Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service.

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven - Luke 10:20.

Jesus Christ is saying here, "Don't rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me."  The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service - rejoicing in the fact that God has used you.  Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ.  If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour "rivers of living water" through you (John 7:38).  And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it.  Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God.  And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to "walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7).

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service.  Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone's usefulness.  If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived.  For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint's usefulness.  It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him.  All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person's life is that person's relationship with God - something of great value to His Father.  Jesus is "bringing many sons to glory..." (Hebrews 2:10).

-- devotional from Oswald Chambers', My Utmost for His Highest, August 30th

InterVarsity NY/NJ Staff Conference 2011

"Risk & faith are inseparable."

That's the first point Ted Esler, Vice President of Pioneers-USA., made during this year's InterVarsity NY/NJ Regional Staff Conference.  During our first session we looked at Hebrews 11 and drew connections with how those who had taken huge steps of faith also took huge risks for the sake of obeying God and following His lead.

Some of the old and new NY/NJ Regional staff

As a region, our staff team examined and reflected on where we needed to take risks on ourselves, on others, and on God in order to grow God's kingdom for His glory.  A common theme threaded throughout the week was hearing how our staff has often been ministering on the mentality that God is a God of scarcity.  We worry and fear that we don't have enough this or enough of that, and often end up shying away from risks because we don't have the faith that our God will come through.

But we were reminded through testimonies, our speaker, and worship that we serve a God of great abundance - and if we truly believe that then we have the freedom to take certain risks for the sake of the gospel during this upcoming year.

It was also awesome as a new staff worker to see and hear how God has been moving through the NY/NJ region over the past six years.  Changes were made and risks were taken, and with faithfulness and trust, God's kingdom has been furthered.  It was cool to hear about this as someone who just graduated because I can say I was a part of that movement within the last four years!  I am grateful that God would choose me to play a small part in His grand plan and I'm excited to be used by Him in a different context.

God is moving - each glow stick represents a person who came to Christ in our region over the past 6 years

"Risk-Taking & Growth:  Responding to God's Initiative, Trusting in His Sovereignty" was not only an appropriate theme for our region's movement, but it was appropriate for my personal life and ministry as well. I thought about what it meant to trust in His sovereignty when it came to working on fund development and other areas of my life.  I'll post more about that as I begin to put what I've learned into practice.

It was an honor to also witness and participate in the honoring of our outgoing of our Regional Director, Greg Jao, the induction of our new Regional Director, Jason Gaboury, and the send-off of our outgoing Field Director, Janet Balajthy.  Although change is sometimes be a bit difficult to adjust to, it's pretty exciting to see how God will move through our leaders as these transitions are made and how they'll be challenged and pursue glory for God.

Janet Balajthy giving Jason Gaboury some encouraging words

  
Overall, I love the NY/NJ staff.  I definitely feel honored to be a part of this family and I look forward to the growth I'll experience and the relationships that will flourish as I begin working alongside these courageous brothers and sisters.

More thoughts to come as I process and apply what I've learned!

Embracing my Asian American background

"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."

This Japanese expression characterizes the attitude of many Asian Americans.  We should not put ourselves forward and stick out.  Many of us aren't sure whether we can or should lead.  And the Western models of leadership don't seem to fit.

This was taken from the back cover of Paul Tokunaga's book, Invitation to Lead:  Guidance for Emerging Asian American Leaders.  I read this book earlier this year and just finished reading, Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents, written by Jeanette Yep, Peter Cha, Susan Cho Van Riesen, Greg Jao & Paul Tokunaga.  Both are excellent reads and I highly recommend them!

As I dive into ministry work and transition through post-graduate life, the Asian American aspect of my identity has begun to surface in ways I hadn't anticipated.  Growing up as an American-Born Chinese (ABC) in an Asian American Christian community is a huge part of my identity, but I haven't really faced the large-scale implications and impact that Asian Americans may have as a cultural group until I started college.

Throughout my life I more often than not saw myself as very American because I didn't seem to have your typical Asian parents compared to most other Asian Americans I encountered or heard about.  So I didn't really understand what it meant to embrace my Asian American culture.  But recently I've begun to see that perhaps a number of the conflicts or struggles I've experienced throughout my life were rooted in a tension between these two worlds.  

Paul Tokunaga identifies it this way in Invitation to Lead:

Philip Slater, in The Pursuit of Loneliness, states that America stresses competition, individualism, independence and technology.  Asian cultures, on the other hand, tend to stress cooperation, community, interdependence and tradition.  "The cultures pull in opposite directions, and it is the soul of the Asian American that provides the rope for the tug of war."

Being partly in two worlds but not fully in either makes for a difficult high-wire balancing act.  What makes it so tough is that Asian and Western values are often polar opposites.  


It's true.  I feel like I fall closer towards the Western end of the Asian spectrum and closer towards the Asian end of the Western spectrum, and it's just confusing sometimes trying to figure out how to deal with certain issues or conflicts that arise.  

Susan Cho Van Riesen, though, makes an important point:

The key to wise discernment begins with knowing what kingdom values are first, and then listening well to our parents for wisdom and reflections of the kingdom in what they are saying.

I don't think this applies just to our parents but with any relationship we may encounter.  And I'm recognizing the importance of embracing my Asian heritage, while identifying areas where being an Asian American needs redemption and how Asian American values may have gifts to contribute to the body of Christ as well.

All in all, it's a vital part of growing as a leader and understanding what kind of impact my cultural background has/will have.  I know my journey as an Asian American leader doesn't stop here - it's just beginning to bud - and it won't be an easy or smooth road, but it's worth it to see how God will let it bloom.

An excerpt from Tokunaga's epilogue:

The biggest challenge for the next generation of Asian American leaders is to be one.

It will be far easier to be that nail that stays hammered down.  Leadership is risky, costly, dangerous and complex.  It can be nerve-wracking, faith-shaking and seductive.  It can drive you crazy.

You can say no.  Many potentially pretty good leaders do.  They just walk away and go about their business.  When they do that, however, there are three losers:  themselves, the lives that could have been affected by their leadership and then their followers.

Of the three, you lose the most.  Being a leader stretches us to our limits and beyond.  It forces us to trust God like never before.  We live out faith in once invisible dimensions of our lives.  We end up leading and serving some people we used to dislike even despise.  We might even end up loving them.  

But others lose too.  You have things to give that others need; stuff you weren't even aware was yours to offer.  Be that stick-out nail.


What kind of insight or experiences have you gained as an Asian American or as someone who has worked with/encountered Asian Americans?