David Roald Christenson

(1926-2022)

David Roald Christenson was born in a three-bedroom bungalow in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 31st, 1926. He was the youngest of four children born to Sigurd and Anna (nee Holte) Christenson, Norwegian immigrants from Sticklestad and Lillehammer, Norway. The bungalow had been built by his father, an entrepreneurial businessman who owned the American Printing Company in Minneapolis and was part-owner of the Sash and Door Company in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

David was baptized as an infant at Ebenezer Lutheran Brethren Church, Minneapolis, where his parents were life-long members. He came to a living faith in Jesus when, at the age of ten, his mother led him in a prayer of forgiveness and asking Jesus into his life anew at a time when he was feeling burdened by a strong sense of his own sinful condition. Later David would look back on his childhood home as “a happy home where God was honored and worshipped.”

David’s older sisters, Ingeborg and Solveig, nicknamed him “Dib,” which became “Dibber” in high school years while he was attending Hillcrest Lutheran Academy in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, from which he graduated in 1944. He enlisted in the US Navy in November of 1944 and served in Naval medical units on the West Coast until the end of World War II, when he was honorably discharged.

David received a B.A. degree from Augsburg College (Minneapolis) in pre-medical studies in 1949. It was during his final year at Augsburg that he sensed the Lord calling him to attend seminary rather than medical school. Soon after graduation, he began dating a nursing student at Deaconess Hospital in Minneapolis named Dagney Trettevik. On their first date, he invited her out to play miniature golf. Dagney beat him. They were married at Rock of Ages Lutheran Brethren Church in Seattle, Washington, on June 16th, 1951. Over the next decade and a half, they were blessed with six children: Sandra Kae (1953), Daniel Craig (1957), David Allen (1958), Joel Robert (1959), Brenda Lynne (1962), and Jonathon Mark (1965).

In 1953, David graduated from Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, with a Master of Divinity degree. Over the next forty years, he became known as “Pastor Dave” to hundreds and hundreds of people in congregations that he served in Washington and Minnesota: Ebenezer LB Church in Ferndale WA (1953-1958), Ebenezer LB Church in Minneapolis MN (1961-1968), Maple Park LB Church in Lynnwood WA (1968-1972, 1979-1993), and Bethel LB Church in Fergus Falls MN (1972-1979). He also served for one term overseas with Lutheran Brethren World Missions as the head instructor at Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Akita, Japan (1959-1961), teaching his classes through a Japanese translator.

Pastor Dave’s passion for global missions, which he had seen in both his mother and his mother-in-law, continued throughout his life. In addition to personally praying for and supporting dozens of missionaries over the years, he also served on the Lutheran Brethren World Mission Board for nearly thirty years, chairing the board for many of those years. During those years, he traveled to each of the Lutheran Brethren mission fields—Japan, Taiwan, Cameroon, Chad, and China—to visit, learn from, and encourage missionaries on the ground. He was thrilled to see the Lord calling some of his own children and grandchildren one-by-one into short- and long-term international missions as well in places such as Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Cambodia, Morocco and Ecuador.

Following his retirement from Maple Park LB Church in 1993, Pastor Dave (who never lost his love for preaching, teaching and counseling from God’s Word) continued to serve in interim pastor positions of various lengths—usually three-to-six-months—in seven different Lutheran Brethren congregations across the US. His final interim pastorate took place when he was already in his 80s. He loved to travel during those retirement years as well, and he and Dagney visited distant places such as Norway, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Italy, China, Alaska, and the Caribbean on some of those journeys.

For the past forty years, David and Dagney have been blessed with being able to live in their own house in Lynnwood WA after decades of living in various church parsonages throughout their early ministry years. In July of 2021, they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in their own backyard surrounded by four generations of loving family members. The highlight of the gathering was when “Grandpa Christenson” gave a loving tribute to his patient and supportive “sweetheart” of 70 years, followed by a reminder to the younger generations to “always keep your heart and mind open to what God wants, not what you want.”

Grandpa Christenson often expressed to his children the desire that the Lord would one day take him home from the comfort of his own house without having to go to a hospital or a retirement home. On the morning of March 1st, 2022, the Lord honored that desire by welcoming Grandpa Christenson into glory while he was seated on the sofa in the family room of his own home in Lynnwood, Washington.

Grandpa Christenson was preceded in death by his father and mother, Sigurd and Anna Christenson of Minneapolis MN, and his three sisters, Ingeborg (Tormud) Garborg of San Clemente CA, Solveig (Roger) Amberson of Grand Marais, MN, and Ruth Christenson of Minneapolis MN (who died in infancy). He is survived by: his wife, Dagney (nee Trettevik) Christenson of Lynnwood WA; his six children, Sandra Ward of Sammamish WA, Daniel (Ruth) Christenson of Mt. Bethel PA, David (Eunice) Christenson of Fergus Falls MN, Joel (Elizabeth) Christenson of Fergus Falls MN, Brenda (Frederick) Stoutland of Calabasas CA, and Jonathon (Barbara) Christenson of Bothell WA; his twenty-seven grandchildren; and his twenty-six great-grandchildren.

May the Lord be glorified in and through the life, death, and memory of his beloved son, David Roald Christenson.

A Funeral Service will he held Saturday, March 12; 11:00AM at Maple Park Lutheran Church 17620 60th Ave W. Lynnwood WA.