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Pietist Pilgrim’s Progress
Summer/Fall 2026
“How goes it with my walk?” you ask / with honest ears to listen / without a predetermined box to check. / And I reply…
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A circle of belonging
Fall/Winter 2025-26
Having just celebrated the 40th anniversary of my ordination as a Covenant minister, I have been reflecting on the five congregations I had the privilege of serving in California, Illinois, and Washington. Now retired, as I look back, I’ve come to see that the secret sauce for church vitality in each parish was small groups.
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Sallman’s head of Abe
Spring/Summer 2025
As a Covenant pastor for the past 45 years, I have enjoyed creatively introducing newcomers to our relatively small denomination. In my inquirers’ classes, I would take pride in sharing that one of the most well-known hymns (“How Great Thou Art”) was written by a Covenant pastor in Sweden. I would also describe well-known personalities who have Covenant church connections, including Dr. G. Timothy Johnson (the longtime medical editor for ABC News), Mike Holmgren (the beloved former coach of the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks) and even Tom Hanks (who attended First Covenant Church in Oakland, California during high school). I would also introduce those checking out our church to a famous image of Jesus painted by a lifelong Covenanter.
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Strength to meet our trials
Fall/Winter 2024
As I watched the funeral service for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in December 2023, my ears perked up as the choir at the Washington National Cathedral sang “Day by day and with each passing moment,” a contemporary arrangement by Michael McCarthy (b. 1966). The familiar words, translated by the Covenant musician A. L. Skoog, were timely for a grieving nation.
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A Man of Letters: Tim Botts
Spring/Summer 2024
If you called Timothy R. Botts a man of letters, you’d be right. He is known far and wide in the evangelical world by his expressive renderings of scripture and hymn texts. His frameable prints, calendars, and greeting cards grace many a Covenanter’s home.
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Let’s hear it for conventicles
Spring/Summer 2023
Recently I came across my old student pictorial directory from Fuller Seminary. I browsed the yellowed pages of that black-and-white photo album, complete with snail mail addresses and landline phone numbers. It dawned on me how technology has become part of our lives. Turning the pages, I realized this was the original Facebook—just a book of faces. And young faces at that!
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A hymnody of honesty
Fall/Winter 2022
It was at Seattle Pacific University, while pursuing my undergraduate degree in biblical literature, that my call to full time ministry was affirmed. It was during those college years that I met the woman who would become my wife, as well. My Seattle Pacific years also introduced me to theological freedom.
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Conviction plus humility
Spring/Summer 2022
Shortly after being called to serve my very first Covenant congregation in Seattle in 1978, I was introduced to the concept of Pietism. Shortly thereafter, I met a man who provided a face to the concept. Gilbert Otteson loved Jesus. He knew God’s Word. He had a heart for people. He spoke his mind unabashedly. He sang with enthusiasm. (Actually, he couldn’t imagine life without music.) He was a Mission Friend.
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I have a church that loveth me
Fall/Winter 2021
This year marks fifty years of my connection with the Evangelical Covenant Church. I had never heard of the denomination until I took part in an ecumenical lay witness mission that was hosted at Newport Covenant Church in Bellevue, Washington in 1971. I was in my first year at Seattle Pacific University as a Biblical Literature major.
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Bringing the lyrics of life to life
Spring/Summer 2021
I started spending time with Ruth Eckels shortly after I began working as a chaplain at Covenant Shores, a Christian retirement community in suburban Seattle. Wilson, Ruth’s husband of 72 years, had just passed away. As we met to plan Wilson’s memorial service, Ruth related to me how much the hymns of the church factored in their lives as pioneer missionaries in Alaska.
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Tribute to Star Birkeland Asimakoupoulos
Fall/Winter 2019
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The Waiting Room
Fall/Winter 2019
