Posts Tagged ‘life’


28
Jan
13

all kinds of spiritual formation going on

by djchuang

For followers of Jesus wanting a more transformational life, more people seem to be engaging in some kind of spiritual formation process. I’m finding a number of different programs and processes that are percolating in the evangelical world at large (though the concept has been around for Catholics for centuries.) Here’s a short list of ones that I’ve heard of, (mostly) in a chronological order of when I first heard of them:
candles (photo credit: ldcross)

It seems to me that a slightly increasing number of church & ministry leaders are going after these spiritual & heart matters to help people be more like Jesus. Well, some of them say it that way. Others might use different language and terms. Each probably have their own “spiritual growth” model.

In my own thinking (at the time of this writing) I think there is overlap between any of these categories: spiritual formation, spiritual direction, personal coaching, mentoring, discipleship, sanctification…

And somewhat like brands of clothing, people may be fiercely loyal to the genre of spiritual formation that’s been most transformative for them. It’s not the kind of thing that people go comparison shopping for, and let’s hope it doesn’t become commoditized that way.

And, to let my own bias show, it’s not really about the content or exercises of a spiritual formation program. It’s about one’s response to the Holy Spirit, and more telling, the person’s willingness to give permission for (a few trusted) others to speak into their lives.

Why I think this to be the case — it’s an idea from Fierce Conversations, “All conversations are with myself, and sometimes they involve other people.” So when a person goes through exercises, even if guided, it’s all too easy to reinforce one’s own perceptions. Until someone else can call out and speak to the matters of the heart, and the blind spots, transformation rarely happens to the degree that it could.

20
Dec
8

overused word: busy

by djchuang

Words have meaning. Overused words lose their meaning. I’m going to sprinkle my blog from time to time with overused words that I notice all too often.

When I hear an overused word, I wonder to myself: have we lost the creative use of our vocabulary? Wouldn’t it be better to use other more descriptive words instead of defaulting to overused ones?
planner
The word of the day is BUSY. In response to the question, “How have you been?” it’s easy to answer, “Busy.” Or, someone reluctantly starts a conversation with, “I know you’re busy…” Then there’s the times when we look at the calendar and say, “It’s going to be a busy week.” Include the sigh. Aside: while composing this blog post, another 187 tweets with the word “busy” got twittered.

The thing is, life is busy. That’s just part of life. We’re not in school any more; we’re thrust into the real world of adult responsibility. (I’m assuming that most blog readers here are older than high school and college age.)

I prefer to say that “I like to live an active lifestyle.” Seems redundant to say that I’m busy; overstating the obvious. Meaningless.

[photo credit: mrmole]

6
Nov
36

how a conflict played out in social media

by djchuang

“Conflict is something that will always be. It is neither good nor bad, it simply is.” [cf. Sam Chand]

The incident regarding Deadly Viper had set the online world ablaze, and very uncomfortable words of pain festered in the open space [cf. read this summary]. My prayer was that the key leaders at the core of the conflict would resolve it privately, walking through their respective pains together with each other. This direct conversations has since happened offline in private, and an appropriate resolution is in the works. A public statement has been issued. I commend all involved for giving of their time and energy to walk thru this via dolorosa.

There’s already quite a number of thoughtful reflections about this incident posted::

I want to offer a few more ideas in debriefing, with which I’d anticipate some people would disagree with. Conflict in the open was a good thing for 3 reasons [cf. The Necessity of Open Disagreement by Stephen Shields] ::

  • This shows us what conflict resolution can look like. Conflict is not a pretty thing. We’ve all seen how ugly it can get, how destructive it can be, how it can ruin relationships. By being in the open, via social media, we saw how the conflict surfaced and moved towards live offline discussions, apologies, forgiveness, working towards resolution. There is a better way through the conflict. After all, conflict simply is. And I for one am tired of overly-positive spin that’s all too common in evangelical circles; I think the younger generation can smell spin a mile away.
  • We heard new voices open up their heart and soul. While I did not read every single comment in the initial blog posts, a wide range of voices from new names spoke up, both Asian and non-Asian. It is not easy for anyone to share their pains, particularly Asian Americans, for fear of being misunderstood, misrepresented, or shamed. Asians tend to be a little more (or a lot more) sensitive than non-Asians because of its shame-based culture. Social media empowers anyone and everyone to speak out. This helps us to empathize with the offended much more than signing a petition. (Now, not every Asian American finds this publication offensive, granted.)
  • We’ve got a long way to go with racial sensitivities in the church. A loooong way. Conflict that arose up over a relatively minor incident, in the whole scheme of things, shows how little experience we collectively have to just start any discussion about faith and race. And, yeah, these issues are complicated and messy. They don’t sell books nor increase conference attendance nor make churches grow rapidly in size. It doesn’t fit neatly in the systematic theology section.


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3
Sep
12

how to have real relationships online

by djchuang

Being on vacation, I’ve resisted making plans — I find planning to be drudgery work. So I’ve been quite spontaneous, even though that makes it hard to sync up with others who aren’t able to be spontaneous with me at the same time. Nevertheless…

Got to connect with Mary Beth Stockdale on this wetoku video chat interview today. We talked about her experience in being a part of a community with the LifeChurch.tv online church, and how online relationships are just as real as their offline counterparts.



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6
Jul
7

sticking a fork into my lifestreaming

by djchuang

Steve Rubel (formerly of Micro Persuasion) is one of those “A-list” bloggers, and he explained “why I am forking my content“. He signed off his main blog with: So Long Blogging, Hello Lifestreaming!

I’ve started to put my content into several different buckets, too, coincidentally. And it happened to happen around the same time.

My upcoming multi-site road trip next weekend triggered my exploration on what to do with my online content. You might call this “content segmentation.” Here’s where my content is now being posted:

djchuang.com – my personal blog here will remain the place where I write out my more lengthy color commentaries on my eclectic thoughts and personal feelings

twitter.com/djchuang – @djchuang is my main twitter feed with updates primarily covering the topics of faith and culture, and joining in on related conversations

twitter.com/djchuang247 – @djchuang247 is my new twitter feed with updates that will be reveal glimpses of my personal everyday life and more extensive commentaries and sound bites during conferences I attend

daily.djchuang.com – this is my tumblr-powered daily blog that’ll mix mostly a photo blog and an audio blog, with occasional deep-dive event live-blogging

facebook.com/djchuang – this connects me to a smaller circle of people. If I instinctively recognize the face or name, I’ll accept a friend request. If not, sorry.

friendfeed.com/djchuang – this will get you everything in my lifestream, including blogs, tweets, yelps, delicious, flickr, youtube, etc.

I also contribute to these blogs as a part of my professional career life:

I’ve heard not everyone wants to read everything I have to write or comment on everything, particularly some of the inane personal things I’m doing at the moment, to which I even say to myself, “so what?” I’ve even had one person _block_ me on Twitter just to make sure he doesn’t get my too-frequent updates — when all he had to do is unfollow me.

All of us have to be selective on what content we’ll subscribe to, filter through, follow, or manage. No offense taken if you choose only a portion of my lifestream.

[photo credit]

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