why i blog

I get varying opinions about my blog including: 

  • It sucks.  You suck.
  • You’re wasting time and bandwith.
  • You’re a sinister megalomania.
  • Don’t you have better things to do?
  • Shouldn’t you spend more time praying?  [Ok, I admit...this one hurts.]

And my favorite: 

  • “Dude, you’re one angry Asian.”

But on the most part, I’m glad that folks enjoying reading this blog. But the main reason why I blog isn’t to appease the billions that read the blog.  It helps my level of sanity to e-journal if you will.  And honestly, I’m trying to be as accesible to folks from my church, friends, curious inquirers from the larger blogosphere, fellow Seattlites, and perverts with a fetish for “orientals” that search for “Korean Beauty” on search engines. 

I regularly try to encourage other pastors and leaders to make time to share some of their musings at least twice/week.  Try to be accessible and engage the larger context and culture.  Here are some other reasons why I blog:

  1. To process some of my own thoughts, struggles, and dreams. Most of these are just my vomitaceous thoughts.
  2. To connect with my faith community. While I am the primary teacher at Quest, I discovered a growing disconnect with the church - particularly as the church grew larger. This blog is another way to connect with this community.  I don’t want to only be a dude behind a pulpit.  That would seriously suck.
  3. To connect with others in Seattle - both secular and christian. When people ask me where I pastor, I honestly think to myself [and sometimes respond]: “I pastor the greater Seattle area.” You’d be surprised at the number of people that have randomly come up to me and said, “I know you through your blog.”  Kinda freaky but kinda cool as long as they’re not blog stalkers.
  4. To add my voice to the blogosphere and particularly those who share similar interests. I enjoy reading other people’s blogs but sometimes it feels suffocating because like many things, it’s dominated by White Men. Nothing against my white male brothers - particularly those with tattoos and frizzy goattees but I felt compelled to add my voice to the collective and to hopefully inspire others to raise up their voices.
  5. For better or worse [meaning: learn from my mistakes], be a mentor to younger pastors and leaders - particularly to churchplanters, Asian-American pastors, and other Christian leaders and pastors who especially wrestle with their sense of ecclesiology and missiology in a fast changing postmodern and postchurch world. I’m 37 and need to stop dorking around and do my part before I croak and die in another 37.
  6. To record my journey - so that one day, my kids can read about the journeys of their old man. I really really want my kids to grow up thinking that their father was at least a little hip. Seriously, I hope wordpress doesn’t go defunct anytime soon or that would really suck too.
  7. To someone reveal that pastors or Christians aren’t stupid religious people that don’t have the ability to engage in humor, critical thought, or have “regular” lives.  I’m a Christian and a follower of Jesus but I ain’t perfect, saintly, or perfectly holy.  I fart just like you and sometimes, they’re bad.  Really bad.

If you’re new to this, there’s a few posts [and comments] I’d recommend checking out:

  • Fight Poverty [I would consider this my heart poured out as I [and my wife] wrestle with privilege, stewardship, generosity and revealing our family’s vision to help fight global poverty.]
  • Racism Sucks [Why doesn't the body of Christ discuss this more?]
  • Prayer for Korean-American Hostages in Afghanistan [One post ended up becoming a 40day+ vigil; was read over 10,000x and connected me to missionaries and relief workers around the world.]
  • The Gay Conversation [What more do I have to write? It was easily the most intense dialogue with 320+ comments. This is a must read - not because of the post but because of the comments.]
  • One Church [The story of how an older traditional local church in Seattle gifted all their assests, land, and building to us and joined our community and vision.  Crazy.]
  • Ultimate Fighting Jesus [It means what it says.]
  • Making Sense of Virginia Tech [Emotionally painful and raw; Traffic to this entry the day after the shootings went crazy.]
  • My Conversation with Rob Bell - advocacy of women in leadership.

Random Nonsense Posts that for whatever reason got responses: Please Stop Dancing [Glad to know that we have some readers from the ’80s and fans of Rick Astley.]; Heroes the TV show [Who knew people loved their TV so much?]; How about the post seeking an explanation behind the lure of the Apple Computer Cult?   And a little satire that cranked out some interesting responses: 10 Reasons why Men Should not be Ordained. 

And before I get any more pranks calls, quasi threats, or rocks thrown through our church windows, please read this carefully:

This is my personal blog. The views, words, posts, thoughts, rants, visions, and ideas represented here are my own, not those of Quest Church, Q Cafe, my family, my ethnic Korean countrypeople, the city of Seattle where I live, the USA of which I am a citizen, or the totality of the Christian faith and community.  As I spew out some vomitaceous thoughts for conversation, connection, amusement, and critical discourse, I seek to grant and receive grace.