Church Life – Pastor Sam Larsen went to glory 10 October 2018

LarsenDr Samuel H. Larsen was one of the original pastors at Grace Christian Church Buderim. He passed to glory on Wednesday 10 October 2018. He was 71.

Dr Larsen had a varied ministry career, serving on three different continents. He served as a missionary in both Kenya and Australia before returning to the US and his previous life in the U.S. Navy; only this time not as a line officer, but as a chaplain. He also served as professor of Missions at Reformed Theological Seminary, and as a church planting team leader and regional director with Mission to the World.

Pastor Bob Burnett remembers Sam:

“It is with heavy heart that I report the death of Pr Sam Larsen. He died yesterday (Wednesday) after a relatively short battle with pancreatic cancer, leaving his wife Louise (who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease) and children Eric, Kristen and Hans, and their families. In the early 1980s Sam pastored Redbank Plains WPC church for a year or so, and in April 1984 came to the fledgeling, and as yet pastor-less, church in Buderim, where he served until 1989. He then returned to the U.S. where he was a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, followed by many years of lecturing in theological colleges. He was responsible for setting up Westminster Theological College (QLD) and bringing out to the college several top-shelf lecturers, such as Dr Wilber Wallis and Dr R. Laird Harris. I owe my own training and pastoral ministry to Sam’s efforts in the theological college, along with his personal encouragement and tutoring. We have lost a good brother who fought the fight, ran the race and kept the faith.”