Celebrating a Memorable Birthday

I recently made reference to the largely unknown denomination in which I have been a pastor for the past forty-five years. Within that small denomination, a disproportional degree of celebrity has been associated including the likes of actor Tom Hanks, Coach Mike Holmgren, television doctor G. Timothy Johnson and the timeless hymn “How Great Thou Art.”

This week The Evangelical Covenant Church celebrates its 140th anniversary. It was born on February 20, 1885 in Chicago. That was just five months before my maternal grandfather Gunder Birkeland was born in Sauda. Both births were of Scandinavian origin and both resulted in unexpected futures that have blessed the lives of countless people.

My mother’s father was born on July 1, 1885 in the fjord country of Norway. Inflicted with infantile polio, Papa Birkeland had a severe spinal deformity and walked with a significant limp. Nonetheless, he immigrated with his four brothers to America to seek a better life.

My grandfather would succeed as an entrepreneur. He would own property on which the Seattle World’s Fair would be constructed. He would build several homes on prestigious Queen Anne Hill. He would send all his grandchildren (including me) to college. He would model a life of faith that acknowledged God’s faithfulness in the midst of suffering and hardship. Ironically, this physically challenged immigrant outlived all his siblings and died at the age of ninety in 1976.

That was the year I discovered the Evangelical Covenant Church while pursing my divinity degree at Fuller Theological Seminary. Pasadena Covenant Church introduced me to a faith heritage of which I previously knew nothing. With much interest I discovered the Covenant Church was birthed in the context of the Scandinavian immigration of which my grandfather and his brothers were part.

Norwegians and Swedes, in search of improved living conditions and opportunity for vocational advancement, flocked to America by the tens of thousands. They settled near major cities in the United States where Scandinavians had previously settled like Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle. Those from Sweden brought with them a spiritual awakening that had begun renewing the staid State Lutheran Church. It was a revival movement that emphasized a personal relationship with God including Bible reading, prayer and giving testimony to one’s experience of grace.

These Swedish revivalists were known as “mission friends.” There were two questions that characterized their conversations with one another as they would meet regularly for spiritual enrichment: “Where do you find that written in the Bible?” and “How is your walk with the Lord going?”

These “mission friends” were friends on a mission to make it in the new world. They clung to customs and traditions from the old country for comfort. Because they largely couldn’t speak English, when they gathered in their homes for Bible study and prayer, Swedish was the preferred language.

Home fellowship groups eventually became organized and Swedish-speaking congregations were formed. These labor pangs resulted in the birth of a new denomination on a cold February day in 1885 in the Windy City. A sermon was preached to the delegates prior to a vote that would formally establish the movement. The message was given by The Reverend F. M. Johnson, the great-great-grandfather of a friend of mine. It was based on a text from Psalm 119:63. “I am a companion of all them that fear Thee…”

That non-sectarian rubric was what first attracted me as a pastor-in-training. Here was a mainline Evangelical church that welcomed all who affirmed the authority of Scripture and the necessity of the new birth. They majored on the major doctrines of Christian faith and minored on the minors. It was a church where there was freedom to disagree on non-essentials.

From that ragtag collection of independent Swedish-speaking congregations (who valued their Lutheran heritage), a movement grew and matured in North America. The Evangelical Covenant Church now boasts 829 churches in the United States and Canada with a weekly attendance of nearly 220,000 worshippers. That group of Covenant churches includes one of the largest churches in the nation. Life Covenant Church in Oklahoma numbers 85,000 weekly attenders.

In addition to each week’s post on this website, Greg Asimakoupoulos offers daily video devotionals on his YouTube channel. Here is a sample video. If you are interested in receiving these devotionals Monday through Friday, you can subscribe on Greg’s channel.