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Services Set for Russell Cervin, Retired Head of World Mission
OAKLAND, CA (February 23, 2004) - A memorial service is set for 2 p.m. Monday,
March 1 at Oakland's First Covenant Church for Russell A. Cervin,
executive secretary emeritus of world mission for the Evangelical
Covenant Church, who died on Sunday (February 22) in northern
California. He was 91.
Bryan Jeffrey Leech, First Covenant pastor emeritus, and Paul Wilson,
senior pastor, will officiate at Monday's service.
Born February 22, 1913, Cervin, served as pastor of seven Covenant
churches, was a Navy chaplain, and served as Executive Secretary of
World Mission from 1970 to 1978. He also worked under Arden Almquist,
former executive secretary of world mission, helping run operations from
Chicago from 1963 to 70. He was especially helpful in assisting with the
growth of mission works in Mexico and South America, as well as helping
the Covenant open mission work in Thailand in 1971.
During his tenure, Cervin and several consultants made a survey trip to
look at potential new mission work, traveling to Mexico and Brazil, said
Nancy Reed, one of the early Covenant missionaries in Mexico. After some
discussions, they settled on an area on the northwest side of Mexico
City, where Cervin asked Marlan and Fern Enns to begin working. In 1975,
Jerry and Nancy Reed, who had been missionaries in Ecuador, joined the Enns.
Along with his work as a pastor and administrator, Cervin was the author
of two books: "Covenant Missions in China/Taiwan," published by Covenant
Press in 1970, and "Mission in Ferment," published in 1977.
"Russ (Cervin) was a man of vision, preparing men and women for the
future," said Nancy Reed. "He was a great encourager and a mission
strategist with unusual insight. He was able to guide church planting in
Mexico City toward effectiveness. He was an avid reader of everything
that came out in the area of missions, a true missiologist."
A well-educated man, Cervin completed junior college in Augsburg,
Minnesota, then graduated from North Park Theological Seminary in
Chicago, becoming an ordained Covenant pastor in 1941. Later, he earned
a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Dakota and Wesley
College and took courses at McCormick Seminary in Chicago.
After starting his initial full-time pastorate in Big Falls, Minnesota,
in 1933, Cervin served a congregation in Stillwater, Minnesota; at First
Covenant Church, Sacramento; in Grand Forks, North Dakota, before
becoming a U.S. Navy chaplain in Virginia and California (1945-46).
After three years as pastor of South Chicago Covenant Church in Chicago
(1947-50), he served the U.S. Navy as a chaplain overseas from 1950-52.
Following his second chaplaincy, he was called as pastor of First
Covenant Church, Sioux City, Iowa, from 1952-58. He served five years at
Salem Square Covenant Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, before coming
to Chicago to work in administration for Covenant World Mission.
After retirement, Cervin served as an interim pastor for a Covenant
church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, launched a new congregation in a mobile
home park in Port Charlotte, Florida, and was a chaplain for six months
at Covenant Village in Plantation, Florida. His first wife Alice (Tamte)
died on November 4, 1984, after a 44-year marriage. Cervin married
Virginia Nelson of Oakland on October 18, 1986. Virginia and two
children from his first marriage, Frederick and Faith, survive Cervin.
More about Cervin and other service information will be posted on
www.covchurch.org when it becomes available.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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