Pastor Evanson

Biographical information reproduced from the church notes + In Divine Service + to the Glory of God in observation of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Ordination of the Reverend Charles John Evanson Friday in the Third-Last Week of the Church Year 16 November 1990, 6:00 p.m. Redeemer Lutheran Church Fort Wayne, Indiana

Charles John Evanson was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, the firstborn son of Dr. Charles Olaf and Louise Evanson. He was baptized and confirmed by Pastor Luther Yearger Seibert in St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Elmhurst. He was married to Lenore(nee Clark) in the Bronx by the Reverend Berthold R. von Schenk. They have three children: James August, Charles John III, and Anne Marie.

Pastor Evanson has done undergraduate work at the University of Illinois, Elmhurst College, and Valparaiso University where he earned a degree in Theology and Philosophy. His theological education was taken at Chicago Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary, and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He has also done post-graduate work at the Concordia Seminary in St. Louis ant the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

After serving as an ordained deacon under the Reverend James F. von Schenk in the Bronx, and as a commissioned missionary for the Ontario District of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, Pastor Evanson was ordained to the office of the Holy Ministry in November 1964 on the First Sunday in Advent twenty-five ecclesiastical years ago by Pastor Clemens Neuhaus.

The Reverend Evanson served as Vicar to Lutheran Charities in Chicago and also as a Vicar at Our savior Lutheran Church in the Bronx. His first pastorate was with St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Stratford, Ontario, Canada(1964-1967). Subsequently, he has served congregations in Detroit (St. John's, 1967-75), and Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne.

In addition to his pastoral duties in congregations, Pastor Evanson has served in many district capacities for the Ontario District and the English District. At the Synodical level, he was the secretary of the Liturtgical Texts and Music committee of the Commission on Worship, for which commission he was also secretary.

As a teacher, Charles Evanson has been an instructor of guest lecturer at the Stratford Normal School, Saint Francis College, Concordia Senior College, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. He has lectured widely throughout the country for district conventions, circuit conferences, Church Musicians. He has published articles in Studia Liturgica (translator), Lutheran Witness, In Spirit, Concordia Theological Quarterly, Bride of Christ, and Festachriften for Norman Nagel, Roger Pitelko, and Kurt Marquart. He is also a contributor to Lutheran Worship--history and Practice, and the translator/author of the collects as well as much of the liturgical material of Lutheran Worship.