Thanks to all the staff and volunteers at each of the 10 churches for celebrating Jesus’ birth and making our Christmas all the merrier:

1. Harvest OC, Irvine
2. Eastside Christian Church, Fullerton
3. Friends Church, Yorba Linda
4. NewSong Church, Irvine
5. ROCKHARBOR, Costa Mesa
6. Saddleback Church, Lake Forest
7. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach
8. Mariners Church, Irvine
9. Kingsfield Church, Aliso Viejo
10. Coast Hills Church, Aliso Viejo

   
While I won’t name any one particular church service as a favorite or as the best, I will list these highlights and comments:

• Biggest Surprise: big-band-style concert band at Friends Church
• Most creative production: shadow-puppets retelling the Big Story at ROCKHARBOR (Journey of Joy video) [probably over 1,000 pieces cut-out & painted and every performance live!]
• Best Christmas gift: family portrait photo-shoot at Eastside Christian Church
• No more room in the inn (full-capacity crowds): Harvest OC, ROCKHARBOR, Saddleback Church, Mariners Church
• The more popular Christmas songs: Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, Joy to the World, O Holy Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing
• Don’t recall hearing: Away in a Manger, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Deck the Halls, Jingle Bell Rock
• Most consistently-presented theme: Eastside Christian Church [paper-mache Christmas trees and paper snowball as physical prop for responding to sermon to "let go"]
• Most comfortable seating: Friends Church, Coast Hills Church
• Screen with the widest aspect-ratio: Kingsfield Church
• What we didn’t see: a Gospel Choir, Handel’s Messiah, Christmas musical cantata, live Nativity with live animals, drama/skit
• Quietest worship time: late-night 11pm worship in the chapel at Mariners Church (very cool to hear the chapel bells ring at midnight of Christmas)
• Best-dressed choir: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (actually, the only choir we saw, and they sounded great!)
• Children singing: Eastside Christian Church, NewSong Church

And the memories that stay with me about the OC Christmas Tour 2011 and a few learnings about churches: Christmas has inspired people all walks of life, not just churches and those who follow Jesus, most obviously through the arts and movies. We love a wide variety of expressions of worship in different churches. Churches really do produce their best worship services for Christmas, and that takes a ton of planning, preparation, and volunteers. It takes a lot of planning of logistics to get from one church to the next — gotta tip your hat to itinerant speakers/preachers who travel a lot. I can sympathize with those who go to church for the first time (or rarely), and how being in a strange place not knowing where to go or what to do is quite daunting.

And, for us, you can never get too much of Christmas!

Look at this list actual mission statements below. I confess the meaning of a mission statement is lost on me. I can’t tell what it is that the company or organization is actually doing. So if you’re starting an organization, does this mean you can pick any one of them? They all have good purposes and apparently they’re working.

Maybe a mission statement like this could work just as well: “to make money so the world can be a better place” or “to make a difference in the world by providing good jobs and making great products” or “to give people a great experience“. Yes?

Look for yourself ::

“… to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with (us).“

“Be America’s Best Quick-Service Restaurant“

And, these mission statements, all from Fortune 500 companies:

To help all people live healthy lives.

To nourish and delight everyone we serve.

Bringing the best to everyone we touch

Our purpose is to enrich the lives of people we touch.

… to earn money for its shareholders and increase the value of their investment.

Profitable growth through superior customer service, innovation, quality and commitment

… to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.

Be the best in the eyes of our customers, employees and shareholders

Undisputed Marketplace Leadership

To supply outstanding service and solutions through dedication and excellence.

to provide products and services to the market which meet or exceed the reasonable expectations of our customers.

Our mission is positive outcomes.

We are a market-focused, process-centered organization that develops and delivers innovative solutions to our customers, consistently outperforms our peers, produces predictable earnings for our shareholders, and provides a dynamic and challenging environment for our employees.

Serving Others For Customers A Better Life For Shareholders A Superior Return For Employees Respect and Opportunity

Our goal is to be the leader in every market we serve, to the benefit of our customers and our shareholders.

We are committed to attracting, developing, and keeping a diverse work force that reflects the nature of our global business.

We will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit, and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders, and the communities in which we live and work to prosper.

We will continue to build a corporate culture that respects and values the unique strengths and cultural differences of our associates, customers and community.

Our mission is to design, manufacture, and deliver products and services that meet the unique needs and expectations of each customer.

And THANK YOU for being a regular reader or even a random visitor to my website and blog here at djchuang.com! Thank you Twitter followers and Facebook friends too!

(aside #2: It’s hard to make these lists of people to thank, because I don’t like leaving people out, as a highly-inclusive kind-a-guy… the list above are those that have made the biggest difference, you make a difference too, just not as big as theirs, in my life, yet…)

‘Leadership fatigue’ comes about for a number of reasons including such things as: persistent decision making which may have an impact on other people’s lives; defining and developing business directions, sourcing income streams for the business, consistently adjusting to dramatically changing economic environment and meeting regulatory, industry or professional requirements.

In this Seattle School talk, Dr. Dan Allender identified the reasons why most people are leaders, the top 5 issues leaders face, as well as some personal reflections on how to care for one’s self in the midst of leadership fatigue.

… business leaders and executives demonstrate fatigue because 1. so much of what they have been doing is not working as well as they would like and 2. what they know how to do, is not producing the results that are expected of them. This most commonly shows up as “things not moving fast enough” and “resources dwindling”. It also shows up with not having the “right people on board” or not being able to “retain the talent” needed to be successful.

… anyone who wields great power is bound to rub some people the wrong way, and those disaffected people accumulate over time. They also tend to have longer memories. As Dan Julius, a senior academic administrator now in the University of Alaska system told me years ago, “the things you did that upset people and create enmity live on much longer than what you did that people liked and created supporters.” … “leave before the party’s over,” which contains much wisdom about the importance of leaving positions before our charms have faded, and about the discipline required to do so. By overstaying, leaders place themselves in situations where they become less effective, tarnish their legacies, and are therefore less able to move on to a new position of power.

Can I make a confession? I sure get tired of leading. Though I currently do not occupy an organizational C-level leadership position, I confess that I sure get tired of having to initiate more frequently than I’d like. Sure would be nicer if it’d be more 50/50 where someone else initiates with me vs. my initiating with them. I don’t like the weight of having to make decisions with its consequences affect myself and others. Some people eat stress for lunch. I’d rather eat dessert.

Like any family with a new addition, the Lee household is a study in controlled chaos. However, instead of diaper changes and late-night feedings, this Irvine family is bustling with the adventures of Braeden, an inquisitive 5-year-old with a passion for all things outdoors. He joined his family this summer via adoption from South Korea.

Jeff and Rachel Lee had long discussed adding to their family, which includes two biological daughters [...].

Adoption appealed to Rachel, a psychologist; however, Jeff was uncertain. A mission trip to Africa – where he assisted a boy who needed lifesaving heart surgery – changed everything

“He realized he could easily fall in love with a child he was not biologically related to. That was in 2006, the same year Braeden was born,” Rachel Lee recalled. “Last year, we determined that, with our two daughters getting older, we had reached a ‘now-or-never’ point; it was time to move forward and adopt, or to decide not to add to our family.”

The Lees felt an older child would fit well with their active crew. Since both Jeff and Rachel were born in Korea, adopting a child from their native country was also a logical choice, Rachel says. Their research led them to Braeden, who had a heart condition and lived in a Korean orphanage.

The ever-changing landscape of international adoption has one constant feature: a continually increasing need for adoptive families for older children and children with special needs, says Kimberly Alls, coordinator of the Waiting Child Program for the Lee’s adoption agency.

Alls advises those considering opening their hearts and homes to a child with special needs to carefully consider their motivation for adopting, asking questions that include …

Read the full article in magazine-layout format or in text format.

And the sidebar has these very valuable tips of “Adoption Etiquette: What not to say to adoptive parents” (by Judy M. Miller)

Finding the right words honors the relationships in an adoptive family, where love transcends blood and genetics. More than 10 million families have considered adoption, and approximately 1 million more are seeking to adopt at any given time.

Those who meet the new addition include extended family, friends and acquaintances. And, sometimes, they are strangers you can’t help but notice because they are conspicuous; these people obviously see that you don’t “match.” Their curiosity is natural. But sometime it gets the better of us.

Adoptive parents often find themselves in the spotlight. Those who have adopted internationally or trans-racially find themselves under more scrutiny and approached more often. Generally, non-adoptive parents don’t realize that they’re being intrusive and may be disparaging with their questions and comments.

Certain terms and phrases, while well-intentioned most of the time, rankle the adoptive parent by implying that a family formed through adoption doesn’t measure up. Many adoptive parents aren’t always good at responding, particularly when they are approached by a stranger or in the company of their children. Here is some advice for avoiding the “cringe factor” among adoptive parents:

Don’t say anything along the lines of “God bless you!” or “You’re an amazing person to do this.” In “Shared Fate: A Theory and Method of Adoptive Relationships” (Brentwood Bay, BC: Ben Simon Publications, 1988), author H. David Kirk found that 92 percent of adoptive parents had been called “saints” in one form or another. Adoptive parents aren’t saints for adopting, and this type of praise may make them uncomfortable.

Don’t use the word “real” to qualify the adoptive family relationships, as in “real” mom, “real” dad, “real” child, or “real” sibling. Adoptive parents and adoptive families are as real as a birth parent and birth families. The word “real” implies that the relationships within the adoptive family are not real. This isn’t the case. The relationships within the adoptive family are as true and as permanent as in any other.

Don’t say, “They’re so lucky!” This may be the top contender for cringing among adoptive parents. Like non-adoptive parents, adoptive parents consider themselves the lucky ones. They have a beautiful child to raise and enjoy

Don’t say one of your “own” children. Similarly, don’t ask, “Which one is yours?” or “Are they sisters?” These statements and questions can devalue the relationships within an adoptive family. They address the dissimilarities, especially within trans-racial and multiracial families. Adoptive parents know that the relationships in their families transcend blood and genetics.

When approaching adoptive parents about their family, remember these important tips:

The details about how the family has come together are private.

The adoptive parents expect you to respect their privacy.

These are the adoptive parents’ children.

Positive adoption language

Use these terms when referring to relationships within adoptive families:

“Parent,” “mommy,” “daddy,” “sister,” “brother,” etc., for describing adoptive family members “Birth parents,” “birth father,”

“birth mother” for describing the man and woman who conceived and gave birth to the child

“Was adopted” rather than “is adopted”

“Your child” rather than “your adopted child” or “your own child”

“Placed for adoption” or “made an adoption plan,” rather than “orphaned,” “given up,” “unwanted” or “abandoned”

Link to my video.

Now I find myself blogging at a different pace: it’s looking like once or twice a week for this season of life. In the past, The pace I liked to have for my blogging is 2 to 3 posts per week.

(What is a good rhythm of blogging? As a point of reference, I typically advise people to not start blogging if s/he cannot make a blog post at least once a week. I know there are people out there more in the professional blogging realm that blog every weekday in a very disciplined manner. For business- and goal-oriented people, that’s a good thing to do.)

With 12 years of blogging, I’ve certainly not exhausted topics to be blogging about. I’m not considering pulling the plug. This blog started as a personal endeavor and will remain so. Just a place where I can share (a part of) my life and to connect with people far beyond my geographical limitation. Yes, I have a wide eclectic range of topics of interest.

All this to say, not all that much is changing here. Just a change of pace. Add a comment with a topic you’d love to see me blog about. And I’ll queue it up for next week.

One lingering question on the back burner of my mind is about the expression of awe and reverence and respect for God in our approach to worship in today’s worship experience. Regarding musical instruments, for many churches and Christ-followers, worship music is commonly accompanied with keyboards and guitars and drums. A few may use an organ. A few may go a cappella sans musical instruments.

Many churches invite people to “come as they are” and in American culture it is okay to dress casual, t-shirt and shorts. The notion of wearing one’s “Sunday best” to attend a church worship service has probably passed its tipping point years ago, if we were to survey the 300K+ churches in the US. I personally love and enjoy being casual and informal. And, now that it’s summertime, we shed our layers of clothes as it’d be temperature appropriate. Where it gets hard for a red-blooded male like me is when certain kinds of clothing (or lack thereof) is very distracting. While churches don’t want to turn anyone away from encountering the grace of God, what can church leaders do, what’s a guy to do, when the fashion trends of the day, um, for a summer dress is, um, too little?

Links mentioned in the extended video, aka show notes: Yogurtland, Tim Keller, Peter Drucker, Christian celebrities, Asian American, Multiethnic church, my YouTube channel…

This Father’s Day is our first without him. I would not say we’ve emerged from our grief already. I would say that our lives are forever changed; I would say we are doing rather well in this new normal.

The past 2.5 years have been a particularly heavy time of caregiving for Dad, as he slowly and steadily declined in health following a stroke and diagnosed with PSP, a neurological disorder without a name like Alzheimer and Parkinson. My mother and my brother Deef took care of him diligently and sacrifically. I debriefed that experience with my brother Deef, and recorded the webcast before a live audience– you can watch that video .

Our hope is that by talking about a topic that’s rarely ever talked about in the Chinese/ Asian American context as normal average people (in contrast to healthcare professional) that our story can be useful towards realizing you have 2 guys who are empathetic and accessible when that season of life comes around.

Yes, every person has a particular personality. Some more than others. Acceptance of what is and who a person is does not stop with that. A person’s personality and habits is not static and set in concrete.

To be open to change is not to say a person is not good enough. Change is to say that a person is already valuable and has more capacity for good and for life. Admitting there’s room for growth is a humble posture to say I’m not perfect and I need help. Change is not easy. We need all the help we can get. I’ll take all the help I can get.

And where does this help come from? Other people who accept you and those who can give and speak grace into your life. That’ll get you on the way. To use the language of 12 Steps and of the faith community, ultimately, the power to change comes from the higher power greater than you and I, it comes from God.

• Braeburn
• Cortland
• Empire
• Fuji
• Gala
• Ginger Gold
• Golden Delicious
• Granny Smith
• Honeycrisp
• Idared
• Jonagold
• Jonathan
• McIntosh
• Red Delicious
• Rome

Red Delicious is the top apple. The next 4 most popular are: Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith. Orange Pippin’s online community voted for top apples, and the most popular was Pink Lady. Another list in Apple Cookbook by Olwen Woodier says, “The most popular apple varieties are Cortland, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Empire, Fuji, Gala, Ida Red, Macoun, McIntosh, Northern Spy, and Winesap.” And then there’s this ginormous list of apple varieties at allaboutapples.com with patents and trademarks noted.

Tomorrow evening, Wed 5/25, 8:00pm Eastern, my brother Deef and I are hosting an online event to share about Dad’s life and legacy, as well as offer a glimpse into caregiving for my Dad during the past 2.5 years. Please join our livestream at ustream.tv/channel/djchuang-live. You can watch the recorded video.

莊 志 寶
In loving memory of Bob Chih-Pao Chuang

Bob Chih-Pao Chuang, 84, passed peacefully on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011, in Rockville, Maryland, after two and a half years of declining health following a stroke. He is survived by his wife Wei, three sons, Difei, Dicheng, and Difan, and one grandson Jeremiah. He was born in Fujian, China, and graduated in economics from Chengchi University.

In 1949, he moved to Taiwan, where he was an accomplished math teacher, journalist, and entrepreneur. Since coming to the United States in 1972, he owned and operated small businesses in Bethesda, Maryland, and Winchester, Virginia.

He was exemplary in demonstrating love for his family through diligent work, an honorable champion of truth and goodness, and esteemed genuine friendships with loyalty and generosity. A private memorial service was held to honor his life and legacy.

On Sunday, May 22nd, 2011, a private Memorial Service was held at their home in Rockville, Maryland, attended by close friends of the family.

Note to Dan, would you consider changing that policy? I thought of these 7 reasons:

1. extra convenient for drivers on the go, to not have to add sugar & cream, fumble with packages and stirrer, slowing down their mobile lifestyle as is already obvious from using the drive-thru
2. less spilt coffee in the car
3. a more remarkable experience
4. cost savings from unused cream and sugar being added to drive-thru orders by default
5. more eco-friendly to use fewer plastic stirrers (and cost savings too)
6. Dunkin Donuts does it for me
7. one more opportunity for customer interaction / personalization / customization