Home
John Notehelfer Is Interim World Mission Executive Minister
By Don Meyer
CHICAGO, IL (August 9, 2002) - John C. Notehelfer has been named interim
executive minister of the Department of World Mission of the Evangelical
Covenant Church.
Formerly superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference, he will serve
in an interim capacity until a permanent replacement is selected to succeed
Jim Gustafson, who resigned in May after completing a four-year term as the
department's executive minister.
"Mission, both at home and abroad, is the core of what we are as a Covenant
- it is the heart of what we do," said President Glenn Palmberg in making
today's announcement. "The fact that World Mission is the largest
department administering the largest budget in the Covenant reflects the
depth of our ongoing commitment to seeking the lost and helping the hurting
throughout the world. Given the dynamic nature of our mission ministries,
it is important that a leader is in place at all times."
Notehelfer will represent the Department of World Mission in the
decision-making process of the Covenant and will provide an important
connecting point for missionaries, including country and regional
coordinators. "There are ongoing decisions to be made and he will make
them," Palmberg added.
Two key qualities commended Notehelfer as the choice for interim leadership
- an understanding of world mission ministry and administrative experience.
Notehelfer was born in Tokyo where his parents served as missionaries with
the Liebenzeller Mission, which was loosely affiliated with the China
Inland Mission and supported by the pietistic movement within the German
Lutheran Church. His father, J. Karl Notehelfer, came to Japan in 1929 and
the family remained there until 1947, when they immigrated to the United
States, settling in the Turlock area of California.
His call to ministry came at an early age. "I grew up in a home focused on
ministry and prayer," Notehelfer says. "I became a Christian at the age of
thirteen. My call to ministry came in my high-school years. Around age
sixteen, I was involved in a leadership role with the Young People's
Society in the Turlock (Covenant) church. Norm Johnson was the youth pastor
and he encouraged me."
Notehelfer received his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College with
highest honors, a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and
was ordained by the Evangelical Covenant Church in 1960 following one year
of studies at North Park Theological Seminary.
He began his pastoral ministry as an associate at Peninsula Covenant Church
in Redwood City, California, and served a number of Covenant churches
before accepting the position as superintendent of the Pacific Southwest
Conference in 1987. He served in that position until 2000.
In the early 1980's, he and his wife, Miriam, spent part of a sabbatical
with missionaries in Mexico and in 1985 they ministered to missionaries,
African pastors and staff in Zaire (Congo). Those mission experiences and
growing up on a mission field influenced his thinking, helping him see the
local church as a strategic mission outpost on a shared mission field.
"As a superintendent, I challenged our churches and pastors to think about
how to apply what we have learned in mission work to our local cultures,"
Notehelfer says. He sees a parallel between a missionary's efforts to reach
a non-Christian society and efforts on the part of pastors and laity in
reaching out to a growing secular population in Western cultures.
Administration will be another important part of Notehelfer's interim work.
He will help evaluate world mission strategies, work closely with potential
new missionaries and will work with local Covenant churches and other
mission-focused organizations who want to partner in mission ministries
around the world.
"John is both a skilled administrator and a leader in evangelism, as shown
by the dynamic growth of the Pacific Southwest Conference," Palmberg says.
"He will prove helpful in assisting the permanent appointee, providing
orientation and counsel that will help ensure a smooth transition process."
Notehelfer will not be responsible for spearheading the effort to raise an
additional $500,000 to fund Covenant world mission ministries, an action
approved by delegates to the 117th Annual Meeting in June.
"The church has said funding is the church's challenge," Palmberg said in
reference to the motion by Pastor Ted Smith to increase next year's world
mission budget and to appoint a special task group to lead a fund-raising
effort. Palmberg is pleased with Smith's proposal, noting that "the vote on
Ted's motion made it clear that he spoke for the conscience of the entire
church." The special task group was scheduled to meet in late August.
Although he will not be responsible for raising the additional funds,
Notehelfer will face the challenge of managing expanding ministries with
funding that is not unlimited. Again, his experience at the conference
ministry level will prove valuable.
"In the conferences, we lived with limited resources," Notehelfer observed.
"Our vision was bigger than our resources. We had to think creatively." One
of the creative approaches was engaging more local churches - and funding
sources - in mission work. "We need to help empower local churches to be
involved in mission at home and abroad - that also was Jim's mission and
vision."
Notehelfer will build upon the world mission strategy that Gustafson and
other missionaries have put in place in recent years. This includes a focus
on ministering to people's spiritual and physical needs and on building
partnerships with national Covenant churches around the world.
"We have a whole new Covenant world mission structure, introduced by Jim
Gustafson, that is still relatively new to Covenant World Mission,"
Palmberg says. "There are multiple paradigms on how to do world mission
work. Jim brought to us one that we believe is appropriate to today's
world. It is important that we keep the pieces of that strategy that are
effective."
The Covenant has not moved away from its historic world mission commitment
and Covenant churches need to be reassured of that fact, Notehelfer says.
"World mission is on target," he says. "The world mission staff is going to
be pastored by me. They need to be assured that the work they have started
will continue."
Notehelfer will make strategic trips to various Covenant ministries around
the world, meeting with larger groups of Covenant missionaries and keeping
the lines of communication open and flowing.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
