partnering with asian churches

[fyi, this is eunice, not pastor young]

i've been contacted this summer by students who go to asian churches near emory looking to partner with us during the school year. i wanna get back to them and tell them what we're thinking, so i thought i'd throw it up here for us to talk about.

acf hasn't partnered with churches in a long time, from what i can remember. in fact, i think it's been a bit wary of doing so. but it may be time this year to start branching out and building some bridges. the person who contacted me was from crossroads church of atlanta (cca). here are some things i was thinking of regarding church partnerships (a mix of questions and thoughts):

1. do we want to have one main/strong partnership with a designated church or a lot of loose ties with the various asian churches that acfers attend?
2. church partnerships could be good so that we could be actively involved in helping plug acfers into churches
3. would this compete for which community people are involved in?
4. for a church to partner with an on campus fellowship (i mean really partner, not just like a joint welcome bbq in the fall and an ice cream social together in the spring), this would take considerable planning and maybe even restructuring of the church's college fellowship structure--will they be willing to do so?
5. would acf be willing to make those changes, too?
6. what is the end goal/purpose of acf and a church partnering? (this may seem duh, but still wanted to throw it out there)
7. i feel like a partnership could both complicate things but also increase our reach, combine resources, and make acf less isolated.

i'm currently making my way through the irresistible revolution right now. i've been enjoying it. dude, where's everybody at these days?? what happened to colossians? i'm looking forward to when we can all reconnect. btw, this is a purely personal plug, but my roommate, lydia, and i are currently looking for a 3rd roommate. if you know someone (female, pref 3 or 4th yr, or graduated) looking for an apartment, gimme a holler. thanks.

the gospel is not about hell

since eunice didn't tag anyone, i'll jump in.

after one week at YTI, i've decided to make the most earnest effort to never discuss hell again. no matter how hard we try, if the gospel is allowed to venture into saying who is going where, hell becomes the dominant issue. it makes sense; if hell is a place of eternal, conscious torment, wouldn't you like to find out how to not go there?

and that's the problem-- the gospel is then reduced into drawing boundaries, seeing who's in and who's out. do i just have to ask for forgiveness? how much life change is necessary? isn't all grace? what about those who never heard? what about those who heard, but still lived a good life? this is very personal for me, since my family is not christian, and most of my aunts/uncles/cousins aren't either.

instead, i want the gospel to be about the availability of the reign of God. we can now be reconciled to God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. even more exciting is the invitation to live and participate in God's restoration of creation. the gospel becomes dynamic, fluid, alive and unpredictable.

and now the dominant motif shifts from forgiveness to journey. bring hell into the picture, and the gospel centers on forgiveness, with transformation being a consequence. a gospel of the kingdom will also have forgiveness as a fundamental value, as well as invitation, repentance and renewal.

as for hell, i have faith that our God is just. when the judgment day comes, and God sifts the wheat from the tares, i know i will see what God has done and think, "that was right. that was good. that was just."

anyway... just some thoughts. i tag pastor young to go next.

>>is it too early to start dreaming?

because i'm dying to start dreaming about next year. i've actually caught myself thinking about acf next year and getting so caught up in the thought that i have to yank myself away and wonder what it is i'm getting excited about and why i'm gonna be doing what i'm doing. (does that make sense?) so basically i have this tendency to get very excited about stuff and i love planning things. that also happens to be the perfect setup for a dangerous pitfall: self reliance. as we start thinking about next year, the large groups we want to have, livng out our new sense of mission, small groups, iv-wide prayer, i'd like to begin this conversation together. i guess what i'm hoping for is a united act of preparing to serve the acf community next year - united in prayer, in thoughtful conversation, in encouragement, in constructive criticism.

i'd like for us to really get the ball rolling: discuss new student outreach, lay out some concrete lg topics, speaker ideas, discuss meeting times, etc. but before all that exciting "planning," i'd like to challenge all of us, myself included, to spend some time each day in prayer really asking God to search us and prepare us. i'm mainly led to pray this because it's what i think i really need right now--for God to examine my heart motives, my anxieties, etc. about acf and acknowledge them before him. i know that God isn't limited to a one-week crash course in acf-leading prep, but if that could be our focus for the next few days, maybe we can all approach a (somewhat) common point to pick up on our conversation for next year. here are a couple questions you may consider meditating on during your conversations w/ God:

• what am i most anxious about and why?
• in what ways do i expect God to work? in what areas do i not have expectation?
• what causes me seek God versus being self reliant?

use these if they help. feel free to post any thougths you have on these prompts, exciting plans you want to see next year, or anything else.

busyness

wow, it's been a while! i hope we'll still keep blogging so we can keep in touch this summer.

some of you may know nothing more about me except that i'm danny's wife. hopefully, we'll get a chance to know each other better in the coming year. to get introductions started, i'll share what i do "for a living" in case you have no idea. :) i've worked the past 8 years as a management consultant at a global benefits consulting firm. since employees are a company's greatest asset, my work involves developing strategies to maximize employee performance, attract talent, and keep employees engaged through the reward programs offered through the employment "deal." i feel that this work is what God has called me to do-- to be a Christ-follower in "corporate America" and impact the policies that affect people's jobs and livelihoods.

the business world is a highly political and competitive environment, and i feel that God has placed me where i am to make a difference. i've been fortunate enough to transfer to three offices within my company during the past 8 years (houston, austin, atlanta), and i can see God's purposes for planting me within each office i've been at. whether it's to be a light as one of a few Christians in my work group, to defy company policies that are greedy and unethical, or to create benefit structures that eliminate executives taking advantages of line employees-- i feel that this is what God has equipped me to do. i firmly believe that we can follow Christ in whatever vocation He's called us into.

summer is busy season at my work because strategies have to be approved by my clients before the fall. despite the fact that i'm used to working 60+ hours in the summer, this season has been unusually stressful and emotionally draining. after meditating about it recently, i realized that my exhaustion has stemmed from running on sheer willpower and relying on my own abilities instead of tapping into God's strength. it may seem counterintuitive, but it's true that the busier we get, the more we need to rely on God to guide us through our manic days. oftentimes i feel that i have too much to do and can't bother with God, but not seeking His peace is exactly why i feel burned-out and on-edge.

i'm going to try something this week-- to have short conversations with Him throughout the day in an attempt to keep Him top of mind even if i'm busy. i need to be constantly reminded that His guidance, strength, peace are available to me-- wherever i am, whatever i'm doing. He is both my Lord and my friend, and i need to work on my relationship with Him just like any friendship that I treasure.

am i supposed to tag someone now? how about eunice? or anyone else that wants to post? :)

missing in action

hey everyone,

sorry for the lack of activity lately. i was out of town when my brother visited, and this week moved on campus for YTI. i'll be fairly swamped the next few weeks, so i probably won't be able to nudge different people to post. how about this: we'll make this a free for all blog now. here are the ground rules:

1. person A posts... anything
2. at the end of the post, person A chooses person B to write
3. person B has three days to post (or suffer dire consequences)
4. person B nominates person C to post, and so on

so who'd like to get the ball rolling?