Thanks to Bolim for bringing this to my attention.

Asian American women have my full support and if you’re in the Seattle, WA area, I hope you get a chance to check this event out. Here is a brief description:

More than Serving Tea is a one day gathering for Asian American women to be inspired, to encouraged, and empowered.

This event will have four primary streams: Worship and Inspiration through a multi generational, interchurch praise team and a key note address by Kathy Khang. There will be Reflection and Interpersonal Sharing in small groups, a delicious lunch and an afternoon of Conversations of Hope. A variety of Focus Groups will cover topics such as Asian-American identity, leadership, spiritual growth, marriage, social justice, vocation/calling, service and more. We will conclude the day with a Ministry Time facilitated by women who are gifted and equipped in inner healing prayer, spiritual direction and counseling. Throughout the gathering ample space will be provided for reflection, prayer, conversation, and building relationships.

We are inviting women college age and up – singles, married, working, stay at home moms, retirees. We will have something for everyone!

You can register / view the schedule and get directions here.

And if you can’t make it or are on the East Coast (like me), you should at least read the blog or pick up the book.

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One of the analogies I like to think of in the pastor/laity context is coach/player. I think it brings out the aspect that Christians should not defer to the pastors on the big plays, and that the “game” doesn’t happen inside the church, that’s just the huddle. The world outside the four walls of the church is where faith is really applied and all the discipleship begins to show up in real-life circumstances.

I’m not an athlete and can’t even fool people into thinking that I played sports in high school or anything, but I am an avid fan of basketball. I’m such a big fan, I don’t even care who’s playing, I don’t care who wins, I don’t care that I suck at it. I just love to play. But I watch and play as one who’s never been coached. And I know that coaching matters, knowledge makes a difference, knowing what to look for matters – particularly if, as in my case, I can’t simply beat someone with sheer athleticism.

I found this article very interesting, which discusses “what makes a player coachable?” And I thought that metaphor worked somewhat when applied to the church context, not completely, but it certainly brings up responsibilities of coach and player fairly. Here’s an extended quote first for the athlete/player:

If a player doesn’t learn to listen, then he will have to learn to like a seat on the bench. More opportunities come to those who are willing to be taught.

One of the things that has always amazed me as a basketball player is how much time some players spend wishing the coach would change the way he did things—wishing that the coach would change the offense, wishing that the coach would change the defense, wishing the coach would change who he plays.

Those players need to take all that energy and think about what they can change within themselves. A potential All-American doesn’t worry about the things he can’t control. He just deals with the things he can control. As a player, one thing he can control is where he is going to expend his energy.

And then for the coach:

Some coaches are a lot easier to hate than to love. Despising a coach at times is okay. Keep in mind that an unlikable coach might be the key to future athletic success. It is not pleasant to be yelled at for having made a mistake but it is the coach’s job to push the player.

A player won’t generally have positive feelings toward a coach who at times is critical of him, but his feelings may change over time. A coach has to be a little crazy, even mean at times. He may have to yell and rant and rave in order to get a player to perform at his best.

And finally, a good quote from a historic coach:

Pat Summitt, the very successful coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of Tennessee, said: “Accountability is essential to personal growth, as well as team growth. How can you improve if you’re never wrong? If you don’t admit a mistake and take responsibility for it, you’re bound to make the same one again.”

What do you think? Pastor as coach? And why/why not?

And on another note, the article as a whole, made me wonder if I am a good player and coach (not literally, figuratively). Am I coachable? Do I push others to be better? Hmmm…

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Going back to the “Skits That Teach” fiasco (mad props to Soong Chan Rah, who was a leading voice in bringing about a response from Zondervan and Youth Specialties), one of the conclusions was that Asian Americans need to develop content that is sensitive and relevant to our churches and ministries.

There’s not a lot of material out there and to be honest, it’s hard to distinguish exactly how it should be different…yet. But this goes hand-in-hand with the need for distinctiveness in Asian American theology.  There needs not only to be a theological understanding for our ethnicity and how we have connected the dots between growing up Asian in American and worshipping a Jewish messiah, but also how this influences the ways we understand and live in the world with this history and unique path as strangers from a different shore. This means that our education in church also needs to be different.

Alex Tang (from Malaysia) has a great post on this even in the Asian context. Here’s an extended quote with a series of wonderful questions:

Asian societies tend to be tightly organized, collectivistic, hierarchical, with greater emphasis on social order and conflict avoidance and more concern with main-zi (face) and group approval. Should Malaysian Christian faith communities follow the same approach of a discipleship program designed in the West and tailored for Western Christians? Western discipleship programs tend to be more individualistic in their approach. This is an important consideration as many Malaysian churches are buying education and “discipleship” programs from the West especially the United States. These “discipleship” programs comes in ‘packages’ which includes a content book, study guides, leader’s guides, DVDs, music CD and sermon transcripts. What is worrying is that churches are using these programs wholesale without analyzing the underlying theological foundation and the fact that these programs are marketed at American Christians. Would it have the same impact in Malaysia where the thinking processes are different? Would the faith development of the Malaysian Christians be more rapid if the educational approach should be more community based rather than an individualistic? Would it retard our own education or discipleship program development? Would it give a distorted view of Christianity as mainly an “individualistic evangelical middle class superpower white male religion”? How does it fit into a multicultural, multiethnic and pluralistic Malaysian culture?

Sadly, most Asian churches I’ve seen in the US have very little foresight into this, but the need is very present, and has a great deal to do with why the silent exodus is a very real phenomenon in our generation.

I feel like this is something that Black churches do very well, where young and new Christians have an understanding that God has brought them a long way and is continuing to form their people as well as their destiny. There is a sense that their struggle is something that lends to their identity and distinctiveness, which gives them the courage to remember and remain distinctive.

So even as there are new efforts for Asian American theology and carving out what this means for our churches, we should also keep in mind that our education and relating these aspects at the congregational level has far more mileage than just among pastors and theologians.

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InterVarsity and ACF are hosting its second annual conference entitled Emerge! in the metropolis of Cleveland, Georgia for Asian American college students in the SouthEast region.

This year it’s going to be held in the Woodlands camp, nestled in the north Georgia mountains, and the keynote speaker is James Choung (woot!)!

James Choung is the author of recently published, “True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In” and even mentions a Southern slant (below) on his usual presentation :

I might be doing a breakout session there, but not sure yet what the topic will be; and ElderJ will be there sharing his wealth of wisdom and knowledge. And Enoch Chang, who hails from CTS with me, will be leading worship! Double Woot! Shoud be a great time…if you want to register, you can download emerge-brochure-2008 and hope to see you there! Oh yeah, registration is due by Sept. 12, and the conference is from the 19th-21st of September. It’s coming up quick…

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Bruce Reyes-Chow, moderator of the PCUSA started this meme and apparently, I was tagged by Adam Copeland even though I don’t really consider myself PCUSA. Granted, I attend a PCUSA seminary, served at a PCUSA church for a few years, got married in a PCUSA church, and have a number of friends in the PCUSA, but that doesn’t mean…

Anyway, I don’t need to be a spoil sport today, I’ll just answer the questions and move on.

In about 25 words each, answer the five questions below.
Tag five Presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged. Be sure to link to the this original post.

1)  What is your favorite faith-based hymn, song or chorus? Too many to list here. I love singing, so I don’t care what song I sing, as long as it brings me to a point of worship.

2)  What was the context, content and/or topic of the last sermon that truly touched, convicted, inspired, challenged, comforted and/or otherwise moved you? I think one of the best sermons I’ve heard is actually a sermon combination, with Ray Vanderlaan and Rob Bell preaching on the Jewish rabbinic tradition and the story of the disciples of Jesus.

3)  If you could have all Presbyterians read just one of your previous posts, what would it be and why? I don’t know what Presbyterians need to know, really. I’d be happy if they read any of my posts actually.

4)  What are three PC(USA) flavored blogs you read on a regular basis? I read Bruce’s blog, but that’s the only one I know of that is distinctly PCUSA. Again, I’m not that loyal to this denomination, or any, for that matter.

5)  If the PC(USA) were a movie, what would it be and why? Uh…I don’t know. This meme is starting to feel like a very bad, bad job interview.

And since I don’t know who else to tag, I tag Daniel @ Headsparks, I don’t know if he’s PCUSA, but like me he at least attended a PCUSA seminary. Sorry Adam, I am the worst Presbymeme ever.

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Really enjoyed Eugene Cho’s post about slanted eyes. I’d been finding some videos on YouTube related to that very topic before the Spanish teams began all their affectionate displays for their quest in China. I wonder if they would have donned blackface if the Olympics had been in Kenya. Would that be considered affectionate as well?

Just so that we don’t take this too lightly, I just wanted to show you how profound this “affection” is..

And a trailer for a movie, “Never Perfect,” which I can’t post here, but is worthy of watching: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzV15eUEXcE

It’s crazy to see how much this physical characteristic that most Asians possess is so defining, and so hated by our own. How strange that through these almond-shaped eyes, we see our own eyes and deem them not beautiful. The very eyes that behold are to be corrected. You cannot mock us as much as we mock ourselves.

I thought also that it was strange that the Asian plastic surgeon said this eyelid surgery was akin to breast augmentation for White women. First off, this brings up a whole host of questions of where in the heck our ideals of beauty are coming from and why are women of all colors so enslaved by them. It was just the icing on the cake when she ends up having a White boyfriend who states that her eyes were beautiful before…wow. Who is her audience then?

And then of course, this surgeon wouldn’t want to threaten a mainstay of his income, would he? On top of that, he says that these women are not less Asian, which I suppose is true. But that’s a strange line of thinking isn’t it? How reductionist are we going to get? How much can we cut away and someone remain Asian?

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Didn’t get the ax yet from AsianWeek, so I was asked to write a piece related to religion and education. I was stumped for a while, but when I found this older TED presentation by Sir Ken Robinson, I found my angle.

The original article is here, so please comment there and support AsianWeek. So here goes…

At the 2006 TED Conference, Sir Ken Robinson recounted this story: “A little girl was in a drawing lesson, she was six [years old], and she was in the back drawing. The teacher said that this little girl hardly ever paid attention, but at this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and went over to her and she said, ‘What are you drawing?’ The girl said, ‘I’m drawing a picture of God.’ The teacher said, ‘But nobody knows what God looks like.’ The girl said, ‘They will in a minute.’”

Children are bold, especially when it comes to topics like art and God. But Robinson’s larger point was that children are largely educated out of creativity because the educational system stigmatizes mistakes and eschews imagination for certitude. By the time we become adults, we rarely think of ourselves as creative at all. And if Robinson is correct, then Asian Americans could arguably be the most educated and least imaginative of all. [Read more...]

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