Archives for category: faith

As Much To Myself As To You

October 9, 2007 //

Jonah Matranga is one of my favorite artists. His music has been influential on a wide variety of bands. His work in Far showed that it wasn’t a contradiction to bring together heartfelt lyrics and face melting riffs. And before Chris Carrabba was stealing hearts and gracing magazine covers and the Plain White Ts were in heavy rotation on every tween in America’s playlist (you know, the Hey There, Delilah guys?), Jonah’s work as onelinedrawing brought being a singer/songrwriter back into style in indie and punk circles. He has even been featured on a couple of hip hop tracks by Fort Minor and Lupe Fiasco.

While I am a big fan of his music, I appreciate his honesty and humility as a human being. I saw him perform to an audience of about twenty or thirty people last week at the Casbah and he sang with the same sincerity and passion as he does to a packed house of hundreds. Afterward, he manned his own merch table and stayed late into the night to talk with everyone who came. I had emailed Jonah a couple of weeks ago with some questions about his show — and he surprised me with a phone call the day before the concert. Although I was trying hard to hide my enthusiasm and play it cool, Jonah was extremely normal — just a friend reaching out to another friend and connecting. After his performance, we talked a bit about family and he gave me a big hug as I left.

One of the most fun parts of Jonah’s live performance is his wealth of stories. With a big smile, he introduced his cover of the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back as being the roots of “emo” — not Rites of Spring or Fugazi. And before singing his song Tides, he described how a major corporation offered him essentially a hatchback full of cash to use this song in a commercial. In the end, he said, he turned them down — not out of some high and mighty, punk rock ethic — but simply because it didn’t sit right with him. These days, music is commercialized to the point of “indie” music being indistinguishable from mainstream radio in terms of usage in ads and sponsorships.

Jonah made a really good point during his show about the importance of honesty. Some bands “sell out” but experience a kind of cognitive dissonance about it, and so they try to rationalize or explain away what they’ve done. However, wouldn’t we all be better off with a little more honesty? If Apple wants to use your song in an iPod commercial or EA Sports in their next video game franchise — and the prospect of swimming in a vat of the gold dubloons these mega corporations are willing to pay is really attractive to your band — then just be honest about it. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, you don’t have to score scene points with anyone — just do what you do with integrity and honesty.

I think this really hit me hard because I’ve been struggling with my current ministry context. Please don’t misunderstand: this is a good church , I love working with the students here, and our church’s leadership loves the Lord and His people. But I can’t help but feel that I’m not being completely honest to my calling — the thoughts about ecclesiology, mission, creativity, friendship and community that have been brewing inside me for quite some time now. I’m living in that tension, and trying to discern where this road might lead — with as much honesty and truth as I can muster.

I love this line from As Much To Myself As To You by onelinedrawing:

As much to myself as to you
As much a list of questions as
A list of what to do

Mystery, doubt, confusion. This is the mess that so many of us live in — I’m just hoping that it leads somewhere soon.

Categories church, communication, community, faith, indie, ministry, music

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

A Clear Channel

September 25, 2007 //

In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, China has made efforts to eradicate the often-confusing, sometimes-embarrassing Engrish translations that appear on signs in public. An example below:

I always get a kick out of signs that do not communicate their intended message. For example, you can find the sign on the left in each boat on the Small World ride at Disneyland. The text (which is not pictured) tells riders that, for their own safety on this particular ride, they should not stand. However, whenever I see this sign, I imagine it saying: “No Breakdancing.” As an aside, the characters in the prohibited photo look to me suspiciously like Mr. Bean dancing. If they don’t want people standing during the ride, maybe they shouldn’t make it look like so much fun!

In any case, I bring up this idea of clear communication because I recently registered with Technorati (which I still don’t really understand). I was a bit dismayed to find that someone had responded to one my recent posts about worship, music and lyrics with the criticism that I had over-intellectualized the subject. It’s not so much the criticism itself that affected me (although I get the distinct feeling that this blogger misunderstood what I was trying to say) but the idea that I might not be clearly communicating what I intend to say. Or, worse, that I might come off as pretentious. As someone who preaches to youth who will let me know what they think of my sermons (e.g., smiles, frowns, nodding approval or nodding off) every week, I wouldn’t think of myself as communicating in a pretentious or confusing manner.

I saw this sign in a shop in K-town in Los Angeles:

Although I can sound out the Korean words phonetically, my comprehension is minimal at best. I puzzled over the English sign for awhile. So, does this product give a person all of these horrible diseases and, if so, who in their right mind would pay $10 for each of them? What else should we expect from them?

To my relief, my wife translated the sign for me and assured me that, in Korean, the sign shows the unique ways in which this product will help a person. I hope my words do not create the reader’s version of athlete’s foot but would, in some small way, be a help instead.

Categories asian american, communication, faith, frustration, postmodern

Living Water

September 18, 2007 //

The LifeStraw is a portable water purifier in the form of an oversized straw that filters out most water-borne illnesses. At a cost of approximately three dollars, the LifeStraw will provide a person with safe drinking water for about a year. The LifeStraw was voted one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2005.

According to the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report 2006, 1.2 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe water and 2.6 billion people do not have access to sanitation. The report issues this sobering fact, “In a world of unprecedented wealth, almost 2 million children die each year for want of a glass of clean water and adequate sanitation.”

Many of us suffer from “compassion fatigue.” In the last couple of years, we have lived through terrorist attacks, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and floods. And, after each of these catastrophic events, our inboxes are filled with urgent pleas to donate and make a difference. Even late at night, when we’re trying to watch SportsCenter for the third time in a row, we are bombarded with images of hungry children and earnest spokespeople asking us to help. I worry when my heart grows hard to the fact that four thousand kids die every single day from drinking dirty water. It’s easy to rationalize: I give to the church (I mean, I work for the church), we already sponsor a child and his family every month, leave me alone already, etc.

Fortunately, there are groups like Living Water International, blood:water mission and WaterAid who are hard at work to create a world in which people — every single one of them made in the image of God — have access to safe water and sanitation.

I am so proud of our youth group here at church. On Saturday, September 29th, we will participate in walktheirwalk — a twelve mile walkathon to raise money to build a school in the community of Twachiyanda, Zambia and to help provide safe drinking water throughout rural Zambia through Zambia Fresh Water Project. The twelve mile route of walktheirwalk symbolizes the distance children from Twachiyanda walk every day in order to attend school. We are privileged to be a small part of building a better life for these children, their families and their community. If you are moved to partner with us, you can donate online at our youth group’s walktheirwalk donation page.

Categories church, environment, faith, health, hope, outreach, stewardship, youth ministry