Three Great Religious Changes Brought About by the Reformation

Early In the 16th century the great religious reformer Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church in Germany. At the time, the Roman Catholic Church held on iron-fisted grip on the religious life of Christians. The church functioned as a strong political force over the lives of people as well. The belief’s and practices of the church and it’s moral ethics and theology were all determined by the reigning powers of the hierarchy of the church. When the church began to raise money by selling indulgences, which were papers offering the forgiveness of sins and pardon to souls trapped in purgatory, Luther took a stand toward reforming the waywardness of the church. His 95 theses were a challenge to the order of the day.

Three huge consequences for all of his followers—called “protesters” better known as Protestants (including the Evangelical Covenant)

1. The Bible was elevated to the highest position of authority. No ministry body of humans would have final say in authority or practice. This meant that each person should have full access to the Holy Scriptures in a way which was understandable. No human mediator would dictate to a person of faith what the Bible said or what it meant. Each individual would wrestle with the words themselves to come to un-derstand what God’s will is. This elevation of the Bible to the highest position of authority was captured in the phrase – solo scriptura – only the Bible.

2. Salvation was understood to come by faith in Christ, through the grace of God alone. This meant that no extra human contribution was necessary to achieve salvation and eternal life. Christ had provided it all. Therefore the power of doing good works, paying off your own sin debt through acts of penance, and even partaking in the sacraments was no longer an act of achieving heaven, but a response of love and gratitude from the heart of the individual. No mediator other than Christ existed between man and God.

3. The priesthood of all believers, was the third consequence and was a result of the first two – if Christ is sufficient and if the Bible is the final authority on our relation-ship with God, then it stands to reason that every individual who has expressed the saving faith in Christ becomes a kind of priest. This is not only taught in scripture but it also broke the reigning political power of the church. The structure of the priesthood in the Catholic church could no longer claim divine right of rule by force, demand, or decree. Immediately state leaders in Germany and the rest of Europe took this oppor-tunity to break from the Catholic church and establish governmental systems inde-pendent of the Pope, Rome, and Catholicism.

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

CovenantCovenant—— Martin LutherMartin Luther

Flash Forward 300 years — The Lutheran State Church

Three hundred years later, Lutheranism had become entrenched as a state institution. Personal as-pects of faith were diminished to nothing more than creedal statements recited in proper ceremonies. The free-dom of the individual to find a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit had swung full circle back to human authorities. People no longer read the Bible to know God but a human hierarchy of a structured Lutheran priest-hood established itself as the sole authority for interpreting the Bible. The church and state worked in such har-mony that spiritual lives were dictated by the government through use of law and force. It was illegal to not get baptized, not go to church or to fail to take communion once a year. To be a church pastor was to have a se-cure government job of prestige and power, regardless of one’s personal faith, ethics, morality, or spiritual con-nection with God. The Lutheran state church had swung full circle to become the same kind of institution that Luther had initially resisted in the first place. This was especially true in countries like Sweden.

Inside the state church certain Swedish people began to have a counter-cultural revolution of the spirit. Many who loved God and respected his Word, knew that matters of the heart and of behavior were critical to the true spiritual life. Though they did not see these qualities exhibited in a great way among their church lead-ership. They knew that it attaining a higher lifestyle was necessary for true life and freedom. Using their belief in the priesthood of all believers, and their belief that an individual can read and understand the Bible for direction and understanding of God, they began to meet in small groups in homes called conventicles. The purpose was a quest for a higher experience with God and with The Holy Spirit through life change. This action step was

birthed and carried along by a movement that history would call Pietism. In the 1800’s, Swedish Pietists, met in conventicles studying the Bi-ble, praying for each other, and engaging in worship. They had been influ-enced by the Germanic Moravians and their leader Nikolaus Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf. They were a group who had been experiencing moves of God’s spirit in joy, self-sacrifice, mission and love. The Moravians carried these ex-periences with them throughout the world influencing others like John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and one of the great voices responsible for a spiritual awakening in both England and America. One English Methodist, George Scott, came to Sweden preaching to displaced English workers who had been contracted for construction work. He quickly learned Swedish and began to speak to the locals as well. Scott brought with him, not only a bent toward pietism, but also the revival method of evangelism that had been cre-ated and refined in England and America. One of his strongest innovations was to create a newspaper called “Pietistin” which would spread the teach-ings of Pietism throughout Sweden. Revivalism meant that preaching, teach-ing, and even conversion to Christ were now happening outside of the leader-ship of the state church and outside of their structured institution. The state church would not react favorably to this and would quickly outlaw conventi-cles and banish Scott.

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

CovenantCovenant—— PietismPietism

"Heart Religion"

Zinzendorf fervently

preached a "heart religion"

in contrast to the somewhat

cold and intellectual empha-

sis of the state Lutheran

Church of his day.

Nikolaus Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf,

Champions of Swedish Pietism and the move to America

Within the Swedish Pietistic movements two prominent leaders emerged to have great influence over the events of history that would unfold within the Swedish government and culture. After Scott had been banned from Sweden for speaking unfavorably against the harsh conditions the government created for the working class people, a man named Carl Olof Rosenius inherited the mantel of leadership. Rosenius took up Scotts’ revivalist methods of evan-gelism, his cooperation among evangelicals within the Church of Sweden, ag-gressive measures against social evils, a passion for missions, and teaching that there is an experience of salvation. He did have one thing that Scott did not. He was Swedish. Rosenius understood his culture and people much better, he was a skilled communicator of the written word and he was typical of the aver-age Swede who considered themselves as a pure Lutheran, full of all the heri-tage and culture that with it. Rosenius’ writings in the national journal “Pietisten” would shape the pietistic movement and Evangelical Christianity amongst the Swedish people in the native land and in the United States for many years to come. In modern times he is considered an influential figure among those in the Evangelical Free Church, The Baptist General Conference, and The Evangelical Covenant Church.

The other dominating leader was Peter Paul Waldenstrom. Walden-

strom was the intellectual academic who could compete on a literary scale with other brilliant theologians. He was also a dynamic public speaker and preacher. Waldenstrom developed and articulated a Theory of the Atone-ment which went against the current grain of his day. Rather than see a rec-onciliation or change in God, who’s wrath is satisfied by Christ’s death, he articulated an idea that God remained the same at it was mankind who was reconciled or changed by Christ’s death out of an act of love. For him, the atonement was not an act of wrath and vengeance, but rather an act of pur-poseful love. Two things emerged from his view which would shape Swedish Evangelicals to this day. The first is that a new and deeper grasp of the love of God would emerge when people began to examine and understand the saving work of Christ. The second came from his challenge of the State Church and it’s clinging to the Augsburg Confession as the sole interpreter on matters of faith. As Waldenstrom’s theory seemed to deny the way the Atonement was depicted in the Augsburg Confession, he responded by say-ing that the confession itself was not the final authority on matters of faith, but Scripture was. So the rallying cry came to be “Where is it written?” This was a call to return to the Bible as the final Authority on matters of faith and practice much like Luther’s cry, “only The Scriptures”.

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

CovenantCovenant—— Swedish PietistsSwedish Pietists

Carl Olof Rosenius

Peter Paul Waldenstrom

The Immigrant Experience

In the 1800’s Swedish Immigrants came to America bringing with them all of these religious ideas and experiences. In America, they would have to create new expressions and structures for their faith. The Evangelical Covenant was founded by Swedish immigrants but you could easily pick almost any European nation and their stories would have parallels.

The First Wave: consisted of farmers wanting land, well-to-do entrepre-neurs, a few families looking for a new chance, or religious groups seeking freedom. The main pull to America in the first wave is a desire for something new, for adventure!

The Second Wave: Were usually those pushed to America by famine, overpopula-tion, or harsh conditions in the home country. In the 1800’s there was a great divide between the noble landowners and workers of Europe. The second wave consisted of single men and women, the young and strong who had little obligations and could leave the easiest. Usually their ages were 15-29 and they were mostly farm-hands, maid-servants, or trade apprentices. Their numbers in the U.S began to grow and there was a desire to settle near each other with common heritage, lan-guage, and faith. These immigrants often picked geographical locations similar to their native lands.

The Third Wave: These were the married men without families who left a life behind to try and create some-thing in America. Once established, they sent for their families. Many of the relatives and friends of those in the first two waves now came to America in the third wave. In the mid 1800’s, 500,000 immigrants came from Sweden – one out of eight Swedes. They settled in the Midwest (5% in CA), the area which was most like home to them. There was no state to care for the people so they tried to figure out ways to take care of each other in a structured fashion. They still thought through grids of a unified state and church so they often rallied around the church to deal with social and political issues. The ideal immigrant in the minds of the United States government in the 1800’s and early 1900’s were protestant, hardworking, lower class White, Northern European. They were literate, resourceful, and often saw success as a blessing from God. The Swedes fit the bill nicely— They brought with them a hunger for food and land, a basic literacy, and a love of freedom and equality. For the Swedish—they are also brought with them a newfound joy and hope in their experiences with God. Pietism and participation in conventicles were common practices. They had experienced a push for the laity to be more involved in church and in transforming social institutions. But they were coming to an America that they would find confusing. It was a land of freedoms they had not known. The wild free ways of the west threatened to swallow them up as a group.

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

CovenantCovenant—— ImmigrationImmigration

A young farm boy says

goodbye to his family

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

CovenantCovenant—— 19th Century America19th Century America

The American Religious World into which the Immigrants came All of the immigrant groups faced the same questions, do we accommodate ourselves to the new country or do we resistance it, and to what degree? When immigrants come they don’t immediately assimilate into the culture but they buy into by bits and pieces. The 2nd generation usually assimilates, the 3rd generation creates institutions and formats to preserve the life and culture. The Swedes came here for adventure, but they kept their own businesses, churches, publications, restaurants, and holidays and had to figure what being Ameri-can meant.

Sect or church In Europe, the church had the approval of the state and sects were the dissenters from the state. The Swedes couldn’t grasp that there was no state church. The frontier was teaming with sects and wild religions of all kinds. In Sweden these people were defining themselves as a sect against the state church but all that struggle made no difference in America. Here they had to resist assimilation into the vast undefined landscape of reli-gious freedom. The spirit of democracy affected religious organizations and the world of religious thought. Here it was a climate of competition, strong personalities and vibrant work created the religious world. Some ideas and theologies were good and some crazy, but all were allowed to freely exist. Revivals The affects of the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings changed the way people experienced

God. Here in the U.S. people thought that they were products of their experiences not through their traditions and there was a rise of the focus on the individual’s religious experience. The spread of revivalism put a pro-found focus on conversion as an event not a process. By the mid 1800’s revivals took place on the frontiers which had no constraints. Christianity and other relig-ions became more democratic and were moving west – the demands of the west gave evangelicalism a new spirit. Revivals made the faith more marketable. The individual was empowered to make decisions for faith yet everyone wanted some kind of religious adherence in the west. There was a strong spirit of religious ac-tivism. The expectation was that people were to fix the world we live in. Moral reform and perfectionism became the goal of faithful living. Revivals turned con-version into a science and not something miraculously done by God’s Spirit. Some said revivals were the result of the right means rightly applied. Strategies were created to force people to make decisions right now! Some say American advertising took their basic tools from religious revivalists who knew how to moti-vate people to action now! In the end Christians of that era had a vision of the kingdom of God on earth – founded by activism!

DL Moody Influential

Evangelical Revivalist

Charles G. Finney

Father of the American Re-

vival movement in the 19th

century

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

Covenant Covenant —— The BeginningThe Beginning

A case of not quite belonging and creating a home The displaced Lutherans of Sweden knew they wanted to hold on to all of their well fought gains in the spiri-tual life they experienced. In America they found themselves a bit lost. They no longer fit with the Lutheran Synods who maintained their ties to the old State church of the mother country because they had simply pro-gressed too far. Many were offered a chance to blend with the Baptists but most had been baptized as infants and they weren’t ready to say that infant baptism was invalid. Nor were they ready to drop their strong views of communion as a sacrament in order to join with that group. They almost united with the Congregationalists of America who were well established here and had deep pockets. Some did but most knew they were not part of the Reformed Calvinistic theology of the Congrega-tionalist churches. They also were aware that deep pocket money usu-ally came with many strings attached and over time they would lose their own identity. Besides, the new immigrants weren’t ready to deny their Lutheran heritage which was still too big an emotional change. They des-perately wanted to maintain their Swedish language and cultural ties. Since they found themselves not really being a part of any of the existing denominations, they knew it was time to form their own. In the end after many disagreements about church governmental structure and the proc-ess of ordaining pastors three denominations in the United States were birthed from these immigrant Swedes; The Baptist General Conference, The Evangelical Free Church, and ours The Evangelical Covenant.

“The founders called it a Covenant. By this they did not mean a de-nomination but something transcending denominations. The unifying principle of a denominations, in their mind, was a doctrine, a liturgy, a set of behavioral norms, or a form of a church government. In other words, it was something definable and controllable. It could be codified and applied. But that which unified the Covent . . . was none of these things but a common primal experience of saving grace in Christ.” Karl A. Olsson—By One Spirit On February 20, 1885 in Chicago, Illinois. The Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America was founded. In 1936 the word “Swedish” was dropped from the name in the wake of WWI and as the second and third generations of Swedish immigrants came of age. In 1954 the name was changed to it’s present form when the term “mission” was dropped due to the misunderstandings about urban rescue ministries. It now stands as the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).

Pastor Carl August Bjork

First President of the

Evangelical Covenant

Mr. and Mrs. David Nyvall,

a key figure in establishing

and sustaining North Park College

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

Covenant Covenant —— SpokaneSpokane

The founding of First Covenant Church In the year 1887, Spokane was already a good sized city for the territory of ‘Washington. That summer and fall a group of Swedish families and some single men came to Spokane from Minneapolis, Minn. They had all belonged to Swedish Mission Churches and quickly formed a small group for the purpose of worship, sharing

testimonies, praises, and Bible Study. The house they met in on Post Street between third and fourth Avenue was occupied by several bachelor men (Nils P Peterson, John Nordstrom, Isak Lindberg, Gust Johnson, Axel Anderson and Jon Anderson). It affectionately became known as “The Bachelor House”. These were men who loved God had a devotion to the Bible and in a very short time the group grew large enough to start a church. The first Pastor to preach before the group was Rev. Hagstrom, who was passing through on his way to the coast. An old Swedish trunk turned on end served as his pulpit and his chosen text was Nahum 1:15 “Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good

news, Who announces peace!” On Oct 28, 1888 they incorpo-rated as a church initially known as “The Swedish Christian Church of Spokane, Washington Territory (Washington wouldn’t be a state for another year or so). “The little “Bachelor House” became too small for the growing gatherings so an empty storeroom on Main Ave., between Lincoln St. and Monroe St., was rented. Meetings were held every Sun-day and Wednesday nights, until August 4 1889 when nearly the whole business section was destroyed by fire in less that three

hours. The Main Ave. was spared but business men reestablishing them-selves after the fire offered more rent for the place then the church could afford so they were forced to relocate to the basement of a Unitarian church until a new location opened up on the corner of Trent and Division. The rent on the new location cost $25 a month. In Dec of 1890 the church moved to their own property on the corner of Riverside Ave and Sherman St. This remained the location until 1905 when it moved again moved to its’ present location on the corner of 2nd Ave and Division. After offering the pastoral position to two different candidates who de-clined, the church finally called Rev. N.J. Lindquist of Oakland, CA. in March of 1890. He served for two years until an economic depression swept through the area and financial problems forced him to move on.

The Bachelor House 1888

The Swedish Mission Church

1892-1905 Riverside and Sherman

The Swedish Tabernacle 1905-1949

Second and Division

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

Covenant Covenant —— History HighlightsHistory Highlights

Significant Events in the life of First Covenant Church Spokane. Gust Johnson one of the original bachelors (pictured center in photo) was a blacksmith by trade and a very significant individual. His tenacity kept the church going as several pas-tors came and went for many years. He was an excellent preacher and filled the pulpit on many occasions when the church had no pastor. As a founding member of the church, he served as Chairman for 22 years.

In 1905 the church joined the Congregational Church of America to get the money to build a building. The name was again changed to “Swedish Tabernacle”. In 1920 the church withdrew from the Congregational Church of America and reapplied on May 17 for membership in the Covenant. This was during the 6 years that Rev. Herbert E. Palm-

quist served as pastor. At that time the church was strong and influential with 113 singers in the choir alone!

Rev J E Seth had the largest membership in the early 1900's and he stayed 8 years coming back 11 years later to preach for some evangelistic meetings. After preaching four messages he became ill and died 4 weeks later. His wife write in the Golden Jubilee brochure for the church "My departed husband and I always looked back on those eight years with you as the happiest in our min-istry" - Hilma A Seth.

From 1945 - 1955 the membership was in the mid 300's and the churchy was forced to build a new sanctuary over the old one which was buckling and pos-

ing a danger. Construction began under Pastor Palmquist, and continued under Rev. Douglas Cedarleaf and was completed in 1957.

In 1955 several members chartered a new church, “Minnehaha Covenant” in the neighborhood with the same name, above Spokane Community College.

Corrie Ten Boom spoke at the church in 1963 "Corrie ten Boom came to our church a perfect stranger but it was not long until our church and city realized what a messenger of God she was. The attendance grew and grew and souls were made aware that she walked with God.

Luis Palau headquartered out of the church in 1988. The Swedish Tabernacle 1963

Second and Division

Interior of the old Church—1938

Roots of The Evangelical Roots of The Evangelical

Covenant Covenant —— The PastorsThe Pastors

Our Pastors Through The years “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God . . . .” 1 Thessalonians 1:3

Rev Gilbert Otteson 1956—1966

Rev Carl King 1966—1972

Rev Lincoln Smith 1973—1979

Rev Gregory Luce 1981—1990

Rev Lawrence Hudson 1991—2009

Rev Rob Bryceson

2009 — present

Interim Pastors Through The Years