This is a list of blogs by non-white ethnic leaders in the American church (cf. ChurchRelevance’s Top 100 Church Blogs):

• Ragamuffinsoul.com – Carlos Whittaker
• Eugene Cho
• Human3rror – John Saddington
• Shaun King
• DJ Chuang [* me]
• bigisthenewsmall.com – Scott Williams
• Pure Church – Thabiti Anyabwile
• Bruce Reyes-Chow
• Marc Payan, Scott Overpeck, Rudy Carrasco, Jeremy Del Rio, Latina Liz Rios, Gerardo Marti, Bianca Juarez‘s In the Name of Love
• Charles Lee, Dave Gibbons, Creative Leadership – Tony Kim, Daniel Kim
• Seth Kim, Jenni Clayville, Soong-Chan Rah, Jaeson Ma, More than Serving Tea – Kathy Khang
• Headsparks – Daniel So, Dave Ingland, Laurence Tom aka ABC Pastor
• Next Gener.Asian Church [* team blog]
• Bob Franquiz
• Musings of an Urban Christian – Lee Huang
• Musings of a Postmodern Negro – Anthony Smith
• The Institute – Anthony Bradley, Reconciliation Blog – Edward Gilbreath
• Godvertiser.com – Kenny Jahng, Ken Fong (on Xanga), Wayne Park, Bumble Ho
• Herbert Cooper, Urban Mission Blog – Leonce Crump II, Derwin L. Gray
• Reformed Blacks of America – team blog, Uppity Negro Network

Apologies for any oversight–this list is not comprehensive. I searched for active blog (at least 1 new post in the past month) or a domain name or using fuzzy logic. And someone oughta put a top blog list for women church leaders, right Sherry?

By the way, the Multi-Ethnic Church Conference 2010 will be a national gathering of historic significance. This November 2-3 in San Diego. I do urge all church leaders to be present and counted as our country diversifies as does the blogosphere.

Please add more via the comments below. Thanks for collaborating.

At last year’s Exponential Conference (2009), a similar kind of song was written & sung for Pastor Francis Chan, to the tune of ACDC’s Back in Black :

This brings a whole new meaning to Pastor Appreciation Month.

[cf. other songs for your playlist: "New Leader Song", "We are the Church", "Be Our Guest"]

There are a bunch of search engines / directories/ listings working to make this connection, for pastors looking for a ministry opportunity, and for churches looking for a pastor to fill a staff position, along with other church staff jobs. I’ll update this list as I find ‘em — (note: listing does not connote endorsement) ::

• ChurchStaffing.com – a leading source” run by Salem Web Network; free registration required to view listings and resumes; ~60,000 subscribers to weekly newsletter
• ChurchJobs.net – run by C.M. Press; sizeable database of Christian ministry job openings and resumes with visible web presence in search engines & social networks; pricing starts at $99.95/mo for posting a job listing; $39.95 for posting a resume; database is mirrored to other domain names like pastorsearchcommittee.com, christianjobs1.net, ExperiencingWorship.com, ChurchStaffSearch.com, WorshipJobs.com
• www.churchjobsonline.com – a division of ChristianCareerCenter.com; listing pricing starts at free; ~25,000 email subscribers, ~20,000 unique visitors monthly
• PastorFinder.com – run by Outreach Media Group; ~25,000 unique visitors monthly; 74% of users are currently employed
• www.pastorsearch.net – Pastor Search Network, run by The Victorious Network since 1995; ~10,000 visitors weekly
• ministrysearch.com – Christian ministry job positions; ~ 7000 visits per week
• at findingourplace.com, Jayce Tohline has indexed even more ministers & ministries listing websites; Creator Magazine has an index of web listings for Music and Worship Ministry

And, there are professional services that help make the connection for churches and staff. HelpStaff.me is run by Justin Lathrop (one of my pastor friends), who can put together a professional nationwide search for church staff positions. And, the executive search firm called Vanderbloemen Search Group facilitates ministry leadership search for larger churches. Another one is MinisterSearch.com, a full-service consulting firm for church staffing.

Aside: this ehow.com article, How to Work for a MegaChurch, gives sobering advice about working in a church setting. Set your idealism aside — “If you think working for a church will be peaceful and idyllic, you’re deluding yourself. Pastors and church staff members are as inherently flawed as the rest of the world. If your desire to work for a MegaChurch stems from the belief that you’ll be in a conflict free office environment, think again.“

After attending a few conferences, some people begin to discover the value of these gatherings extend beyond the keynote talks and seminar lectures. What’s even more life-changing are the people you meet and the conversations you have.

At the Verge conference in Austin last week, I met Ryan Rice, who is now church planting in Phoenix. Ryan explained how life-changing the one-time-only Innovation³ Gathering was. Watch this video of Ryan Rice telling how that conference changed his life:

Next week, I’ll point you to 2 conferences especially configured so there’s intentional structured time for attendees to engage in more conversations and not only listening to talks.

Watch this interview to hear what Kyle wants to do to change this situation:

Kyle (on twitter @kylelreed) may very well be right, if a young person can’t find a mentor in their church for the Kingdom of God, they’ll find one elsewhere outside the church. So, add your comment below and get this conversation going!

In the pithy words of John Maxwell, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.“

Very good. Everyone has influence. Everyone can impact and influence another person or even a group of people, for good or for bad. But does that mean everyone can be a leader? Can anyone be the leader of a company or organization? Who should be the leader of a group if everyone can be a leader? (cf. “Everyone can be super! And when everyone’s super, no one will be.” from The Incredibles)

So what the majority of the books and blogs and programs are not talking about leadership as merely influence. The leadership gurus are implicitly talking about another layer of leadership. Leadership is much more than being faithful, available, and teachable; much more than knowing your weaknesses, pain, or strengths.

The term that’s been suggested to me is: leadership capacity.

So while everyone has influence, each person has a different amount of leadership capacity. That capacity can grow, thus be developed. And some are naturally (and/or supernaturally) gifted with more leadership capacity right out of the womb. A leadership gift is a higher capacity. This means that a person who isn’t a gifted leader will probably not develop more leadership capacity than someone who is gifted.

The better question is: How much leadership capacity does a person have? How do you measure it?

Thank you Sabastian for a conversation that really cleared the air for me.

Charles Lee (of New Hope South Bay) lists 5 reasons for why he’s going to Unleashing Beauty.

Daniel DK Kim (of NewSong) lists 8 reasons why you should attend the world-changing event – Unleashing Beauty.

The above are commentaries from key leaders at the 3 partnering churches collaborating on this event. Yes, Unleashing Beauty is 100% free + streamed live online. While there will (always?) be conferences where the costs are shared by sponsors and registered attendees, it’s fascinating to see high-quality conferences that are free to attendees, both in-person and online.

I’ve got it on my calendar and I’ve registered. Hope to see you there! Wonder what the #hashtag on twitter will be?

I’ll be hosting a talkcast with a very special guest, James Choung, next Tuesday 8/18, at 3:00pm Pacific / 6:00pm Eastern.

On the talkcast, we’ll be talking about how to develop leaders among the next generation of Asian Americans: the opportunities, the challenges, and their incredible potential. A talkcast is like a call-in talk show, and so much more — you can listen on the web, talk on the show, or type in the chat room!

So we will have a very interactive time and we’ll be responding to your questions and comments during the talkcast. RSVP at this Facebook event and let us know you’re joining us!

Dr. James Choung is national director of InterVarsity Asian American Ministries, and is a faculty associate at Bethel Seminary San Diego on missional leadership development and evangelism. He has also written True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In and its companion booklet, Based on a True Story. You can learn more about James at his website www.jameschoung.net.

The web page for the talkcast is www.talkshoe.com/tc/47956 where you can enter the chat room and listen via the website.

Or, you can dial in by phone at Phone Number: (724) 444-7444 and enter Call ID: 47956# . That’s next Tuesday, August 18th, at 3:00pm PT / 6:00pm ET.

[adapted from L2 Foundation blog]

But Rosa Parks was not just merely a seamstress. She had been involved as an activist for years: She attended a small black university in Montgomery for a few years and then worked for the Montgomery Voters League, the NAACP Youth Council and other civic and religious organizations. Having gained a reputation for getting things done, she was elected secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943.

Some people get really excited about starting a movement or being a part of a movement. What is a movement anyways?

Ken Cochrum describes the best definition he’s found, “A movement is a group of people who consciously, and at their own cost, connect to change the status quo.” Jay Lorenzen at OnMovements.com founds this definition: “a collective action that leads to political, social or cultural change.”

Movement Defined from Movement Builders, “An ongoing, informal group action that is inspired by a passionately shared idea and directed toward positive change.“

Socialmediatoday.com describes How to start a movement in 7 easy steps:

Step 1: Know Your Movement
Step 2: Get Educated
Step 3: Make it popular
Step 4: Rally the troops
Step 5: Set up communication
Step 6: Get Noticed
Step 7: Take it easy

eHow.com outlines 5 steps for How to Start a Grassroots Movement:

1. Define your movement.
2. Get body.
3. Find ways of keeping in touch.
4. Delegate.
5. When you have achieved critical mass, make your presence known.

Social Edge’s Your Micromovement” suggests 5 steps for starting your own movement [via bioteams]:

1. Publish a manifesto.
2. Make it easy for your followers to connect with you.
3. Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another.
4. Realize that money is not the point of a movement.
5. Track your progress.

However you slice and dice the ingredients for mobilizing a movement, to be a movement leader takes much more than organizational savvy. How to be a movement leader starts with a dream, a vision, a contagious passion. Then it’s spreading that passion to anyone and everyone, motivating them to take action, and persevering until the dream comes true.

(cf. Wikipedia entry on Social Movement, The Movement Leader as Hero)

got to worship on sunday at cross timbers… celebrate a friend’s birthday + chinese new year simultaneously… breakfast w dave lee (harvest community church) later this morning…

connected with 100+ people at innovation3, a 1-time-only 1-of-a-kind event; saw bloggers and twitterers generate so much buzz that it showed up on top trends in twitter search page.. amazing how much content & conversation #i3 packed into 26 hours.. Bent Tree Bible Fellowship one amazing host w excellent people who provided vital help; so generous, so collegial..

spontaneously used 3 web tools for tech breakout session, where 2 of 3 presenters couldn’t make it, and @cynthiaware and @kentshaffer masterfully pitched in; we used skype video call, ustream, and tokbox, over wifi, with at least a dozen laptops online in room too, and no bandwidth problem, 60+ joined us online with only a real-time twitter announcement… this session coulda easily been its own conference…

will write more on a real keyboard later… one regret: didnt get to eat at Little Sichuan, oh how i like it hot & spicy..

The African-American community has Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who do Asian Americans have? (Granted, Sharpton and/or Jackson do not represent everyone in the African-American community, but they are vocal representatives, even if self-appointed.)

So, who should I suggest as spokespersons or representatives of the Asian American community? Someone who could speak representatively for the 15 million Asian Americans?

I used 1 of my lifelines, and polled my followers at Twitter and friends at Facebook (which mirrors from my Twitter feed). Here’s the list of responses I got:

• Ronald Takaki, retired professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and author of Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans
• Frank H. Wu, recently Dean of Law School and author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White
• Helen Zia, journalist, activist, and author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
• Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies at Trinity College
• Van Tran, Orange County member of California State Assembly
• John Liu, Councilman in New York City and co-founder of Asian Political Leadership Fund
• Hyepin Im, President and CEO of Korean Churches for Community Development
• Eugene Cho, Pastor of Quest Church, Seattle
• Ken Fong, Pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles
• Dave Gibbons, Pastor of NewSong Church in Irvine
• Steve Wong, Pastor of Grace Community Covenant Church
• Tom Lin, Regional Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
• Tony Sheng, mobilizer of student missions
• Francis Chan, Pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley
• Jaeson Ma, President of Campus Church Networks

Because of my connections with Christian ministries, many responded with Asian American Christian leaders. My name was mentioned too, but I’m playing that bashful Asian race card, and left my name off the above list.

I’m not sure any one person could represent the whole 15 million, with over 30 different ethnicities and languages under the “Asian American” label; it’d take at least 30. The 3 who are most knowledgeable about the whole are probably Ronald Takaki, Frank Wu, and Helen Zia, listed above.

There are a number of Asian Americans who’ve been in government roles, elected or appointed, like Bobby Jindal, Gary Locke, Elaine Chao, David Kuo. Some would say that a political or government leader is more of a community leader than a leader in the realms of business, sports, arts, medicine, or media. There are plenty of Asian American leaders, just don’t recall any that speak out on mainstream media.

But, I can’t think of any one Asian American leader that’s a household name among even 50% of the Asian American population.

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!