New Students, Fall 2003

From ‘cemetery to seminary’:
Andrew J. Evenson

Andrew J. Evenson quips that growing up in Gibbon, MN, he spent as much time at a local cemetery as he did in church. "My family was in charge of upkeep on the grounds at the Clear Lake Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church and Cemetery," he says. "I always imagined God to be some Supreme Being who pulled a lot of levers to run the world, but I never quite understood why God would pull the lever to let people die and leave family and friends in utter sadness." Along came confirmation classes at Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gibbon, MN. Andrew helped to lead services, ushered, and occasionally participated in church drama. He discovered he liked to read Scripture and began to enjoy worship from a different perspective as he matured. He thought he might become an active layperson in a congregation "wherever I would end up." He also recalls that his grandfather used to encourage him to become a pastor "because they only had to work on Sundays. I knew he was kidding, of course, but I think he put an idea in my head that just stuck around until I began to hear a call from God." While studying at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, intending to go to law school "I began to feel called. I talked with friends and eventually decided on a seminary track." Having grown up on a small farm in southern Minnesota, he thought he needed exposure to life in a large city. "I decided to go to Philadelphia because of its close community feel," he says. "Also, there is a strong emphasis on quality academic work. I’m having a great time exploring various questions at LTSP and look forward to finding more questions than answers as my journey continues."