Wayne & Marveen Coggins
Cornerstone
Family Ministries
P.O. Box 8253
Nikiski, AK 99635>
(907) 252-2036
email: fm123@alaska.net
I went to Northwest from spring quarter (tri-mester I guess might be a
better term) of 1965 until the spring of 1969. I thought I was
going to graduate but when we did the graduation audit we discovered
that I had more than enough credits total but was three credits short
in the Greek requirement. I only took two of the three quarters
from Dr. Dan. So, I did not graduate from Northwest. It was
January of 1996 (almost thirty years later) that I actually completed
my degree from Cornerstone Graduate School in Virginia. I
got a BA in Biblical Studies and a Masters of Theological Studies at
the same time. Two years later, in 1998 I got my Masters in
Counseling from the same school. Never did walk the plank (aisle)
for any of those degrees...just went out to dinner to celebrate.
Wish my dad had been alive to enjoy the moments.
I started
working as youth pastor at Redmond Assembly in 1967 and did that until
1969 when I started Teenonymous Youth Crisis Center on Rose Hill,
between Kirkland and Redmond. Did that for about a year or so and
then came to Alaska in November of 1971.
Once in
Alaska, my first assignment was to pastor Homer Assembly of God which I
did for a few years before doing interim pastoring in Fairbanks and
then in Nome. After that I accepted a position as administrator
at the Charismatic Bible College which was a part of Abbott Loop
Christian Center. I did that for about a year and then was
ordained as a pastor at that church. I served as a pastor, Bible
College teacher and worship leader at Abbott Loop from 1974 until 1980
when I took a church planting team of 50 people to the Washington DC
area where we started what is now Cornerstone Christian Center.
In 1983 I returned to Alaska to help begin what is now known as
Anchorage City Church. In 1985 I founded Cornerstone Family
Ministries and returned to the Washington DC area where I traveled and
did seminars and counseling through that ministry. I still
operate a counseling office in Alaska through CFM. In about 1989
I once again returned to Alaska where I did counseling for various
churches in the Anchorage area and did some traveling doing seminars
and retreats around Alaska and the lower 48. In 1991 I founded
Seward Christian Fellowship. In about 1995 I joined the staff of
Cornerstone Clinic (a counseling and medical clinic in
Anchorage). While working full time there, I also served as
interim pastor at Sand Lake Baptist Church, Mountain View Baptist
Church (both in Anchorage) and at Skyline Family Fellowship (a Free
Methodist Church in Eagle River Alaska (an Anchorage suburb).
Also during the late 90's I worked for New Life Clinics West conducting
Christian therapy groups in the mental health unit at Providence Alaska
Medical Center in Anchorage. And, during the late '90s my
wife and I led a single adult ministry called Single on Sunday in
Anchorage. During 2000, my wife and I spent the year living in a
cabin in the mountains above Steamboat Springs, C0 during which time I
wrote a book. We returned to Alaska for a year after the 9/11
tragedy occured but then spent another year in Colorado where I had a
counseling office at the base of Mt. Werner. In 2004, I accepted
an invitation to pastor North Kenai Chapel on the Kenai Peninsula in
Alaska and have been there for the past five years. Whew, makes
me weary just thinking about all of those transitions.
My
wife, Marveen, and I were married in 1991. I met her through my
good friends, Red and Vicky Boucher. Vicky and Marveen are
sisters. Marveen was working for the Alaska State Legislature as
chief of staff for an Anchorage senator so spent five months each year
in Juneau. I proposed to her in Juneau on a little peninsula of
land jutting out into the ocean where the Shrine of St. Terese
sits.
I have two books in print. In the
first one which came out in about 2004, I was one of thirty
contributing authors. This book on marriage was edited by Ken
Musko and titled Lovers For Life. Then, two years ago my book,
Adventures of An Alaskan Preacher was published by Magnus Press.
It is now going into a third printing. Both books can be accessed
through links on my www.cornerstonefamilyministries.com website.
[page update and re-formatted 3/28/12]