Cross-Cultural Ministries
Missions
How has Pasadena Covenant Church been involved in God’s mission around the world?
Early Years: Pasadena and China
Perhaps it was because they had crossed an ocean to get here. Perhaps it was because they took the Bible seriously and knew that Matthew 28:19 reads, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” For whatever reason, the Swedish immigrants who founded a church in Pasadena in 1922, had the world on their hearts from the beginning, and within a decade or so had named it Mission Covenant Church. They were moved to support missions in China in the 1930s after hearing a Covenant missionary, Joel Johnson, speak at the church about the educational and benevolence work being done in war-torn central China.
Congo
In 1944 Mission Covenant Church sent out their first missionary from Pasadena, Ann Berg. She had worked for a few years as a church-supported Sunday school teacher in Pasadena, and she carried on that role in what was then Belgian Congo.
Ann’s particular interest was in the education of women. The Covenant missionaries with whom Ann worked eventually included dozens of educators, ministers, translators, doctors, nurses, builders, and engineers. In 1960, as Belgium agreed to give Congo independence, the Covenant transferred four hospitals, many schools, and other properties to the Congolese. Ann stayed in Congo until 1980, helping to train local leaders. Karen Benson, a nurse and nurse educator, was another missionary supported by our church serving in Congo from the 70s until the early years of the 21st century. Our connection with Congo has continued through Fred and Karen Vinton, who attended Pasadena Covenant 2009-2012, and are now working in Goma (eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) with Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Today, the Covenant church in DR Congo (CEUM) has more than 1600 churches (compare that to 875 in the U.S.). Mossai Sanguma, president of the CEUM from 2003-2012, attended Pas Cov during his years at Fuller.
Japan
Japan was the focus of a missionary sent by our church in the 1940s. While studying at Pasadena City College, Robert Verme became interested in the island nation and made several Japanese friends, whom he invited to church. In 1949, Mission Covenant sent him and his young family to Japan.
By the mid-1950s, Covenant missions work in Japan included a Bible camp for nurses, a Bible class held in a printing company, classes in a boys’ reform school, English classes for university students, and Sunday schools in Tokyo and Nagaoka. The Vermes served in Japan until 1972.
Pasadena Covenant is still strongly connected to Japan through our current missionaries, Tim and Wakako Clark, who have done evangelism and church-planting in Sapporo and Tokyo over the past two decades.
Becoming a Mission-Centered Church
Through the 1950s and 1960s, Mission/Pasadena Covenant continued to support missionaries, many of whom had grown up in the church and been inspired here.
Church missions conference brochure 1958
There were annual missions conferences. Covenant Women supported missions with special event meals, packages of supplies, and letters to missionaries. When the church received a large gift of money to construct the new gym and classroom building, Pastor Arvid Carlson challenged the church to raise an additional $100,000 in matching gifts for missions, which we did. In addition to the workers in Congo and Japan, missionaries from our church were serving overseas in Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and New Guinea. The diverse ethnic populations in Alaska and the Navajos in Arizona were also focal points.
Thailand
In 1971 Joan Christensen Gustafson, who had grown up in Pasadena Covenant, and her husband Jim, a recent Fuller Seminary grad who worked at Pasadena Covenant as a youth minister and was ordained in the Covenant, went to Thailand. Applying principles of contextualization, the Gustafsons began work with several Thai church leaders in the northeast province of Udon Thani to re-envision how the gospel could be more effectively communicated to the Isaan people there.
Jim and the Thai team encouraged musicians in the group to create new hymns and dance to embody contextually sensitive understandings of the gospel. They also helped these new Christians become economically self-sufficient by developing pig and fish farming. Joan coordinated the mission’s finances.
After nearly two decades without many other missionaries joining this work, several families with close ties to Pasadena Covenant signed up in the late 1980s. Peter and Ruthie Dutton went to Udon Thani, while Doug and Carolyn Johnson and Paul and Gretchen DeNeui partnered with a team from Udon Thani to begin a new ministry in another Isaan province, Roi Et. Their focus was again multifaceted—discipleship, church-planting, contextualized worship, and economic development through fish farms, as well as the initiation of a campground ministry. Still another Covenant couple, Carl and Karen Groot, established a new ministry among the Isaan people who had migrated to Bangkok looking for work, by developing a crafts business to help alleviate poverty. Soon the Duttons went to northwest Laos, which shares a similar culture because of the historic and linguistic connection between the Isaan and Lao people, and began a ministry there utilizing fish farming and agriculture to minister to the people and share the gospel.
The Thai work is in the hands of local leaders now. The emphases on an integration of church planting with economic development and the use of local cultural forms in presenting the gospel remain and help animate work in the churches.
Across Africa and Asia
We have focused attention on Congo, Japan, and Thailand, but the influence of Pas Cov has also spread along what is known as the 10-40 window (a region that has historically been less developed and has fewer Christian resources). These maps highlight some of the areas where our cross-cultural workers have served (Bob & Koleen French, James Tang, Hannah & Jared Baker, Steve & Kitty Holloway, Lisa & Brad L, Milton & Stephanie Coke) .
Leadership and Training
Many of the people supported by Pasadena Covenant are now in positions of leadership. Milton Coke, a member of Pasadena Covenant with his wife, Stephanie, has worked with Global Partners for Development in southeast Asia since 1975, and is currently serving as their president and CEO. Eugenio and Pia Restrepo are the Covenant denomination’s Regional Directors for Latin America. Paul and Sue Hoiland have been with Wycliffe Bible translators for over 30 years, first on the field in Latin America and more recently as mentors and trainers based in the U.S. (ready to retire at the end of 2021). Peter and Ruthie Dutton have recently moved back to the U.S. and will continue to work with the Covenant’s ministry in Thailand, making trips to southeast Asia to mentor and train those involved in the camp ministry they have led for the past several years as well as provide leadership in other areas, as needed. Paul De Neui is now a professor of missions and intercultural studies at North Park Seminary and is Director of the Covenant’s Center for World Christian Studies. His wife, Gretchen, is the Finance Manager for the Covenant’s Serve Globally Team. Rich and Lisa Lamb recently headed overseas to do seminary teaching and discipleship training in several countries in southeast Asia and beyond.
Through the support of several InterVarsity staff, the church is also shaping the next generation of Christians. Dan Stringer and Joe Thackwell work through InterVarsity with grad students, Dan in Hawaii and Joe at the University of Southern California. Tim Hsieh works in campus ministry with InterVarsity in the Pacific Northwest, and Elizabeth Walsh does so out of St. Louis. Maureen Huang is InterVarsity’s director of Multiethnic Initiatives.
Limitations on space means that there are many other missionaries and areas of the world we haven’t mentioned. Feel free to remind us of them in your comments. In addition, besides funding full-time missionaries, our church has supported short-term trips, Urbana missions conference scholarships, disaster relief and development, and special project grants.
Beyond 100
The rich history of Pasadena Covenant’s engagement in global mission is an integral part of who we are as members of the Body of Christ. Missiological issues have changed, and the world has changed in many ways since the church first sent out missionaries, but the need for Good News among all people has not. Today, more than 40%* of the world’s population is part of a group that has little connection to anyone who knows and follows Jesus. What cross-cultural work is next for us as individuals and for the church?
We are so grateful to the many who have sought to follow God over the past century,
and now we seek to imitate their faith for the next hundred years.
Please join us in giving to this legacy of faithfulness!
*from https://joshuaproject.net/