why God made you an Asian American

Russell Jeung (Associate Professor of Asian Studies at San Francisco State University) gave 4 talks at the first Asian American conference hosted by Bread of Life Church in Torrance, California, March 7-9. We recorded the first talk from Friday night. (Videos from all the talks may be made available later, but no guarantees.)

With permission from Russell Jeung, we are grateful for being able to post the first talk online. Here’s the audio (mp3, running time = 75:41) and slides from his March 7th presentation titled, “Daniel 2: Asian American Values of Wisdom, Community, and Humility” >>

Talks on Asian American Religiosity and Christianity

Just got word of this lecture series from Russell Jeung, Associate Professor of Asian Studies at San Francisco State University. Via the Yahoo Group for Asian American Christians for Justice::

Hi all:

If you’re in Los Angeles, I’m speaking at CSU LA and at Bread of Life Church in Torrance this week. You’re welcome to come.

CSU LA is hosting a symposium, “Religion in Los Angeles, in the Americas, in the Era of Globalization” on Thursday 3/6. I’ll present a paper on the latest poll data on Asian American religious affiliation and changes in the last two decades.

Bread of Life is hosting me to present a series, “Asian Americans in the Lions’ Den: A Study of Daniel” in which I compare the Jews in exile to Asian American Christians. The series discusses how being Asian American relates to our faith. The titles are:

Fri 3/7 @ 7:30pm: “Exam of Death: Daniel 2 and Asian American Values of Wisdom, Community and Humility”
Sat 3/8 @ 9:00am: “Saving Face and Asian American Achievement: Daniel 4 and 5”
Sun 3/9 @ 9:00am: “Confessions of a Boba-Bobo: Daniel 1, Asian Americans and Culinary Resolve”
Sun 3/9 @ 11:15am: “Resident Aliens: Asian Americans in Bobo-land Daniel 3 and 6”

I’d be happy to share the paper or the talks if you’re interested.

Peace,
Russell Jeung

[update 3/6] times for talks at Bread of Life added – hope to see you there!

[update 3/7] view and hear Russell Jeung’s presentation here >>

reaching 2nd generation Vietnamese Americans

Great time sharing with about 180 Vietnamese pastors, wives, and women leaders at this Vietnamese C&MA pastors conference. They pull this together every other year. Good question and answer discussions, we all have the same heart, desiring to see the 2nd generation reached with the Gospel. Here’s the Powerpoint slides I spoke from, with Vietnamese subtitles:

Download the Powerpoint slides: Second Generation Churches in America.

Download or listen to audio in English with Vietnamese translation (mp3).

Upcoming conferences:

• Southeast Asian Leadership Summit in metro DC – March 13-15
• Asian American Leadership Conference in Fullerton – March 24-26 www.aalc2008.org

Other helpful resources:

• L2 Foundation’s Resource Center – over 350+ resources listed in this web directory
• Asian American Youth Ministry book
• CONVERSATIONS: Asian American Evangelical Theologies in Formation book
• Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents by Jeanette Yep, coordinator, with Peter Cha, Susan Cho Van Riesen, Greg Jao, and Paul Tokunaga
• Growing Healthy Asian American Churches ~ edited by Peter Cha, Steve Kang, Helen Lee
• Invitation to Lead: Guidance for Emerging Asian American Leaders by Paul Tokunaga
• Pursuing the Pearl : A Comprehensive Resource for Multi-Asian Ministry by Kenneth Uyeda Fong

7 suggestions for English ministry in ethnic churches

Pastor Joshua Kang of Lakeview Church (Chicago) presented 7 suggestions for a fruitful English ministry in a workshop to Korean pastors at the Evangelical Covenant denomination‘s Midwinter conference. Here are his 7 suggestions:

1. View English Ministry as a church-plant in the mission field, rather than considering it as just another department within the first generation church.
2. Treat the 2nd generations with the expectation that God will use them greatly in the future, rather than looking down on them for their present immaturity.
3. Invite a full-time pastor for the EM, and invest in his/her growth as a leader/pastor first before expecting immediate growth of the EM.
4. Create an ideal situation for the growth of EM, while challenging them to grow in their sense of ownership and responsibilities.
5. Put spiritual goals before cultural goals.
6. Allow EM to establish their own ministry goals and strategies, and encourage them to grow toward independence.
7. Launch EM as an independent church in due time, and have both churches commit to the vision of planting more churches.

You may read his entire workshop notes in Korean – view on-screen or download PDF (Korean font needed). Posted with permission.

at Chinese churches consultation

Here in east bay (Oakland area) attend the ISSAC Bay area Chinese churches consultation. More info about that at http://bapcc.wordpress.com

I made a presentation at lunch time titled “how churches are reaching next gen Asian Americans”, which was adapted from my sept 2007 presentation. Will post my slides and audio here. Audio recorded from the 3rd of 3 sessions and Powerpoint slides are online. (Or, you may view the out-of-sync audio + slides over at slideshare.net.)

The 1st session was recorded on video too- will link to it when available.

Connecting with Culture

Here are the slides from my presentation titled Connecting with Culture that was presented at the Render Conference near Houston last week.

You may download the slides from slideshare.net, and download the mp3 audio (35mb) from the 1st session, which includes the presentation and Q&A discussion, a large part on social justice and how both works and faith are part of our witness.

Click on the green “play” button to watch the sync’d up presentation along with the audio.

The audio to the 2nd session of “Connecting with Culture” is also available for listening/downloading. The discussion that followed the presentation in this session discussed how to present the Gospel in a culturally relevant way, serving the community, and arts in the church.

L2 Foundation’s first 7 years

L² Foundation is a private foundation that seeks to develop the leadership and legacy of Asian Americans by providing support and resources. L² Foundation serves ministry and professional leaders, empowering them to fulfill God’s calling.

1. bless & affirm & encourage & empower the next generation Asian Americans
2. connecting Asian American leaders for innovation and healthy leadership development
3. connecting & mobilizing Asian American legacy partners to invest in the next generation Asian Americans

These are all wonderful words that describe the exciting vision of L² Foundation to invest in the next generation, also known as English-speaking 2nd generation. There is so much potential in this next generation, and our role is to discern the appropriate strategic initiatives that can make a greater impact to benefit many people. Often I’ve explained this at a 10,000-foot view, and I thought it’d be helpful to provide a historical review to show you what that actually looks like. Click on the green “play” button below for a pictorial history of L2’s first seven years.

You may also view the video of the founders Paul & Alice Chou to get an inside look at why they started L² Foundation and the Triangle Youth Fellowship.