You are here: Home / Archives for church

I am a Vietnamese-Texan

February 1, 2012 By 4 Comments

Who doesn’t love both Pho and BBQ?  And this is where I shall start… Introductions to Kevin Nguyen.  Let me go ahead and respond to DJ’s original post, and introduce myself as best I can – in a sermonic outline format:

I. Your “Called” Name (what you go by):  

Legal name: Anh-Khoa Nguyen.  Nickname: Kevin ; personal family name: Khoa (qua)
Nationality: Vietnamese-Texan

Kevin was picked up when I was trying to order pizza from Pizza Hut while in Texas.  The guy asked how to spell my name.  I mean, how hard is it to spell “K – H – O – A”, right?  Those are not hard letters to hear over the phone.  After several attempts – I couldn’t take it anymore — “Dude, my name is Kevin”.  Finally, I can have my pizza.

II. Insert an informal photo of you that shows your personality or you having fun or traveling:

Coming from Dallas, Texas – now relocated in LA, I had a chance to go back and do what Texans do.  FISH.  But that doesn’t mean I know how to fish.  But look at this HUGE STRIPED BASS I caught.  AMAZING!  Not really the fish was floating by, dead, when I caught it. Notice the white eyes.  I REALLY CANT FISH – can’t even cast a reel. 

My family during this Christmas season.  Lovely wife, Huong Nguyen, of 7.5 years + a 21 month old boy, Khoi Nguyen.  So your questions:  How did we meet?  Instead of a photo slide show at our wedding, we thought we try out a Silent Film of “Our Love Story”.  Since we were living in LA, there were lots of  hungry, unemployed directors everywhere.

III. Your Educational Background/Degrees/Schools:

Biola University, Talbot School of Theology
Doctor of Philosophy, Candidacy
Concentration: Leadership in Higher Ed Administration

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
Master of Arts
Concentration: Christian Leadership

University of Texas at Dallas
Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering
Concentration: Telecommunication , Wireless Technology

IV. Personal Information You’d Like To Share:

A.  I have my own food blog – FEED FATDOG.  I only take pictures of something EXCEPTIONAL!

B.  My son looks like me….

I love “active” sports.  Basketball, football, baseball.  I play basketball.  Golf is NOT an active sport.  I am finally jumping on the bandwagon of enjoyment.  Here is a 15 second video of how awesome I am — I got a “birdie”. I am a TEXAS homer.  I love the Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks.  I hate the LA sport teams

V. Work Experiences

This is where my personality will match my career.  It’s all over the place, but I still believe God has a reason why I do what I do.

Ministry – church planter, leadership pastor at Cornerstone Bible Community Church.  Been in Chino Hills, CA for 3 years.

Vocation – went to school to be an Electrical Engineer, but go figure, I wanted to be a people’s person. I ended up in management for Sales/Marketing with Cingular à AT&T mobility.  Background and expertise is in organizational leadership.

Higher Ed Academics – this is the newest part of my passions.  I wanted to focus in Christian studies and management, so I went out for a PhD in Leadership and Higher Ed administration.  Currently teaching at California Baptist University and Talbot Seminary.  Love to help impact lives and help them find their fullest potential.

But you know what I really love most in all of these bits and pieces of my life I just shared?  All of this is what God has uniquely crafted in who I am and what gifts I have to offer to the church.  All my skills, all my interests, all my passions, all my experiences — they all belong to the Creator who he has predestined me to do good work (Eph 2:10), whether it be for the AA church or for somewhere else in Timbucktoo.  I am affirmed and confident that my life testimony will impact someone out there, and for this reason, MY LIFE MISSION STATEMENT is:

“I desire to assist those who assist the Kingdom”.  If you are one of those people who assist the kingdom, I want to offer you all my love, joys, pains, passions, and experiences.

There’s always more to add but this is a good start.   You can always follow me here.  I love to keep in touch.

Facebook | Linkedin

Blessings,

KN

Filed Under: Asian American, church, culture, family Tagged With: , ,

Answer Me This

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I was recently at the ANACEFC annual conference and got to sit in on a session where as a group the leaders wrestled with many questions together. It was really refreshing to do this in an Asian setting out of a seminary context. It was also interesting as a Korean American to listen to the concerns of Chinese American pastors and church leaders. We are surprisingly similar yet with some differences. First of all, let me express my respect and admiration for my Chinese American brothers and sisters who have a greater capacity and tolerance for differences than I have witnessed in Korean settings. I was also encouraged by the presence of women at the highest levels of this conference. And lastly, as we tackled questions together, I was impressed by the presence of dialogue as a problem-solving tool even as we discussed passionately and laughed together over difficult questions.

I would like to share some of their discussion questions with you in the hope that discussion can happen here that might help us all. Please feel free to jump in…

  • How do we embrace and empower the second generation ministry?
  • Is it really necessary to delete or change the word, “Chinese” in the name of the church? Is it more appropriate to adopt the usage of term “a church of Cantonese, English and Mandarin Ministries” and avoid the term, “a church of Cantonese, English, and Mandarin congregations.“
  • With respect of a church of multiple ministries, what is the role of the Senior Pastor? Give your views on the structure of pastoral staff.
  • How do we effectively resolve conflicts between pastors, boat members, and pastors, among board members, boar dan members of the church and etc.?
Filed Under: Asian American, church Tagged With: ,

I Won’t Confess

November 24, 2011 By 8 Comments

Some of the stereotypes are simply true. We have a culture that has made it hard for us to talk about ourselves. At times, we have very little sensitivity to what is going on inside of us and can barely name our emotions. Sure, there are the exceptions, but it’s one thing to be loud and obnoxious about the stuff that doesn’t matter, even if they are taboo subjects to Western sensibilities. The stuff that is hard to get to is the stuff we keep under our vest.

Here’s the thing, I know Asian American brothers and sisters who can analyze the junk out of the stock market, or a book of financial reports, or a research project, or even theology…or even Asian American churches. But my heart remains a closed, unanalyzed place. And the miscarriages, the marital strife, the wilderness season when I dropped out of college, the wrestling with pornography, my temper tantrums, and oh my fears, my fears and doubts. And my hatreds. I am just getting to know me.

And therein lies one of the chief problems with talking about what is wrong with the Asian American church, is that I am part of the problem, and I barely know how to talk about myself. And neither do many of my brothers and sisters.

Filed Under: church Tagged With:

post-tsunami order, asians in the library, and the multicultural church

March 17, 2011 By 4 Comments

there’s been more than one story talking about the calm and order in post-tsunami japan.  columnists are pointing out the lack of looting and lawlessness; kristof even prophesied the strength of japanese society when the earthquake hit.  the unspoken comparison, of course, is what happened five and half years ago in new orleans.  but the most memorable post-katrina quote, courtesy of kanye west, helps us understand why the social fabric of japan is woven differently:  ”george bush hates black people.”

japan thrives because of its homogeneity.  and they’re not the only nations.  when the annual list of best nations is published, invariably, homogenous nations like denmark top the list.  and the challenge of the “other” has reached its breaking point all over western europe.  the leaders of germany, france, italy, and the united kingdom have all declared that multiculturalism has failed and is unwanted.

but america clings to the idea that our society is stronger because  of the melting pot salad bowl, or at least we say we do.  until the “other” starts to irritate us… like those asians in the library.

and are things really different in the church?  rebecca kim chronicles how campus fellowships experienced their own white flight when asians started outnumbering them in her book, god’s whiz kids.  church growth experts have consistently warned that the pursuit of diversity compromises growing numbers.  even the utopian church of acts 2 devolved into alarming ethnic strife by acts 6.

but the Bible (well, it’s mostly the new testament) stubbornly clings to this idea that the church should be comprised of all people—gender, race, culture, sexuality, and class.  it would be easier to be monocultural, but the apostles’ solution was not to divide into a jewish and gentile church, nor was it to force gentiles to adopt jewish practices.  if we could just ignore those that don’t look or think like us, it certainly would be more efficient and effective.  but our crucified and resurrected LORD rarely seems to take that route.

Filed Under: church, multiethnic Tagged With: , ,

Reclaiming Chinese religious identity

April 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

**If you don’t listen to Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett, you’re missing out on a top-notch podcast on religious faith. Highly recommended.**


I’d like to share the latest podcast episode from Speaking of Faith where Krista Tippett interviews Mayfair Yang, a scholar and director of the East Asian Center at UC Santa Barbara. Mayfair Yang speaks about the effects of modernity and Christian (how ironic) Western influence and its oppressive effects on the indigenous religious expressions in China.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/chinas-spiritual-landscape/

[Read more...]

Filed Under: church, identity Tagged With: ,

Pushing the Boundaries Together

March 11, 2010 By 3 Comments

David and I were approached by Emergent Village to write a post for their blog. It is reproduced below for our NG.AC friends. Enjoy (and critique):

http://www.emergentvillage.com/weblog/park-pushing-boundaries

===================

David: The joke goes something like this: when a Japanese person goes to a new city, he looks to start a business; when a Chinese person first arrives in a new place, he looks to start a restaurant; but when a Korean comes to town, he’s going to start a church. As my Korean immigrant father is a recently retired pastor who planted or shepherded at least seven churches that I can count, I can attest to the above punchline—Koreans love church. And we’ve taken to church planting and the Christian industry by storm, a sort of ecclesiological Kim Yunah phenomenon for those of you who watched the Winter Olympics. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Asian American, church, theology Tagged With: , , , ,

Is Francis Chan…

September 4, 2009 By 8 Comments

… on his way to becoming the next Rob Bell? (Sorry, couldn’t resist tipping my hat to the last NG.AC post about Francis Chan. You know which one.)

Flannel, the folks behind the Nooma series (featuring Rob Bell) are launching another DVD series called We Are Church featuring Francis Chan. From their site (you can read the full post here, and watch a short clip of Francis talking about it):

…you might already know that Nooma was the beginning of a much bigger vision – a vision that encompassed working with many highly creative speakers to communicate the way of Jesus to the world.

Early last year, we committed to pursuing the larger vision and began a search for additional speakers to champion new projects.  The search process included wonderful conversations with ministry and seminary leaders, publishers, Christians bookstore executives, authors, pastors, and more that helped us identify well over 100 candidates… in the end, we felt God leading us to Francis Chan.

I have enjoyed the Nooma series with Rob Bell – the content, aesthetic, communication style and length (seriously, let’s keep our Bible study DVDs under 30 minutes!) have been a good fit for our church community.  I am looking forward to seeing what they do with Francis Chan, if they can capture the energy and passion of his live delivery.  Francis’ short film Stop & Think has a similar vibe (and clocks in at a very reasonable 15 minutes!) — a good sign for the future of this partnership with Flannel.  Stop and think for yourself below.

If this We Are Church series has a similar impact as the Nooma series, perhaps Francis Chan will become a household name in the way Rob Bell has. While I’m sure that’s not Francis’ goal — by all accounts, he is a genuinely humble follower of Jesus — I would love to see an Asian American find a platform like that to speak to both the church and our culture.

Filed Under: church Tagged With: , ,

Fellowship of American Chinese Evangelicals newsletters online

June 13, 2009 By 1 Comment

Worship services and churches for the next generation, and even English ministries, were not all that common in ethnic Asian churches back in the days.

One factor that likely contributed towards the development of English ministries within the Chinese/ Asian church was an organization called FACE, the Fellowship of American Chinese Evangelicals, which started:

… at the 1978 NACOCE [North America Congress of Chinese Evangelicals] congress, the Fellowship of American Chinese Evangelicals (FACE) was born, sounding a call for “parallel ministries” for American and Canadian born Chinese in the Chinese church. Today, American born Chinese ministries, and the broader challenge of planting Asian-American churches, are an accepted part of the ministry scene in North America. [a]

About Face
They published a quarterly newsletter from 1979 to 2003 called “About FACE”. According to the first issue, The Fellowship of American Chinese Evangelicals is a ministry established by four American-Born Chinese (ABC) participants of NACOCE and encouraged by NACOCE to enable the whole Chinese Church to be more effective in ministry to ABCs. The “About FACE” newsletters have been made available online for free download at www.mediafire.com/aboutface.

Browse this spreadsheet for an index of “About FACE” article titles, authors, and topics.

Browse through those ol’ newsletters and find historical artifacts and insights that may be quite informative to the conversations going on here. How’s that saying go: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it?

Filed Under: church, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Is Francis Chan a sell-out?

May 2, 2009 By

Is Francis Chan a sell-out?

Let me backtrack to explain where this comes from.  I had the chance to attend the last day of the Orange Conference here in Atlanta.  The Catalyst people produce this conference geared for leaders of youth and children’s ministries.  Lots of NorthPoint people, lots of Southeast evangelical Christianity folk.

I arrived late to the morning session and slipped into the back of Gwinnett Arena, and the first thing I noticed is the sea of whiteness.  I’ve been to a good share of conferences:  Willow Creek, NPC, even a couple Emergent events, but this gathering of over 3000 people (my estimate) was easily 99% white.  When I had a chance to look at the conference guidebook, I saw that the ENTIRE planning staff is white.  (For a taste of what I saw, click here for the 2008 highlight video.  Chan makes a cameo in there.)

My problem isn’t with white people getting together like this; my problem is how oblivious people were to the monochromatic gathering.  And I base their ignorance on the language– both on stage in the general sessions and in breakouts.  The presenters do not hesitate to speak for the whole church, failing to acknowledge that they are really speaking for the white church in America.  This tendency to generalize their experiences betrays a lack of awareness that their skin color has shaped their faith.

Which brings us back to the opening question.  Francis Chan has been making rounds on the Christian conference circuit: Student Life, Catalyst, NPC, among others.  The underlying reason being he brings a touch of diversity (he even admits this in an interview).  The problem is he’s not yellow!  When we long for diversity it is to see GOD’s activity in a different context so that it might challenge our faith.  I’m not doubting the truth of Chan’s messages or teaching; just reading the synopsis of his new book sounds very convicting.  But none of his theology springs from his life as an Asian-American; I haven’t read the book, but I used Amazon’s search function and couldn’t find one occurrence of “Chinese” or “Asian.”

I don’t really think he’s a sell-out; I believe Chan is living faithfully to what GOD has called him to be.  But I do think Chan is being used by white evangelicals to alleviate their unwillingness to engage race and faith.  Chan is welcome at these conferences only because his message could come just as easily from a white male.

Sometimes a little diversity is worse than no diversity.

Addendum, June 6: I take back some of the incendiary language in this apology.  Does that mean I should delete what has already been written?  I really don’t know.  Anyway, please read both posts before commenting.

Filed Under: church, multiethnic Tagged With: , ,

Korean American Churches Hurt by Ailing Economy – NAM

November 1, 2008 By 1 Comment

I recently heard in a lecture that only churchgoing members in the US only tithe 2%, and of that percentage, 98% is used to cover the overhead of the church and staff, leaving 2% for what may be considered missions or evangelism.

Based on this latest report, I’m assuming that the downturn in the economy is going to mean that mission is less funded than before.

LOS ANGELES — Experiencing a huge reduction in donations, Korean American churches, big and small, are tightening their belts and readying for seven lean years, reports Korea Daily. According to its survey, most Korean American churches in the Los Angeles area have already slashed their 2009 budget and frozen new spending plans. Some churches have taken more extreme measures. They’ve cut the salaries of pastors and staff, temporarily halted expansion construction and even asked clergy to work without pay for a month. An anonymous official with a Korean American mega church told the newspaper that the donation to his church has been reduced by 15 percent, although the congregation continues to grow. An unnamed reverend of a medium size church said that although his church always used to increase its budget by ten percent every year, he has decided not to do that for the coming year because many members of his congregation are suffering from the current economic downturn.

Filed Under: church Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts