I first caught a glimpse of this on YouTube, and I think it’s better than “Sex in the City”. It’s absolutely addicting to watch honest, street-level views of Chinese culture from a completely fluent Jewish-American woman, Anna Sophie Loewenberg!

Sexy Beijing is an Internet TV station run by an in-house production team. We also work with a handful of contributors in the editing room and on productions. Sexy Beijing has been on the Internet since 2006 when we launched Danwei TV, a now popular video site.

Check out their new site, SexyBeijing.tv!

Here’s the first one I watched…entitled “Looking for Double Happiness”

And here’s another popular episode: Lost in Translation.

Share and Enjoy

asian american leadership conference 2008

“encouraging and equipping those who serve the asian american community nationwide”

[From their website]

Over 400 pastors, parachurch leaders, seminarians, and spouses attended the first AALC in 2004. We anticipate more than 500 to attend this second AALC on March 24-26, 2008.

DATE

Monday-Wednesday, March 24-26, 2008

LOCATION

The 2008 AALC will be utilizing the facilities of the Grace Korean Church (Grace International Ministries) in Fullerton, CA

PURPOSE

The purpose of the AALC is to encourage and equip those who serve the evangelical Asian American community nationwide.

SPEAKERS

• Dr John Townsend, Cloud-Townsend Ministries
• Pastor Ken Fong, Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles
• Lisa Espineli Chinn, Director of International Student Ministries, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
• Pastor David Gibbons, New Song Church, Irvine, CA

WORKSHOPS

20+ workshops addressing a wide range of ministry topics

PARTNERS

Churches and ministries are joining as partners in this conference.

Share and Enjoy

***Edit – Follow up:

Great conversation tonight and wonderful re-presentation with DJ Chuang tonight (thanks DJ!). After several attempts to use Skypecast, we may have found a good medium for our TalkBacks by using Talkshoe, a technology that seems to have great flexibility and fast recording features.

Regarding the talk, it seems that this crowd is asking some different questions than the pastors and ministry leaders from DJ’s original presentation. Less ‘how-to’ and more ‘relevance’ and contexualized theology questions. But you be the judge if you’d like to share your comparisons.

Stay tuned for next month as we’ll be discussing issues of how Asian American college students and young adults perceive the ethnic church and where they see their churches headed!

Check out the audio:

Thanks again, elderj, cyrusco, and DJ! Enjoy and spread the word…

____________________________________________

[originally posted 10/15/2007]

If you haven’t heard DJ Chuang‘s wonderful talk on “Revitalizing Asian American Churches,” which he gave at the end of September to a group of pastors and ministry leaders in Southern California, please give it a listen here or on his blog post:

Check out more of DJ’s work here with L2 Foundation and Leadership Network. And also his list of resources mentioned in his talk.

• Asian American Church Report – free PDF download with registration
• List of Asian-led multi-Asian/multi-ethnic Church Plants (100+ less than 10 years old)

There are few people who have the breadth of experience and exposure to as many churches and networks as DJ does and this presentation has hundreds of hours of research and discussions behind it.

Join us for a follow-up discussion on DJ’s presentation Sunday, October 21st: 6-7pm Pacific / 9-10pm Eastern.

Here’s the info for the phone call, hope to hear some new voices…

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Talkcast ID: 60596

Share and Enjoy

Check out the full link here, but in essence, “138 prominent Muslim scholars” organized by “the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, a non-governmental organisation based in Amman, Jordan” wrote a letter to the Pope and other Christian leaders about what is required for the adherents to the world’s two largest religions to live in peace.

The institute said: “This historic letter is intended by its 138 signatories as an open invitation to Christians to unite with Muslims over the most essential aspects of their respective faiths – the principles of love of one God and love of the neighbour.

“It is hoped that the recognition of this common ground will provide the followers of both faiths with a shared understanding that will serve to defuse tensions around the world.”

Wow. I’m floored. The article notes that this letter coincides with the end of Ramadan and shows a great deal of intention and awareness to what is at stake, both ecumenically and geopolitically. I don’t know if every Muslim would agree with the purpose of this letter, but it certainly shows the humanity underlying this simple and beautiful gesture.

The letter begs a question …have we as Christians ever written such a letter to Muslims? Who would I send it to? I guess I could find the address of this institute…I’m so humbled by this letter, even though it wasn’t addressed to me. To the point, I don’t even know that many Muslims in the city I live. I’ve never thought about this, but I guess I should say…I don’t have enough Muslim friends to make reconciliation a reality in my own life.

The article lists the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury as recipients of the letter…I barely know who they are though we share the same moniker of “Christian”, but I suppose as Protestants, decentralized and fragmented across tens of thousands of denominations, there’s no way that this letter would have ended up in my mailbox.  But I’m glad it was sent. Now if I can just live out my reply…

Romans 12:18 – “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”

Share and Enjoy

Some ministry leaders and pastors say there is no need for contextualizing ministry and only the Gospel and its doctrines is essential. Some say that only multi-ethnic churches are needed, where everyone is equally incorporated in a church’s life and corporate culture.

But, when I read remarks like this, it helps me to see that a different flavor of church really is needed for next generation Asian Americans.

This remark is from Josh Deng, a college senior:

I was thinking about where I’d really find my place in the future, what kind of church I would be involved in. I decided that a purely chinese-speaking congregation was not my place. But on the flip side, a purely American (read: white) church would have me still feeling slightly out of place. Wonder where I fit in?

Share and Enjoy

In class the other day, we were asked the question of what the communities we grew up in looked like. What were common values and ideals…

I raised my hand and said something like, “As an Asian American, I come from a community of people that survived by small business. Everyone I knew owned something whether it was dry cleaners, beauty supply, gas station, restaurant…I come from a community of hustlers.”

I left out an important detail in my profession before the class, which was that my father was a pastor. His “job” was to pastor this community of hustlers.

I admire my father now for reasons that I used to hate him. For instance, we moved around a lot when I was younger. I hated the farewells and the arduous awkwardness of making new friends. But I remember my father saying once, “When a church has no problems, it’s time to move on to a church that does.” Even in my youth, I realized that meant we were going to be moving again soon.

When I share with my father the gripes I have with the first generation of immigrants. Sometimes he would nod and chuckle, but there are times, when his eyes burn and he’ll say very gently, “You don’t understand the immigrant life.”

To be a hustler is a dangerous thing. You can never sleep deeply. You are always nervous. You are always at the mercy of the host country. One thing can go wrong and it’s game over. You could get sick, break a bone, catch the flu, get caught speeding, get scammed by your own family, your kid needs braces, grandmother falls down the stairs, a key shipment doesn’t come through, you might get robbed, your visa sponsoring company goes bankrupt, your international phone bill equals your rent, you’re lonely, you can’t trust people from your country any more than you can trust people from this country, and you wish you had studied English more when you had a chance, but now it’s too late because you’re playing for keeps now and it all matters now because children have lives and it might be OK for you to ruin yours, but you thought you could keep from ruining theirs…so you can’t stop now, can’t quit now. Even if you’re doing something illegal now, what else could you do? It’s only illegal if you don’t get caught. So what should we do? We’ll pray. Pray for this hustling life. Because if it works, it must be good. And if God is good, He’ll make it work.

Perhaps this is why urban rap music is so attractive to the sons and daughters of these hustlers.

Perhaps this is what happens when churches are a gathering for hustlers. Churches can shelter visa sponsorships. Pastors help people get their driver’s licenses. Sunday school can be the first hour of the week you don’t have to look your kids in the eye. SAT class at church can help your kids get into college. Churches can help the community.  Pastors aren’t hustlers by nature…they’re just trying to reach them. Some in the process become them. Some of them try to teach them that hustling ain’t the only life, but that might have to come later, pastor. But if you could ever get those problems resolved…even for just one moment…it’s time to move on, you’re needed somewhere else.

Share and Enjoy

No kidding, a pretty comprehensive list here put together by ReligionLink, with the subtitle: “Helping journalists cover religion with balance, accuracy, and insight”.

Here’s the summary and the categories of information:

A guide to Asian-Americans and religion

Asian-Americans are one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population, and they are stunningly diverse culturally and religiously. ReligionLink presents a guide to experts and organizations that focus on this group.

How to use this guide

This guide is organized into several major areas. Click on the topic to jump to it. Sources may appear in more than one category.

• Issues To Explore
• Organizations And Research Centers
• National Sources
• 10 Top Scholars
• Activism/Anti-Discrimination
• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Mormonism
• Politics
• Second-Generation/Generation X
• Sikhism
• Unitarian Universalism
• Women
• Background
• Demographics
• Publications And Web Sites

And DJ, you made the list under “Christianity”! Congrats…I’ll have to send them an email regarding NG.AC…

They provide a list of issues that I’d like to tackle at some point on this blog…

• Some of the largest evangelical campus ministries in the U.S. are populated by Asian-Americans. How are Asian-Americans influencing American evangelicalism?

• Asian-Americans are courted by a wide variety of Christian denominations and traditions in the U.S., and many denominations are starting new churches and programs to appeal to their growing numbers. How is their presence influencing practices in these denominations?

• Explore the diversity of congregations. Coverage tends to focus on immigrant churches rather than churches of the children of immigrants. Korean-American second-generation churches get a lot of attention, but less is paid to Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Japanese or Filipino second-generation churches. Also, a new wave of multiethnic but single-race churches includes young Asian-American congregants from a variety of backgrounds.

• How do religious and generational differences play out in Asian-American families? What are the challenges of child-rearing in multireligious families? How are second-generation Asian-Americans adapting religious practices to American life?

• How does the church function in diverse Asian-American communities where class divisions exist? How do Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist second-generation Asian-Americans address these issues?

• Americans’ understanding of Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism is often shallow; how are adherents addressing that? What role are civil rights organizations playing?

• What role does faith play when young Asian-Americans become involved in social and political issues? For example, young Korean-Americans have been working with young Latinos and African-Americans in Los Angeles since the 1992 riots to address racial and ethnic tensions.

• How do tensions among national, cultural, religious or ethnic groups internationally play out in the U.S.? For example, what conflicts exist between Indian and Pakistani immigrants in the U.S.?

• What types of pilgrimages are Asian-Americans making to historical places, such as internment camps?

Share and Enjoy