how I’m quoted in the Los Angeles Times article
It was delightful to be interviewed by K. Connie Kang for the Los Angeles Times during the past week. Her work in the religion beat is most commendable for raising awareness of the social location within particular ethnic racial contexts. I talked with her by phone for 19 minutes last week, and then in person on Wednesday 9/26 at the occasional pastors luncheon known as “the Gathering.”
The article was published today, Saturday, September 29th, on page B2 of the California local news section (OC edition). The angle of this story was the challenges that 2nd generation pastors faced in doing ministry, aptly titled “Asian American pastors often minister across culture gap” and subtitled “Church leaders raised in the U.S. must navigate a difficult terrain of traditional hierarchies, generational differences and high expectations.”
Quotes that she used from me to close out the article:
In his survey of Asian American churches nationwide, Chuang found just 150 financially independent and autonomous English-speaking congregations out of about 7,000 predominantly Asian churches.
But he is hopeful about the future.
In the last decade, more than 100 English-speaking, Asian-led churches have started across the country, he said.
“The next generation of Asian Americans has the potential to take the best of both worlds — from the American culture that they are raised in and Asian heritage that they bring from their family,” he said. “If we can invest in them, we can do a lot of good for the world.”
You can listen to my presentation and view slides given Wednesday 9/26 and see related resources. Please add a comment below with your reactions, comments, and/or questions. Let’s keep the conversation going!!
raw thoughts in process
just attended the first keynote at the Podcast & New Media Expo in Ontario, met Fr. Roderick aka Catholic Insider, and here are some of my thoughts in the moment (mp3 audio)…
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The conference setup was top-tier: first rows of rooms were tables reserved for laptop users, with first several rows equipped with power strips; free wifi internet throughout the entire convention center, and people could attend the keynotes and enter exhibit hall with free registration. From what I could tell in being there for just over an hour, there was a mix of hobbyists, producers, and a number of those who wanted to convert from hobbyist into professional (e.g. get paid to podcast.) More audio podcasters in the mix than video podcasters. Everyone is pretty much still figuring things out in this new media experimentation. Listening to Howard Lindzon, Creator of WallStrip, talk about how he sold Wallstrip to CBS for $5 million after running it for a mere 8 months for an investment cost $600k, it sounded like an incredible opportunity and lucky timing more than discovering the formula to monetize.
Talking with one of the veterans who’s attended all 3 of this annual conference, the conversation has moved from podcasting for the love and passion of doing it towards this year’s conversation about how to monetize podcasting.
Bottom line, for those that want to podcast with a business purpose, it’s all about producing quality content at a consistent frequency (be it daily or weekly, or somewhere in between). “Quality” would need to have as many of these ingredients: passion, fun, irreverence, energy, theme, uniqueness, personality, meaning, audio and/or video quality, clean edits, etc. Plus, it’s about being disciplined on marketing to grow the audience. For the hobbyist, these things don’t matter as much, you (and I) can just podcast for the love of it.
One of the very nice things that the conference organizers do is to post audios from past events online for free, listen for great tips and insights on podcasting::
I’m anticipating the 2007 conference audios will be online some time soon:: the links should be here for day 1, day 2, and day 3
revitalizing Asian American churches
The full title of my presentation at the pastors & ministry leaders gathering today was “Revitalizing Asian American Churches for New Generations”. I painted a big picture with statistics about Asian Americans in the United States, and shared about a random sampling of churches that are making notable progress in reaching the next generation. I believe it’s more helpful to think of new ways to reach people rather than only asking the question of how to keep people in church.
Here’s the slides and audio (mp3 audio, file size=23mb):
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[astute listeners will notice that my slides here don't exactly match the audio; sorry, version mix-up -- had wanted to better explain my work with L2 Foundation and Leadership Network]
Other related resources mentioned:
- Crossing the Ethnic Divide: The Multiethnic Church on a Mission - a sociological book about how Evergreen LA is diversifying, great insider look
- Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments and Practices of a Diverse Congregation by Mark DeYmaz - new book to be released in October with great theological foundation and practical tips
- Asian American Church Report - free PDF download with registration
- List of Asian-led multi-Asian/multi-ethnic Church Plants (100+ less than 10 years old)
- Jumping the Sigmoid Curve (PDF) - article about the window of opportunity for churches/ organizations to grow
- video interview with Pastor Gideon Tsang of Vox Veniae (church in Austin, TX)
- NextGenerAsianChurch.com - blog about all kinds of issues related to Asian American churches; join its monthly conference call for lively discussions
- Rachelle Woo Chuang’s art portfolio (my dear wife’s)
And, here are more helpful links for Asian American leaders:
- L2 Foundation www.L2Foundation.org with resource center and calendar of events
- L2 Foundation blog blog.L2Foundation.org - current news and insights
- Leadership Network www.leadnet.org - learn from effective church innovations and more
I crammed in a lot in 30 minutes, and included the interactive Q&A in the recorded audio that followed the presentation. I’ll debrief and unpack more of what I spoke about in future posts at the L2 Foundation blog. Really appreciated the prayer support from Tom Steers, Margaret Yu and others, as well as the personal support of many friends who showed up, including Larissa Lam, Philip Kim, Brent Wong, Victor Yap, Ray Chang, Daniel So (drove up from San Diego!), Steve Hong (drove down from San Francisco!), Daniel Eng, Ken Fong, and more. Thanks to Louis Lee, Tom Steers, Tommy Dyo, Ben Shin for pulling this event together, along with Evangelical Christian Credit Union and Evergreen LA for hosting!
Met many other good people there. I would enjoy getting to meet any of those who attended (or missed it) in Southern Cal. Please contact me by email or phone to set a date, time, and place to meetup!
church changes with demographics
This New York Times article, The World Comes to Georgia, and an Old Church Adapts, is yet another indicator of how the church must change or die:
When the Rev. Phil Kitchin steps into the pulpit of the Clarkston International Bible Church on Sunday mornings, he stands eye to eye with the changing face of America. In the pews before him, alongside white-haired Southern women in their Sunday best, sit immigrants from the Philippines and Togo, refugees from war-scarred Liberia, Ethiopia and Sudan, even a convert from Afghanistan.
“Jesus said heaven is a place for people of all nations,” Mr. Kitchin likes to say. “So if you don’t like Clarkston, you won’t like heaven.”
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once noted that 11 a.m. on Sunday was the beginning of the most segregated hour of the week in America, and for the better part of 120 years, that certainly applied to this church. From 1883 until a few years ago, anyone on the pulpit would have gazed out at a congregation that was exclusively white. The church is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, a group that in 1995 renounced its racist past.
But an influx of immigrants and refugees transformed this town in a little over a decade, and in the process sparked a battle within this church over its identity and its faithfulness to the Bible, one that led it to change not just its name but its mission.
:
Indeed, evangelical churches have begun to stand out as rare centers of ethnic mixing in a country that researchers say has become more culturally fragmented, in part because of immigration.
A recent study by the Harvard political scientist Robert D. Putnam underscored the practical complications of diversity. In interviews with 30,000 Americans, the study found that residents of more diverse communities “tend to withdraw from collective life,” voting less and volunteering less than those in more homogeneous communities.
The study noted a conspicuous exception.
“In many large evangelical congregations,” the researchers wrote, “the participants constituted the largest thoroughly integrated gatherings we have ever witnessed.”
How is your church changing to serve the changing community around it?
[update 9/26] Be sure to read the behind-the-scene rest-of-the-story at Mark DeYmaz’ blog, and also commentary from Eugene Cho about the article, which includes a schedule for his church’s annual in-depth Race and Faith class.
deconstructing depression
I have a dark companion called depression that visits from time to time and won’t say good riddance and go away. Sometimes it stays too long, once for well over a year. Sometimes it stays for a brief visit. I hope this time it’s brief. When depression visits me, it comes with its entourage of dark clouds, negative thoughts and lies, heavy emotions and fears. For me, the triggers are usually stress-related. There are people who can eat stress for a snack and rise to the occasion. I’m not one of them.
Having a good friends and families network doesn’t keep it away. Neither does a degree in theology, nor spiritual disciplines of confession and repentance. There’s undoubtedly something wrong with me, just like Romans 7 describes, and it humbles me, it shows me how broken I am, and it evokes in me greater empathy for other people’s struggles and battles.
When depression stops by for a visit, it sure gets my attention. It clouds my thinking and it feels like drowning just to stay alert. It takes enormous effort to do 1 or 2 tasks a day. When the forecast is overcast, just showing up is winning half the battle.
Experts have said that depression is “anger turned inward.” I’m not an angry person. I don’t express my rage explosively against people around me. This made no sense to me until recently. Depression is my version of taking my anger out on myself. I can get angry at the world for being imperfect. I can get angry at myself for not being what I wish I could be. I can get angry at unmet expectations, unrealistic goals, and untimely interruptions. I get angry over not being more driven, more accomplished, more clear-headed on tasks, more focused. Call it an idol or a natural disposition of my heart, but I can’t easily get rid of it by mere confession. Unlike others, I don’t run from depression by going to addictions or accomplishments.
When depression visits, it usually brings a big life lesson with it. Lessons like: take better care of yourself. Humbly ask for help. I can’t do it alone. Life is good, it’s not so serious. Enjoy a good night’s sleep. Write it down and stop thinking so hard. God loves you just the way you are, not as you should be. Do what you’re good at and what you enjoy, nothing more, nothing less. I just wish those lessons could come without having to go through those dark tunnels.
Thanks be to God that this world is not all there is, and He’ll make good on my yearning for a better world. And God will give me the grace and strength to be a part of that better world.
Plus, just found out that Pastor Tommy Nelson of Denton Bible Church (also a Dallas Seminary alumni) had a recent bout with depression, and lived to tell about it at a DTS Chapel (video and audio) and on FamilyLife Today and the impact of depression on a marriage.
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[Caveat: depression is a complicated manner, so my story is not gospel. Please seek appropriate help if needed.]
[update 10/10] blogger Real Live Preacher eloquently shared about his bouts with depression too– Depression Part One: Admitting You Might Have a Problem, Thoughts on Depression After Five Months of Medication, and several other times
