Asians at Redeemer

I thought it was so cool that Tim Keller was featured in New York Magazine. It’s a pretty interesting article, you can check it out here: http://nymag.com/news/features/62374/index2.html

One line that popped out to me was the following: Jonathan Tse, a 28-year-old investment analyst originally from Hong Kong, describes Redeemer’s emphasis on divine grace as a kind of liberation from the pressure that Manhattan, and the Asian community in particular (the Redeemer congregation has a disproportionately large Asian component), puts on its young people to perform. ‘Redeemer and the gospels themselves basically say, ‘You don’t earn your way into eternal life by working or by being good.’ 

Just reading that made me wonder if the reason for Redeemers’ “disproportionately large Asian component” was due to the lack of “divine grace” shown in the churches that these Asians grew up in? I know for myself growing up, even though “God’s grace” may have been preached, the families at church that compared each other’s children and college aspirations did not match that message. Just recently, my dad’s friend asked if I could bring his 11 year old daughter to church. When I asked why, (since he himself was not a Christian) he said that he knew sending his daughter to church would help her get into Harvard. This kind of thinking, seeing church as a means to earning our way to eternal life AND a successful worldly life, is part of the reason why I think many Asian Americans are leaving the churches they may have grown up in and flocking to mega-churches like Redeemer.

What do you think?

Read more: Why Are So Many New Yorkers Flocking to Evangelical Christian Preacher Tim Keller? — New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/features/62374/index2.html#ixzz0YPYZnfb4

Good news about Deadly Viper

FYI: From Eugene Cho’s blog–

Zondervan Statement Regarding Concerns Voiced About “Deadly Viper: Character Assassins”
From Moe Girkins, President and CEO

Hello and thanks for your patience.

On behalf of Zondervan, I apologize for publishing Deadly Viper: Character Assassins. It is our mission to offer products that glorify Jesus Christ. This book’s characterizations and visual representations are offensive to many people despite its otherwise solid message.

There is no need for debate on this subject. We are pulling the book and the curriculum in their current forms from stores permanently.

We have taken the criticism and advice we have received to heart. In order to avoid similar episodes in the future, last week I named Stan Gundry as our Editor-in-Chief of all Zondervan products. He will be responsible for making the necessary changes at Zondervan to prevent editorial mistakes like this going forward. We already have begun a dialogue with Christian colleagues in the Asian-American community to deepen our cultural awareness and sensitivity.

Zondervan is committed to publishing Christian content and resources that uplift God and see humanity in its proper perspective in relation to God. We take seriously our call to provide resources that encourage spiritual growth. And, we know there is more to learn by always listening to our critics as well as our advocates.

It would be unfair to take these actions without expressing our love and support for the authors of this book, Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite. Both gentlemen are gifted writers and passionate about their ministry. We do believe their message is valuable and plan to work with the authors to come up with a better presentation of that message. We will jointly ensure we do our due diligence on the appropriateness of the creative side. This will include reaching out to a broad spectrum of cultural experts.

Finally, I want to personally thank Professor Rah, Ken Fong, Eugene Cho and Kathy Khang for their input and prayers during this discussion. We appreciate everyone’s concern and effort and look forward to working together for God’s kingdom.

Warmly,
Moe

http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/zondervan-pulls-deadly-vipers-from-stores/

UPDATE: The Deadly Viper website has been taken down. In it’s place is this message from the authors of the book.

To our Friends and Family:

Due to an unfortunate conflict that arose around our use of Asian American themes, we have decided to close this chapter of Deadly Viper Character Assassins. This decision has been a very difficult one for us and one that we did not take lightly.

For the past 2 years we have had the honor to be part of an incredible movement of advocating for radical integrity and grace. We have been deeply humbled hearing your stories of how Deadly Viper has impacted your life, family, and relationships.

We and our team will continue to commit our lives to the message of integrity, grace, and most of all becoming People Of The Second Chance.

We thank you for your prayers, support, and kindness through this season.

We love you.

Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite

Encouraged by the sacrificial integrity shown by the authors and Zondervan. Praying that the conversation continues. More thoughts may come later…

Cross Cultural Ministry

Regina Chan gave this introductory talk about cross cultural ministry at a recent Cross 09 Conference in NYC to Campus Crusade staff.  The national conference, held in different cities in the US, encouraged staff to minister to a culture that is not of their own (hence the pun on cross =P).  I invite you to view the clip of her talk and share any comments you might have.  Thanks!

FYI: An update to the Deadly Viper/Asian American controversy

FYI The Deadly Viper blog just posted an update on their conversation with leaders in the Asian American Christian community. I’m encouraged. http://www.deadlyviper.org/blog/?p=1975

Quick response to Deadly Viper & Asian American controversy

I’m fascinated by the discussion going around the blogosphere regarding the marketing of “Deadly Viper: Character Assassins”, a book apparently about Christian leadership. You wouldn’t be able to tell that from the dragon emblazoned on it’s cover, the Asian characters printed by the title, or the subtitle: “A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership”. I’m sure the authors of the book had no idea that their innocently packaged book of positive and potentially life-changing truths would offend so many. If you haven’t gotten around to following the discussion, I totally recommend it. I personally learned about it starting from Pastor Drew Hyun’s blog: http://drewhyun.wordpress.com/ [Side note: Pastor Drew will be speaking for our Epic East Coast Conference...very exciting!]

What intrigues me about this conversation are people’s responses to the basic statement, “your portrayal of my culture offends/upsets me.” These responses have ranged from “why are you offended? can’t you take a joke?” or “you should feel honored that they’re using your culture to promote such great values.” The most interesting response is, “Well, I’m Asian, and I’m not offended, so you shouldn’t feel offended either.”

It makes me think about the verse, “But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Cor. 12:24-26)

If one part of the body considers something hurtful or humiliating, shouldn’t the whole body make every effort to understand why and corrrect it? I’m sure that the writers and publisher of this book have learned a lot through this conversation. Hopefully they’ll be able to present their message in a more culturally-aware and sensitive manner.

As for the authors, I’m sure they have suffered much from all the angry, sarcastic, mean and unloving responses posted on blogs, FaceBook, and Twitter. For that, we need to apologize (which many have already). Let’s suffer with each other, and honor each other….I pray we may quickly rejoice with each other too as we see our culture begin changing for good.