Archives for category: emerging church

Futures

October 11, 2007 //

Marko has written a great post about the future of youth ministry [a link! let’s get those Technorati stats back up!]. He asks this vital question:

if youth ministry past was “proclamation-driven”, and youth ministry present is “program-driven”, what’s our hopeful ‘driver’ in the future?

And Marko takes the conversation deeper with this question about how we would shape the character and ethos of future youth ministry:

if youth ministry past was focused around key themes of EVANGELISM and CORRECTION, and youth ministry present is focused around key themes of DISCIPLESHIP and POSITIVE PEER GROUP, then what would be the key themes of this preferred future?

I love the discussion this has generated in the comments section of this post. It is beautiful to see the hearts of so many people dedicated to serving youth and the passion with which they love them. I really needed to hear these words; I have been pretty worn out lately, and it does my heart good to get my nose off the grindstone for a moment and walk alongside others, even if it’s just to listen in.

I think the amount of conversation this has generated also speaks to significance of asking the right questions — and Marko has given a wonderful example of how people come alive not through yet another top-down, I’m the expert with all the answers lecture but through excellent questions that get to the core of who they are and what they’re all about.

While I can’t say that I agree with everything in the comments (and, really, when does that ever happen?), I appreciate the deep engagement so many people have shown with theology and praxis. Of course, whenever I enter these discussions, I automatically begin filtering and re-processing my thoughts to contextualize it to Asian American youth ministry.

If we want to revitalize Asian American churches, so much of it begins with youth. This is part of what drew me back into youth ministry after several years of serving an adult congregation. Asian American youth (Korean American kids, in particular) are so churched, and yet this does not result in healthy churches. In fact, many young people end up leaving the church in droves, a silent exodus of thousands.

In the next couple of weeks, I will try to put together some thoughts about how I see the future of Asian American youth ministry — or, at least, how I would like to contribute towards building a better future.

Categories asian american, church, community, emerging church, faith, family, hope, ministry, postmodern, youth ministry

How We Can Be Changed

October 1, 2007 //

The publishing world has been swamped by “I deviated from the majority culture in a specific way for a year” books over the last several years. Books such as Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and My Secret Life on the McJob chronicle the downward mobility of its authors and they lessons they learned as part of the minimum-wage work force in America. Other recent year-long life experiment titles include A Year Without “Made in China” and Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.

However, this recent release by AJ Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, stood out to me because of the implications it might have for those who follow Christ. You might recognize Jacobs as the author of 2004’s The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. As an aside, I love these extraordinarily long book titles. Credit (blame?) perhaps Dave Eggers and his book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. From a friend’s blog, I have determined that I will either release an art-damaged indie orchestral single or postmodern semi-biography titled FINAL NOTICE: The Earth will fall into Null space. Does publishing that to my blog copyright this phrase?

On his site, Jacobs gives a little bit of background on why he wrote his latest book:

Why? Well, I grew up in a very secular home (I’m officially Jewish but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant). I’d always assumed religion would just wither away and we’d live in a neo-Enlightenment world. I was, of course, spectacularly wrong. So was I missing something essential to being a human? Or was half the world deluded?

I might read this book based simply on the parenthetical aside, “I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.” Delightful! A couple of pages from the author’s website stood out to me: You too can live biblically and How to be good, in particular. Now, while I understand that there is more than a good measure of smirky, tongue in cheekiness going on here, I also believe there are some pretty significant insights as well.

The Bible? I Don’t Get It

Many people, followers of Christ included, find the Bible to be inscrutable, archaic or irrelevant — or some combination of these things. In his quest to follow all of the “rules” in the Bible, Jacobs stopped shaving his beard. Never mind that he ended up looking a bit like Sam Beam of Iron & Wine or endured an endless stream of ZZ Top jokes — this particular experiment in rule keeping reveals our confusion about following the Scriptures. If the Bible really is “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” (ugh), then why don’t more Christians follow these obscure rules? A bit more on this at the end…

Sabbath Surprise

It surprised Jacobs, though, how beneficial some of this obedience ended up being..In his list of the “Most Unexpectedly Wise and Life-Enhancing Rules”, Jacobs writes the following about keeping the Sabbath:

As a workaholic (I check my emails in the middle of movies), I learned the beauty of an enforced pause in the week. No cell phones, no messages, no thinking about deadlines. It was a bizarre and glorious feeling. As one famous rabbi called it, the sabbath is a “sanctuary in time.”

For those of us who want to follow Christ, there is something so powerful in these words. Although our words say, “Jesus loves you just as you are,” the unspoken addendum to this phrase is often, “…if you accomplish a bunch of stuff for Him.” The Sabbath not only refuels us, but reminds us that we are not in charge. A few Sabbath-related titles: Mudhouse Sabbath, Sacred Rhythms, and Keeping the Sabbath Wholly.

Everything Else Is Commentary

Now, back to the idea of picking and choosing which biblical commands we will or will not obey. In the end, this is an issue of hermeneutics — the lens through which we interpret and understand Scripture. Some well-intentioned folks will say things like, “I don’t interpret the Bible; I just read what it says.” Well, unless they are reading in the original Hebrew and Greek, they are interpreting it — actually, even if they were reading from the original manuscripts, the simple fact that the words are being processed in their minds means they are interpreting it. As Rob Bell writes in Velvet Elvis, “God has spoken, and everything else is commentary.” In other words, no one has a purely objective, agenda-free comprehension of the Bible. So, then, the issue becomes how we will interpret the Bible.

Regarding obscure Old Testament commands (the non-shaving of beards, no cheeseburgers, etc.), I have heard people try to brush them aside with, “Jesus died for us so we live under a new covenant. All that stuff is in the past — those rules no longer apply.” Unfortunately for them, the ten commandments are also in the Old Testament along with the commandment Jesus calls the greatest for His followers, so this approach would be a bit more than throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Inside-Out, Upside-Down

There is also the interesting question of how changing our outward behavior will change our inner attitudes (and vice versa). Sometimes, all we can do is obey even though our hearts are not in it — and, mysteriously, God changes our hearts through that. Because we cannot separate our bodies, hearts, minds and souls, it makes sense that the dynamics of transformation include all of these aspects of ourselves. Certainly, God cares about our hearts and wants us to be changed from the inside-out, but we cannot use that as an excuse for inaction — waiting and waiting for our hearts to be perfectly Christ-like before altering our lifestyles.

I can only commend that Christ Himself would be the lens through which we will understand and live out the Bible. Many theologians, authors and denominational perspectives are helpful and necessary. We should seek the wisdom and guidance of others. But all of that is meaningless without a genuine desire to follow Christ and to live as He wants.

Categories asian american, books, church, communication, emerging church, faith, health

Reflections On The Gathering

September 28, 2007 //

DJ Chuang gave a really great presentation at “The Gathering” this past week at Evergreen Baptist Church in Rosemead. In his talk, Revitalizing Asian American Churches, DJ gave us the macro-picture of what’s happening with Asian American churches and he identified ways in which we might move forward in reaching the next generation.

DJ is a very refreshing and necessary voice — not only for the breadth of his research and the depth of his insight, but in his ability to bring people together. From my experience, Asian Americans spend way too much time trying to determine who is in or out based on our version of orthodoxy. In that paradigm, people spend more time straightening out the minutiae of their doctrine than in actually reaching people with the Gospel. Happily, the overall tone of this gathering was community-oriented and encouraging. In my prayer group, I was genuinely encouraged by the support of others who are a little bit further along in the journey of vocational ministry, including Sam Park over at Community Church on Holliston.

DJ shared some great insights about what existing churches can do to support the next generation of believers:

Encourage creativity
Raise up young leaders
Support church planting through prayer, people and funds

In particular, the idea of raising up young leaders spoke deeply to me. As someone who pastors students, I battle the Asian perfectionist tendency inside of me all the time when it comes to raising up next gen leaders. It’s hard to give people room to grow, to try new things out, to fail. There is often little room in Asian American families and churches for an actual learning curve — it’s often either be perfect or don’t even bother trying. Many Asian American pastors are perfectionists and micro-managers; not the best combination for raising up young leaders.

I have encountered way too many pastor-types who are maybe five or six years further along this path who refuse to mentor younger leaders because they themselves never received the mentoring they sought from first-gen pastors. I don’t want to operate from this kind of hurt. I don’t want to perpetuate this self-defeating cycle. I want to be someone who can help raise up next gen leaders. I might not have much to share, but maybe I can contribute to others so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single week.

I also see how important it is for me to seek out the wisdom of those further along the path. I’m not talking about a formal mentoring relationship with a set schedule (who has time in their schedules for that kind of model these days, anyways?) but conversations, dialogue and lots of listening. I have been privileged to be in contact with many wise thinkers and leaders recently, and I am just trying to absorb all the wisdom I can.

Here’s to more gatherings like this one!

Tags first generation

Categories asian american, church, community, emerging church, faith, hope, ministry, postmodern, second-generation

What A (Joyful) Racket!

September 12, 2007 //

Vincent Moon has created a series of brilliant short films called The Take-Away Shows. Moon has filmed artists such as Beirut, Menomena and Tapes’n Tapes performing their songs in surprising locations — perhaps walking down the street or playing in a basement stockroom. From the Take-Away Show site:

You meet a band. You take them outside, in the streets, and ask them to play there, shoot the movie in one unique shot, whatever happens. Those are the Take-Away Shows, the weekly video podcast from French weblog La Blogotheque.

This clip of the Arcade Fire gang crowding into an elevator to play Neon Bible — playing the snare drum by tearing pages from a magazine and the bass drum by pounding the walls — and then performing Wake Up in the middle of the audience is breathtaking. Moon doesn’t edit out the band laughing or tuning, or even the occasional musical misstep; the result is a vibe that is immediate, real and filled with joy. As Arcade Fire performs from the middle of the audience, you can almost see waves sweeping over the crowd as they become part of the band.

Many people have shared their insights into the problem of the “worship industry” recently. To highlight a few:

David Gate’s post called Translate His Wonders rails against “McWorship”
David Park over at Next Gener.Asian Church in Coming Back To A Heart Of Worship speaks against soulless “worship karaoke”
Brett McCracken in The Tragedy of (Most) Modern Worship Music articulates his issues with the state of modern worship music in the church today

I am all for excellence in worship. Half-hearted, out of tune, I just picked these songs five minutes ago worship sets hardly bring glory to God. However, too often that drive for excellence results in slick, overproduced songs that are indistinguishable from the latest hits by Chris Daughtry or Kelly Clarkson (actually, I wouldn’t mind a worship “hit” that is as catchy as “Since U Been Gone”) — songs that hit all the right notes, but lack soul.

I realize that my particular musical aesthetic skews toward jangly indie collectives like Arcade Fire, Architecture in Helsinki and Broken Social Scene (or Los Campesinos! who are new to me), but it might breathe some much-needed life into our worship if we made a little bit more of a racket. In this Take-Away Show of Architecture in Helsinki performing Heart It Races, the band recruits a small backing choir of fans, which turns into a conga line, which becomes an impromptu invitation into a private party:

Architecture in Helsinki thought about everything : the choir, the bass drum and portable amplifiers. Alas, during the procession that starts shortly after, the amps die. So, with an extension cord, we borrow power from the locals, overlooking from their 2nd floor windows. Electricity from a kitchen !

Cameron Bird, shiny-eyed, asks me whether he can go up in one of the apartments, as he would like to sing from the window. Kelly goes in yet another flat and shows off the ice tea her hostess gave her. In our flat, dinner is cooking in a huge pan, the kids swarm towards the window in excitement, the mom goes about her business in the back of the place, and Cameron sings along with the small crowd down in the street. He winks laughingly at Kelly, he’s having so much fun. Behind us, the kids look impressed. We brought the Take Away Show to their home, in between the living room and the kitchen, we got in the place just by asking politely, we are an accident to this family. Just as Take Away Shows are an accident to the artists we follow. As soon as the song ends, everybody goes back down. The little girls put on their shoes, they run down the stairs before us.

Meanwhile, in the street, the little choir turned into a troop. The line is already long in front of the Flèche d’Or. Architecture in Helsinki, not even all there yet, have everybody form a “congo line”. Then that’s how it goes : something’s going on at the front, in the middle, in the back, everybody moves forward. Vincent Moon bumps into the percussionnist, goes again, wants to be everywhere at once, doesn’t have time, bumps into me. In the street, a blind man wiggles to the sound of the band passing by. Since the beginning, everybody is really out of tune. Cameron sings so loud, the mic is out… We go inside the Flèche d’Or, not open yet, a private cocktail is going on. The people follow us, twenty, thirty people, invited without a word. It was good, it was fun, it was about an invitation, returned almost immediately.

Sure, it’s kind of rough around the edges, but what a joyful noise! Wouldn’t it make God’s praise glorious if we replaced some of the sheen with more joy? What if we took Moon’s words from an interview with Spin, “I don’t want to see a band on the stage; I want to be on the same level” and realized that we are the band — all of us? Of course, someone has to play the instruments, but we’re all participants. I long for the day when we can “open up the doors and let the music play” and our worship becomes contagious, creating community and opens doors so that we can celebrate together.

Well, here’s one thing we can all agree on: Sufjan Stevens needs to perform from rooftops more often.

Categories church, community, emerging church, hooray!, indie, ministry, music, worship

Blessed Are The Overbearing

August 17, 2007 //

Jamie Arpin-Ricci recently wrote a great piece called, “Being Brian McLaren.” No, it’s not an emerging version of an RPG (yikes!) where you can write books or go on nationwide speaking tours — rather, Jamie speaks out about the way certain camps of Christianity have been in all-out attack mode on McLaren, and how he might feel about such things (thus, the title of Jamie’s post).

If you want to see this in action, just type “emerging church” in your favorite search engine and watch the sparks fly. Some people, in the name of upholding a certain doctrine, theology or orthodoxy, apparently feel that it is justifiable to insult, slander and generally resort to mean-spirited tactics (even name-calling). I see people drag names like Brian McLaren or Rob Bell into conversations that really have nothing to do with them on a regular basis, just to find a reason to attack them.

While I do not agree with everything they have ever written or said (does such a person exist with whom we can agree on everything, anyways?), I appreciate many of the thoughts, insights and opinions McLaren and Bell have offered to the Church. I understand that these two, in particular, are very public figures and thus open to a different kind of scrutiny than other individuals, but that hardly gives license for the kind of vitriol and nasty rhetoric some people have used against them.

I think their harshest critics operate under a set of false assumptions. The first: Jesus needs them to be His personal bodyguard to fend off the heretics and blasphemers. I don’t remember Jesus saying, “Now go into all the world, with shrill tones and snap judgments, mimicking the talking heads and pundits of 21st century American media and let loose on the people you think I don’t like.”

Please don’t misunderstand: Truth is central to our faith. However, I think we miss something crucial when we treat truth as a set of static propositions with which we can bash others who deviate from our perception of it. Truth changes us. From the beginning, God has been concerned about our hearts. As such, it doesn’t make sense to stomp around angrily all in the name of “truth.” I wonder how much we really believe if we’re not actually being changed.

The second false assumption: You can change someone’s opinions through finger-pointing and yelling. From my experience, these kinds of angry exchanges only serve to further entrench people in their established positions. Maybe it speaks to my reprobate heart, but when people come on too strong it makes me want to disagree with them, even if I actually agree with what they’re saying. It’s a lesson I’ve learned from my wife — the way in which we say something is just as important as what we say.

The Bible has a lot to say about working for peace. Jesus Himself holds peacemakers in pretty high esteem. This is not just wimpy “I’m OK, you’re OK” pop psychology where we sweep our differences under the rug. Jesus was pretty realistic about the trouble we would encounter as we live our lives — but He was also realistic about His role in helping us overcome our differences. He was clear about how we are to treat one another. I don’t see any conditional clauses — if they subscribe to every bullet point of your doctrine, if they hate all the same people you hate, etc. — just a simple command: love each other.

Categories boo!, church, controversy, emerging church