Growing up in my church, I did not know a single person who wanted to become a pastor. The majority of us went on mission trips in youth group and some thought about being a missionary but no one wanted to be a pastor or pastor’s wife. A lot of people wanted to do business, engineering, become lawyers or doctors, etc. The typical “asian” majors. All my friends (except me) had 1st Generation parents.
Perhaps this is an effect of 1st Generation immigration. “I didn’t come all the way here for you to go into seminary. I came here for you to succeed, for you to go to an Ivy”. And thus many did, going to top schools focusing on their careers. Nothing wrong with that. I went to a top 10 Computer Science school and currently work as a software engineer. But I don’t remember any parents encouraging their kids to think about it. I don’t remember any pastors encouraging any of the youth to think about it. And you wonder why there is a dearth of 2nd generation Chinese pastors.
While I won’t say that it’s a church’s responsibility to train up their own pastors for the generations to come, I will say that it is the Church’s responsibility, as in the Universal Church’s. A church must be concerned about the Church’s future. We are all one body and in today’s mobility, people will move around. Your pastor does not have to come from your congregation but he will come from someone’s congregation. Some church has to be training pastors for the next generation. Who will be teaching your kids or your grandchildren? Why not have one of your own, one whom you know and trust.
Thoughts church, leadership, training
There are benefits to “home-grown” leadership. They are familiar w/ the culture. They understand the micro-culture of the church. They know the way things are done, the traditions, the nuances of the church that make it unique. They know the vision of the church and that vision is not just the church’s but theirs as well. They are also familiar with the people. They know the “leaders” both in title and in function. They know the people to get things done and to solicit useful feedback and advice.
They are also known by the church. The congregation knows them. The church saw them grow up and played a role in their maturation and development. The church helped shape them into the adults they are now. They are people the church trusts. They have known character, strengths, and weaknesses. If there are any deficiencies or faults, the church is partially to blame since it owns part of the responsibility for training and growing. The church has a stake in seeming them succeed.
In any sort of organization, it is difficult to bring in someone new and tell everyone to follow that person. Many businesses and companies will promote from within. They promote the people who are respected by their peers. It is easier to work for someone who you’ve been working with for a period of time. Especially in the military. Soldiers will die for one another. The Warrant Officers are a special class in the military. They are the officers who went through the ranks of enlistment rather than through schooling such as West Point (Commissioned Officers). While working w/ the military I learned that these Warrant Officers commanded the respect of the enlisted men far better than their often higher ranking Commissioned Officers. It’s because the Warrant Office went through what the enlisted men are going through so they understand the difficulties and hardships. I think there is that similar benefit in church leadership. The familiarity and camaraderie enhances the leadership, benefiting both the leadership and the followers. It creates an atmosphere and culture where the leader is more willing and ready to sacrifice for the congregation and vice versa.
Thoughts church, leadership
All the associate pastors at Covenant Fellowship Church were at one point students at the University of Illinois and connected with Pastor Min. All the small group leaders in CRH were at one point members in CRH. Our vision is to train Kingdom Workers. We train and promote from within. We raise our own leaders and whenever we need more, we look inside our church. A number of people also go into ministry and become pastors at different churches.
There’s a Nigerian proverb “It takes a village to raise a child.” (from the Nigerian Igbo culture.) The idea is that raising, training, educating, and maturing a child is a whole community effort. The next generation of the village depended on how the current generation together raised their children.
I wonder if this applies to the Church. Is it a church’s responsibility to raise the next generation of leaders? Is CFC an exception or a model or just one of the different ways to do it? Currently my “home” church is having leadership issues. Our English Pastor is in limbo and we lack a senior pastor (as far as I know and from what our website says). Our youth pastor is a son of our retired senior pastor. We also have an English Ministry Assistant who is a seminarian who has been at our church for a number of years. However our associate pastors all come from different places. Should the church be responsible for training up their next generation of pastors rather than soliciting resumes or shopping around for other associate pastors?
Thoughts church, culture, leadership, training
The past two years or so I’ve tried to implement changes in my Bible Study but they often don’t stick. The problem is that it usually happens later in the year after habits have been formed. This year I’m going to start off right.
The first thing I want to do is put the ‘Study’ back into Bible Study. It’s arguable that our Bible Studies are supposed to be Inductive Bible Studies. They are based on our Sunday sermons so Pastor Min does all the observation and interpretation for us. However many times members miss church on Sunday so they have no idea what the passage is about. This year, I want my small group know how to study the Bible.
1. Teach my small group how to study the Bible.
I also want to give my small group more resources and a binder to store all their stuff. I know that most likely they will not turn into Bible Scholars but
The above section was written on August 17th. It’s one of the posts that I never got around to finishing. I find it interesting as here I am going into the 3rd Bible Study and this is a thought I had back after Servants Retreat. This really is the direction I want to take my Bible Study. I think that it will be helpful and useful with the group of people I have coming to the Bible Studies. The first Bible study was a gauge to see where my small group was at and how they could handle a “traditional” Bible Study. Last week, I broke down the passage more for them, added in structure and it really seemed to help the discussion and their ability to understand, dissect, absorb and apply the passage. This week I’ll show them some tools and help them to do it for themselves.
I don’t want to just have good Bible Study discussions but teach them how to do it on their own. There is more joy when you learn how to study it on your own instead of relying on other people’s insights. Give a member a Bible Study, feed them for a day. Teach them how to study the Bible, feed them for a lifetime.
Thoughts Bible, small group, studying
Despite all the talk about Postmoderns not being interested in objective truth—inductive study to find who is guilty of a crime is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the west. Mystery TV programmes and books continue to be immensely popular. The world still finds thrill in the discovery of truth.
- Ajith Fernando blog
An interesting quote I don’t have time to fully process as I’m supposed to be working on Bible Study right now. An insightful observation as I regularly see shows such as CSI:”NameOfYourFavoriteCity”, NCIS, Cold Case, and Law and Order being watched on my TV. I guess the Postmodern is still searching for truth. And to quote another famous tv series.
The truth is out there.
Thoughts post-modern, television, truth
The idea of generational integration has been on mind lately. I feel like a person straddling 3 categories. I’m involved in college ministry, relating to college students on a daily basis. I’m a young adult working a day job and struggling with young adult issues. I also like interacting with families and am thinking about, pray for, and hope that one day I will have one too. I’m also trying something different with my small group to incorporate this integration into what we do. The one event we did so far received positive feedback so I’m excited to see how it goes this year.
Yesterday I came across this article on ChristianityToday Is the Era of Age Segmentation Over? It’s an interesting read since it’s coming at the issue from the same perspective as I’ve been seeing it. The only things I have heard about this issue come from my church so it was nice to see it from somewhere else. I think this is something I want to strive towards to see more in my church. Perhaps the phrase that captures what I’m look for is Cross Generational Community.
Something that continues to bring a smile to my face. As we left Curtis Orchards:
Elizabeth: Bye Mr. Tim
Thoughts
All of “my leaders” have now retired. Many of you know them, guys like Lester, Mike Won, Andy Seo, Debbie Liang, and Dae Woung. But then there’s the people I consider the “Old Guard”, my leader’s leaders. People like Dave Chung, Chris Choe, Steve Choi, and Anne Kao, my leaders’ leaders. These were the people who trained me. They were the people who set the example for me.
This past Sunday we had our first CRH meeting. As we were praying together, I looked around the room. Most of them I knew when they were freshmen. Some of new leaders were freshmen in small groups that I led. I guess it finally set in. I’ve started to become part of the “Old Guard”.
This humbles me. No way would I put myself in a category with ‘The Greats of Old’. They gave so much more, sacrificed so much more. I hold up a candle to their torch. I wish they were still around and involved to set the example, not me. But this is how life works. People come, and people go. We’re in the business of disciple training – train someone to train someone else.
Lord, help me to point them to you, just as my leaders did.
Life, Thoughts discipleship, small group
I’d like to think I can sing. In my mind, I’m a star but the reality is, I can’t sing very well. I have a incredibly difficult time hitting notes. I can do it when I hear other people sing as I match my voice to theirs, but on my own, it’s a bit rough. Playing guitar has helped but even then, I still seem to have trouble matching myself to my guitar. Oh how last year was so good with someone who could sing well.
Over my 4 years of doing this thing called ‘worship leading’, I realize it’s not all about musical ability. Sure, it always helps but worship leading is not primarily about musical ability but it is about spiritual ability. When I started, it was horrible. I would dread playing guitar for small group. I was so scared they were going to quit coming to small group b/c I was so bad. So what I did was I learned a few “utility” songs. I probably only played 6 songs or so that year and I call them ‘utility’ songs because they can fit into a number of different occasions. No matter what Bible Study was on, I could fit one of them in. Sure there are plenty of other good songs that might have worked better w/ the Bible Study but these songs worked just as well. These songs have become my staple not b/c they’re awesome songs but b/c they are spiritually useful. It’s not about picking the best sounding song but a song that spiritually resonates and reflects and applies to what we talked about.
Pastor CJ Mahaney says it so much better here: Tuneless Pastors Leading Worship? There are alot of things I don’t do well; singing and musical skills are up there. Man may look at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. It can be excellent on the outside but it must has spiritual power behind it. People won’t be moved by my guitar playing but it is not beyond what God can use to work in people through my Bible Studies.
Life, Thoughts music, small group
The news and opinion pages are filled with debates about the national healthcare. I have my own uninformed thoughts on the matter but I’ll let them sit in my mind. I found this article about one person’s opinion on healthcare reform. The main driving force of what he’s saying (or at least what I took away from it) was to have a consumer driven force to lower healthcare costs rather than perpetuate way heath insurance props up inflated costs. One example he used was Lasik surgery and how an open market has made the operation cheaper and safer. It made me think of my own dental experience.
When I came to college, I basically stopped seeing the dentist. The first time I went when I started working had easily been 3 to 4 years since my previous exam. A periodontal exam revealed there was much inflammation and bacteria around my teeth and I had early to moderate gum disease. We scheduled a deep cleaning to clear out the bacteria. Afterwards, my gums were clean and my teeth looked much better and healthier. The total price tag after insurance to me was over $400.
Periodontal disease is preventable by purchasing floss for $1/mo and spending 3 minutes a day to floss. This minor investment would have saved my $400 and even more if it had advanced and required surgery. My dentist, hygienist, and mom always told me to floss. I never listened to them. However, attach a $400 bill and now you have my attention. I now habitually floss.
If you want to prevent something, attaching a large bill is a good deterrent. If I only had to pay a $10 copay for the procedure, I probably would not have been as serious about it as I was. The market is a good influencer to change people’s behavior. As proven by Safeway, a good way to drive down healthcare costs is to give financial incentives to people to become healthy. The majority of health problems are preventable. We can decrease the cost of healthcare by increasing and encouraging health prevention.
Life dentist, healthcare
Last week I broke fast w/ my coservant and made Kalbi. I bought it at Lee’s oriental market on Kirby which is the best place to buy korean cuts as far as I know. The lady there asked if I was korean and when I said no, she asked if I knew how to cook it. She was pleasantly surprised when I said yes. I’ve made it a couple time before and they’ve turned out better than this one. I usually broil it and I started it on the third level from the broiler. It was too far and cooked through without a nice crispy outside. I moved it to the top rack when I flipped it. It was over cooked and slightly tough. It might also be that I used Sprite instead of kiwi, which is my preferable tenderizer. I also only marinated the meat for 6 hours instead of overnight.
I think the best time I made it was for small group last year. I made it for our last sharing of first semester. My ravenous small group devoured all of it and my coservants and I didn’t get much of it. Being the clever (and selfish) small group leader that I am, I saved a batch for us to eat later on in the week. I don’t know if it was really that I prepared and cooked it that well or it was just the people that I was with but I think that was the best batch of Kalbi I’ve made.
With my roommate starting his cooking ministry, perhaps I shall continue to expand my Korean palette and increase my repertoire. Perhaps he can start with just teaching me Korean since my biggest problem is going to the store and not knowing or pronouncing the name of what I need to buy. At least one of the ladies at Green Onion spoke English to me after receive blank stares when she spoke to me in Korean.
Life cooking, fasting, small group