i’ve got two words for glen beck

By now, most of you have heard the brouhaha regarding what Glen Beck said on his radio and TV show recently:

“I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!”

Well, in light of my non-verbosive response to Pat Roberton’s devilish comments about Hait, I’ve got two words for Glen Beck:

Filed under: christianity, politics , economic justice, glen beck, social justice

stories of haiti: collective grief and hope

I was intending to blog more during my time here in Haiti but to be honest, I’m having information and emotional overload. I’m just taking everything in as I listen to people, drive around, meet relief workers, spending the nights on the roof and soaking in the sounds of the neighborhood, and hear the numerous stories of the Haitians we’re meeting.

There are so many stories from Haiti – a collective grief and hope.

Here’s one story from a gentleman named James who is working as a translator for World Concern. I’ve really enjoyed meeting him and hearing a glimpse of his story.

James is fortunate to be alive. On the day of the earthquake, he was

Filed under: , haiti, One Day's Wages, world concern

5 reasons why i’m in haiti right now

As you know, I’m now in Port-au-Prince Haiti. You might be wondering, “Why are you in Haiti right now?” – especially since nearly two months have passed since the devastating Haiti quake on January 12, 2010.

There are 5 main reasons why I’m here:

Filed under: , haiti, NGO, One Day's Wages, relief work, world concern

maybe it’s not supposed to feel right

As I’m writing this, I’m on an airplane en route to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It’s a long flight starting from Seattle and making stops in Chicago and Fort Lauderdale before arriving in Haiti early Friday morning. I’ll write about the purpose of the trip to Haiti in my next entry.

But I wanted to share a bit with my blog community about the ongoing tension of balance, priorities, schedules, focus, goals, etc.

Minhee and I have started three organization in the past 9 years – Quest, Q Cafe, and One Day’s Wages. Not small things but ventures that have required a great amount of time, commitment, energy, funds, courage, possible stupidity, prayers, and collaboration.

On top of that, my marriage and my family are very important. Not just important on paper but important as part of heart and soul. Having said that, I don’t want to hold marriage or family as idolatries in my life. Or in other words, my desire to serve God certainly includes my identities as husband and father but is not encompassed by only these two things.

Marriage is not my God. Family is not God. They are

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defining success as a pastor and leader

This is a follow up to the post from last month where I asked you to define “success” as a pastor and leader.

Here are some of my thoughts:

We regularly hold this in tension, don’t we? The Scriptures in themselves don’t define success for pastors…very successfully. It shares to some extent what leaders ought to be doing and how but to my reading, it doesn’t elaborate on the metrics by which we “assess” ourselves and yet, we all live in a culture – including the church culture – where we have both codified and mostly un-codified metrics that determine what “successful” pastors look like.

And thus, we live in this constant tension.  Having said that, I try to live out my faith and calling through these questions and categories:

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what’s your “go to” place of rest?

One of the painful and joyful lessons I learned (again) last year was the importance of “resting well.”

I think God knew what He was doing when he gave the gift of the rhythm of Sabbath. But like many things that are “good”, it always sounds easier when on paper and in my case, when you’re preaching about it. But there’s also the dose of reality that taking a full day of Sabbath is difficult if not impossible when you have three young children.

But it also helps to have what I call a “go to” place of rest – a place that’s familiar, restful, and refreshing. For us, it’s Vancouver, British Columbia. Asides from it being one of the most stunning cities I’ve been to, it just feels “good” for my soul and helps immensely that Minhee and the kids love the city as well. We try going to Vancouver once very three months for two nights and have been doing this for about the last 7 years or so.

So, here’s a simple question: What’s your “go to” place of REST?

We would have loved to have been in Vancouver the last week or so but in light of the Olympics, everything was way too expensive. But thanks to the generosity of some friends, we stayed at their Whistler pad for a few nights to soak in Whistler, the Olympic spirit, lots of sleep, and some quality time with the family. Here are some highlights:

I took Minhee on a very romantic date:

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“generosity is what keeps the things i own from owning me.”

Let’s be honest. We all like our “stuff” and spend lots of money buying stuff, upgrading our stuff, getting more stuff, collecting our stuff, strutting our stuff, and wanting more stuff.

It’s not that I’m against stuff but I am for a life growing in generosity (thus the birth of One Day’s Wages).

What if we all took some time to examine the “excess” we have in our lives and chose to sell some of our stuff so that others who are living in extreme poverty may simply have an opportunity for the “other stuff” we take for granted such as water, education, medicine, food, etc.

Here’s one story of someone that chose to sell her “excess” that inspired  me. Melissa P. lives in Seattle, Washington (USA). She was inspired by the vision of ODW and in response, sold her motorcycle

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the painful stories of sexual abuse

One of the most painful things I have encountered in my 18 years thus far as a pastor are the stories of sexual abuse amongst the people I love and am learning to love and serve.

As a pastor, I am to listen, learn, shepherd, teach, protect, empower, and [insert other words here].  But the stories of sexual abuse – most often in the hands of people that were supposed to love, nurture, and protect them – anger me beyond words. Honestly, there are times, I can’t contain that anger…

I really wish that there were only a handful of stories but the sad truth is that there have been numerous – including a few that were sexually abused at the hands of their pastors or spiritual leaders.  And these are just the folks that have felt comfortable sharing their pain. I suspect that there are many more. In fact,

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everyone needs critics…

Some of my readers have too much time on their hands. While I do appreciate some of you sending me interesting materials for my blog such as funny videos, interesting articles, other blogs to check out, and topics you’d like for me to address, I also get a few readers that send me stuff…about me.

Seriously. I know that I have stuff I need to work out in my life and I’m constantly trying to live in the tension of “I must decrease and He must increase” but I am no megalomania.  I don’t need folks to send me stuff about what others are saying about me, my ministry, blog, sermons, articles, blah…

But when someone sent me the stuff below regarding my comment in the NY Times about mixed martial arts, I just had to chuckle:

Filed under: christianity, leadership, pastors , criticism

the greatest commercial…ever

Don’t get offended but every now and then, I like to post complete nonsense.

In fact, if you don’t laugh after watching this commercial (youtube video below), you need to go find your sense of humor.  I give you my nomination for the greatest commercial…ever…featuring Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Can Smell.”

What are your other nominations for the best commercials ever?

Filed under: , commercials, entertainment, old spice, the man your man can smell

theology of singlehood 4 – don’t kiss dating good-bye and the most important things…

In my final message on a theology of singlehood, I share thoughts about:

• Having faith vs allowing cynicism and pessimism to rule over us.
• The importance of wisdom.

But most of the sermon is focused on two main areas:

Don’t kiss dating good-bye meaning that I’m a fan of Christians dating but

Filed under: , dating, marriage, singlehood

don’t give up anything for lent. give yourself.

Are you giving something up for Lent?  What and Why?

Lent is known as the as the 40 weekday period between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday.  It marks a time of humility, repentance, and soul searching as one draws closer to the Passion of Christ.

I appreciate the Lenten season. I really do but I’m ambivalent about how vogue it is to give something up during Lent.  Especially when it’s something like chocolate, coffee, sodas, sugar, Facebook, Twitter, television, and so on.

I don’t want to knock those who give stuff up.  In fact, I commend you but I want to know why.

In what way does the self-denial of whatever make you more mindful of Christ and His Way?

Filed under: Jesus, christianity , lent

ash wednesday primer and gathering

This is from last year but still helpful for those who are not familiar with the purpose of Ash Wednesday.

For 2010, Quest is holding their ASH WED service on Wednesday, February 17 (7-8am). There is also a Family Ash WED event that same night from 6.30-8.15pm. All the info can be found at http://seattlequest.org

Depending on your background, you may or may not be familiar with Ash Wednesday or otherwise referred to as ‘Day of Ashes.’  It marks the beginning of the Lent season as we journey towards the Holy Week in the Christian calendar.  The Lent season culminates with Good Friday [Dark Friday] and Resurrection Sunday.

And a simple primer from Beliefnet:

Filed under: Jesus, church, faith, quest church, seattle , ash wednesday, day of ashes

this story makes me want to go back to high school

You need to read this story.

It’s inspiring, humbling and encouraging – really makes me want to go back to high school! A couple students from Palos Verdes High School contacted ODW about partnering with us to raise funds for our Haiti Relief Fund. I really didn’t think much of it but… Click here or the picture above to read the full story.

And for those who are curious about  ways to partner with the movement of ODW:

• Put on a benefit event or even a simple house party.
• Create a personalized community page just like this elementary school or Texas church.
• And we haven’t made this public yet but I’ll share with with you since you guys are special. You can donate your birthday for the cause of fighting extreme global poverty.We’re testing in with this person from Taiwan and this person from Boston and it’s looking great. We’re launching this on April 1 but you’re more than welcome to sign up with us.
• We’re also doing Work for a Cause - the same thing as your birthday but just asking you to work one day for free (or to fight global poverty). Any early adopters?
• If you run a small business or a company of any size, become an ODW business partner.

I sincerely hope you can join us in some way or to mobilize your school, families, church, work, or organization. Please email: office (at) onedayswages.org or fill out this contact form.

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where do you want to travel to?

As we begin a new week, let’s host a simple community building question. Hopefully, we’ll be able to entice our quiet blog readers and lurkers to join in. In honor the Winter Olympics going on right now in Vancouver/Whistler, here are the questions:

If you could travel to any TWO places in the world, where would you go and why?

What are your favorite destinations you’ve already traveled to already?

One of my favorite places in the world happen to be

Filed under: , olympics, travel

theology of singlehood part 3

In one of my recent sermons, I answer the question, “What do you do when you’re not called to be single but can’t find anyone? What do you do?”

“In the third part of his Theology of Singlehood series, Pastor Eugene speaks to those who are single but do not feel called to be. With sensitivity and empathy, he exhorts them to wait with faith and to resist the pull towards hopelessness and cynicism. In addition, he offers up a number of active steps that singles can practice as they wait in faith.”

Some encouragements:

Filed under: , dating, marriage

the courage and convictions of frederick douglass

One of my heroes is Frederick Douglass.  I have a list of folks whose stuff I regularly read on and read about and Frederick Douglass is one of them.  Words in today’s world have grown to be an interesting sensation.  I believe in the power of words via teaching, preaching, blogging, writing, etc.  At the essence, I do believe in the adage that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” I just think that claim is tested today like never before because in our digital and social media world, it’s easy to be posers, pretenders, and well, people full of words and lacking in the deeper context and story of meaning, substance, labor, pursuit, perseverence, and conviction.  What am I saying? Words are nice but  actions need to accompany words.

Why do I admire Frederick Douglass?  It’s not just his words but it’s his life and struggles and his perseverance, courage, and faith in the midst.

Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) was an American abolitionist, women’s suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Douglass is one of the most prominent figures in African-American and United States history. In 1872, Douglass became the first African American nominated as a Vice Presidential candidate in the U.S., running on the Equal Rights Party ticket with Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for President of the United States.

There are others whose voice and courage are incredibly noteworthy including Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and even contemporary voices such as Cornel West.  But Douglass, for me, stands out.  His faith came from his convictions as a follower of God and thus, sought to love God with his heart, soul, body, and mind and took to heart the call to love mercy, seek justice, and walk humbly.  He was also a licensed preacher and wasn’t shy of calling the church out on its hypocrisy.  This quote is a must read for all Christians, leaders, and pastors:

Filed under: , cornel west, frederick douglass, harriet tubman, martin luther king, sojourner truth

building the movement…

ODW has one (paid) staff member but we have a great and growing team of volunteer staff and interns and we are slowly building this grassroots movement. Here’s my interview with Trace Bundy – acoustic guitarist extraordinaire – who’s also partnering with ODW to fight extreme global poverty. If you don’t know who Trace is, make sure you check out the video and enjoy the mini-concert!

If you have friends that are emerging artist and musicians,

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