Scroll down to see all the responses that came in and add your response –

Santa Ono: “A cultural perspective that often places community before self. A tendency to listen well.”

Delwin Archer: “An inspiring discipline, passion and work ethic! A focus on excellence. A love for the arts—especially music.

Grace Yung Watson: “Generosity, hospitality and tenacity to name a few.”

Joe Nho: “A respect for cultural heritage in the assimilation of Christian life.”

Alison Klein Esselink: “… would it be too worldly to mention ‘delicious food’?”

Peter Cha: “Crossing racial/cultural borders through serving ‘others’ and collaboratively working with ‘others’….”

Kathy Khang: “The ability to live in the tension of sometimes competing / opposing cultural value systems.”

Paul Tokunaga: “… the potential to be peacemakers and peacebrokers between blacks and whites

Kathy Khang: “There are so many cultural values (saving face, filial piety, etc.) that when redeemed by God’s love and grace can become powerful in mission. … Asian American women have the gift of having come out of cultures that historically considered them as property but living out the opportunities of equality under and through Christ.

DJ Chuang: “AAs have tons of untapped potential! … I’d add: long-term loyalty, third culture adaptability, global mobility, consensus builder…

Tom Lin: “3 big gifts: (1) multi-lingual and bi-cultural upbringing, (2) ‘non-threatening’ asian face , and (3) highest U.S. demographic group in educational resources and financial income!”

A bigger question would be – what would it take to tap into all that potential? Let’s get a move on!

[aside: I did get permission to post the thread but not yet from each respondent. Will note accordingly as/when I do. ]

Something is broken in the way that the Church communicates. There is a serious disconnect between how the culture communicates and how the Church does. This is in stark contrast to the church of a hundred and fifty years ago which was the catalyst of cutting edge communication technology and strategies. Starting with the Hebrew culture of story telling and the passing down of scriptures, history, genealogy and arts through simple spoken word.

My remarks here will be a book impression. Not a book review. Not a critique. Not a summary. Not an overview. More of a book reaction. I was very eager to read the book and finished it in a day.

I liked the book’s idea, not just because I’m an ideas guy. I like the author. I just had a nagging feeling that something was missing.

Maybe I’ve hung out with Vince too many times during this year; one too many. *grin* The book didn’t have the shock value for me that it will have for average joe church leader. And if you’ve been a follower of @m_vince or subscriber to nikao.ws like me, you would have heard these ideas before too: on a webinar and/or in a presentation slide deck.

Maybe I read it too fast. The book is written in a stream-of-consciousness conversational-style and the reader is warned right in the introduction. This did make the book easy to read. Did I mention I read it in a day, actually, under a day?

Maybe the typos bothered me. Did Vince talk into his MacBook and run a voice-recognition software like Dragon Naturally Speaking, and out came this eBook? Again, I love what he said but what was written (typed) made for a bumpy ride.

One thing missing from the book was pictures, or diagrams, or charts. That didn’t reflect new media very well. In other words, words alone don’t do the book justice. Or was this a restriction of the eBook format? I needed a picture, a framework to unpack the big ideas. And I’m an ideas guy.

Vince uses key words in a new way and with fresh nuances: designing communication. context. voice. culture. distribution. content creators. What does it all mean? It wasn’t mapped out. (And that’s okay by me.) Vince does like to skateboard, and there are no paths in a skate park, so he takes us on quite a ride. Doesn’t give us answers. He does get our adrenaline going and I know for me I want more. Here’s the 1 diagram that can help you get the lay of the land, the skate park, of the eBook:

Maybe it was the form factor. The eBook read like a series of blog posts, but more than blog posts. On almost every page, I was itching to click something to add a comment, but I couldn’t! I was reading the eBook in ePub format on iBook. The book’s begging for a conversation, but without a way for me to immediately respond on the spot, it felt like a monologue. Ugh. I know this is not the author’s intent. He does want to cultivate conversation, a lot of it at that. And it’s hard to find conversation partners on this topic. He’s asked me, in person, and indeed they are hard to find. The business of church is too consuming, of both our time and money. Maybe that’s an underlying issue, too, for why we don’t have more front door content that can connect in the context of our new media culture today. Maybe the whole economic engine and business model of sustaining the church as we know it is broken.

The hope I have in this eBook is that it is The Conversation Starter. Where the eBook form factor does work is this: you, the reader, can take it in 1 piece with you. Reflect and digest. Then come back and engage and join the conversation. I’ve seen Vince do online “coffee talk” sessions at his Gateway Church Internet Campus, so he’s definitely accessible and conversational. The eBook speed-to-publish reiterates the urgency and need for “front door content” to be created and distributed via new media. Traditional publishing takes 12-18 months, that’s too slow for ideas about new media that’s running on network technology that goes obsolete in 6 months.

In the end, I felt the book left me hanging. I finished chapter 10 and tried to turn the page and it wouldn’t go anywhere. That’s it?! No conclusion? Screeched to a halt. To be continued? No web link to continue the conversation? Abrupt ending. Did I get an incomplete download? Help?! The suspense is killing me! Great job, Vince, you’ve left me wanting more!

What is cultural competency anyways? This is from the National Center for Cultural Competence: a Definition and Conceptual Framework = the capacity to (1) value diversity, (2) conduct self-assessment, (3) manage the dynamics of difference, (4) acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge and (5) adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of the communities they serve.

Many Asian Americans have lived and worked in at least 2 vastly different social-cultural contexts. This life experience can be incredibly valuable for the increasingly multiethnic world in which we live. It seems to me that quite an effort is needed to reframe this as an asset rather than liability. Incredible potential; not yet fully developed IMHO.

I asked an Asian American leader about how his heritage was an asset to his leadership. He’s a leader with an organization that’s connected with college campuses, where the demographics tend to be Caucasian and Asian, with varying proportions from campus to campus. He responded that he couldn’t think of any way that his Asian American heritage affected his leadership.

This would be understandable if he was adopted by a non-Asian family. But this response was a little puzzling when he also mentioned attending an Asian American church. Wondering out loud: do Asian American compartmentalize  more than other racial groupings? How do we all lose out when Asian Americans are unaware and/or unconscious of our multi-cultural competency? Another way to say this: what would it look like if being Asian Americans was more than a generic American?

Many if not most leadership wisdom agree that diversity is a good & valuable thing. And yet, the American church on the whole stay in the pragmatic shadow of the so-called homogeneous unit “principle”, which is more of a sociologically observed description rather than a bona-fide principle. In so doing, settling for an incomplete aspiration than that of the powerful Gospel that breaks down the dividing walls between races & ethnicities as well as the spiritual separation between people and God. Both are important.

Few churches intentionally address the issues of faith & race. In a racialized society, it does matter. A notable portion of living out theology is culturally-colored and not culturally-neutral. Of course, I am not suggesting race & ethnicity should be a part of every sermon and curriculum. But then again, those football illustrations come from a particular cultural context, eh?

One church in Seattle takes time to deal with it — here’s 2 presentations from Quest Church‘s annual day conference on Faith & Race ::

Soong-Chan Rah – The Changing Face of American Society and the Church

Brian Bantum – The Church Cannot be About Multiculturalism

[photo credit: seeminglee]

When I was growing up, lots of things were “Made in Taiwan.” Now, almost everything we use in America is “Made in China” — electronics, clothes, dinnerware, appliances, furniture, what have you. Case in point = Lenovo buying out IBM’s PC division. One conversation overheard around the Thanksgiving table was the speed of building modules and how much more modern the cities in China are compared to that of the United States. Simultaneously, the pace of innovative products from Japan is declining while more innovation is increasing from Korea, i.e. Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Kia, et al.

With the economy and cash flow of manufacturing flowing so quickly into China, and with the knowledge industry fast emerging in India, the epicenter of world commerce and the global shift of power is already under way, and the decline of the American empire is around the corner. With 1/3 of the world’s population already in China and India, all that people power over the long-haul will outdo any industrial machinery power, especially in the knowledge economy of the digital information age.

I’ll jump to my conclusion and then list a few supporting references. While there’s been good activist advocacy since the 60s and historical studies (albeit some may argue that it’s not yet sufficient), Asian Americans have much more to say now, as Asian Americans, for the present & future of America and the world, by working out and articulating the interplay of their identity and cultures and societies. We need these conversations in the open and not just confined in the silo of academia (as in Asian American studies). Asian Americans have the innate raw materials from their social-ethnic context that can navigate the bicultural dynamics (what Dave Gibbons calls “third culture“). Asian Americans have the potential to bridge and keep America connected with the evolution of a global village. Better than being left behind and disconnected into demise. This certainly includes Asian Americans who aspire into leadership roles and lead in a way that differs from the American constructs of leadership, yielding to more risk and uncertainty and unpredictability.

Let me refer you to the thoughts of a friend, a seminary professor who’s a 4th-generation Chinese American. Dr. Jeff Jue‘s talk, The Asian American Church: History, Racialization and Globalization, at the 2010 Korean Pastors Conference (Mission to North America) reiterates this compelling need and the contribution of Asian Americans in the church and, thus, American society:

Books like Claiming Diaspora: Music, Transnationalism, and Cultural Politics in Asian/Chinese America (Zheng), Chinese American Transnational Politics (Lai and Hsu) point to how globalized and transnational the world in general and American society in particular have become… the lives and identities of Asians and Asian Americans also reflect these cross-national formations.

And, Simon Tay rightly noted in Forbe’s America’s Call To Globalization: The U.S. must respond proactively to Asia’s rise — “… while the Asian presence in the United States has grown beyond the confines of Chinatown, it is still not part of Main Street culture. Asia is still a specialty store. Global-as-Asian is just beginning and needs more engines to drive it forward.”

In the Christian subculture, some say that our identity is only spiritual, only grounded “in Christ,” which I agree is true and ultimate. Yet, when this theological conviction is held to the exclusion to the reality of who we are on earth and our innate social and genetic context, it sounds an awful like Gnosticism, the first heresy of church history, a belief that our body doesn’t matter and only the spiritual matters.

So this is an introductory foreword to kick off a blog series about why we need Asian Americans to be Asian Americans. First, a few disclaimers to minimize the knee-jerk reactions.

To say that we need this is not to say that every Asian American must be Asian American’ish. There is a whole spectrum of people in the Asian American mix. A growing percentage are bi-racial, with Asian and non-Asian ancestry. There are some that are politically very pro-Asian. There are some that are very assimilated into “mainstream America” and don’t have any interaction with an Asian American context. And that’s okay.

Being Asian American as an Asian American isn’t everything. To say that we need this is not to say that an Asian American is only Asian American. We are more than our ancestry, and in a multicultural society and global world, we do well to learn & grow in cross-cultural appreciation for the others.

Being Asian American doesn’t mean being only with Asian Americans. There’s a social dynamic connoted by phrases like “birds of a feather flock together.” Cliques stunt our personal development and limit our ultimate contribution to society and the world. Yet, to have no connection with Asian Americans, something is definitely lost there too.

Being Asian American doesn’t mean nothing. There seems to be a social pressure or default consciousness that to be American is to fit in with the majority. That’s where the institutional structures and power dynamics is to be found. To be a part of the system, you have to work within the system. To change the system would (most likely) take revolution. We’ve already had several of those in American history.

Being Asian American doesn’t mean representing all Asian Americans. To be Asian American doesn’t mean one has to be well-versed and represent all kinds of Asian Americans. It’d be a good first step to have some semblance of understanding of one’s roots. For me, that’s being Chinese American.

All to say that our American society need more Asian Americans to be Asian American. It is to say that at this state of the union, we have too few. We certainly don’t have too many. We’d do well to have a few more to stand up and represent. We’d do well to think through and have more robust conversations about what it means to be Asian Americans. We’d do well to allow the richness of our Asian American’ness to overflow and not hide it under a bushel.

In the next blog posts of this series, I’ll delve into a dozen or so reasons as to why we need more Asian Americans to speak up, with less anger, with more grace, with confidence, without apology. [Reasons #1, #2, #3, & the rest]

• Do you think there is still a vital place for a multi-generational/cultural Chinese American church? Or do you see more inclusive Asian American churches and multi-ethnic churches as the next logical phase? Do you see Chinese American churches as “just” an intermediate step between an American church and a multi-ethnic model or perhaps an end in itself?
• How would you describe the “ideal”, inter-generational immigrant Chinese church today? What does it look like to you? Multiple services in different languages? (e.g. Mandarin, Cantonese and English) Or same services with simultaneous translation in headsets? Side-by-side translation?
• What are some creative ideas to unite the different Chinese generations and cultures besides joint services?
• What in your knowledge are great examples and models of inclusive, multi-generation Chinese American churches?

Links mentioned in my video response:

• Growing Healthy Asian American Churches book, which has been reviewed & commented on here at djchuang.com, is also now on Google Books preview
• my presentation Revitalizing Asian American churches from September 2007
• list of the largest Chinese churches in the United States and Canada
• djchuang.com posts tagged “Asian American” and posts (and pages) that mention “Asian American church“

In summary, it’ll take all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people, so there is a place for the ethnic Chinese church. The way a church does its worship services and programs will change over time, and an openness to allow creativity to flourish as a natural outflow of spirituality will discover the “right” answers for each church context. That means putting resources behind research & development, i.e. prayer, people, and money. What would you add?

The book, Deep Church, offers a refreshing perspective in contrast to the bickering during the past decade about the “emerging church” — debating what changes did the church have to make in a fast-changing culture in order to be effective with its Gospel ministry. The author, Jim Belcher, does not write as an academician who is analyzing words from printed publications, although he certainly is qualified with academic credentials. Nor does he position himself in an adversarial posture against any church leader. He writes as a peer of the younger leaders typically actively involved in the emerging church conversations.

What I love is how the book is written in a narrative style that retraces Belcher’s own theological development and how to incarnate that into the form of a church. The book plays this out with conversations and stories of changed lives, showing the implications of theology in real life. Much better reading than propositional rhetorics of a typical theology book.

What he masterfully does is to listen carefully to what is written and what is said, and delves behind those assertions to surface the assumptions and presuppositions. In so doing this deconstructioning, it helped me to better understand and not give in to knee-jerk reactions and mischaracterizations. In other words, it”s not what is said (or written) that matters, it’s what is meant by what is said (or written).

This was the first book I’ve read that labels the contemporary mainstream evangelical church as the “traditional church.” That day has come far sooner than I ever anticipated. Traditional church used to refer to the parish church with pews, hymns, and Sunday school. Could this book mark the turning point of what we call the American evangelical church of the late 20th century?

Belcher addresses 7 areas of contention: truth, evangelism, Gospel, worship, preaching, ecclesiology, and culture. He finds value in what the traditional church asserts, and also in what the emerging church asserts. Plus, he draws upon value from the great traditions of the church as well as the church’s role in culture. The author takes all that’s valuable and weaves it together into what C.S. Lewis calls the deep church. “Deep” is not to connote superiority. “Deep church” is a richer and more wholistic picture of what the church can be, both organizational and missional, both traditional and innovative, both relevant and yet set apart.

I won’t be writing a book summary here. You really ought to read the book to get the full thought process of finding this third way of a deep church. For more about the book, see www.thedeepchurch.com

As Tim Keller is quoted on the cover, “This is an important book.” Jim, thanks for being a great mediator and writing this book.

I consider Rah’s effort to be a great companion to a couple of other books I’ve recently read, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church (by Shane Hipps, cf. the newer title Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith has very similar content, I’ve heard) and The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (by Skye Jethani).

The above 3 books make a valiant effort at cultural deconstruction and show just how greatly our mainstream American culture has been influenced by theology, technology, and consumerism. And not only that, the typical American evangelical church has been embedded with values that do not represent the Gospel well. To quote Tim Keller, “Every culture is dominated by idols that is not dominated by the glory of Christ.“

Sadly, in too many contexts, it is not safe to ask questions of our church culture and its embedded values. And even if those questions were to be asked, and discussed, to actually create change and transform an institution like the church is seemingly impossible.

So these (almost) prophetic truths are great to surface, expose, and discuss. Yet, could it be that we in the American church has been too enamoured with pragmatic results in church growth and evangelistic zeal? Could it be that by upholding values of excellence, efficiency, and effectiveness, we have lost sight of the more obviously Bibical values of justice, dignity, and diversity — God’s love of the whole world?

Rah’s The Next Evangelicalism has much more to say, and as others join the online conversation of the blogosphere, I’ll add more of my reactions to the book. [update 5/8 great discussion about Rah's book over at julieclawson.com, including comments from the author; cf. Greg Boyd's review "Only WHITE American Christianity Is Dying"; book review at Theological Grafitti; Soong-Chan Rah's blog is http://scrah.xanga.com]

I’ll end this post with one lingering question: the power dynamics of “white cultural captivity” is way more difficult to tackle than a prophetic suggestion to lay down power. There’s no easy way to just lay down power– could you imagine a senior pastor or seminary president resigning and naming his successor as someone who is non-white? In most if not all organizations, the pastor or president wouldn’t have the power to do that anyways. And, wouldn’t the organization go into a tailspin without a duly diligent process to make that transition of power?

(my tentative thought at this moment is that it’d take a non-white leader who has the gifts and capacity to lead both white and non-white people to effect long-term institutional change)

I’ve heard there are organizations and churches that have developed their whole corporate culture around the StrengthsFinder themes. It’s called a Strengths-Based Culture, and staff are placed in positions where they can best use their strengths to succeed. Or, as the Gallup website says it, “Our goal as an employer is to align our associates with a role that maximizes their potential and allows them to do what they do best every day.”

The 2 churches I’ve heard that have a Strengths-Based Culture are Mosaic (Los Angeles) and ROCKharbor (Costa Mesa). Vineyard Church of Waterville has kind of a strengths-based approach [ht: Marc Pitman.]

[update] Pine Ridge Church pastored by Tadd Grandstaff is strengths-based via Tally Wilgis.

Do you know of any other strengths-based churches?

(Stephen Shields would like to know too. He works for Gallup.)

Aside: New Book Destroys the Myth of the Well-Rounded Leader announced Strengths Based Leadership, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, releasing this week. What they found:

• What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths — and can call on the right strength at the right time.
• The most effective leaders are always investing in strengths.
• The most effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team.
• The most effective leaders understand their followers’ needs.

What is really cool, especially in an open-source world, is that Q has now made available videos of past talks for free viewing online! (cf. TED has over 300 talks online for free listening/viewing, courtesy of sponsors; TED costs $6,000 per person and already sold out for 2009; seats open at $3,750 for simulcast via satellite)

Q TALKS are 18-minute presentations given annually at the Q gathering by thought leaders and practitioners on the topics of the future, the church, the culture, and the gospel. One Q Talk is released every two weeks.

Of the talks online to date, mine and the crowd’s unanimous favorite was Andy Crouch‘s talk about Stepping into Culture. Andy further elaborates his profoundly insightful thoughts about culture and Gospel in his book, Culture Making: Rediscovering our Creative Calling. I believe this book is imperative for understanding how to live the Gospel.

Another one of my favorite Q talks is Kevin Kelly’s Christianity in 1000 years — this talk stretches our thinking beyond short-term results. This makes sense to me, for some odd reason. What if my calling and work will have no results in my generation, but would impact and bear fruit in a future generation? That’s appealing to me.

What would you like to ask Ed Cyzewski? Add a comment below, and since the blog tour is here today, he’ll respond!

Here’s my exclusive interview with Ed Cyzewski –

djchuang >> Having studied theology and thought about it a lot, I’m so glad that you’ve noted other ingredients that shape our theology besides the Bible, namely, tradition, God, and the global church. Some people say they have “no creed but the Bible.” What would you say to them, since I don’t think they’d read your book?

Ed: I’d tell them that my book is even better than the Bible… Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’d ask them where they got the idea that the Bible is their only creed. Did they think of that themselves, completely on their own, or are they part of a tradition supporting that view? This supposedly “high” view of scripture comes from tradition. So we can either act like our traditions don’t affect us, blinding ourselves to their influence, or we can recognize that doctrines and beliefs have been passed down to us and shape who we are, moving on with that awareness. The reality is, we’ll have a clearer understanding of scripture when we recognize the factors influencing how we look at it, taking them into account and perhaps opening ourselves to fresh perspectives–that may end up being even more biblical–outside our own traditions that have heretofore been guiding us.

djchuang >> I’m most interested chapter 10 in the book’s about the global church. I find that much of systematic and historical theology has been done in the Western world. What perspectives could church leaders outside of America give to the American church, as church attendance is plateaued and proportionally declining?

Ed: I wouldn’t profess to be an expert in global theology, but I’d say theologians outside America have a lot to teach us about balancing theology with social action and the place of the Holy Spirit in the church. I think theologically Conservative American Christians have a hard time integrating these two aspects because they fear losing their biblical foundation. After all, they may say, liberals supposedly abandoned the Gospel for social justice, and the charismatics are chipping away at the authority of scripture since they believe God’s Spirit is speaking and working today just like the times of the NT. I know I have a lot to learn from Christians outside of the west in these two areas. And if we can address these two areas, we may find out ways to effectively connect with our communities and to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit.

djchuang >> As an Asian American with bi-cultural background, I think it’s obvious that the multiethnic / multicultural context of the United States could be more of a context for a more racially and ethnically diverse theological discussion. Sadly, 11:00am Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in America. What would it take to change that?

Ed: I’m a big fan of simple church. I understand that may not work for everyone, but in my own case, I needed to start over with church on a blank slate. I think Organic Church by Neil Cole is one of the most helpful books on ecclesiology out there, but then I’m betraying my simple church/low church bias. Anyway, if we take Cole’s more mission-minded approach that makes it possible for Christians to leave their churches and do their theology out where they minister, we’re taking the first step of getting Christians out of their homogenous circles. And while it’s not a sure thing, I’m hoping that once we’re going out to minister, we’ll start doing more theology in the mission field and we’ll also become a more diverse church. I saw this on some small scales when I lived in the Philadelphia area. Now I’m living in Vermont, which is just about as white as it gets, so my exposure of late to matters of diversity is nil!

However, the internet is probably our best hope for greater diversity accross racial lines when talking about theology. Accessibility is essential, and having blogs and other web sites from theologians different from myself is a tremendous blessing.

djchuang >> Based on the feedback you’ve received from this book, what do you think would be an ideal follow-up book?

Ed: There are two study guides that are meant to be follow up books. So far I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from people who find my take on contextual theology helpful. In light of that, I think it’s a pretty natural step to pick up the Bible Study Guide since it walks readers through the exact method I talk about in Coffeehouse Theology. The other is the Contemporary Issues Study Guide which looks at some of today’s pressing issues with an approach rooted in contextual theology.

Having said that, I think the next step for me after helping Christians with contextual theology, is helping my own tribe, American Evangelicals, sort through who we are, what our message should be, and how we can be the hope for our world. If we know something about our theology in this context, we now need to talk about how we offer the hope of the Gospel to those around us. With so much talk about hope in this election, I just don’t see enough of it coming from the church. So my next book will dig into what it means to be Evangelical today and how we can stop shooting ourselves in the foot by dividing, judging, etc. I ended Coffeehouse Theology with a challenge to unite around the Gospel message that God the Father loves us, God the Son saves us, and God the Spirit empowers us. I want to help Evangelicals unite around that message and help us live in its truth and power. If all goes well, I should be able to say more about it soon!

Thank you, Ed, for the great interview! How do you think your experiences, context, and community has shaped your theology?

You can read the book’s introduction online. The blog tour continues on Wednesday the 15th at Scott Berkheimer’s theopraxis.net.

The blog book tour starts today, runs through most of October and spills over to November! Ed will stop by here at djchuang.com on October 13th. 1st stop at kingdom grace. I’ll dig into the book more by then, and raise more of the unexplored culture aspects of theology, particularly about the mostly missing multicultural perspectives and explore a bit on the bi-cultural perspectives of Asian Americans. (cf. complete list of bloggers where the tour will visit)

The introduction to Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life is online courtesy of Theooze:

CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY: UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES, UNDERSTANDING GOD

… Rather our culture—who we are and our values—becomes both our greatest strength and largest obstacle in theology. Culture can be a strength because it serves as a tool when we use our understanding of culture to study God. Think back to the Beatitude’s example: Christians in the U.S. tend to spiritualize the message of Jesus because we understand the pride so prevalent in today’s culture. Yet, every culture has weaknesses, too. God is so much more than what we can see by ourselves. So while addressing the pride of our culture in the Beatitudes, we can easily miss out on God’s concern for the poor and the blessings he sets aside for them.

I would type more, but iPhone virtual keyboard discourages lengthy prose. But, I’m standing here at Chicago O’Hare airport, stranded with 100s of others bc of flooding. Shuttles aren’t running. So I’m not going anywhere. And I’m not on wifi bc that’s behind a virtual toll booth, i.e. you gotta pay beaucoup $.

update 1049a- 1 staffer said airport transit is running, and can take us off the island! Chicago here I come ! … when all said and done, got in a rental car at 1157am. had landed at 845am. A massage and jacuzzi sure would be sweet .

Will have dinner with blogger friend Dan Brennan for the 1st time. You could say we met online. There are few Christ followers who advocate the richness and depth of cross gender friendships- wish there was a better term for man and woman being non-romantic real friends.

[aside 3:40pm] Now in hotel room. Looked for news about the airport flooding, which wasn’t very news-worthy, just a couple of paragraph mentions in local news, couldn’t find any media photos. Above pix are the yellow warning signs around the buckets collecting water from leaky roofs inside the terminal; below pix is a plane stuck at gate [ht: vatovn].

Cefiore launches this “Fro Yo Yourself!” online video contest on July 28th that’s ending on September 15th. The pitch: “Create a 30 to 60 second video showing America how much you love Cefiore for the chance to win $2,500 and free frozen yogurt for one year!” [via]

There’s a promo banner at the top of the fro yo franchise home page, there’s a Facebook fan page, there’s a YouTube promo video, detailed contest rules with legalese.

It’s August 29th. Just 2 weeks left. How do things look?

At the time of this post, 173 Facebook fans. 686 views of the promo video, with 0 comments, 1 favorited, 3 ratings. The promo video itself is over 60 seconds, with a running time of 1:22. Only 1 member (me) in the YouTube group for the contest other than the creator, which was incorrectly linked in the Content Rules to the CefioreFroYo channel. And, the content entry form doesn’t have a blank for where to enter the submitted YouTube video URL/ web address. Is the contest called “Sweeten Your Summer with Cefiore” or “Fro Yo Yourself!”?

Maybe people are taking extra time to produce and edit some great videos. I wish things were going better and there woulda been more visible activity.

If I get a chance to stop by before 9/10 (b/c I’m travelling 9/11), I’ll stop by Cefiore (closest one to me is Huntington Beach, 20+ mins away) and shoot a 1-minute video.

Curious who’ll win? You’ll have to mail in for the results:

For the name of the Grand Prize Winner, available after September 20, 2008, send your request with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Cefiore’s “Sweeten Your Summer with Cefiore” Contest Winner, 19481 San Jose Avenue, CA 91748. Requests must be received by September 30, 2008.

[aside] cf. $50 iTunes Giveaway – Culture11 Best Diary Contest, with a winner every day until September 26th.

Content rules say that diary content becomes “exclusive property of Culture11″. Nevertheless, I think this contest will get more action.