Pastor Todd Olson received a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Concordia College, Moorhead, and studied Greek for two years at North Dakota State University before attending seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill. He received his Master of Divinity from Trinity in 1989 and his Doctor of Ministry from the same school in 2004. Because of his interest in the historical and geographical context of the Bible, Todd participated in study programs in Israel through the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies and now has led multiple study programs in Israel and Turkey/Greece.

Pastor Todd is the second of six children raised in Fertile, Minnesota, a small town in the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota. Todd's wife, Sharon, grew up in Hollywood, Florida. Her family eventually moved to Hibbing, Minnesota where she went to high school. Pastor Todd and Sharon met in college and were married in 1983. They have five children—four boys and a girl (Luke [married to Macai], Benjamin [married to Anna], Gabriel, Caleb [married to Julia], and Miriam). He enjoys working on old cars, doing yard and garden work with Sharon, spending time with his best friends—namely his children and their spouses and grandchildren.