Ted Christensen

Senior Pastor

I had the privilege of being raised in a Christian home but I didn’t make the decision to follow Jesus on my own until I was in eighth grade when God called my dad to plant a church in Shelton, Washington. I grew up being homeschooled and when God called my family to plant a church this took me away from all my friends. God used this experience in my life to open my eyes to why I was going to church. Prior to this I was going to church because I was being raised in a Christian family and that is what you did. I knew who God was, but I had not made a personal commitment to him. In the same year my dad planted the church I went to a youth winter camp and that is where I gave my life over to Jesus and I have been walking with him ever since. The two verses that have had the greatest impact on my life are Luke 9:23 “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” And the second verse that has been very true in my life is Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

In the short amount of time I have been on this earth, I can look back on my life and see God’s hand on my life throughout all of it. Even when I didn’t know what He was doing at the time, I can see now, how He was preparing me for something later on and that has proven especially true with preparing and calling me to be a pastor.

I never thought in a million years I would ever be a pastor. Especially after growing up with a dad who was a pastor. It’s not that I didn’t admire my dad and what God was doing through him, but it never interested me. I always wanted to be a fireman and that is what I pursued out of high school. I was blessed to get hired by a fire department in Spokane in 2011, where I worked for 12 years as a firefighter paramedic. I never thought I would leave that job, but God had different plans for me and in 2019 I distinctly felt Gods call on my life to go into ministry fulltime. I always had a heart for youth and had been serving as a youth leader and pastor at Calvary Chapel Deer Park. But this call was different, I knew God was calling me away from firefighting and into fulltime ministry. I didn’t know what that exactly meant. I just knew God would open the door when the time came. Over the next several years it became clear God was calling me to take over as the senior pastor of our church here in Deer Park when it came time for Pastor Bob Monroe to retire. God showed both Pastor Bob and myself that this was His plan and we had the privilege of walking in the steps God laid out before us until the transition took place on January 1^st, 2024. I still have a love for the fire service and I am blessed to be able to serve my former department as a fire chaplain but God has given me a new desire of getting to teach His Word and to walk alongside people as they steadily grow in their relationships with Him.

I have been very blessed to be married to my beautiful wife Angel since 2013 and we have 3 rowdy boys, Rugan, Hemming and Cass, as well as two beautiful daughters Eleanora and Isla. The things I enjoy doing away from church are homesteading on our little farm, and anything else that involves being outside like hunting, fishing and camping.