June 27 - Organic Training Day
Okay, Organic Training Day. Really important day for us, as we are taking the whole day to talk about what it means to be an organic movement, what does it look like, how do you do it, why should we try things this way. Keoke did a great job with the presentation. I won't try and summarize things here, but if you're interested, you can find more information at SF Metro's website.
But I will highlight one of our ministry goals for the summer. Our hope is to be able to start several G3s (Groups of Three) and to gather good, solid leads for more of them for the coming school year. A G3 is comprised of a small group of students (3-5) and has 3 main components: (check out SF Metro's page for more details)
1) Giving: looking outside the group with evangelism
2) Growing: looking inside at our personal walks with Christ
3) Praying: asking God for what's on our hearts
This will be a primary component of "launching" new movements on the campuses. Rather than trying to get the beginnings of a larger movement of, say, 50+ people, an organic approach that is reproduceable would mean that we try and start smaller G3s that emphasize immediate involvement. If a student comes to faith, rather than extracting him from his natural social network/community, why don't we plant a G3 on his turf, with his friends? Also, rather than treating that as secondary to the primary of being involved in a large 50+ movement, we make that the primary and release him to impact his friends.
Of course, all of this may sound logical and reflect what we, as a ministry, have always done. But the fact is that we often maintain a structure that features the "flagship" of a big meeting with everything else being merely forays into unknown, "enemy" territory. We don't often de-centralize and make the missional aspect (the "being sent" aspect) our primary focus. However we feel about the "correctness" of this approach, history has shown that "big movement" approach doesn't work in the Bay Area. Students are too busy, too jaded, too hostile, whatever. So, this summer, we're asking Project students to share their faith and ask God to lead us to other students (Christian or non-Christian) who can lead us to their social networks where we can plant G3s. We move forward with our little experiement.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Epic Bay Area Project 2006 - Part 4
June 27 - Weekend Recap
First, a recap of the weekend. Saturday was spent in San Francisco, where Keoke King (SF Metro Ministry Director and tour guide extraordinaire) showed us around his town and the Chinatown area, in particular. He did a great job of helping us to see how some of the historical events that impacted the area can still impact Asian Americans today. It was kinda cold in SF, which was actually a welcomed relief (San Jose is cooling down, though, after the heat wave last week). Had lunch with Jaeson Ma on Sunday, which was unexpected (in a positive, I-just-found-my-car-keys kind of way...not in a negative, my-puppy-just-died kind of way). J-Ma has a CRAZY schedule. Anyway, we had a short, but good, conversation about why it has been hard to sustain movements in the San Jose area. We're both eager to see how things pan out this summer.
Shane Deike (my boss) is in town. Some of the staff were joking that one benefit to being on a new Epic project is that you get a visit from a big-dog like Shane. Along with a visit from Shane comes, of course, the always-welcome perk of being treated to some type of meal or dessert. This time, Shane treated the Project to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream just by campus. I think Shane would have a great time if he were to be part of our Project. You would hardly notice that he's a 6'5" red-headed white dude in the midst of a bunch of Asian Americans!
All througout this week, we will be going to campus. As a starting off point, we are stressing the act of prayer as ministry. What that means is that we want to spend our time praying on campus, with prayerwalks and in groups, for the coming weeks. Often, it is tempting to see our time on a Missions trip as too valuable to merely pray. So, we say we will pray but, in fact, we often go and DO before or even in place of praying. It'll be a chance to practice the discipline of prayer and will challenge all of our performance-oriented sensibilities. The truth is that prayer IS ministry...you could say that prayer is the PRIMARY form of ministry. We started our week of prayer yesterday and will continue it tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
First, a recap of the weekend. Saturday was spent in San Francisco, where Keoke King (SF Metro Ministry Director and tour guide extraordinaire) showed us around his town and the Chinatown area, in particular. He did a great job of helping us to see how some of the historical events that impacted the area can still impact Asian Americans today. It was kinda cold in SF, which was actually a welcomed relief (San Jose is cooling down, though, after the heat wave last week). Had lunch with Jaeson Ma on Sunday, which was unexpected (in a positive, I-just-found-my-car-keys kind of way...not in a negative, my-puppy-just-died kind of way). J-Ma has a CRAZY schedule. Anyway, we had a short, but good, conversation about why it has been hard to sustain movements in the San Jose area. We're both eager to see how things pan out this summer.Shane Deike (my boss) is in town. Some of the staff were joking that one benefit to being on a new Epic project is that you get a visit from a big-dog like Shane. Along with a visit from Shane comes, of course, the always-welcome perk of being treated to some type of meal or dessert. This time, Shane treated the Project to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream just by campus. I think Shane would have a great time if he were to be part of our Project. You would hardly notice that he's a 6'5" red-headed white dude in the midst of a bunch of Asian Americans!
All througout this week, we will be going to campus. As a starting off point, we are stressing the act of prayer as ministry. What that means is that we want to spend our time praying on campus, with prayerwalks and in groups, for the coming weeks. Often, it is tempting to see our time on a Missions trip as too valuable to merely pray. So, we say we will pray but, in fact, we often go and DO before or even in place of praying. It'll be a chance to practice the discipline of prayer and will challenge all of our performance-oriented sensibilities. The truth is that prayer IS ministry...you could say that prayer is the PRIMARY form of ministry. We started our week of prayer yesterday and will continue it tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Epic Bay Area Project 2006 - Part 3
June 23 - Day after students arrive
Students arrived on Thursday. We had dinner together that first night at a local pizza joint near campus. I've been pleasantly surprised by the downtown San Jose area. Lots of stuff within walking distance, which works well for us, and it's pretty nice. By the way, here's an example of how God has orchestrated the details:
Nobody on this Project is local to the area and, in fact, only one student hails from California. Three of the staff drove their cars to the Bay (two from Oregon and one from LA). Our Project is 18 people big (plus 3 small kids). Hmmm, the numbers don't add up. In order to get around anywhere, we were looking at having to rent cars for much of the summer. Hmmm, limited budget (due to a small Project) PLUS car rental fees for 4 weeks...the numbers don't add up. Here's where God steps in and says, "Don't worry, I've got you covered."
Truman runs into a friend at a bachelor party in Texas, a week before Project starts. This friend lives here in the Bay Area and is planning on a vacation this summer. The vacation time fits in exactly with our Project dates. When Truman hears this, he asks his friend what he plans to do with his car the whole time. Make a long story short, the friend lends us his car for the Project to use for the entire summer! Carita's cousin, who lives in this area, also happens to have a car available for parts of the Projects. Voilà! Transportation problems solved (I think).
Students arrived on Thursday. We had dinner together that first night at a local pizza joint near campus. I've been pleasantly surprised by the downtown San Jose area. Lots of stuff within walking distance, which works well for us, and it's pretty nice. By the way, here's an example of how God has orchestrated the details:Nobody on this Project is local to the area and, in fact, only one student hails from California. Three of the staff drove their cars to the Bay (two from Oregon and one from LA). Our Project is 18 people big (plus 3 small kids). Hmmm, the numbers don't add up. In order to get around anywhere, we were looking at having to rent cars for much of the summer. Hmmm, limited budget (due to a small Project) PLUS car rental fees for 4 weeks...the numbers don't add up. Here's where God steps in and says, "Don't worry, I've got you covered."
Truman runs into a friend at a bachelor party in Texas, a week before Project starts. This friend lives here in the Bay Area and is planning on a vacation this summer. The vacation time fits in exactly with our Project dates. When Truman hears this, he asks his friend what he plans to do with his car the whole time. Make a long story short, the friend lends us his car for the Project to use for the entire summer! Carita's cousin, who lives in this area, also happens to have a car available for parts of the Projects. Voilà! Transportation problems solved (I think).
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Epic Bay Area Project 2006 - Part 2
June 22 - Students Arrive Today
Students arrive today. Normally, this would be a pretty hectic day, but given the fact that we have 8 total students on this Project...well, it definitely makes things less complicated and less stressful! Wonder how the dynamics will be? You can only tell so much about students from their applications and reference forms.
Staff arrived four days ago. Here are some observations about the staff team: This team is ready! One of the great benefits of starting a Project (especially one that nobody in the Campus Ministry seems to know about) is that you get to pick your own team. We've got some really experienced Asian American staff on our team. Well, that might be a bit misleading because, really, there aren't a whole lot of Asian American staff with Crusade...but we have some here with us. Furthermore, we have staff that really buy into Catalytic ministry and are excited to give this Organic approach a test drive. What an answered prayer! Someday soon, I hope and pray that this can be a Project that really develops young Staff and interns (Asian American or not). But for this first year, I am so thankful for the collective wealth of experience on the Staff team because, frankly, we need everyone's gifting and perspective to get to where we want to go.
Plus, I have no idea what I'm doing and their skills (bowhunting, nunchak, computer hacking, or otherwise) make up for what I lack. A nice portrait of how the Body of Christ should work.
Students arrive today. Normally, this would be a pretty hectic day, but given the fact that we have 8 total students on this Project...well, it definitely makes things less complicated and less stressful! Wonder how the dynamics will be? You can only tell so much about students from their applications and reference forms.
Staff arrived four days ago. Here are some observations about the staff team: This team is ready! One of the great benefits of starting a Project (especially one that nobody in the Campus Ministry seems to know about) is that you get to pick your own team. We've got some really experienced Asian American staff on our team. Well, that might be a bit misleading because, really, there aren't a whole lot of Asian American staff with Crusade...but we have some here with us. Furthermore, we have staff that really buy into Catalytic ministry and are excited to give this Organic approach a test drive. What an answered prayer! Someday soon, I hope and pray that this can be a Project that really develops young Staff and interns (Asian American or not). But for this first year, I am so thankful for the collective wealth of experience on the Staff team because, frankly, we need everyone's gifting and perspective to get to where we want to go.
Plus, I have no idea what I'm doing and their skills (bowhunting, nunchak, computer hacking, or otherwise) make up for what I lack. A nice portrait of how the Body of Christ should work.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Epic Bay Area Project 2006 - Part 1
June 17 – One day before the Staff team arrives
Okay, sitting here in our room, on the 3rd floor of Washburn Hall on the San Jose State campus. Not too bad, really. The 1970’s décor, along with its period-authentic musty odor, is not enough to detract from the fact that we have blessed air conditioning! The high temperature today was almost 100 degrees…yikes. The rest of the staff team arrives tomorrow. Months of planning, phone calls, and emails, all to get us to this point…will it be enough? Are we ready? I think so.
What are we trying to accomplish with this Project? That’s a question that I’ve been asked multiple times, by those within and outside of our ministry. Good question. Here’s how I’d answer that:
1) The vision for the Epic Bay Area Project is:
To establish a Project community that is Christ-centered and Christ-incarnate, in order to organically launch similar multiplying movements on the campuses of the San Francisco Bay Area.
First, we draw a distinction between being Christ-centered and Christ-incarnate. This certainly does not apply universally to everyone and, in fact, should not be the case for any of us who are Christ’s disciples. But the fact is that, from a cultural standpoint, Asian American students are particularly in need of the understanding that there should NOT be a difference between what we know, what we feel, and what we do. We are notorious for having head knowledge without the accompanied heart transformation. So we make the distinction in order to shed light on our need, in hopes that the Lord will impact us in this specific way through the Project.
To be Christ-centered speaks to our motivations, to why we do what we do. This is ALL about Him, so we check our agendas, our egos, our issues and our insecurities at the door. This is HIS mission and this is for His glory. To be Christ-incarnate speaks more (but not exclusively) to our outward deeds. We take Jesus with us. Wherever we go, Christ goes before us…His words, His love, His purpose, His very life. For we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but it is Christ that lives in us. Specifically towards that end, our Project will spend time each week in the heart of San Francisco doing inner city compassion ministry.
The other aspect of our vision is that our Project would be focused on launching movements on college campuses. The term “organic” seems to be in vogue these days. That’s fine, but we had more in mind than to simply sound relevant when we chose to emphasize this as part of our vision. An “organic” or “simple” movement holds to the idea that the greater the degree of complexity, the less it can be reproduced. I’ll write more about this topic later, I think. For now, I’ll say that, here in the Bay Area, unless a movement is sustainable and reproduceable, it’s chances of lasting are slim. An organic approach gives us a shot…which brings me to my last point.
2) The San Francisco Bay Area, to me, is the perfect convergence of need and opportunity. The need is truly significant here. This area has a reputation as hard, difficult soil for ministry. There are dozens of campuses throughout the South and East Bay that do not have a discernible spiritual presence. The opportunity compels us, too. If things can work here, they can work anywhere. There is also a large, largely unreached population of Asian American students and communities here. The fact that the Bay Area is both hard and untapped make it the “perfect” place for an Epic Summer Project. Some think that it’s a hard sell to get students to sign up for a Project that feels so much (too much, perhaps?) like their own “backyard” and yet yields so little fruit. My perspective is that our Asian American community and these students need to see that God has called us to hard places. Not just to hard places overseas, like in communist Asian countries, but to the hard places in our own communities, too.
Okay, sitting here in our room, on the 3rd floor of Washburn Hall on the San Jose State campus. Not too bad, really. The 1970’s décor, along with its period-authentic musty odor, is not enough to detract from the fact that we have blessed air conditioning! The high temperature today was almost 100 degrees…yikes. The rest of the staff team arrives tomorrow. Months of planning, phone calls, and emails, all to get us to this point…will it be enough? Are we ready? I think so.
What are we trying to accomplish with this Project? That’s a question that I’ve been asked multiple times, by those within and outside of our ministry. Good question. Here’s how I’d answer that:
1) The vision for the Epic Bay Area Project is:
To establish a Project community that is Christ-centered and Christ-incarnate, in order to organically launch similar multiplying movements on the campuses of the San Francisco Bay Area.
First, we draw a distinction between being Christ-centered and Christ-incarnate. This certainly does not apply universally to everyone and, in fact, should not be the case for any of us who are Christ’s disciples. But the fact is that, from a cultural standpoint, Asian American students are particularly in need of the understanding that there should NOT be a difference between what we know, what we feel, and what we do. We are notorious for having head knowledge without the accompanied heart transformation. So we make the distinction in order to shed light on our need, in hopes that the Lord will impact us in this specific way through the Project.
To be Christ-centered speaks to our motivations, to why we do what we do. This is ALL about Him, so we check our agendas, our egos, our issues and our insecurities at the door. This is HIS mission and this is for His glory. To be Christ-incarnate speaks more (but not exclusively) to our outward deeds. We take Jesus with us. Wherever we go, Christ goes before us…His words, His love, His purpose, His very life. For we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but it is Christ that lives in us. Specifically towards that end, our Project will spend time each week in the heart of San Francisco doing inner city compassion ministry.
The other aspect of our vision is that our Project would be focused on launching movements on college campuses. The term “organic” seems to be in vogue these days. That’s fine, but we had more in mind than to simply sound relevant when we chose to emphasize this as part of our vision. An “organic” or “simple” movement holds to the idea that the greater the degree of complexity, the less it can be reproduced. I’ll write more about this topic later, I think. For now, I’ll say that, here in the Bay Area, unless a movement is sustainable and reproduceable, it’s chances of lasting are slim. An organic approach gives us a shot…which brings me to my last point.
2) The San Francisco Bay Area, to me, is the perfect convergence of need and opportunity. The need is truly significant here. This area has a reputation as hard, difficult soil for ministry. There are dozens of campuses throughout the South and East Bay that do not have a discernible spiritual presence. The opportunity compels us, too. If things can work here, they can work anywhere. There is also a large, largely unreached population of Asian American students and communities here. The fact that the Bay Area is both hard and untapped make it the “perfect” place for an Epic Summer Project. Some think that it’s a hard sell to get students to sign up for a Project that feels so much (too much, perhaps?) like their own “backyard” and yet yields so little fruit. My perspective is that our Asian American community and these students need to see that God has called us to hard places. Not just to hard places overseas, like in communist Asian countries, but to the hard places in our own communities, too.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
My Summer Plans
Not much here, except to say that I'll be posting some different thoughts on my time in San Francisco as I go on Summer Project to the Bay Area. Things kick off at the end of the month. We'll be there for 5 weeks, from June 17 - July 23. We'll be launching new movements on the campuses and in the communities of the San Francisco Bay Area...so that everyone will know someone who follows Jesus.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Back Again
Okay, I'm back again. The fact that my blog hasn't been updated in almost a year is not nearly as pathetic as the fact that it only took one person to say, "Why don't you update your blog?", for me to get back on the saddle again. I didn't think anyone read it...except Jesus, of course...and my Mom. Those don't count, though, seeing as how Jesus already knows what I'd post and Mom still has in her possession all my papers from 8th grade English class.
But it all changed, I tell you, when I discovered that someone else actually reads this stuff. So, for all of my readers out there, this one's for you.
But it all changed, I tell you, when I discovered that someone else actually reads this stuff. So, for all of my readers out there, this one's for you.
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