About Jack & Maree Nordgren

Many years ago in Hawaii on a Sunday night in January, Hope Chapel Waikiki was born. We met in the small chapel at the Community Center and had about 12 people (including Pastor Jack and Maree Nordgren and their family), sitting in a circle on folding chairs. But, I am getting ahead of myself here.

Hope Chapel Waikiki really started a few years before that when a young man and woman from Chicago heard a call from God on their lives and decided to move their little family across the ocean to a "foreign land" called Hawaii. That was in August 1978. We worked with the Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy from 1978-1981. We participated in beach church services, street ministries, Bible studies, hotel (church) services, phone counseling, and even radio programs.

Maree & Jack Nordgren
In 1981 we left Hawaii for St. Paul, Minnesota. Jack entered Bethel College to finish up a degree in Biblical Studies. Even though we were miserable in the cold, we never thought we would return to Hawaii. God had other plans.

After completing school we fully expected to be hired by a church somewhere in the Midwest. Every door we tried was closed... except for Hawaii. The Waikiki Beach Chaplaincy wanted us back. We came back to these beautiful islands in 1983 and we truly loved working in the ministry on Waikiki Beach. But, God had other plans. As we got to know some of the residents here we saw a need for a church where people could come and worship in a relaxed atmosphere. They needed a place where they could bring their friends. As some of them married and had families, they needed a place where they could bring their children to sunday school. They needed a place where they could receive practical teaching from the Word of God and use their gifts and talents. They needed a place where they could praise and worship God with guitars, drums and keyboards and where they could come to church in tee-shirts, shorts, and slippers. Most of all they needed a place where they were accepted just as they were.

Jack and I never started out wanting to become pastors. In fact, I thought we were just going to be missionaries for a couple of years and then go back to Chicago, Illinois and run the family's hardware store. But, God had other plans. Sometimes I reflect back on my life and wonder what it would have been like if we had not been open to do what God wanted us to do.

Although we loved Hawaii, its peoples, and the church, God had other plans. In 2007 we returned to the chilly Midwest to begin South Shore Fellowship. We felt the same call; to begin a church where people could come and worship in a relaxed atmosphere: a place where they could bring their friends, a place where they could bring their children, a place where they could receive practical teaching from the Word of God, a place to use their gifts and talents, a place where they could praise and worship God with guitars, drums and keyboards. A place where they could come to church in tee-shirts, shorts, and slippers (or snow boots). Most of all, we began a church where people are accepted just as they are.

Maree Nordgren

Also be sure to check out http://waikikijacks.com/