CHICAGO, IL (August 18, 2006) – While pastors participate in workshops and worship services (or dine in the hotel restaurant) at the Covenant\u2019s Midwinter Conference, Carolyn Pitezel is busy making sure even the smallest detail has been handled so that the pastors at the conference have a renewing experience. She wakes before most ministers rise and goes to bed long after most have turned in for the night.<\/p>\n
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Pitezel may not be familiar to many members of the Evangelical Covenant Church, but her work on the details of Midwinter has impacted pastors as well as their congregations. This week, the coordinator of the Midwinter Conference celebrates her fortieth anniversary at Covenant offices.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarolyn is a person who always does in Dorothy Sayers wonderful phrase, \u2018good work for God’s work,\u2019 \u201d says Donn Engebretson, the Covenant\u2019s executive vice- president. \u201cCarolyn’s passion for Christ and for Christ’s work through the Covenant and in particular in these last number of years her passion for the ministry of the Midwinter Conference has had a huge impact on the trajectory of our shared ministry. There is no one who has a great heart for the Midwinter than Carolyn, who wants to make sure that pastors are ministered to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Midwinter is much of the glue that keeps the Covenant together,\u201d Pitezel says. \u201cOver and over the pastors give us the feedback that the workshops are important but that the fellowship is even more important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitezel began work at Covenant offices when Engebretson\u2019s father, former Covenant President Milton Engebretson, hired her in 1966. She was a secretary at Edgebrook Covenant Church at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost didn\u2019t take the job because I was afraid I wouldn\u2019t have contact with people,\u201d Pitezel says, \u201cbut I certainly found that to be an incorrect assumption. I\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with many wonderful people. To not take this job would have been a big mistake.\u201d She adds, though, \u201cI never had any intention of remaining here for 40 years,\u201d Pitezel says.<\/p>\n
Along with Midwinter, Pitezel at times was responsible for planning the Annual Meeting, as well as working with Covenant World Relief, and the Board of Administrators\u2014some of them at the same time.<\/p>\n
These days, the papers spread across Pitezel\u2019s desk are filled with a dizzying array of items that must be dealt with in preparation for the 2007 Midwinter Conference, to be held in Denver, Colorado. She also has already begun working on the 2008 and 2009 meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sheer size of the conference and our needs requires that you start early,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The Midwinter Conference, which began in 1939, has grown from being primarily a meeting for administrators to being the second largest Covenant gathering, second only to CHIC.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarolyn represents the very highest level of servant leadership in the life of the Church,\u201d Engebretson says. \u201cHer diligence, excellence and attention to detail and to the needs of the people with whom she works sets Carolyn off as a choice servant of God.\u201d Her work has even been noted by other denominations seeking to improve the excellence of their own meeting, he adds.<\/p>\n
Pitezel is quick to deflect praise that would highlight her accomplishments. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with so many wonderful people. None of this would have happened without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She lists as mentors: Erma Chinander, Muriel Rocene, Jerry Johnson, Evelyn Johnson, and Cliff Bjorklund, for whom she worked at Edgebrook and later at Covenant offices.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/p>\n