About Our Pastor

One of my greatest passions is to transform people's lives, particularly in their relationships and their own personal struggles. Because of this, I am always pushing to grow myself spiritually and improve my interpersonal skills so that I can maximize my impact on others.

-Pastor Chong Lee Yang

Chong Lee Yang was born in Laos in 1969 and immigrated to the U.S. when he was eight years old. A church sponsorship brought his family to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he spent his adolescence playing soccer and jamming on his guitar all night with his friends.

He attended Crown College in St. Bonificious, MN and graduated in 1992 with a degree in Pastoral Ministries. He pastored the Hmong Alliance Church in Minnetonka, MN, from 1995 to 1998, where he saw that the younger Hmong generation wasn't quite fitting into the model of a traditional Hmong church. He realized that they would require a new and different kind of church to reach out to them and meet their needs.

After a time of praying and listening, he gathered together a core group of men and women and started New Life in Christ Worship Center in the summer of 1999. He functioned as a church planter (someone who helps start up a new church) for the first two years and formally stepped in as the Senior Pastor of New Life in the spring of 2001.

Currently, he lives in Brooklyn Park with Bee, his wife of 17 years, and their 6 kids (Hannah, Sarah, Rebecca, Naomi, Samuel, and Joshua). He enjoys time with this family, football, and an occasional round of golf during the summer.