April 21, 2021
Personal Update
This week's email will be the last one before I take a sabbatical from these emails during the months of May and June.
These emails are a joy for me to write and it is a huge encouragement to me when I hear how they have benefited you in your day-to-day lives.
I hope to pick these back up in the month of July.
Originally, when I started sending these weekly emails, I thought I wanted to focus on leadership beliefs and practices that would foster health and growth in Christian leaders, and their teams by extension.
However, as time has passed, I've realized that I picture the flourishing of a more specific group of people than Christian leaders in general. I've realized that I picture the health and growth of Black, Indigenous, and people of color who are doing their best to live faithfully to God. Even more specifically, I've realized that I want to use and highlight my unique voice, perspective, and values as an Asian American in how I want to contribute to the conversation of a picture of the multiethnic Church.
With that said, I sense that the focus and topics of these weekly emails will probably end up shifting. However, instead of making a hard pivot, I'd like to be able to take time to really pray, reflect, and consider who and how I want these emails to continue building up other followers of Jesus.
If you read the above and felt like that's not something that interests you (regardless of your race and ethnicity), no hard feelings if you unsubscribe! I still hope to blow wind in your sails towards what God has set before you.
If you read the above and felt like that IS something that interests you (regardless of your race and ethnicity), please pray for me during the months of May and June as I consider the purpose and value of these emails moving forward.
With that said, here's one related thought for the week:
1 Thought
"I just want to follow Jesus."
In the past 2-3 years, I've heard these words (or some variation) come out of the mouths of men and women in vocational ministry more times than I'd like to admit.
Every single one of them would have confidently said that they felt called into vocational ministry when they first began.
So what went wrong? What changed?
My hypothesis centers around two points:
Self-Discovery: As people grow, they understand themselves better. As they understand themselves better, they see their own values and passions more clearly. And sometimes, they discover that their true values and passions are better lived out in a different setting than the one they find themselves in.
Cultural Revelation: For every organization, there are two kinds of values–spoken and unspoken. An organization that understands itself and is true to itself have the same spoken and unspoken values. However, sometimes organizations can have different unspoken values than the ones they speak. As people spend more time within organizations, sometimes they discover that an organization's stated values and passions are not what they thought they were when those people entered into those organizations.
Either way, people who felt called into a certain ministry can feel a sort of dissonance if that changes. They felt called by God into a ministry, so how can they feel called out of it? Does that mean they "lost their calling"? Does that mean God manipulated them somehow? Does that mean they have "less conviction" that others who still feel called to the same ministry?
The answer is none of these. Sometimes integrity to one's convictions before God means leaving the organization that those convictions once drew them into. Remember that our fidelity is to God, not to organizations or institutions. (Share this on Twitter)
One good question to consider for self-evaluation on where you are in your convictions:
If you remained where you are and found yourself doing the same kind of work in 5 years, what regrets might you have? What changes do you need to make?