Marisol Martinez to be Honored with 2015 Seminary Alumni Award for Distinguished Service
2004 alumna and president of the Covenant Church of the Central and South Districts of Mexico to be given award at Covenant Midwinter Conference
CHICAGO (November 25, 2014) — A year ago Marisol Martinez, 2004 alumna of North Park Theological Seminary’s master of arts in Christian ministry program, resigned from her job. In 2010 she had assisted in the founding of El Pozo de Vida (The Well of Life), a nonprofit organization combatting human trafficking in Mexico City. “I was sensing God telling me it was time for something new,” she says.
To her surprise, Martinez received a phone call last August asking if she would accept the nomination to become the president of the Covenant Church of the Central and South Districts of Mexico (IEMP). “For several years I knew I had a call to serve the church,” says Martinez, the first woman to hold the position. “God put in me a great love for the church and a great desire see the church involved in the transformation of our communities and our world.”
For her service to the church and the world, including her time as a missionary in Spain and different parts of Mexico, Martinez has been awarded the 2015 North Park Theological Seminary Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. She is the second recipient of the award, with the first given to Rev. Dr. Robert L. Owens in January 2014. The 2015 award will be presented on January 27 at the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Midwinter conference in Denver, Colorado, at a reception hosted by North Park.
“The North Park Theological Seminary Alumni Award for Distinguished Service honors a graduate of our Seminary, noting their life of ministry and service to their church, their community, and the world,” said Mary Surridge, vice president for development and alumni relations. “We are delighted to bestow this award each year at the Midwinter Conference, allowing colleagues and friends to rejoice with our recipient in this special honor. We look forward to honoring Marisol this year for her significant involvement in battling human trafficking and seeking justice and healing for victims. She is a true servant leader.”
Martinez came to North Park Theological Seminary after serving for several years as a missionary in Spain. “It was an easy decision,” she says. “Since I was a teenager in Mexico I knew I wanted to be a missionary. All the missionaries I knew were from the Covenant in the United States and most studied at North Park. It was clear to me that if I wanted to grow in my call as a missionary, then I had to go to North Park Theological Seminary.”
She received the Covenant Diversity Scholarship, now known as the Mosaic Leadership Scholarship, to attend the Seminary because of her active involvement in the Covenant Church in Latin America. “I ended up choosing more Bible classes than I anticipated,” Martinez says. “I realized I needed more knowledge there and a more solid foundation, and that continues to help me today.”
After Seminary, she looked for opportunities with social justice and community development organizations. “One of the things that spoke to me during my time in Seminary was the realities of injustice and how as churches we needed to be involved in transforming our communities and our world.”
Martinez recently visited the headquarters of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago and sat down for an interview on a number of topics, including her new role. This video originally appeared in a story produced by the Covenant News Service.
She moved to Monterrey, Mexico, and began working with the Fundación para el Desarrollo Familiar (Foundation for Family Development). Martinez designed leadership development programs for teenagers and women from marginalized urban communities. During this time, she also earned a master of social work degree from the National University of Mexico.
In her new role as president of the Covenant Church of the Central and South Districts of Mexico, Martinez will help lead 46 congregations, and says she hopes to speak more about the social ills that plague her country.
“Marisol reflects the very best of North Park Theological Seminary,” says Seminary Dean David Kersten. “Her work with the poor and the marginalized, and her close work with the local church, make her a most deserving recipient of the Alumni Award for Distinguished Service. There is a true humility in the way she moves in the world. She is not self-seeking, but powerfully determined in her work of leadership and advocacy.”
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