Andersons Receive Irving C. Lambert Award

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (June 23, 2004) - The Urban Commission, through the Department of Church Growth and Evangelism of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), has named Rev. Jim and Annette Anderson as recipients of the Irving C. Lambert Award, which honors excellence in urban ministry.

The Andersons served at First Covenant Church in Seattle, Washington; Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Massachusetts; Covenant Congregational Church in Boston, Massachusetts; North Park Covenant Church in Chicago, Illinois; and First Covenant Church in Omaha, Nebraska. They were honored in a special dinner and at the business session of the 119th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

A plaque recognizing the Andersons reads: In grateful recognition of your passionate commitment to the causes of Christ in urban ministry. You have faithfully ministered in advocacy, congregational involvement and ecumenical mobilization to help the homeless, the hungry, the confused, and the suffering. Your deep confidence in God has carried you into places of need where the two of you have been servants for compassion and justice to your communities, congregations, and the larger Covenant.

According to the Urban Commission, the Andersons have found ways to benefit the underserved in each ministry they were involved in. The commission stated, "Everywhere they served, the Andersons were active in outreach to hurting people, including the homeless and the hungry, and actively networked with other churches to reach out to those less fortunate."

Jim Anderson has been in ministry since 1952, having earned his undergraduate degree in education from Drake University in Iowa and then teaching at North Park Academy while attending North Park Theological Seminary (NPTS) in Chicago. Ordained by the Covenant in 1957, Jim took numerous Christian education courses at Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and those courses aided him as he spent much of the 1960s as a Christian education pastor at various churches.

During eight years at North Park Covenant Church in Chicago, Anderson began to find concrete ways to help those in need while finishing his Master of Divinity studies at NPTS. He helped start the North Park Covenant Church Food Pantry, a ministry that has helped provide supplemental foodstuffs to hundreds in financial need during the past three decades. He also got involved in the nearby North River Commission and various outreach programs in the city.

In September 1975, Anderson became senior pastor of Covenant Congregational Church in Boston, Massachusetts, further developing a love for the underserved and a passion to further the Kingdom on earth. In Boston, he was involved with the Ecumenical Action Committee in the Jamaica Plains neighborhood. Later, after taking a pastorate Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Massachusetts, he aided the work of Haven From Hunger, serving as chair of the organization. He also chaired a ministerial association in that area and advocated for the homeless there.

Anderson has also served the Covenant at the conference and national board levels. He represented the Massachusetts Commission on Christian Unity as a member of the East Coast Conference to further multiple church efforts to care for those in need. He also chaired the East Cost Conference board, served on the Midwest Conference's Christian Education and Camping Board and worked with the Central Conference's Urban Ministry Commission, among other things. He also served the Evangelical Covenant Church's Board of Home Mission.

Annette Anderson has found many ways to assist her husband in ministry and has used her skills as a registered nurse to further the Kingdom. She graduated from the Swedish Covenant Hospital School of Nursing in 1956. She and her husband recently celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary. They currently use a recreational vehicle to trek throughout the country doing short-term mission works during retirement. Jim tutors in an inner-city elementary school in Jacksonville, Florida, when the couple isn't traveling.

The Andersons also become involved in a ministry to South Africans recently, having spent six weeks last year in that country after getting connected with Covenanters Dennis and Susan Wadley and a newly formed organization called Bridges of Hope International. They plan to take interested Covenanters on a tour of South Africa in August. They have been helping to market jewelry and other craft items prepared by women who are AIDS/HIV infected, a segment of the population to which Bridges of Hope International ministers.

Each year, the Irving C. Lambert Award is given to Covenanters whose lives and practices reflect a deep commitment to urban and/or ethnic ministries. The committee from the Urban Commission naming the Lambert Award winners includes Mae Hong (chair), Darrell Griffin, Ed Delgado, Don Davenport, Max Lopez-Cepero, Jim Sundholm of Covenant World Relief, Gary Walter, executive minister of the Department of Church Growth and Evangelism, and Evangelical Covenant Church President Glenn R. Palmberg.

Past Recipients of the Irving Lambert Award are:

1982 - Eldon & Opal Johnson

1983 - Elmer B. Pearson

1984 - Herb & Evelyn Wettersten

1985 - Robert Sloan

1986 - Willie & Bessie Jemison

1987 - Jim Sundholm

1988 - Eleanor Nelson Claus

1989 - Carlos Guzman

1990 - G. Dewey Sands

1991 - Richard Carlson

1992 - Mel Dillard