Earlier this week, my wife and I went to a meeting hosted by James Choung, to help plan for an Asian American leadership gathering in April of 2008 down here in SD. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing from the main session speakers — Dave Gibbons, Peter Cha and Ken Fong — along with those who will be presenting seminars.
During the meeting, James shared something that really struck a chord with me — voicing some thoughts that I’ve been feeling, but unable to articulate. He mentioned that, often, when we gather as Asian Americans the general ethos tends toward the negative and focuses on the weakness of being Asian American — e.g., how to overcome struggles with your first-generation parents, shame and identity etc. While these are important issues that we must continue to address, with this gathering we are hoping to shift the focus toward embracing the people God has created and redeemed us to be — to understand how deeply we have been blessed that we might be a blessing to others.
I’m trying to work out the core image for our theme, “Called Out, Called Forth.” For this draft, I’m definitely trying to create a postmodern vibe and to emphasize the high calling God has placed on us — so the theme is pushing skyward. The city represents the campuses and workplaces in which the conference participants live, study and work. And the birds represent the desire to take flight, to break free from our fear of failure. Here is the design concept (there is no actual website yet, and the location is yet to be determined but the core concept is there). Any thoughts?
headsparks* 
great design, clean, crisp, gets the message across – are you sure you weren’t a graphic designer in a past life? :) :)
DJ — Thanks, man! Your affirmation is very encouraging! Although I know I can’t really call myself a graphic designer, I am really interested in bringing together graphic design and faith to the best of my abilities.
hey, is this the same one where i’m supposed to be at or completely different?
forget ministry. go into design. the latter pays better.
Eugene — Although it will be nearby in San Diego and only a week or two afterward, this is actually a different Asian American leadership conference. I read that you’re giving your seminar with Gideon Tsang? Nice!
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Dude, if you know someone who’s looking for a “graphic designer,” totally let me know ;)
nice design!
i don’t know how i feel about the positive aspects yet though. i have thought about it a lot and i simply feel like, especially in the korean circles, that we have for too long ignored these aspects of shame and identity, so the call now is prophetic in the sense that i don’t expect the current leadership to like what we have to say. for too long, we have said only sweet things. for too long we have idolized whiteness and materialism. i mean, a lot of asian churches still interpret “the kingdom” in a weird reverse-colonialism way. how can we say there’s something positive without calling this out first?
i don’t know…i think it may have to do with the fact that i’m out here in the southeast, but i find the positive aspects to still be unearthed. i think it’s worth the search and worth the exercise to say that we are called forth, but this is a generation for pastoral care and the prophetic IMO.
yeah, but great design. and that conference will be unbelievable. :) wish i could be there. although after this comment, i’m not sure if i’ll be welcomed.
David — Thanks for sharing these thoughts. I think I hear where you’re coming from. You have identified some really baseline-type issues that we, as the Asian American church, need to start dealing with (instead of conveniently ignoring or twisting around to fit into some strange theology).
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For me, the issue is a lot more personal & real these days. Our four-year old daughter has already begun the struggle with her identity in this overwhelmingly white Caucasian populated area. Just the other day, she refused to bring chicken & rice (one of her all-time favorites) to a school lunch because she didn’t want the other kids to think she wasn’t “English.” For me, I want my daughter to dig deep and embrace exactly who God made her to be — not to hold up “whiteness” as normative, but to see the imprint of her Creator in the person she is.
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I love that you’re wrestling with these thoughts. As you mentioned, it’s much easier to let them slide and just maintain the status quo. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’ll still be on the banned list here ;) For real, though, I think you’re onto something here…
this is such a good and complex issue, one that I wrestle with as an outsider. I often find myself much more appreciative of the things I see in AA culture or church than AA’s themselves. It is not as though I don’t see the faults, but I don’t think I’m constrained by having grown up in the culture. James Choung is one of my favorite people and I think he is on to something.
Elderj — Thanks for sharing. I think you’re right — sometimes, we can get so wrapped up in the hurt and negativity of the AA experience that it is difficult to imagine that there are positive aspects as well. More than just focusing on the positive things (which might be a helpful corrective for many of us), I think many AA’s need to see that God created them just as they are.
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By the way, I couldn’t seem to open the link to your presentation at the Emerge conference — but I’m definitely interested in checking it out!
sorry i dont know what’s wrong with the link… i’ll try to fix it
try the link now… it seems to be working for me.
very ‘indie’ design. i like, very nice…. someone once told me ‘all graphic designers are not ‘real’ and are faking it’ in response to when i mentioned that i’m not a ‘real’ designer…. so that makes us both.. graphic designers..
did you end up going with this design?
Hey Mia — Glad to see you’re back stateside. Thanks for the kind words about my design. I’m tweaking it right now to fit as a website header, but this particular design might still see the light of day :)
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I’ve always enjoyed your designs as well — I’m particularly jealous of your web building/layout/design skills!
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