Chad Nygren

So you want a multi cultural ministry

This past year our church has started a spanish speaking service. I think it has been great to see spanish speaking people in our church being a part of our body. The complexity of the situation that I have run into is that most of the children in our middle school ministry that are part of the spanish ministry are fully immersed into an english speaking culture and have adapted very well. Some questions I am asking myself...Is necessity of a spanish speaking service a short lived ministry or will there be a continued need for it into the next generation? Will English be a primary language or will other languages drive ministry endeavors? The children of our spanish speaking families seem so adapted to american culture even though they are bi-lingual and are influenced by multiple cultures.

Youth Ministry

This past year I went from being a part time technical director/middle school pastor working close to 60 to 70 hours a week to serving solely as a middle school pastor working around 50 hours a week. Talk about a breath of fresh air. In reality it has taken me about seven months to fully engage back into my middle school ministry. This past week I finally felt like we made some significant strides. We had an amazing team meeting and the team was excited to be together for the purpose of committing ourselves to the students. That excited me.

One of my goals for 2008 is to blog with more frequency. I value this medium and I hope to encourage others via my thoughts. Not telepathic thoughts but rather written words about my ministry experience.

Upcoming blog posts:
More thoughts on the Willowcreek Shift Conference
My life goals
The mind of a middle schooler
The problem with the Christian subculture
Don't push the red button

If you need some good resources check out Simply Youth Ministry