The Value of Asian American Churches with Raymond Chang
Discipleship in the Korean American immigrant church wasn’t just a way to transfer knowledge and information, but an invitation into a new way of life in a new community—especially as so many people had to rely on each other just to survive in a society that wasn’t really designed with them in mind.
Telling Our Stories: Tell Me the Dream Again Book Review
Throughout her book, Jun continues to pull on the theme of coming home to yourself—and the way that journey looked for her uniquely as a biracial Korean woman growing up in the States.
What Generosity Means for the Church
A flourishing church does not mean a church devoid of problems and issues. It does not mean there will be no suffering in unknown times. However, a church that flourishes will require a different kind of sacrifice. Flourishing requires the participation of both men and women. It requires the young and old
Book Review: Preaching to a Divided Nation
In order to fix the divisions in our churches and our country, we not only have to understand what is broken but how it is broken.
Invisible Leaders
When I think about my grandmother, I wonder, “Wasn’t her life also a ministry?” Perhaps she was not welcome to hold a title or a position in the church, but I believe my grandmother’s life looked a lot more like the life of Jesus than the lives of some of the male church leaders.
Liberation through Language
The most important thing non-females can do in a ministry setting is to empower and acknowledge the talents they see in their congregation, and this can be done through language
Freed from Fearful Timidity in Order to Flourish
Pastoring has been the soil on which I have met the Lord, over and over again. This calling invites me to be saturated in God’s presence and in God’s Word, year after year. It stirs up all of my insecurities and fears and my imposter syndrome, and those things become the ripe soil on which Jesus meets me, over and over again, to speak his words of love.
Why is Joining a Small Group So Hard?
If we need to build community, we must start being generous with our time. The best relationships grow when we give ourselves sufficient time for the conversation to flow and linger.
A History of Asian American Worship Music
Though many Asian American churches and ministries often sing worship songs from the likes of Hillsong and Bethel, or Western hymns for the older generation, with a bit of digging, I’ve discovered that worship songs written by and for Asian American Christians have been around for at least a few decades.
Dismantling Legacy
It grieves me that the media photos of protestors outside of the Supreme Court depicted Blacks and Asians, screaming at one another. Our fight is not with each other. As an Asian American Christian, I’m compelled to delineate what Harvard and my faith have taught me about how the world works versus how God’s divine economy works.
Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: A Pop-Psych Guide to Activism
“Finding your own way in social justice work requires courage, creativity, wisdom, and an openness to possibility. It requires shaking off the unhealthy and unrealistic expectations of others. It asks us to embrace our differences as beautiful and our unique personalities and perspectives as gifts, rather than comparing ourselves to others.”
The Provision Of Rest
I had grown accustomed to spending my life in hyperdrive, running from one task to the next, so I could do more, be more, and make my family proud. Suddenly, I could do nothing.
Creatively Narrating the Stories of Multiracial Individuals: A Conversation with Becky White
My own bitterness towards the Korean society and culture followed me for a long time. I hope I can relieve my fellow mixed Koreans of that same bitterness by providing the words to help us understand ourselves. Perhaps this isn’t explicitly a “Christian” tenet wrapped neatly in a Bible verse; but everything I do, I hope it may be founded in the honest and joyful love of Christ.
Two Halves Make a Hole
When you put two halves together you make a whole. This is basic math. But when you merge different ethnicities the rules of math change.
Gifts of the Asian American Church
Perhaps we have been content to be spectators in our own homes, mimickers of our neighbors, and borrowers of their blessings. And I wonder: What would it take to make us care? If our resignation is learned behavior, a consequence of our unique structural disadvantages, how can we unlearn it and become brave?
Book Review: Passport to Shame: From Asian-Immigrant to American Addict by Sam Louie
Sam’s former profession as a storyteller is apparent as he vividly paints a picture as though you are there with him in his humble beginnings and follow him through his highs and lows.
We Are Not Immune: Lessons from a Mental Health Crisis
The compounded stress, physical strain, lack of self-monitoring, and dearth of healthy Christian friendships finally imploded on me. I could no longer sleep. Like a jammed switch continually set to “on,” my brain refused to shut down. For five months, it seemed all I could do was lie down at night and stare at the ceiling.
The End of Affirmative Action
Affirmative has never been a perfect tool to level the playing field of educational diversity. But it has made an important impact for thousands such as myself who otherwise were overlooked and not given a fair chance.
Not All Social Justice Advocates March
Over the years, trying to emulate my peers and my social justice heroes—Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Óscar Romero, and others—led me to burnout again and again. Each episode of burnout was worse than the last, until I found myself in bed, debilitatingly depressed, unable to work and barely able to function, for almost a year. I finally began to understand that I was following the way of other people more than the way of the cross.
Communi-tea
We are not a myth, Of a minority nor a monolith, Foreign, we are perpetually not. Asians aren’t a footnote, An afterthought