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Why Asian American Obsession with Jeremy Lin is well, Weak

February 13, 2012 By 2 Comments

Why Asian American Obsession with Jeremy Lin is well, Weak
by Russell Jeung on Sunday, February 12, 2012

I ain’t gonna’ lie. I’ve followed Jeremy Lin’s basketball career since he was at Palo Alto High. I was proud that the GS Warriors signed him. And when I youtubed the clip of his wicked crossover and dunk against Washington recently, I was gratified that an Asian brother could ball.

And yet, I’ve also been feeling vaguely uncomfortable with my man-crush on Jeremy. I think Asian Americans, especially males, are a little too linsane about him, and that should give us pause. Why are we so proud to see him succeed in the NBA? Are we so hero-starved, as emasculated Asian American males (EAAMs), that we’ll fawn over any slight success against whites and blacks?

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

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

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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.?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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):

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...]

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