Johan Storm Munch

Johan Storm Munch (21 October 1827 – 13 August 1908) was a Norwegian minister who served as pastor to pioneer Lutheran churches in southern Wisconsin from 1855 to 1859 before returning to Norway and becoming a popular evangelist.

Background

Munch was born in Kristiansand, the son of Lutheran Bishop Johan Storm Munch. The bishop died when the son was only four, leaving the family without an income. However, the Munchs belonged to the cultured social class in Norway, which meant that the younger Johan Storm was expected to get a higher education despite his family's impoverished situation. He worked as a tutor and finished a theology degree in 1852, but continued teaching until he received a call in 1854 to serve pioneer parishes in Wiota and Dodgeville, Wisconsin. He borrowed money from his father-in-law for the trip and set off with his new bride.

The Church of Norway at the time operated as part of the national government and ministers were state employees. The church's sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and marriage were performed on behalf of both church and state and were compulsory for every Norwegian. Munch, however, was strongly in favor of a "free" church and looked forward to his time in America where state and religion were separate.

American ministry

In Wiota, Wisconsin, the Munchs lived near the church, but the pastor also served other Norwegian-speaking settlements, traveling by horse and buggy and often being gone for days at a time.

Munch's next assignment was as parish pastor in Horten in Vestfold where he was also assigned to the Karljohansvern naval base. In this connection he served as ship pastor on the corvette when it went on a nine-month double excursion: first as official representative of the Norwegian government at the opening of the Suez Canal on November 17, 1869, and then on a good-will tour to South America. Munch took advantage of his stay at Suez by making a nine-day side trip to the Holy Land, accompanied by 's second officer.

With renewed vigor Munch took up his spiritual work when he came home to Norway. As in America, he insisted on personal counseling, spiritual guidance, and confession before he would perform the sacraments of confirmation or marriage. He firmly believed in the minister's personal responsibility for the morality and beliefs of the congregation. This had brought him into conflict with his American constituents and now also with the State Church of Norway. He resigned from the church and moved his family to Christiania, but had no intention of giving up preaching the gospel. After a short time he rejoined the church as an evangelical preacher rather than as an administrator of official church/state sacraments, and built up a sizable following in the city. His venues and audiences grew from a local dance hall, to the gym at Akershus Fortress, and finally to the Calmeyer Street Mission House in Christiania,

Personal life Munch was the son of Lutheran Bishop Johan Storm Munch and his wife Else Petronelle Hofgaard (1790–1879). He was the youngest of eight children. His older brother Andreas Munch was a poet who later lived in Denmark and his cousin was the Norwegian historian Peter Andreas Munch. The painter Edvard Munch was the son of Munch's cousin Christian.

Munch was married to Caja Falch (1830–1898) just prior to his emigration to America, where their first two children were born. Seven more were born after they returned to Norway, among them one of Norway's first female physicians, Kristine Munch. The sociologist Peter A. Munch was one of their grandchildren. Munch's followers built a home for the large family at Bestum, outside Christiania, where Munch died at the age of 81.