Bonnie Lou Jensen (October 11, 1938 -- March 31, 2024) was an American former missionary, international relations specialist, and director of the ELCA Global Mission.

Early life and education

Bonnie Lou Hagedorn was born in Royal, Iowa, and received degrees from Dana College and Wartburg Theological Seminary. She married American theologian

Richard A. Jensen Richard Alvin Jensen (July 4, 1934 – November 19, 2014) was an American theologian who served as the Carlson Professor of Homiletics Emeritus at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Early life and education Jensen was born on July 4, 1 ...

in 1957. Jensen moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to assist with the founding of the Mekane Yesus Seminary in 1962.

Career

Jensen served as executive director of the former American Lutheran Church Women (ALCW),

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

from 1981 to 1987. From 1982 to 1987, Jensen and her husband, served as co-hosts of ''Reflections'', a 30-minute Christian television series. From 1993 to 1995, Jensen served as director for planning and evaluation and program director for Papua New Guinea and the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

for the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...

ELCA Global Mission

Jensen became the director the ELCA Global Mission in 1995. Under her leadership in mission education, the ELCA companion synod program grew its relationships between the ELCA's 65 synods and Lutheran churches overseas. The ELCA's 8,894 congregations are organized into synods across the United States and Caribbean. Under her leadership the ELCA Global Mission had a presence in 70 countries with 300 missionaries and volunteers, 47 division staff based, with annual expenditures of $29 million. Jensen was also involved in Track II diplomacy, serving on the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Geneva, Switzerland during the 1980s, during this time the LWF had a NGO chair at the United Nations.

Personal life

In 1957, she married

. They had three children together, Doron, Dodi, and Derek.

Legacy

Jensen served on the board of Dana College and upon her retirement in 2003, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in divinity for her work in her field. She previously received an honorary doctorate from Wartburg Theological Seminary in 1997. She is noted as the first female to take leadership role within the ELCA and was one of the earliest feminist leaders in Lutheranism.

Honorary degrees

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Bonnie Lou 1939 births Living people Wartburg Theological Seminary alumni Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Christians Jensen family Dana College alumni People from Clay County, Iowa