Larry Christenson
Larry Christenson was born in Northfield, Minnesota March 10, 1928. He graduated in the Northfield High School class of 1946.
Following High School he served two years in the army. In the fall of 1947 he coached a regimental football team that won the championship of the 82nd Airborne Division (with the help of weekly tips from his father, head football coach at St. Olaf College in Northfield).
He graduated magna cum laude, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, from St. Olaf College in 1952. He and Nordis Evenson were married in their senior year at St. Olaf.
After college they moved to Los Angeles. Larry studied creative writing with a private teacher for three years, and worked as a technical writer for a corporation. He wrote about 18 books between 1960 and 2008. Several became bestsellers (sold over 100,000). Some of the titles include:
Family life teaching:
The Christian Family, sold over 2 million copies, with translations into more than 20 languages.
The Christian Couple, written together with wife, Nordis.
The Wonderful Way Babies Are Made
Novel:
HOSEA, A Novel
Christian Life:
The Renewed Mind, sold over 250,000.
Welcome, Holy Spirit
The Charismatic Renewal Among Lutherans
Answering Your Questions About Speaking in Tongues
Back To Square One
Ride the River
Trinity Bible Series, 3-year study for young people.
The Mantle of Esther
Operetta:
The Heartless Troll, a musical written together with Gordon Hafso when they were students at St. Olaf College; produced by educational and civic theater groups, over 40 years.
Larry attended Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1955-1959. After seminary he worked in the Lutheran church in Germany for a year.
From 1960-1982 he served as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in San Pedro, California, then as Director of the International Lutheran Renewal Center in St. Paul, Minnesota until retirement in 1995.
He served on planning committees, and was a major speaker, for national and international conferences, such as —
● 1974: Speaker and workshop leader at Billy Graham consultation on world evangelization, Lausanne, Switzerland.
● 1975: Invited delegate-at-large to the World Council of Churches Convention, Nairobi, Kenya, Africa
● 1976: Speaker at Roman Catholic International Charismatic Conference, Notre Dame football stadium, 30,000 in attendance.
● 1977: Speaker at the first inter-racial, ecumenical Christian conference ever held in South Africa — Johannesburg fair grounds, 3,000 in attendance.
● 1977: Planning committee and Speaker at Ecumenical Conference on Charismatic Renewal, Kansas City Royals Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri, 50,000 in attendance.
● 1983: Planning committee and Speaker at All-Africa Leaders’ Conference, Kenyata Center, Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.
● 1988-90: Chairman of planning committee for a series of ecumenical conferences held in Singapore, Malaysia, Jerusalem, and culminating in an international ecumenical conference held in Brighton, England in 1990, attended by 3000 leaders from 110 countries.
He has participated in many conferences and seminars on family life and spiritual renewal. He has been invited to teach and preach to Lutheran and ecumenical groups in many countries, for example, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, England, Holland, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, France, Italy, Hungary, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroons, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Japan, Australia.
Larry and wife Nordis have four married children, 18 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren. They now live at Kildahl Park Pointe, a senior citizen housing cooperative in Northfield.
