Earl C. Dahlstrom
1914–1992
Some thirty-three years ago, while still a graduate student at Union Seminary in New York, I was notified that I was to be called to the Biblical Field faculty at North Park Theological Seminary. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from Earl Dahlstrom indicating that he was coming to New York and wanted to talk with me. We met at the Seminary and spent a pleasant afternoon talking about North Park. At the end of our conversation, Earl looked at me with a broad welcoming smile, embraced me, and assured me of his friendship and collegial support.
When Betty and I arrived in the Seminary community, we felt this embracing love of Earl and Rosalie. A rich friendship began that ever grew in understanding, respect, and warmth. The bond of love and friendship that bound us to Earl, binds us still. What is true for us, is true for many who knew Earl Dahlstrom.
Earl had at least three different smiles! There was the Welcoming Smile which I experienced for the first time at our meeting at Union Seminary — broad, relaxed, and genuinely friendly. Also, the Impish Smile, which bent the lips in gentle whimsy, appeared when he was about to tell a joke or spring a surprise on a colleague. The Congratulatory Smile, accompanied with a bit of a laugh and a slow nodding of the head, took place when a student or a colleague had done something exceptionally well. It was Earl's way of acknowledging excellence — something he did easily and naturally.
Earl Dahlstrom’s pastoral book, Helping Humanbeings, touches the center of his life and ministry. Humaneness, a concern for people, was the enlivening center of Earl’s activity. This was true when he spoke words of strong protest as well as when he supported actions he deemed genuinely Christian. Further, this concern for people was expressed in his counseling of students who took the entering tests administered during his time at the Seminary. He took care to meet with each one personally to interpret the test results and give support when the tests pointed to a crucial area of need. His concern for people found expression also in his development and administration of the Internship Program which always demands more time than one is able to give. Earl wanted each student to be in a place where she or he would have opportunity for personal growth and development of skills in ministry. He sought success for all of them, and, while they were in their Intern placement, he would keep close contact with them. Earl was able to accomplish so much because he was, as we all know, a person of discipline and order — but discipline and order had the purpose of freeing him for minisitry.
On first arriving at North Park Seminary, I quickly became aware that Dr. Earl Dahlstrom was well-known and highly respected among the theological faculties and church leaders in Chicago. Earl was a remarkable person. He was one who carried on in himself the living faith and piety of our Covenant founders, but he knew that the rule of God was much larger than any one expression of faith. He gave himself to the mission of creating a more effective Christian witness in Chicago by improving cooperation among the Christian churches within the city. He served for a time as chairman of the Church Federation of Chicago. Further, his larger concern for people is revealed in his membership and activity in the Chicago Conference for Christians and Jews.
At a crucial period of life at North Park Theological Seminary, Earl Dahlstrom occupied a leading role within the faculty. He was a person of engaging integrity. He was the one who spoke the needed word — a word that often existed elsewhere only in silence. He has left behind the witness of one who was willing to risk word and action for the sake of Jesus Christ.
— Fredrick Holmgren
Earl Dahlstrom’s job was to teach, counsel, and mentor North Park Theological Seminary students in the way of pastoral ministry. That is the context in which I and many others knew and loved him.
At one time the qualifications for pastoral ministry were a healthy piety and a perceived sense of God’s call. Along the way, seminary faculty and denominational executives came to realize that the letters G P C, configured in the sky by the clouds and interpreted by a young Iowa farmboy to mean “Go Preach Christ,” did not mean that at all, but rather “Go Plow Com.”
Earl Dahlstrom was on the cutting edge of the introduction of pyschological testing and Clinical Pastoral Education. With firmness and resolve he ushered in the era of the pastoral counselor which would stand alongside definitions of a pastor as preacher and teacher.
Earl Dahlstrom’s legacy is, I believe, most firmly planted in all those pastors prodded and nurtured by Earl through a one-year pastoral internship. The day the internship assignments were announced was a day filled with anticipation and anxiety. Everyone wondered, “Where would Earl send me?” Earl seemed to know what each student needed in an internship experience.
Earl Dahlstrom knew the traps that clergy too easily fell into when their need to be liked and approved became all consuming. At the completion of my internship, I scheduled an appointment with Earl for my final evaluation. I thought I had done rather well on my internship, but, after listening to Earl recite a litany of my shortcomings, I began to wonder if the pastoral ministry was something to which I should aspire. Somewhat deflated, I scheduled another appointment with Earl hoping to salvage a bit of ego. I asked Earl why he dwelt only on the negatives of my internship. His response was, “Art, if I told you all the good things you did, you might think that being a pastor would be a place to have your ego stroked.”
If you did not learn the best about yourself from Earl, at least you were confronted with some part of your darker side. And, from my experience in the pastoral ministry, it is the darker side of one’s self that is most likely to cause the greatest trouble if one is unaware of it.
Some people are left behind as we move on in life; some people stay with us. Earl Dahlstrom was a person with staying power. He is still around twenty-two years after having said “Goodbye” one summer evening in Chicago. Every time I am tempted to forego a hospital visit or evade a confrontation with a disgruntled parishioner, Earl Dahlstrom’s constant reminder to be a pastor moves me forward.