Summer 2014
Raising “New Sails” for Alaska Covenant Church by Curtis Ivanoff, Field Director
The work of the Covenant Church in hope may soon become a reality as the ECC has initiated a process for Alaska has a rich history, one that re- ECCAK to become a conference. When that happens, my title will minds us of God’s faithfulness and of change to “Superintendent”, reflective of the organizational change. the transforming power of the gospel. The other regional conferences in the lower-48 have this leadership Today we are living and serving in a time title. I have been included as a colleague with the other superintendents here in Alaska where one chapter is already, and I meet with them three times a year for fellowship, encourabout to end and a new one begin. The agement and discerning God’s movement for the larger work of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) has initiated movement for EC- Covenant. CAK to change its status from a mission field to becoming a newly There have been many pastors and leaders over these decades that established conference. This will be a momentous benchhad desire for this move to become a reality. I bemark, and I think it is helpful to look back to better unlieve it is a Spirit-led affirmation of confidence and “Let us prepare derstand the significance of this shift. respect by the denomination. In my conversations ourselves, by I currently serve as ECCAK’s “Field Director”. This with ECC leaders, the message I have received position title is rooted in history and reflective of the "We recognize that who better to lead and stewputting up new is, relationship between the Alaska ministries and the naard the work in Alaska than Alaskans." tional denomination, headquartered in Chicago, IL. Until What would this change mean for us in Alaska? sails so that we 1972, the work of the Covenant Church in Alaska was a On the surface, the work would continue on withcan catch what ministry of the ECC World Mission department. In other out things looking strikingly different. Things like words, the work in Alaska was in the same category as God will give us Norton Sound Easter get-togethers, Lower Yukon work in Japan or the Congo, even though we were one of Conference, and any other regional or localized and move the fifty states of the U.S. of A. The group that lead the events will continue on. But there is an organizationwork here was known as the Covenant Mission Council al shift that, in my mind, calls us all to step up to forward.” of Alaska, largely comprised of the missionaries who had steward the work in Alaska in deeper ways. All decimoved from out of state to serve in Alaska. You can see sion making and responsibility for the ministry in from that name how there was a sense of Alaska being a Alaska would be in our hands. That does not mean mission field. that the ECC or ECCAK would be distancing our relationship. We Things shifted in 1972 when the Covenant work in Alaska was would be connected in mission and in relationship as we have always moved from World Mission to Home Mission, and in 1973 ECCAK as been. However, we will be a self-governing entity rather than having we know it was formed. The name “Field Director” was given to the oversight from the Dept. of Church Growth and Evangelism. person who would oversee the work of the Alaska field. Being a financially self-supporting entity has been a key benchmark in One of the reasons for the shift was the hope and goal that the minis- order to become a conference, one that we have yet to reach. As retry in Alaska would one day become a self-governing conference. That (Continued on page 2)
Photo from Smithsonian Institute Alaska Native Collections: Umiat–skin-covered boats used for whaling–under sail off Point Barrow in 1921. Arthur Hansin Eide, Eide Collection; Anchorage Museum, B70.28.200.
From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:16