The Reverend Paul T. Christian
BIOGRAPHY
The Rev. Paul Thomas Christian was born September 30th, 1965 in Tracy, MN, the oldest son of Darrell and Mary Christian, growing up their dairy and hog farm in southwest Minnesota. He was baptized on October 31, 1965 and confirmed on April 12, 1981. He graduated from Tracy High school in 1984. He has 2 sisters, Susan & Amy and 2 brothers, David & James. Paul enlisted in the United States Air Force serving on active duty from 1985-1995. He was assigned to bases serving in TX, NH, HI, FL, South Korea, Okinawa, and in support of Operation Desert Storm/Southern Watch in Saudi Arabia. He worked for the National Park Service at Petersburg National Battlefield in Petersburg, VA and Little Big Horn National Battlefield, MT from 1997-2007.
He met and married his first wife, Sharon Russell, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Shalimar, FL in 1992. After 9-1/2 years of marriage Paul became a widower on November 22, 2001 after Sharon lost her 14-month-long battle with melanoma cancer at age 34. He has been married to Dee (Darian Lynn) since June 28, 2003. Paul and Dee met at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in 2002 about a year after his first wife passed. The couple has been blessed with two beautiful daughters, Elizabeth and Emily.
Paul graduated from Colorado Technical University in 2007 Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Project Management. He graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary Gettysburg on May 13, 2011 with a Masters of Divinity degree with a concentration in Small and Rural Church ministry. He was ordained The Reverend Paul T. Christian at the Virginia Synod Assembly on June 4, 2011. He then was installed as the ninth Pastor of the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer on June 26, 2011 and officially started on July 1, 2011 as “Pastor Paul.”
He has been a Bi-Vocational Pastor since January 2017 when he restarted his Civil Service career which he had left in 2007 to attend Seminary. In 2017, he began working at Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans’ hospital as a Zone Mechanic and then as an Engineering Technician. In December 2020, he took on a new role as a Chaplain at the Petersburg Federal Correctional Complex. He is one of four Staff chaplains serving at the Medium Low and Camp. Paul’s hobbies include carpentry/woodworking and landscaping. His special interests include intra- and interfaith dialogue, especially Jewish/Christian relations. He has a strong passion for justice and peace issues fighting for fairness and equality among all of God’s children. His first and foremost priority is being a devoted and loving husband and father.
