Reflecting on the 50th anniversary of her father's mission to bring people to Christianity, Lisa Lundstrom said five years ago that Lowell Lundstrom would preach until his dying breath.
"His stopping will be his funeral," she said then of the man who, with his wife, cofounded Celebration Church in Lakeville. "There is no retiring for this man, ever."
The Rev. Lowell Lundstrom, who preached the gospel with a touch of wit from prairie tent revivals to his suburban megachurch, died July 20 at his home in Savage after battling Parkinson's disease. He was 72.
Having preached since 1957, Lundstrom and his wife, Connie, settled in nearly 40 years later at Celebration Church, the spacious, high-energy Lakeville house of worship where daughter Londa Lundstrom Ramsey is senior pastor, and her husband, Brent, is executive pastor.
What Celebration Church has become is a far cry from the Lundstroms' nomadic beginnings as newlyweds, traveling the country to lead crusades and tent revivals. Lowell Lundstrom sang and told jokes before crowds, mostly in the Upper Midwest, that sometimes would swell into the tens of thousands. He also found time to write and record music and host Christian TV and radio shows.
As his children were born, they came along for the ride, raised on a bus on the road for up to 300 days a year. Eventually, Lowell and Connie Lundstrom had enough of the road and formed a congregation in 1996, first meeting at Burnsville High School and moving six years later to Lakeville.
"Dad was a warrior," Londa Ramsey said on Thursday, noting his involvement in the church foundation's affairs right up until the day before he died. "There was no stopping him."
Lowell Lundstrom described Celebration services as "entertainment evangelism" for its 1,500 regular attendees. The church puts on elaborate Christmas and Easter shows.
