Carla D. Sunberg (born July 1, 1961) is an American ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, administrator, academic, author, speaker and former missionary and registered nurse, who is the 2nd woman elected as a General Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene, and was the first woman and the 10th person elected as president of Nazarene Theological Seminary. At the time of her election on January 3, 2014, Sunberg was co-District Superintendent (with her husband Charles H. "Chuck" Sunberg) of the East Ohio District of the Church of the Nazarene, having served in this role since November 1, 2011. Dr Sunberg was elected the 43rd General Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene on the 11th ballot by the delegates of the 29th General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene on June 27, 2017. Sunberg is the only daughter of Jerald Johnson, the 24th General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene.
For almost four years, Sunberg was the President of the Wesleyan-Holiness Women Clergy International organization from May 2009 to April 2013. Sunberg also served as the inaugural chairman of the USA/Canada Nazarene Women Clergy Council from February 2007 to June 2009. From 1992 to 2005, Sunberg was a global missionary for the Church of the Nazarene in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Early life and education
Carla Dawn Johnson was born on July 1, 1961, in Bad Homburg, West Germany, as the fourth child and only daughter of Rev. Jerald DeWight Johnson (born in Curtis, Nebraska, in 1927) and his wife Alice Eva Schmidt (born August 10, 1923, in Beiseker, Alberta, Canada), a Canadian of German parentage, who had been pioneer missionaries for the Church of the Nazarene in West Germany from March 1958 to May 1969. Sunberg is the younger sister of the late Jerald DeWight Johnson, Jr. (born September 21, 1953, in Spokane, Washington; died March 10, 2009, in Idaho), who was adopted when five days old by Johnson and his wife; Dennis Lane Johnson (born September 17, 1954, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho); and Kurt Eugene Johnson (born October 20, 1959, in Frankfurt, West Germany).
By May 1969, the Johnson family left West Germany and relocated to the US. On May 18, 1969, Sunberg's father became the pastor of the Cambrian Park Church of the Nazarene in San Jose, California. In 1970 the Johnson family relocated to Nampa, Idaho, where Jerald Johnson became pastor of College Church of the Nazarene. Upon Johnson's election as Director of the World Mission Division of the Church of the Nazarene in 1973, Sunberg and her family relocated to Overland Park, Kansas. Sunberg attended Shawnee Mission South High School, and graduated in 1979.
From 1979 Sunberg attended MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) cum laude degree in 1983.
Career
Registered nurse
After graduation from MidAmerica Nazarene University in May 1983, Sunberg became a registered nurse and worked in Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. For three years from 1983, Sunberg worked as a nurse in St Louis, Missouri, while her husband Chuck was associate pastor of the Southwest Church of the Nazarene.
In 1986 Chuck accepted a call to serve as the senior pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene in Austin, Texas, while Carla Sunberg continued nursing in the Austin area until 1992. While living in Austin, Sunberg became the mother of two daughters.
Church of the Nazarene
Missionary to Russia (1992-2005) From July 1992 to 2005, Sunberg and her husband Charles and their two daughters lived in Moscow, where they were pioneer missionaries for the Church of the Nazarene in the former Soviet Union, that resulted in the establishment of the Church of the Nazarene in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Their responsibilities involved giving leadership to more than 60 ministries, including leading Russian Nazarenes in starting churches, compassionate ministry centers, and clergy education centers. In this period, her husband was field director from 1993-2005, while Sunberg served initially as Director of Compassionate Ministries (1992-2002) and later as the Director of Theological Education (2002-2005) for the Church of the Nazarene on the CIS Field. When the Sunbergs left Russia in 2005, the CIS Field had 50 churches on four districts in 6 nations.