• Jeanette Yep – Pastor of Global and Regional Outreach at Grace Chapel; has contributed significantly to Intervarsity’s multi-ethnicity as staff-worker; co-author of Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents and editor of More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith
• Donna Dong – National Director for Multiethnic/Multicultural Ministry for Inter-Varsity Canada; has served over 30 years with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in Canada and the U.S.A.
• Young Lee Hertig – teaches in the Global Studies and Sociology Department at Azusa Pacific University; Southern California Regional Director of the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity; on coordination team for Asian American Women on Leadership (AAWOL)
• Melanie Mar Chow – Specialized Campus Minister of Asian American Christian Fellowship
• Nancy Sugikawa – Associate Pastor of Serving Ministries at Lighthouse Christian Church; contributor to Growing Healthy Asian American Churches; board member of Catalyst Leadership Center
• Nikki Toyama-Szeto – Program Director of Urbana 2009 conference; speaker for 2010 Lausanne events; co-author of More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith [preview via Google Books]
• Kathy Khang – regional director of multi-ethnic ministries for InterVarsity; active blogger at morethanservingtea.wordpress.com; co-author of More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith
• Margaret Yu – national director of leadership development, Epic Movement (Campus Crusade for Christ’s Asian American Ministries); cf. video interview about How to develop Asian American women leaders
• Sandy Moy Liu – Youth and Children’s Ministry at Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston
• Grace May – Pastor of English Ministry at Oversea Chinese Mission (New York City)
• Sharon Koh – Associate Pastor at Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles
• Hyepin Im – Founder and President of Korean Churches for Community Development [bio]
• Laura Mariko Cheifetz – Director of Leading Generations Initiative at The Fund for Theological Education; past Director of the AADVENT Project at McCormick Theological Seminary
• Helen Lee – Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cal State Fullerton, and author of The Missional Mom for Moody; co-editor of Growing Healthy Asian American Churches; co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces Institute
• Sharon Kim – author of “A Faith of Our Own: Second Generation Spirituality in Korean American Churches” (Rutgers University Press)
• Asifa Dean, Christie Heller De Leon, Tracey Gee — co-authors of More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith
• Susan Cho Van Riesen – co-author of Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents
• Sandy Schaupp – staff development specialist with InterVarsity in the greater Los Angeles Division
• Kathy Tuan-MacLean – Area Director, Boston Graduate/Faculty Ministries of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; blogs at PlumbingDemons.blogspot.com
• And there are many more women leaders beyond the context of a local church or parachurch ministry, including: Jane Hyun (author of Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians) and Larissa Lam (singer, songwriter, TV host), Ella DeCastro Baron (author of Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment), to name a few.

This is an incomplete list, for starters — please add a comment with other women leaders who should be listed. While typing out the title for this blog post, I fumbled around with the word order, i.e. “women Asian American church leaders,” “Christian Asian American women leaders,” “Asian American women ministry leaders,” or “Asian American women church leaders” … I wanted to name this grouping of women leaders who were involved in vocational Christian ministry related to an Asian American context.

How can we better address the current situation of the American church leadership tier being disproportionately represented by one demographic, when the actual demographic make-up of church attendance (or locality) is far more diverse — ethnically, gender, socio-economic, etc ? How much of the Lausanne Global Conversation will percolate and change the American church?

Yes, it’s all quite complicated, with dynamics involving organizational viability, market forces & economics, regional and local distinctives, racialized history, philosophy of ministry, church growth theories, theological convictions, denominational heritage. To sweep it under the rug of the spiritual being transcendent and the inequalities of our social reality being insignificant seems quite a gnostic notion.

To remain silent about this in the public arena of the blogosphere doesn’t seem to help anything. This may well be one of those things where annual reports of measurable results may be a bit short-sighted for much-needed longer-term endeavors. The issue is not going away. When will the church engage?

I got to interview Colin Wong, the CEO of Zoecity today. Watch the video interview below [powered by wetoku; pardon the echo]:

My “aha” moment during the interview was this: as Zoecity.com bubbles-up the most popular content, it may or may not be the most important, but I think it does indicate what is most influential, or at the very least, what’s been read and/or shared by the most people. By the way, in the interview, Colin mentioned 2 articles, “Ouija board a controversial toy for tots” and “Tebow Super Bowl Ad Leads Viewers to ‘God Story’“.

You’ll notice in the right sidebar here at djchuang.com towards the bottom is a Zoecity widget, which shows the top 10 daily articles. And looking over at the Zoecity front page, there is a comment link under each item. Almost all of them have “0 Comments” right now. (Maybe that’ll change?)

How do you think knowing what’s the most popular today, this week, and this month, would be helpful to you?

My dear friend, Brent Wong, is a 5th-generation Asian American of Chinese descent. I sat down with him to hear his story, and he was so kind and vulnerable enough to share this snapshot of his story of discovering how his Asianness is so closely connected his Christian faith journey. Watch the video below:

(aside: you can also watch the extended version of the above video in HD and an intro that’s 79 seconds longer.)

What do you think?

Let me say 3 things before the comment thread takes this in too many directions. Not every single Asian Americans, even 2nd generation, or even 1st, will be concerned about their Asian heritage, or in later generations. 2ndly, the influences of Asian culture upon spiritual formation isn’t exclusively Asian, and there are non-Asian families where a child is not affirmed and communication is not strong. 3rdly, Asian Ameircanness doesn’t drop off to 0% by the 3rd generation, as some of people suggest, nor is a 2nd generation Asian American = 50% Asian + 50% American. Okay, time for me to pause.

And, Brent, THANK YOU for being my friend, and sharing your life with others, so that we may all experience a more abundant life in Christ.

But wait, there’s more!

A national gathering is ramping up in Austin, called VERGE: Missional Community Conference.

Listen to my interview with Michael Stewart (one of the Verge organizers at the Austin Stone Community Church) about this national Verge.

I’m putting together a social media team for the Verge in Austin, those who will host online conversations around becoming & being missional communities, both before and during the Verge conference. Start those conversations via blog, Twitter, Facebook, podcast, Youtube, etc. Verge wants to empower and release conversations both online and on-site. Undoubtedly, (our hope is) the convos will continue even after the Austin gathering. Want to be a part of this social media team? Add a comment, especially if you’d like to win a free registration. One spot left.

And one more thing. I’ll be there, at both Verge‘s — would love to meetup with you on-site there!

Now there is Christian Web Conference! It’s happening just a month away, September 11-12, at Biola University. (That’s the Los Angeles area, for those of you considering travelling in from afar.) Here’s how the conference is describe itself:

Christian Web Conference is dedicated to fostering fellowship and establishing real life communities among Christians employing web 2.0 technologies to christianly influence the world. The power and appeal of web media technologies is vast. These technologies provide Christians with a new set of Great Commission opportunities.

And how they’re looking to do that:

The Christian Web Conference fosters community and learning through a combination of, idea roundtables sessions, and meal-time fellowshipping with web media experts. Attendees should expect to meet and interact with some of the top intellectual Christian web users in order to form friendships, learn how to improve their web media knowledge and ability from experts, and participate in vision casting for Christian use of web technologies.

Some great people will be there. I can make it to a part of it. How about you?

Add a reply for a 25% discount off registration! First 10 comments on this blog post will get discount code & instructions via email. Currently registration is $60; with the discount, that’d be $45.

The organizers are using new media to spread the word. Here’s what they’re asking help with:

• Visit ChristianBookExpo.com for the scoop on this first-ever show
• Check out the social networking links (MySpace, etc) at the CBE website. Bloggers can join group/s and tell friends about CBE.
• Blog about the idea of a Christian Book Show for the public, the panel topics and panelists, etc. The first 200 people to publish a CBE blog post of 100+ words will receive complimentary admission to the show! Send the link to your post to be eligible.
• Interview Mark Kuyper in advance of the show for a blog post.
• NOTE: Press registration is for professional members of the press only. However, coupons for $5 off admission are available at Family Christian Stores in the DFW area.

Read a copy of the full press release >>

Looking at the conference registration pricing, this blog post has a retail value of $59. Now I have to figure out if I can go, then how to get there & where to stay & how to get around… looking at the 10 results at Google Blog Search, there’s still plenty of room for more bloggers to get complimentary admission.

The press release mentioned “Controversial Panel Topics” so I had to take a look. Here’s the list of panels, being sponsored by Christianity Today:

• Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make? A Debate. Featuring anti-theist Christopher Hitchens debating apologist authors: Doug Wilson, Lee Strobel, William Lane Craig, Jim Denison, Stan Guthrie (moderator)
• Living Christianly in a Post-Christian Culture, Featuring Donald Miller, Ruth Haley Barton, Randy Frazee, Mary E. DeMuth, Andy Crouch (moderator)
• A Guided Tour of Heaven and Hell, Featuring Don Piper, Sam Storms, Randy Alcorn, J I Packer, Mark Galli (moderator)
• What is the Gospel? Featuring Richard Stearns, Mark D. Roberts, Tullian Tchividjian, Justin Taylor, Darrell Bock (moderator)
• The Emerging Church, Featuring Kevin DeYoung, Tony Jones, Scot McKnight, Mark Galli (moderator)

Maybe my tolerance threshold for controversy is dulled, I only find 2 of the above 5 panels controversial. Good topics, nevertheless.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m so grateful that Charles Lee is coordinating an unconference called The Idea Camp on February 27-28, 2009 in Irvine, California. SAVE THE DATES! Here’s what The Idea Camp is about:

The Idea Camp is a free hybrid conference for idea-makers to share, network, and implement ideas. We are gathering some of the most innovative and creative leaders from around the country (this means YOU!) to share ideas, intentionally network, and move collaboratively into idea-making. Whether your passion is church leadership, non-profit work, social entrepreneurialism, technology, media, creativity, culture making, church planting, spiritual formation, compassionate justice, etc., this is the conference for YOU!

The Facebook Group for Idea Camp is facebook.com/group.php?gid=41051955597 and using a Ning.com powered social networking engine, conference information is dynamically and collaboratively updated. See the list of people who will be presenting and/or facilitating conversations at The Idea Camp; it already includes: Brad Abare, Greg Atkinson, Eric Bryant, Mike Foster, Dave Gibbons, Jeff Shinabarger, Cynthia Ware, Robert Yang of Kindlejoy.com, me, and more! More will be added between now and then, and you could be part of it too!

New to the idea of unconferences? It’s where no one pays to get in, no one gets paid, the playing field is level, and everyone has skin in the game. Read more about it cf. what is an unconference, understanding the unconference.

Call out others you’d love to see there. I’m calling out Dan Kimball, Erwin McManus, James Choung, Ed Stetzer, Dallas Willard, John Bishop, Donald Miller. Come on down!

Peter Scazzero is one of the few authors that compellingly connect spiritual maturity and emotional life. Since he’s got a couple of published books, that lends reliability and rings authoritative more than articles I’ve found randomly on the internet. [ cf. official website, EmotionallyHealthy.org, has resources for individuals, groups, and even church-wide; video introduction to emotionally healthy spirituality ]

Jay’s Library noted these 4 points from Peter Scazzero’s book, The Emotionally Healthy Church [read Jay's comments too]::

1. It Is Impossible To Be Spiritually Mature Without Being Emotionally Mature.
2. To Be Emotionally Mature You Must Be Willing To Look Beneath The Surface.
3. To Be Emotionally Mature You Must Go Backward To Go Forward.
4. To Be Emotionally Mature You Must Learn To Manage Pain.

Ginger comments about Scazzero’s Emotionally Healthy Spirituality book ::

… It’s the most down-to-earth, spiritually practical and inspiring book I’ve read in a very long time…

Peter Scazzero, the author, makes the point that you may be spiritually committed, yet so emotionally unhealthy that it renders you spiritually unhealthy. He states that unless we deal with our emotional immaturity we can’t be effective or whole as Christians, and in fact it can cost us everything.

… I wanted to buy a copy for each of about fifteen people in my life. That, my friends, is the mark of a life-changing book.

Kevin Martineau listed the “Top Ten Symptoms of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality” from Scazzero’s book::

1. Using God to Run from God: At times we use Christian activities as an unconscious attempt to escape from pain.
2. Ignoring the Emotions of Anger, Sadness, and Fear
3. Dying to the Wrong Things: Some people believe that the miserable you are the more that God loves you.
4. Denying the Past’s Impact on the Present
5. Dividing Our Lives into “Secular” and “sacred” Compartments
6. Doing for God instead of being for God
7. Spiritualizing away conflict
8. Covering over brokenness, weakness, and failure
9. Living without limits
10. Judging others people’s spiritual journey

Read the original list with descriptions for each of the Top Ten Symptoms of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality [pdf] via the official website.

And, there’s one more thing.

I just found this series of 16 talks titled Emotionally Healthy Spirituality from Newheart Foursquare Church (Simi Valley, CA) by Paul Kuzma. Though I haven’t listened to them all, yet, I have faith that these would be wonderfully holistic and healthy for the heart and soul.

I have to admit, I probably can’t tell the difference between a confident person and an over-confident person, and there are people who are more self-assured and confident.

I think what I’d like to see is that people admit their mistakes, acknowledge their shortcomings and flaws, at least once in a while. Of course I wouldn’t want everyone walking around like Droopy, Mopey, or Eeyore.

It’s particularly disillusioning when someone well-versed in the Bible, preaches and/or teaches it so persuasively, and yet doesn’t live it out.

I was talking with a person who has worked with 100s and 1000s of Christian leaders. We realized that we have our flaws. Other people have flaws. Christian leaders have flaws. But wouldn’t you think that a Christian leader would be more honest about their flaws? Wouldn’t you think that person would avoid plagiarism? Wouldn’t you think that person would be above reproach? I wondered how that person avoided disillusionment and not lose faith, when some lose faith over seeing too many leaders’ lacking integrity (cf. William Lobdell).

My friend answered, “God seems to use flawed people.”

I took that counsel to heart. I think I can live with that, and I think my faith can endure, by the grace of God. Not much shocks me any more.

And Dave has a new book, Monkey and the Fish, to be released in January/February 2009. Pre-order it from amazon.com.

About the book, from the back cover:

Our world is marked by unprecedented degrees of multiculturalism, ethnic diversity, social shifts, international collaboration, and technology-driven changes. The changes are profound, especially when you consider the unchecked decline in the influence, size, and social standing of the church. There is an undercurrent of anxiety in the evangelical world, and a hunger for something new. And we’re sensing the urgency of it.

We need fresh, creative counterintuitive ways of doing ministry and church and leading it in the 21st century. We need to adapt. Fast. Both in our practices and our thinking.

The aim of this book is simple: When we understand the powerful forces at work in the world today, we’ll learn how something called The Third Culture can yield perhaps the most critical missing ingredient in the church today–adaptability–and help the church remain on the best side of history.

A Third Culture Church and a Third Culture Leader looks at our new global village and the church’s role in that village in a revolutionary way. It’s a way to reconnect with the historical roots of what Jesus envisioned the church could be — a people known for a brand of love, unity, goodness, and extravagant spirit that defies all conventions.

This book is part of the successful Leadership Innovation Series.

One thing I’ve done this season is to wear orange at conferences, lotta orange- on my phone cover, shoes, headphones, mouse, water bottle, t-shirt, Bible… Great color to spot in a crowd, like I’m a human traffic cone. Aside: my orange Crocs stand out, attracting eyes that glance down, but most people refrain from commenting. I’ll smirk back at ‘em. [photo courtesy dankimball]

When I meet new people, I’m starting to hear: “aren’t you the conference guy?” I think to myself, no, I’m not. I’m attending more of them than I used to, but I’ve never been to notable conferences like Willow Creek‘s Leadership Summit, Catalyst, Exponential - the mother of all church planting conferences, Buzz, Granger‘s Innovate, Desiring God, C3, Soularize, Resurgence, Off the Map, National Outreach Convention [w/ free webinars leading up to Nov 08]. Ohhhhh, and, there’s one called the Orange conference! All of these are church/ faith related. Too much worky-ness.

By the way, save the dates January 27-28, 2009, for a BIG conference Innovation³ in Dallas, hosted by Leadership Network.

For my own fun, I’d go to conference for my vacations– on my short list: TED, SXSW, Gnomedex, International CES, podcamp/ unconference, MacWorld Expo. Family probably wouldn’t enjoy ‘em like I would.

I think conferences are great for motivational inspiration and a shared experience with a leadership team, not so much for content or information. Great for connections too. I wonder when Christian conferences will live-stream their sessions, give it away for free, instead of keeping it as an exclusive for attenders. Some conferences do give their content away for free post-event (eg resurgence, Desiring God). Conferences can be more about connections and conversations than content and control.

I’d like to see more rethinking and more innovation on the conference economic engine / business model. Pagitt, how about reimagining conferences?

Cf. I wonder if conferences [as we know it] have a future as travel costs escalate? Jeff Shinabarger on what makes a good event; Seth Godin on the new standard for meetings and conferences

So we get to talking about a particular Christian group. Person #1 described that group of Christians that believed one could attain “entire sanctification” or “sinless perfection”. Yes, Christians of that stripe believed they could go sinless for 50 years!

In my utter amazement, I commented to Person #2, “Wouldn’t you like to know the secret?” Person #2 quickly snapped back, “No, I don’t!”

The three of us roared in empathetic laughter. (And I’m kicking myself for making such a naive comment.)

We’re honest enough to know there’s that part of us that enjoys the short pleasures of sin, and Romans 7 describes how at times the best of us succumb to temptation.

I don’t think even during my most spiritual high times that I can be sinless for a week, or honestly, even a day. Call me an optimistic realist.

The question here is: how long can you actually go without sinning? Not very long, by my own personal standard, much less God’s standard.

DJ: Thank you for playing a vital role in being a part of a team that put this book together. What did you enjoy most about the book project?

Helen: The project began while I was living in rural Iowa, where my husband was teaching at a small Christian college in the northwestern part of the state. As you can imagine, I was dying for fellowship with other Asian American Christians, so when I was invited to participate, I was overjoyed. We met at the same location, the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach, for each of the three years we convened. Our times together as a small group of about 15 people were characterized by great discussions, times of sober reflection and hearty laughter, and of course, wonderful dining experiences! I loved being able to soak in what was happening in Asian American ministry with people who were so gifted and committed to their respective congregations. It was a joy to listen and learn from them all. I was extremely honored to be a part of it as the only non-pastor or professor.

DJ: I’d imagine many Asian American Christian leaders would have enjoyed being a fly on the wall at one of those Catalyst forums mentioned in the book. What memory stands out for you as a forum participant?

Helen: In the evenings, after the “working” part of our times together, we spent a good portion of the evening hearing from one another on a personal level. We had the chance to just listen to everyone’s stories, struggles, praises, and prayer requests. It was just a special time of sharing and the trust we all had to reveal what was going on beneath the surface was truly refreshing and restorative. And did I already mention the great food we consumed? Let’s just say that we all have a new understanding of what the word “churrascaria” means.

DJ: What topic(s) had to be left out of the book due to space and length?

Helen: Actually, I did a whole chapter on “Preparing for Asian American Church Leadership” that had to be cut. It’s available at the Intervarsity Press website for free download: www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3325

Please feel free to pass it on to others! The more the better!

In my chapters, I felt we could have expanded so many topics; it was so difficult to only be able to cover so much. The whole question of vision, for example, was something I barely was able to touch on. Conflict resolution is another area where I wish I could have provided more practical tools. And so on. But you have to draw the line somewhere!

DJ: Do you see regional differences in how Asian American churches develop?

Helen: Obviously, the West Coast has certain demographic advantages that are difficult to emulate elsewhere, particularly California. And two of the churches that we profile in the book, Evergreen Baptist Church-LA and Lighthouse Christian Church, both benefitted from connections to longstanding Asian immigrant congregations. That is not something you typically find in the Midwest or East coast, Asian congregations with nearly 100 years of history behind them. But interestingly, all the churches deal with the challenges of being commuter churches rather than primarily local churches, even those California churches that have Asian Americans in large numbers who live in their midst.

There are also regional differences when it comes to things such as preaching style; for example, on the West coast, Newsong Church senior pastor David Gibbons believes there is more of a need for pastors to be vulnerable in the way they communicate with their congregation, to share their heart. On the East coast, (particularly in a place like Cambridge, which is where one of the churches profiled in the book is located), Soong-Chan Rah says that engaging the head is equally important. All goes to show how important it is to understand your particular area’s tendencies and preferences when it comes to designing church services, sermons, and such.

DJ: It has been almost 10 years since you wrote the Christianity Today article titled “Silent Exodus,” which has served as a clarion call for a number of church and ministry leaders to try new things to reach the next generation of Asian Americans. What progress have you seen in the last decade?

Helen: Scary, isn’t it, that it’s nearly been that long! On the positive side, there are certainly more choices today than ten years ago. More Asian American and multiethnic churches in the works all over the country, or more activity from first generation churches that are trying to support sister second/third generation congregations. That’s all good news. But the supply does not meet the need at this point, so I don’t think we’re at the point of saying that the “Silent Exodus” will not continue to be a phenomenon. Without more of these types of ministries being launched–and being run in a healthy manner–subsequent generations may just repeat the mistakes of the past. That is one of the reasons we wanted to write this book. To provide some guidelines of ways to approach ministry so that we do not repeat past mistakes for the sake of the future generations.

DJ: What would you like to see happen in the next decade, perhaps in response to this book?

Helen: More leaders, more healthy leaders, more healthy Asian American and multiethnic churches!

DJ: What would it take to get you to blog?

Helen: Funny you mention this! I just started! My blog is at momhelen.blogspot.com. I have no idea how to do a lot of the technical stuff but you gotta start somewhere, right??

DJ: Welcome to the blogosphere! Thank you for staying up late to entertain a few questions with me and being a part of this interview!