Archives for category: community

Subbacultcha

October 29, 2008 //

Well, it’s that time of the year again…

Halloween is here, and so are the Christian subcultural “alternatives”… your harvest festivals, your fall carnivals or, if you’re part of a 1st generation Korean church (as we are) your Hallelujah Nights (get it? Hall…elujah… no? hmm)…

Sigh.

It’s not that I mind having an alternative event at the church on Halloween. These days, it’s nice to have a safe, fun place for kids to gather. This Friday, we’re going to have an obstacle course bounce house, games and enough candy to send the kids home sugar-wired and tooth-decayed. It’s always a fun time, and we love spending time with the kids.

However, I think we might be missing out on something. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags first generation

Categories asian american, church, community, missional

Music is the Currency of Community

October 24, 2008 //

Earlier this week, I heard one of my personal heroes, Ian Mackaye, deliver a Q+A session at the UCSD campus.

Ian, for the uninitiated, is a pioneering figure in independent music — founding member and singer of seminal punk bands Minor Threat and Fugazi, as well as current singer of The Evens, and one of the co-owners of Dischord Records.

I have never heard Ian in this particular setting, but I knew he was sharp from the in between song banter I’ve heard from him during past Fugazi concerts — for example, urging crowd surfers to do something truly radical and, instead of crushing the fans up in the front, to try getting passed to the back of the audience instead.

On this particular evening, Ian showed up without an agenda — he opened up the floor to any and all questions the audience had. Questions ranged from the silly (“Who would win in a potato sack race between you and Henry Rollins?” — which, by the way, Rollins would probably win; clearly, the man does many push-ups) to the political (e.g., the current election, war, etc.) and, of course, the musical (in case you’re wondering, Ian has been listening to Eddy Current Suppression Ring lately).

Ian is an extremely quotable person, quick on his feet. I love what he said about the significance of music:

Music is the currency of community

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories church, community, faith, indie, music

Justice is What Love Looks Like in Public

October 22, 2008 //

… one of many thought-provoking quotes from Cornel West in Call+Response.

[Seriously, every phrase the professor utters in this film is fully loaded with meaning — I was still trying to catch up three or four sentences later every time he spoke. His exposition on the idea of “funk” as it relates to the muck, mire and beauty of humanity is particularly compelling.]

Call+Response is a musical documentary film about modern-day slavery and human trafficking featuring artists such as Cold War Kids, Imogen Heap and Moby (more on the music below) alongside notable figures such as the aforementioned Cornel West, Madeleine Albright and Ashley Judd.

The raw stats, if we care to come at them in any realistic way, are sickening and overwhelming:

27 million people enslaved today — more than at any other point in human history
Human trafficking as an “industry” earns more annually than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined (in the neighborhood of $32 billion)

The film’s title is a play on the antiphonal music — the call and response — created by American slaves which gave rise to spirituals, then to the blues and, eventually, to rock music. Music made by an enslaved people to reclaim their dignity.

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories church, community, faith, family, justice

The Age Old Existential Blogger’s Dilemma

October 15, 2008 //

Am I even qualified to make such a statement? And, given the relatively short history of blogging, can there really be an “age-old” dilemma in the blogosphere? Well, preamble aside…

From time to time, blogs I read will ask the question, “Why do I blog?” or its close cousin, “Why should I blog if no one reads it?” — which itself might be a philosophical relative of “If a tree falls in the forest…”

In any case, I’m not questioning why I blog. Bruce Reyes-Chow and Eugene Cho have some great summaries about why they blog and, as for me, “Yes, what they said!” Seriously, I’m grateful that anyone reads at all and I have no pipe dreams of achieving blogospheric greatness.

I think my dilemma relates to the fact that every day — every day — the search term that lands the most people (by far!) here at headsparks is:

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories communication, community, faith

Every Little Counts

October 2, 2008 //

But, then again, so does the big picture.

I was talking today with my friend Sam Kwon, Vice-President of Justice Ventures International, about how the current troubles of our economy will definitely hurt non-profit organizations. For example, recently failed Lehman Brothers gave $39 million to various charities last year. However, non-profits not only face losses from large corporate contributions, but also from average people who feel their financial belts tightening. Here in San Diego, some of the largest churches have laid off staff and slashed their budgets in reponse to sharp declines in giving.

With all this thinking about non-profits — and how to encourage followers of Christ to be generous in good times and bad (and not just giving money to churches) — I wanted to highlight a couple of thought-provoking posts I came across recently.

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories community, faith, justice, missional