FYI The Deadly Viper blog just posted an update on their conversation with leaders in the Asian American Christian community. I’m encouraged. http://www.deadlyviper.org/blog/?p=1975

I’m fascinated by the discussion going around the blogosphere regarding the marketing of “Deadly Viper: Character Assassins”, a book apparently about Christian leadership. You wouldn’t be able to tell that from the dragon emblazoned on it’s cover, the Asian characters printed by the title, or the subtitle: “A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership”. I’m sure the authors of the book had no idea that their innocently packaged book of positive and potentially life-changing truths would offend so many. If you haven’t gotten around to following the discussion, I totally recommend it. I personally learned about it starting from Pastor Drew Hyun’s blog: http://drewhyun.wordpress.com/ [Side note: Pastor Drew will be speaking for our Epic East Coast Conference...very exciting!]

What intrigues me about this conversation are people’s responses to the basic statement, “your portrayal of my culture offends/upsets me.” These responses have ranged from “why are you offended? can’t you take a joke?” or “you should feel honored that they’re using your culture to promote such great values.” The most interesting response is, “Well, I’m Asian, and I’m not offended, so you shouldn’t feel offended either.”

It makes me think about the verse, “But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Cor. 12:24-26)

If one part of the body considers something hurtful or humiliating, shouldn’t the whole body make every effort to understand why and corrrect it? I’m sure that the writers and publisher of this book have learned a lot through this conversation. Hopefully they’ll be able to present their message in a more culturally-aware and sensitive manner.

As for the authors, I’m sure they have suffered much from all the angry, sarcastic, mean and unloving responses posted on blogs, FaceBook, and Twitter. For that, we need to apologize (which many have already). Let’s suffer with each other, and honor each other….I pray we may quickly rejoice with each other too as we see our culture begin changing for good.

Simon Pang, Epic Movement staff at Penn State, recently gave a talk on the difference between perfectionism and pursing excellence.  The difference can sometimes be subtle and hide itself in well meaning intentions.  Listen to how perfectionism can be damaging and results in an ‘inevitable cycle of self defeat’.

Perfectionism vs. Pursuing Excellence from Simon Pang on Vimeo.

For the Epic East Coast Conference!
www.epicconference.com

After a stimulating small group discussion at Hunter College, I walked by a homeless woman on the way to our ministry’s offices. What struck me about this woman was that she was reading a Bible. Curious, and wondering if I could offer her any resources from the various shelters and kitchens that serve our city’s underserved, I approached her and asked what part of the Bible she was reading.

She glared at me: “No.”

Obviously, I was an unwelcome intrusion in her reading. I left – but not before sneaking a glance at her Bible. It was open to the book of Judges, chapter 7.

I’m not sure what she was getting out of her reading, but I hope it was good.

photo credit: Bas Scheffers

Later on, in the subway, an Asian American girl asked me for directions to 23rd Street. Asking for directions isn’t unusual here, but what made this stand out to me was that she deliberately didn’t ask any of the other people (none of them Asian) who walked by her before I did: she waited to ask me, another Asian American woman.

Why did she ask me? Why not any of the four people who passed her just before I did?

It got me thinking: in a place as tensely diverse as New York City, people are naturally going to gravitate toward communities where they feel most comfortable – and that often implies groups of people with the same or similar cultural background. The more you feel understood, (and the less you have to explain about yourself), the more you feel at home. Maybe that’s why we have such distinct ethnic communities in the city.

What implications does this have for us, as we seek to give every person a chance to hear and respond to the story of Jesus?

Here’s what I think. Of course, limiting a Christian group to people of only a certain background is silly: we’d miss out on learning from and experiencing the true fullness of the community of believers. It would also be not very politically correct… not that our goal is to be P.C. On the other hand, striving for cultural diversity in a Christian group is nice – and certainly a reflection of what it will be like in heaven – but it won’t necessarily make the Gospel story hit home the way it needs to in order for lives to be radically changed from the inside out.

Instead, we need both aspects: a contextualized (not watered-down) Gospel message that a culture really understands and is transformed by, concurrent with a vision for moving beyond cultural boundaries to share the message with those who haven’t yet heard.

Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions? Let’s hear ‘em.

This video might be old to some, but it is new to me.  It was produced by a professor and his Intro to Cultural Anthropology class at Kansas State University.  He shares his thoughts about the video here.

It’s worth the 5mins to watch what the class’ opinion of what it’s like to be a student today (filmed in 2007).  Take the facts with a grain of salt (small sample set in middle America) but I feel this campus culture is a close enough representation of reality.

Any comments or thoughts?

Here’s an interview with Margaret Yu, director of leadership development with the Epic Movement done by DJ Chuang of the L2 Foundation, regarding the development of Asian American women leaders.  Great stuff!

Margaret Yu on raising up leaders from L2 Foundation on Vimeo.

We are finally back in the city and revving up for the start of a new semester. This is always my favorite time of year. I’m excited to meet the freshmen and see what God will do this semester!

We recently returned from our NYC metro team staff retreat. It was somewhat sad that our team was so small. Usually, our staff retreats have at least 15 people attending. But with people still raising support, others leaving the city for various reasons, and babies on the way (this is an exciting reason!) we only had 10 of us there. It was humbling for us to consider our scope (1.5 million students!) and the size of our team. But I am believing that God is going to use us to show His glory and help reap a great harvest of souls. Please pray earnestly with us for God to intervene!

One good thing that came out of the intimate size of our group was that I definitely felt a community and camaraderie that I never experienced before in all the 4 years I’ve served in the city. Part of the reason was the size, of course, and the fact that most of us were “veterans.” But I also think that part of the reason is that more than half of us there were Epic staff. Asian Americans tend to naturally be community-minded and want to hear from everyone in the group. A couple of us even shared how we felt like we got to know everyone in the group a lot more after our staff retreat. What a blessing!

All this to say: I am really interested to see the dynamics of the team now that a majority of us are Asian Americans. Will we step up and let our thoughts and ideas be heard in our weekly staff meetings? (We tend to be the quietest on the team!) Will we be given more leadership roles? (I can see that happening already) Will we be more direct when wanting to communicate an opinion that goes against the “louder voice”? I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

Which reminded me of this awesome designer (Yang Liu) who created all these different images representing Eastern and Western culture. Some of my favorites (from http://mountainrunner.us/2008/01/differences_between_eastern_an.html) are very true for my team:

Opinion

Way of Life

Contacts

Anger

Me

Handling of Problems

Check out Yang Liu’s website (www.yangliudesign.com) to find out more about her “Ost trifft West” (East Meets West) exhibit.

Epic Staff Family - CSU 2009

Please pray for God’s grace to be upon us as we work, minister, and live with Him this coming year. Thanks!

Hello from Fort Collins, CO! We just finished the Epic National Staff Conference portion of our time here. It is so encouraging to gather as an Epic family to celebrate what God has done this past year, and be challenged to serve with faith and boldness from our national leaders. Some highlights:

* Hearing the history of the Epic Movement: how it started with 4 staff and has grown to about 70 (including interns), how it was almost called GenerAsian, and how Tommy Dyo joined to become our first Epic Movement National Director.

* Hearing the mission, dreams, plans and possibilities ahead

* Getting into working groups to strategically plan for topics like, “How can Epic bring the gospel effectively to lost students in the Asian-American community?”, “How can Epic develop and empower Asian American women in leadership?” and ” How can Epic mobilize laborers for humanitarian ministry and justice issues and integrate Epic’s mission with these other significant Kindom callings?”

* Being reminded that our mission is: “Mobilizing the untapped to the unreached.”

One thing that strikes out to me about this conference is how everyone demonstrated incredible transparency. Tommy Dyo talked about his “rats and trash” theology: how if we have trash (sin) in our life, rats (consequences of sin) will naturally follow. Take out the trash, and the rats will slowly go away. I really appreciated how many people openly shared about trash in their life. This is so refreshing, especially in an Asian American context where “saving face” and not sharing problems publicly is valued.

My favorite line from today was shared by a sister who spoke very vulnerably about something she has been trusting God for several years. Although God has not answered her prayers as she has been hoping, she shared how she continues to trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness. She read a devotional by Rick Warren who wrote, “God is never in a hurry” and “God’s delay never destroy’s His purpose.” This struck me deeply, since I tend to be a very impatient and easily discouraged person. I was reminded today that the purpose of our relationship with God is not for our personal happiness or comfort, but for God’s glory and our sanctification.

It is a blessing to be able to serve alongside my Epic Movement co-workers. Even when we don’t always have our acts together, we can accept and cheer each other on along this path to work for far greater purposes than we can achieve on our own. Just one more reason I love my job!