Ministerial Alliance and Partners to Launch Suburban Youth Shelter

BROOKLYN PARK, MN (October 8, 2014) — The leadership of Steve Larson, pastor of Redeemer Covenant Church, in connecting and mobilizing local churches to address justice issues has been highlighted in article published by Transform Minnesota.

Transform Minnesota “is a regional network of churches and ministries, connecting and mobilizing evangelicals to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus throughout Minnesota,” according to its website.

Since Larson took over leadership of the Brooklyn Area Ministers Association (BAMA) six years ago, it has broadened its membership and created new partnerships with civic and governmental agencies. Their work has included starting food pantries for needy children and backpack programs.

But the biggest project so far will soon come to fruition. According to the article, “Through partnerships with the city, community groups and churches, Brooklyn Park will soon open the first suburban youth shelter in the Twin Cities. Brooklyn Avenues will be a 12-bed shelter run by the nonprofit Avenues for Homeless Youth and is slated to open later this year or early next year.”

Adriaan Overbeeke, pastor of Crossroads Alliance Church in Brooklyn Park, said this is the first time he has seen such extensive collaboration in his 25 years of ministry

“What’s happening here is very unique and distinct because the churches that are collaborating are across the spectrum in terms of mainline through evangelical and everything in between,” Overbeeke said. “We want to move for the betterment of our community, engage a very real issue that hits close to home.”

Digital Collection of The Covenant Yearbook Easier to Access

CHICAGO, IL (October 8, 2014) – Digital copies of The Covenant Yearbook dating from 1885 to 1999 are now available by year as part of the Frisk Collection of Covenant Literature. They previously were available only by decade which made downloads considerable slower than they are now.

The Covenant Yearbook began publication in 1885 after the first annual meeting of the Svenska Evangeliska Missions-Förbundet in Princeton, Illinois. Compiled annually, the yearbook is a record of the Evangelical Covenant Church. It contains resources based on reports from the administrative offices, the mission fields, conferences, and the educational and benevolent institutions of the denomination.

It also publishes the proceedings of the annual meeting and a current list of pastors and local churches with statistical data. Originally published in Swedish, the yearbook gradually transitioned to English-only by the mid-1930s.