The Rev. Carl Victor Bowman delivered a lecture at the Northwest Ministerial Association conference in Minneapolis in 1910. Of course, the lecture was published in Swedish and much later translated into English by Eric Hawkinson, a North Park Theological Seminary dean.
In Bowman's lecture, he reiterated the three basic principles upon which the Covenant heritage is founded. The first is to work for the "spiritual life in the activity of the church." That is a necessity to keep the Covenant alive. The second principle involves evangelism and missions: to "win souls for the Lord." The third principle contrasts the Covenant from other protestant religions in that the church "consists of only believing members but at the same time has room for all true believers no matter what their viewpoints are on controversial doctrines." These beliefs point to a "limited and wholesome freedom concerning the presentation of doctrine," according to Bowman.
Throughout Bowman's lecture, Glenn P. Anderson wrote in his book Covenant Roots: Sources and Affirmations, Bowman showed a "beautiful sensitivity so characteristic" of his ministry.
Bowman was born in 1869 in Smaland, Sweden. When he was ten, his family emigrated to America, where Bowman fell away from the church. In Chicago in 1885, he was converted at the Tabernacle church when the Rev. F. M. Johnson preached.
The following year he studied at the Covenant's school in Minneapolis under David Nyvall and Axel Mellander. Then he served the Covenant church in Escanaba, Michigan.
He returned to the Covenant school in North Park, graduated in 1896, and served in Rockford, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, and then as superintendent of the Northwest Conference from 1907-1910, secretary of missions from 1920-1927, after which he became president. He resigned in 1932 due to illness and died in 1937.
"Our God, Our Help"