Archives for category: hope

Ideation Thoughts: Awakening

April 8, 2010 //

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A Remarkable Gathering

Even though The Ideation was only two days, it was a whirlwind of incredible individuals and organizations committed to bringing hope, justice and good into the world. As Brian Cooper, CEO of Glimmer of Hope, said, “It’s so rare to be in a whole roomful of people who care more about others than themselves.”

At The Ideation, I was privileged to represent Justice Ventures International — a nonprofit working to eradicate human trafficking, empower the urban poor, and ensure access to justice for the oppressed — as a board member and as part of the Pathos Ethos team — a web strategy group finding ways to partner with organizations working to love human + do good in the world.

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Tags ideation

Categories conference, design, hope, innovation, justice, leadership, nonprofit, social media, video

Theologizing With Moltmann

February 8, 2010 //

One of my regrets from my seminary days is not being more fully present to my studies.

Perhaps it was the multiple hundred-mile round-trip treks to serve as a youth pastor each week, or the constant catching up with the hundreds of pages of theology, church history and biblical language studies each week, or just trying to figure out who on earth I was and where God might be leading me, but much of what I read escaped my brain as soon as I wrote it down for an exam or typed it for a paper (of course, in reality, it was probably some combination of the three, plus many other factors).

Recently, I am rediscovering many theologians whose writing & thoughts I did not have the time to engage deeply while I was a seminary student.

These days, some thoughts from Jurgen Moltmann on prayer have gotten my attention:

Real prayer to God awakens all our senses and alerts our minds and spirits. The person who prays, lives more attentively.

Theologian friends, any thoughts on Moltmann?

My theology reading is painfully slow (I think reading Karl Barth has permanently damaged the theology-reading part of my brain. Seriously, I would have to read a paragraph of his, like, five times over just to catch a glimpse of what he was saying), so any insight would be appreciated!

Categories church, hope, theology

Living Our Hope

May 6, 2009 //

I designed this graphic for our church’s web site last week:

welcome-god-has-not-given-up-3

As Brian McLaren writes in Everything Must Change, “Eschatology always wins.” That is, what we believe about the future distinctly shapes how we live today. Believing that we’re just hanging on until we can escape this sin-soaked mess will lead to a profoundly different way of life than believing God continues to be very much in love with the world and the people He created. One leads to despair; the other, hope. The church I want to be a part of is not a monument; it is a movement of hope & redemption.

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On a side note, I am currently in the midst of a web design project with my friend Richard. If you, or someone you know, needs some graphic and/or web design work, drop me a line. We offer great work at reasonable prices!

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And, speaking of movements, I encourage you to support Eugene Cho’s organization dedicated to fighting global poverty. Let’s get the Facebook group to one million people (it’s already at over 690,000 people) — join the cause today.

Categories church, communication, design, hope, Kingdom of God

Post-Idea Camp Rodeo: Diversity + Leadership

March 19, 2009 //

Part four of my ongoing series of reflections on The Idea Camp (catch up on part one, part two, part three):

I loved seeing a wide range of speakers and facilitators presenting from the main stage. It’s not just diversity for its own sake (which can so quickly devole into tokenism). As David Gibbons shared with us at the Camp, creativity and life come from the margins, from intersections you might not otherwise cross. When we hear the same people making the same rounds from the same book tour on the same circuit…. well, you get the idea. That’s why I appreciated William Paul Young, author of The Shack, urging the National Pastors Convention to highlight women’s voices from the main stage there (this past year, the main stage was not the most diverse bunch).

The diversity at The Idea Camp was more than just cosmetic: we heard from pastors, non-profit innovators, business leaders, men, women, young, old, people from a variety of racial & ethnic backgrounds, the tech-savvy, the well-known and the not-as-well-known. Kudos to Charles Lee for his vision of bringing together a remarkable group of people to lead & share.

For me, as an Asian American, every conference I attend is a cross-cultural experience. Occasionally my wife and I talk about how difficult it is to find our place in life & ministry – not quite here or there most of the time. It was encouraging to be reminded that diversity is an important part of creativity and listening for God’s voice.

Tags theideacamp

Categories asian american, church, communication, hope, innovation, leadership, ministry, race

Post-Idea Camp Rodeo: Friendship (Online + Offline)

March 18, 2009 //

Part three of an ongoing series of reflections about my Idea Camp experience (feel free to check out part one and part two)…

After I came home from The Idea Camp, my wife commented on how completely my inner geek had been unleashed. “I had no idea,” she said to me, shaking her head. It’s true — I spent a good deal of the weekend bathed in the warm glow of a small army of MacBooks running TweetDeck.

I definitely experienced firsthand what Charles Lee wrote, “Social networking is more than a nice tool, it’s cultural architecture.” For me, tech facilitated friendship. In some cases, I was able to connect with friends who I had only known through the blogosphere; in others, I met people face to face and have since been connected online. In both cases, the transition from online to offline friendship was pretty seamless. Gives me some hope for facilitating online/offline friendship and community in our church.

In terms of participation, tech opened doors for people to be involved in many different ways. As DJ Chuang observes, The Idea Camp was a great venue for connecting the online and offline worlds, “We had as many people online as in-person at the event, Q&A was interaction with both onliners and offliners, relationships initiated online came together in person, etc.”

On a personal level, it was so encouraging to gather with like-minded friends who are asking similar questions and seeking to build God’s kingdom in their local communities. Working in church ministry has an isolating effect, and sometimes it’s good to get together with people who are thinking in the same direction just to know that you’re not crazy. I heard that same refrain recently from Mike Bishop, author of What is Church?, in describing the close friendship he has built with a group of people around the country that started with the question, We’re not crazy, are we?

Tags theideacamp

Categories community, faith, health, hope, innovation, ministry