Dr. Rod Spidahl, assistant professor of religion, led a seminar at the Atlanta 2006 Ethnic Workers’ Summit held April 27 to 29. The conference, presented by the Ethnic America Network, was the sixth in a nationwide series of gatherings encouraging and enabling intercultural ministry connections.
Spidahl, who spent five years as a missionary among Muslims in Cameroon, presented a seminar on “Understanding Folk Islam.”
Spidahl joined Northwestern’s faculty last fall after teaching missions at Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, Minn., since 1994. He has pastored Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, served as a consultant for HIV-AIDS projects for Kenya, and ministered to first- and second-generation immigrants from a variety of ethnic backgrounds in the United States.
A member of the Ethnic America National Committee, Spidahl serves on the organization’s post-summit and development subcommittees. He co-chaired the third annual summit held in Minneapolis–St. Paul in 2003.
The recipient of a doctoral degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Spidahl also earned a Master of Divinity degree from Lutheran Brethren Seminary and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho.
