NG.AC has created a lending team on Kiva.org!

If you haven’t heard about Kiva before, it is simply a portal that enables individuals and now teams to microfinance aspiring entrepreneurs in countries where the cost of market entry can be prohibitive to these individuals. But the amounts required for capital resources for the entrepreneurs are often minimal to many Americans and the majority of Asian Americans. For a minimum investment of $25, you can help these men and women take a bold step out of poverty, for their families and communities. After having tried it for a couple months myself, it’s been really cool to read about these people and what they’re trying to accomplish.

So join the Next Gener.Asian Church Lending Team on Kiva and let’s see how much we can put forth to change lives around the world!

And just to make it fun, if we can get 50 members on the team this week, I’ll put out $500 in loans by the end of the month. And particularly if you don’t have any money right now to lend, but still want to be on the team, here’s what to do. Create an account, join the team, and send me an email or leave a comment and I’ll help you get started so that you have a say in where that $500 goes and watch it grow. So, join the team and let’s do some good together!

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So if you’re Asian American and Christian and single, you might have to work something out between these  lists, but it’s a start.

Over at Neatorama, I found this:

‘Now I know why Solomon had 700 wives. He never met you.’

‘Is this pew taken?’

‘I just don’t feel called to celibacy.’

‘You float my ark.’

‘I didn’t believe in predestination until tonight.’

‘My parents are home, wanna come over?’

‘Is that a thinline, duo-tone, compact, ESV travel bible in your pocket?’

‘Let me sell you an indulgence – it’s a sin to look as good as you.’

‘How many times do I have to walk around you before you fall for me?”

‘I like to arrange the substantial Christian section of my bookshelf into alphabetical order. Coffee?”

‘The name is Will. God’s Will.’

And I don’t know how, but I discovered this Asian American dude on YouTube, who has an interesting list of pick-up lines as well. Entertaining at least.

And this old list for Asian pick-up lines, most of which don’t seem to hold up now in the year 2008, but here’s my favorite:

Has anyone ever told you you look like Chun Li? You know, that girl from Street Fighter 2.

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I have learned the following lessons in the past six months, not including seminary:

• You never know how selfish you are until another selfish person is in the room. And I am very, very selfish.
• It takes a long time and a lot of repetitions before we know and respond to our name.
• I will never describe women as the weaker sex (if I ever have) in the future. Never. Observing motherhood from where I now sit has been incredibly humbling.
• People who bring meals to new parents are absolute angels. We were visited a number of times and we will not forget it.
• Parenthood is both incredibly hard and incredibly wonderful sometimes simultaneously, but always indivisibly. In Hebrew, it can be described in the same word, but in English, these words carry separate meanings. And if you ask me how like being a new dad, this is why I can sound bipolar.
• I never realized or gave much thought to the fact that all the things I do now: staying up late to feed, waking up at every cry, spending hours in a day rocking her to sleep, preparing food, buying diapers, aspirating snot from little nostrils, giving up time with friends, and much more; all this my parents did for me. Thanks Mom and Dad.
• Human beings and their babies are not rational creatures. The less food and the less sleep, the less rational.
• Men should learn to cook, at least a few meals. Start with tacos and marinated chicken. And my Asian brothers, learn to cook rice right. Ramen is no longer an option at the father-level.
• Love is a language with no words.
• I would take a bullet for my little girl who has yet to say a single word or take a single step. You can have my house, my car, all my belongings, but I would only let her go over my dead body, which makes me realize that God loves me more than I love my own daughter. He gave up his begotten son, Jesus, so that we might be reconciled to him. Unbelievable.

I’ll have more lessons, I’m sure, in upcoming months. Enjoy~

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I have to post these couple of def poets representin’ Asian America…

Alvin Lau – Asia America, Where Have You Gone?

Kelly Tsai – Grey Matter

Asia – The Waiting Hour

Mush – Next Wednesday

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A few weeks ago, Dan Ra, Jacob Fu, Ed Sohn and I planned a worship service around the theme of crying out. We first had the chance to lead this service at Agape (Hanin) a local Korean church, but unfortunately it was not recorded. Then Open Table Community Church gave us the opportunity to lead worship in August and we did a similar service there.

The idea behind this was tracing the theme of crying out and shouting throughout the Bible. We felt like in this act, there was a visceral aspect of our worship and interaction with God that is largely missing in today’s worship gatherings. From a Korean heritage, there is the notion of 통성기도 (or prayer in one voice), but even as a Korean American, there is a tendency to avoid this type of worship.

In short, we found 4 aspects of crying out in Scripture:

1. Crying out, shouting in the presence of God
2. Crying out of our need
3. Cry of rebuke
4. Silence (or the lack of crying out)

In any case, Dan, Jacob, Josh and Margaret Feit really made the musical responses and calls come alive. Dan and Jacob wrote many of the songs themselves, which are simple yet beautiful. Thanks to Agape and Open Table for giving us the chance to give voice to this and for the congregations who were brave enough to go there with us. Enjoy the audio and slides below…

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This Monday seems like a good day for a word from Kierkegaard taken from “Parables of Kierkegaard” (Princeton Univ. Press).

A revolutionary age is an age of action; ours is the age of advertisement and publicity. Nothing ever happens but there is immediate publicity everywhere. In the present age a rebellion is, of all things, the most unthinkable. Such an expression of strength would seem ridiculous to the calculating intelligence of our times. On the other hand a political virtuoso might bring off a feat almost as remarkable. He might write a manifesto suggesting a general assembly at which people should decide upon a rebellion, and it would be so carefully worded that even the censor would leg it pass. At the meeting itself he would be able to create the impression that his audience had rebelled, after which they would all go quietly home – having spent a very pleasant evening.

May the church be a real rebellion and not an imagined one.

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As the recent Presbymeme revealed, I have little idea of what it means to really be Presbyterian.

I mean, I know Presbyterians hail from the Reformed tradition (Calvin, in particular), practice infant baptism, and love order and polity. I also know that they value scholarship, wrestle with inclusiveness, and appreciate (really appreciate) tradition. They value scholarship and speak highly of God, but in my observation, less of Jesus and even less of the Holy Spirit. Not a bad thing, just an emphasis noted. No mention of the devil here though, so you charismaniacs can move right along.

And I appreciate the seminary community of which I am a part of, which is associated with the PCUSA. But I have yet to really be convinced that I should commit to this denomination or any other, for that matter. Oh sure, I understand that denomination matters when it comes to benefits, ordination, licensing, financing, accountability, resources, networking, and all that. But I just don’t understand how denomination really matters. (disclaimer: I say this openly, not dismissively. I also stand to be corrected and educated. so I do acknowledge my ignorance and humbly ask that you be gentle and clear if you want to blast me in the comments.)

In a conversation one day, I heard Tommy Yi, a friend here in seminary with me, say to someone else, “If the denomination makes it so I minimize my personal risks so that I can serve in a church (of their denomination) by giving me benefits and resources and whatnot, how do I know that I’m really following Jesus?” This could be said of any denomination. And Tommy’s right – as much as I want to believe that the institution is seeking and acting according to God’s will at every instance, there are times where we must ask, am I following a man-made thing to protect or serve myself? or am I really following God?

Which makes it a little hard to commit, because as much as we like to work things out in our (Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, UCC, Pentecostal…fill in the blank) ways, the starting point should be that God is God and God does what God wants and we can’t know or stop or predict what God can, should, or will do. Even when we have prophecies in the Bible, we aren’t sure. So how in the world do you select a denomination to be a part of? I think it was Peter Rollins (in How (Not) To Speak of God – which if you don’t have, you should go out and buy right this very minute) who mentioned that the origin of denominations prove that God worked in the past among that community, but the continued existence of that denomination doesn’t prove that God is still present. Even if you criticize post-denominationalists for being slippery in their commitment, you have to admit, the denomination does place a degree of separation between us and God, which seems to me one of the very liberating facets of the Christian faith to begin with.

And I understand the argument for authority, community, and tradition, but I also want to create space for a Moses, an Elijah, an Amos, or even Jesus in our midst! There must be some consensus that consensus is not always required. I understand its danger, but it is a necessary one.

I realize this may be too loosey-goosey, but in my mind, it sounds every bit as logical as love. Love is extremely vulnerable to betrayal and disappointment, because it involves trust – trust that is open to another denomination that claims our God of love. I believe that often we prevent love from arising because our denominational ties and agenda inclines us to operate from a deficit of love, in order to protect ourselves or our loved ones from leaving us. We assume that other denominations are not as trustworthy as we might be. But I do not see that fear reflected in the heart of God. I do not see how freedom given to others threatens God and I do not see how it should threaten God’s children on earth. Denominations are great connections and windows into what God has done, but are they good lenses to see what God can and will do in our churches?

I will not give any denomination more allegiance than that I have for Christ. And if none of them are against him, and they all for him, then I am for them all. I do not wish to be remembered as a good Baptist or a reformed Presbyterian, a devout Catholic or a hardworking Methodist – only as a faithful follower of Christ. He is my lowest common denomination.

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