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New Additions to North Park Seminary Faculty
CHICAGO, IL (August 29, 2005) - Timothy "Yak" Johnson has joined the faculty
at North Park Theological Seminary where he will serve as the director
of field education and associate professor of ministry.
He joins Paul DeNeui as the newest professor at the seminary. DeNeui
already has begun work and will serve for three years as the visiting
associate professor of world mission as part of an arrangement with the
Department of World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
Johnson will begin October 1 and take over the field education duties
from Prof. Richard Carlson, who has served as director for 26 years,
according to Stephen Graham, dean of faculty. Carlson will continue to
teach at the seminary.
Johnson most recently has served as pastor of Brookdale Covenant Church
in Brooklyn, Minnesota. Prior to serving at Brookdale, Johnson was
pastor for 11 years at Haddam Neck Covenant Church in Haddam Neck,
Connecticut. He graduated from North Park University in 1975 and from
the seminary in 1980. He also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in
congregational studies from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut.
Johnson's dissertation focused on the historic understanding of members
of the Covenant as "mission friends" and the implications of that
description for congregations. A portion of the dissertation appeared
in 1997 in The Covenant Quarterly.
Johnson has been extensively involved in ministry across the
Covenant. He served on the CHIC executive committee for seven years and
as president of the Covenant Ministerium from 1997 to 2000. That role
also included membership on the Board of the Ordered Ministry. He
played a significant role in events that led to the establishment of
the Commission on Biblical Gender Equality and was elected to the
Covenant Board of Benevolence at the 2005 Covenant Annual Meeting.
Johnson says his nickname "Yak" comes from his being raised in Yakima,
Washington, where his parents were involved with the Covenant.
DeNeui is known to much of the Covenant for his years of mission work
in Thailand. Paul and his wife, Gretchen, were commissioned in 1987 to
be missionaries to the Southeast Asian nation. He was ordained in 1991
during the couple's first home assignment.
From 1987 to 1991, the couple worked with the Isaan Development
Foundation (IDF) begun by Jim Gustafson in Udon Thani, Thailand. This
ministry focuses on the poorest group in Thailand - the Lao speaking
northeasterners known as Isaan - a people group of more than 20 million
individuals. Paul's role was primarily with the agricultural support
system raising fish and pigs.
Paul's work in Thailand also has included joining a church planting and
enablement ministry that became the Lower Isaan Foundation for
Enablement (LIFE). From 1991-2000, Paul worked with Thai staff to begin
a fish farm support base and outreach ministry, a youth ministry, a
leadership training program, a handicraft project for women, a
development project involving a youth camp and forest preserve and a
ministry to those suffering from AIDS.
In 1994 he presented a paper on the integrated holistic development
work of LIFE at an Asia-wide consultation on holistic ministry. In 1995
he wrote a profile on the Isaan people group. During 2000, Paul was
reassigned to the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) in Udon
Thani and worked with Thai leadership in developing training seminars
for missionaries and local leaders. He also began a ministry to
prisoners in a local jail, which he was able to turn over to Thai
leadership.
Paul graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in ornamental
horticulture from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis
Obispo in 1982. He graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from
Fuller Theological Seminary in 1987 and recently completed his doctoral
work through Fuller.
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