, and 22-year-old Rick moved to Chicago. Equipped with youthful enthusiasm, \u201cI started writing music like crazy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Carlson thought, \u201cIf God is calling, let\u2019s see where it goes.\u201d He also wrote scripts for Heartsong\u2019s two other components, drama and puppetry.<\/p>\n
Noreen did most of the fundraising for the needed sound equipment, puppets, and traveling expenses.<\/p>\n
In 1979 following 10 months of preparation, including a nationwide audition tour and a month of rehearsals, Heartsong was born. The first team of 10 people crammed into a single van and hit the road.<\/p>\n
After initial skepticism from some churches, Heartsong grew in popularity steadily. Eventually, \u201cThey were really excited for us to come,\u201d Rick remembers. Heartsong became more established over the years and had no problem booking engagements.<\/p>\n
The teams stayed for up to a week at each church. They performed for youth and children, in nursing homes and did outreach concerts. Usually, congregation members accommodated the groups in their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my two years, I probably slept in 150 different homes,\u201d Lessard says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing was getting to know people we lived with,\u201d Helgeson says. \u201cIt created bonds for life and was extremely rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.covchurch.org\/uploads\/nJ\/AR\/nJARhBJYdzlxev-bBWeBEQ\/Singing-guys.jpg\")
Living and traveling so closely with a group of people for such a long time taught them useful skills for ministry work. \u201cLooking back, Heartsong taught me how to interact, read, and understand people,\u201d Lessard says.<\/p>\n
Wiebe agrees, adding, \u201cI learned a lot about myself and inter-personal communication.\u201d She describes Heartsong as a unique, wonderful and self-affirming experience. \u201cI was forced to be very upfront with myself and my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
The performances also gave the teams laughs and memories for life. Bruce remembers a particularly crazy skit at a children\u2019s home in Cromwell, Connecticut, in which he played a rebellious teenager\u2014his team members, Lynn Black and Craig Pinley, portrayed his parents.<\/p>\n
\u201dI acted like a goofball and jumped around all over the stage,\u201d Bruce says. Getting disoriented, he slipped off the stage and severely sprained his ankle, which is especially tough if you\u2019re the group\u2019s drummer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was literally crying at the drum set, almost dying,\u201d he says, laughing at the memory.<\/p>\n
The last Heartsong team toured in 1988. The ministry was extremely hard to sustain financially, and it also was a good time to move on, Carlson says.<\/p>\n
Lessard, however, was sad to see the ministry go. \u201cIt provided a vehicle for young adults who, like I did, felt an immediate call to go into ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds that one of the biggest challenges for the denomination is to give those young adults a new opportunity.<\/p>\n
After traveling with Heartsong, none of the four went straight into professional ministry. Before attending Bethel Seminary, Carlson pursued his education as a music writer for television and film in Los Angeles. Simultaneously, though, he kept working with Heartsong, writing songs and scripts and training every team.<\/p>\n
Heartsong was a good starting point, he says, to hear God\u2019s call and follow through on a dream. Carlson is a well-known musician in the denomination and has 23 songs in The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook<\/em>, including \u201cBe Still,\u201d \u201cTrust in the Lord with All Your Heart,\u201d and \u201cWhere Justice Rolls Down,\u201d which he co-wrote with Bob Stromberg and Michael Pearce Donley. For the past 11 years, he served as pastor at Roseville Covenant Church, Minnesota. He recently left the church to pursue other goals.<\/p>\n Following two years on tour with Heartsong, Lessard continued working with Carlson on scriptwriting, recording, and training Heartsong teams. He recently ended more than 20 years of ministry in the Covenant, including as executive vice-president and acting president of Covenant Bible College International. He now works as regional director at Colorado Christian University.<\/p>\n Helgeson earned a degree in mortuary science from the University of Minnesota and then a teaching degree at Utah State University. At the Roseau Covenant Church in Roseau, Minnesota, he also helped lead youth ministry and became an associate pastor in 2000.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to stay away from ministry, but opportunities kept presenting themselves,\u201d says Helgeson, who now attends North Park Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n Following Heartsong, Wiebe moved to New Mexico and worked outside a church setting for three years. Sensing the call to ministry, she graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She began her pastoral ministry at Grandview Covenant Church in northwest Iowa in 1992. Last year, she concluded her term as president of the Covenant Ministerium.<\/p>\n She currently is the senior pastor at Brookwood Covenant Church in Topeka, Kansas. She muses about how events can be connected.<\/p>\n While going through a storage room at the church, she found a forgotten poster advertising her Heartsong group\u2019s performance at Brookwood more than 20 years earlier.<\/p>\n (Editor\u2019s note: Gustav Skogens is a North Park University student completing an internship with the Department of Communication.)<\/p>\n