eugene cho

Friday, November 21, 2008 • 11:57 pm 3

caring: putting a “face” to the other

I had the privilege today to give a short chat in a class at Princeton Theological Seminary on the topic of justice and compassion and it’s intersection with the church.  The challenge of the church and its leaders is to raise the consciousness of the larger world – including the church – to a calling and purpose towards the reconciliation and restoration of ‘Shalom.’  We have to remind people that there are suffering and injustice in our cities and larger world - because many choose not to believe.  We know it’s there but we choose not to believe. 

We are competing against the principalities and forces of the world – compounded by the simple issue of human depravity – that prefers and chooses the stories of gossip and entertainment rather than the ways of Mercy, Justice, and Compassion.  The church struggles also with the church. We struggle with ourselves and our temptation to build up the Institution, Fame, and Programs of the church rather the elevate the Trinity and the work of the Larger Kingdom. 

Amongst many things that we can do, one that is absolutely critical is to put a “Face” to the other – or, to put a “story” to the other.  Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: quest church, religion, , , ,

Friday, April 25, 2008 • 1:03 am 1

a story of depravity, grace, and redemption

With permission [and couple minor edits], I want to share a story of depravity, grace, and [ongoing] redemption. It may take you 10 minutes but it may be one of the most honest and hopeful things about being part of a church community and ministry you’ll read in a long time. 

This “faith story” was written by a woman at Quest as part of her journey to become a member – something we do not take lightly at our church since members constitute the base of our church’s leadership.

10 minutes.  Don’t bother to leave any comments.  Just read it… Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: , quest church, religion

Thursday, April 17, 2008 • 1:17 am 10

a typical untypical work day

People occasionally ask me this sort of question:

So, I know you’re a pastor.  I know what you do on Sundays but I hope this isn’t rude…what the heck do you do throughout the week?  Do you pray all week?  Do you read the Bible constantly?  Do you spend five days preparing your sermons and practice your hand motions for your preaching?

Yes, I read, prepare, and pray but I certainly don’t do all those things each single moment of the week.  But I do want the world wide web community to know that I do pray for more than three minutes/day despite the rumors that are circulating. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: quest church, religion

Monday, October 8, 2007 • 12:03 am 12

thoughts on salvation

Well, I’m hacking another stimulating post for you to read, enjoy, parse, critique, and engage.  This is written by Randall A.  He and some of his friends trekked out from Hawaii to Seattle a year ago or so – partly to enter the foray of the Seattle music scene.  Randall and another band member, Miles, attend Quest.  They belong to a indie/pop/rock group called Harrison Band and got an upcoming show at the El Corazon on Sunday, October 21.  You can also see one of their videos on YouTube.  But, enough of me plugging their band. 

Randall wrote an incredibly though provoking post on the subject of Salvation.  We can easily or too simplisticly deduce salvation as one dimensional – “Do you accept Jesus or not?”  If we see the totality of Jesus’ life, salvation includes that but so much more.   Make sure you read the entire post [it's worth the time] and share your thoughts – here or there on his blog entitled, LONE TOMATO.  It’s a beautiful thing to engage and seek to Love God with your heart, soul, body, and MIND. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: emerging church, quest church, religion

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 • 12:16 am 3

it is finished

Well, after 26 very intense days, the church renovation is done.  OK, there’s a few more loose things that need to be taken care of but we worked until Saturday night to be make sure that we were ready for our worship services this past Sunday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: emerging church, quest church, religion

Friday, September 21, 2007 • 12:29 am 4

a new season

quest-invitation2.jpg

Seasons change and Quest is embarking on a new season beginning this Sunday.   In my guesstimation, I feel like we’re entering our fourth season…  We’ll discover if we’re just merely posers with lots of fluff, nice wall colors, blogs, or if we’re transforming into a community of people impacting the larger community and world with truth, justice, mercy, and compassion.  For what it’s worth, we’ll be in our “new” worship sanctuary this Sunday.  We meet at 9.15am, 11am, and 5pm.  If you’re living or visiting the Seattle area, come by for a visit.  Click here to view the invitation to our church community.

Here’s a summary of our brief church history: Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, churchplanting, emerging church, quest church, religion, seattle

Friday, September 14, 2007 • 11:37 am 6

not your typical church sleepover

I’m stumbling my way as a quasi “project manager” for our church remodel. Ahh, add more lessons learned via planting Quest six years ago.   Ready or not, we’ll cross the parking lot and return back to our new “traditional” church building on Sunday, September 23. 

We’re about 70% done with what we need to do.  This would have been a far easier thing if we had the money to simply HIRE OUT for the entire thing but so goes the law of economics.  With 70K, we’ve needed to basically remodel the entire church building that was built almost 40 years ago: Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, churchplanting, emerging church, quest church, religion

Monday, September 10, 2007 • 12:44 am 6

qcafe renovation

As we’re in the midst of a basic remodel of the church building we were recently given, I was just thinking that it was about 5 years ago in 2002 when not many of us at Quest [probably about 40-60] worked on renovating this Warehouse below into our place of Worship, non-profit Cafe, and space for some community engagement. 

We renovated it and rented the building for the past five years.  We now own the building and are busy renovating the church building right next door.  Lots of work.  I wish I learned something about construction when I was younger.  Below are pictures that demonstrate the transformation of the building…

copy-of-oldwarehouse.jpg Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: emerging church, quest church, religion, seattle

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 • 11:13 am 3

a quasi extreme makeover

If you’re wondering why my blog posts are all fluff and no substance, it’s because we’re in a dang busy season right now.  Our church community began 27 days of renovation starting on Sunday, Aug 26.  We need to be done – one way or the other – so that we can re-enter our now current sanctuary for worship on Sunday, September 23.  For three weeks, we’re back at the warm and cozy Q Cafe.

It’s great to see people working together – laboring, sweating, talking, fellowshipping, spilling, laughing, creating, and problem solving.  There’s some level of stress involved here because we’re on a limited budget and we’re undertaking about 85% of the work on our own.  We’ve only contracted the painting inside the sanctuary.  We’re responsible for everything else [Gulp]. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, quest church, religion

Wednesday, August 22, 2007 • 3:02 am 11

the honeymoon is over

About three months ago, an amazing “miracle” took place.  Interbay Church – a 65 year old, traditional, older, and mostly Anglo church  – decided to “close” down and join Quest Church – a 6 year old, emerging, urban, and multiethnic churchplant.  In closing their church and merging with Quest, Interbay gave to Quest ALL of their assets which includes a church building and small warehouse conservatively valued at $6 million dollars. Even more miraculously, nearly all of their 50 adults - thus far – have decided to become part of Quest.

You can read some previous entries about this: Quest + Interbay = 1 church [pre-decision],  We Are One [post decision], and Seattle PI article on Merger.

Here’s another article that was recently published in the Companion Magazine:

At first glance, Cho and Bartel are an unlikely pair. Cho, thirty-six, wears chunky-framed glasses, dresses fashionably, and as pastor of an up-and coming multiethnic emerging church made up of twenty- and thirtysomethings, he’s been quoted often in Seattle’s two newspapers, the Times and the Post-Intelligencer. Bartel, sixty-one, is a pastor-shepherd in the truest sense of the word…

Make no mistake about it, however, Cho and Bartel are tight. They have spent many hours in prayer and conversation over the decision to unite their ministries. They speak in almost reverent tones of each other. It is clear in an interview in May that they enjoy each other’s company.

“We’ve been dating way too long,” says Cho. “My wife is a little jealous of Pastor Ray. I did tell her, though, that when the merger happens in June, we’re not kissing.” [Read full article] Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, ministry, quest church, religion

Saturday, August 11, 2007 • 1:44 am 5

for where you go, i will go…

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of officiating another wedding celebration.  This time, it was Alan and Leah’s wedding.  I didn’t really like Alan too much when he first visited the church.  Why?  He is one tall dude and I confess that I am a tall-ist.  But, he is a good man. 

Leah was one of our first visitors to Quest Church – six years ago.  She later shared that she was so nervous that she circled the block several times before she walked in.  The first dozen folks at Quest were all Koreans and one Chinese-American.  I am thankful for Leah and another person for helping break the barrier.  They knew that our commitment was to be a multiethnic church and they helped pave the way.  Leah not only paved the way but she eventually took a pretty heavy pay reduction to leave her job to become our non-profit Q Cafe’s first cafe manager.  I will never forget that.  Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: family, marriage, quest church

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 • 1:09 am 1

living out faith, refugee family…

Perhaps it is warranted, partly warranted or maybe exaggerated; perhaps it’s the climate of our postmodernesque culture. I don’t quite know but Christians and the Church certainly get a great deal of flack.  We are idiots, bigots, narrow minded, party poopers, legalists, hypocrites, jerks, and so on. 

One of the biggest errors that I think the Church can commit is to build an aura of perfection.  Christians clearly aren’t perfect – far from it.  We are broken, wicked, sinful, and depraved.  Period. 

But what’s amazing about God’s grace is that it enables us – all of humanity – to discover or rediscover our beauty.  We are created in the image of God.  To be a Christian – in my opinion – is not merely “accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior” but a living out your faith in Christ and growing into our identities as image bearers of God.

This is why it frustrates me immensely when critics, cynics, skeptics or the media tend to harp only on the faults, misses, Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: christianity, church, quest church

Monday, July 16, 2007 • 12:22 pm 6

hope in cancer

With permission, I am sharing this email I got received from one of our church folks who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  We’ve had several folks [and many with parents and siblings] with life altering illnesses.  It’s been difficult but incredibly inspirational to see people cling to hope and faith in the midst of these incredibly difficult circumstances.  

Kay is also a thespian and is teaching an acting class for those who are interested.  Thank you Kay for sharing your candid, humorous and vulnerable story.  May you continue to cling on to the hope that is given to all of us through Christ.  Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: quest church

Thursday, June 14, 2007 • 10:53 am 32

all hell broke loose

“…What, we wondered, is going on in all those churches? What are they saying? What are they doing? What are they plotting?…”

The title is not a joke.  We received what I perceive to be the best press about our church – ever.  Bar none.  We’ve had our share of media from the local press.  Last week, there was a solid article and great pic of the merger story.  This past December, there was a dedicated “portrait” of my personal story  in the popular magazine insert called Pacific Northwest in the Sunday paper.  But this morning, someone sent me some info of a great article from The Stranger – the premier rebellious, hilarious, provocative, alternative, and very popular weekly newspaper [umm - in some circles].  They advertise themselves as the “only newspaper in Seattle.”  [It's a good paper - minus the raunchy over the top sex ads near the back of the magazine.]

Seattle is infamously known as the most “unchurched city in America.”  The Northwest is the most unchurched region in America.  But it isn’t godless or spiritual.  It’s a beautiful place – full of life, questions, conversations, and such.  What I love the most about living in this city and this region is that you have to earn the right to have your voice in the larger marketplace of thoughts, ideas, and philosophies. 

Anyway, the Stranger staff sent 31 of their staff to visit 31 churches this past Sunday and they wrote up the most brutal and simultaneously, hilarious “reviews” of these churches.  Yes, all hell broke loose according to these authors.   I am so excited – honestly – that Quest actually made the list!  I feel so cool.  Like, I’ve finally been accepted as a true Seattle-ite.  Ahh, but this again confirms my point that people – more than you ever know – and more than they want to admit – are watching the Church.  They are watching to see our convictions, motivations, hypocrisy, compassion, or in our case, “insipid worship.” Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, culture, emerging church, quest church, religion, seattle

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 • 12:57 am 9

community that once existed?

When my wife and I planted Quest six years ago, there were some good things we did and some poor things I did.  It stayed a VERY small group for many months and really, for the first 1.5 years.  We struggled immensely to get to any sort of critical mass – which at that time, we discerned to be about 50-75 people.  I spoke, taught, and preached a great deal about being organic, a true community, intimate, etc.  Those are things I still teach about but wished I could have spent more time preparing people for what would happen if we actually came close to achieving those things.  It becomes attractive and it actually grows.  Acts 2:42-47 is a beautiful portrait of the early church community.  It must have been so attractive and the Holy Spirit was at work and the church just grew.

So, Quest has grown the past couple years.  This past year, we were running three service [mainly because of our small intimate cafe space] and had couple Sundays where we hit 500 folks [including children].  It’s not my goal for Quest to grow to be a mega church or even a large church.  That would actually pain me but I’m more at peace to just let that be Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, emerging church, pastors, quest church

Monday, June 4, 2007 • 10:04 am 5

seattle pi article on church merger

226quest04_611mu_greeting.jpg

Goodness, these people work quick.  Here’s the article [huge front cover of the Local Section] from the Seattle Post Intelligencer on the Quest/Interbay merger and their observations from yesterday’s service. 

I tell this to every pastor that I encounter:  People are watching your church community more than you will ever now.  We have visitors that share about how they’ve been watching, following, and observing for months or even for years before they make their first visit.

Here’s the video we showed to honor the “Interbay community” at yesterday’s service and the ONE CHURCH newsletter [pdf].   UPDATE: here’s another article from the Covenant Wire.

Time to come up for some air.  It’s been a very BUSY past few months; a little more pushing in the next three months to pound out some “minor” building renovations in August and then a chance to rest in the Fall.  Transitions are very tough and through these transitions, trying our best to make sure that people [both from quest and the interbay community] don’t get lost in the transition and translation.

The article: 

Only a parking lot separates Interbay Covenant Church and Quest Church, but the neighboring Seattle congregations hardly seem alike on the surface.  Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, emerging church, quest church, seattle

Monday, June 4, 2007 • 7:43 am 8

we are one

Quest celebrated our first service together as ONE church yesterday [Sunday, June 3].  I was exhausted [mainly because of an intense trip to Detroit] but the gathering was momentous.  It almost seems surreal but the merger is now a done deal; We now enter the third season as a church community and missional ministry [The first season was the literal birth and planting of Quest and the second season was the founding of our non-profit community development - the QCafe].  The city of Seattle seems to be surprised and intrigued by this “merger” as well.  The Seattle PI published a huge Local Section front cover article [and front page photo] on the Quest/Interbay merger and their observations from yesterday’s service.  UPDATE: here’s another article from the Covenant Wire.

Here’s the video we showed to honor the “Interbay community” at yesterday’s service and the ONE CHURCH newsletter [pdf].  The photo below the video is from yesterday’s service [taken by Joanie K].  On behalf of Quest, I am presenting the first of many framed photos that will be hung on the church entrance as a “tribute” to the legacy of Interbay.  Pastor Ray Bartel, Interbay’s former senior pastor, is accepting the gift.  As of June 1, he joined our church’s pastoral staff.

On Saturday, my family and I, along with some of our church staff and leaders welcomed some of the folks from the “Interbay Community” to our home for a barbecue lunch.  It was great to enjoy some time with them outside the church Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: church, ministry, quest church, seattle

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 • 12:36 am 6

an incredible legacy

This past Sunday, Interbay Covenant Church celebrated their last Sunday together as Interbay.  It was such an incredible service.  They did a great job not only celebrating their 65 years of amazing history but more importantly, celebrating the creator of their ministry and community – Jesus.  Minhee and I and a few other Questers chose to worship with Interbay; I was invited to share a few words to invite them to our first Sunday together as One Church but my emotions completely overwhelmed me and I broke down in tears.  It wasn’t what I intended but as I looked out to the congregation and especially those that have been at Interbay for 20, 30, 40, or even 50+ years…  They weren’t tears of sadness.  Rather, tears of gratitude and amazement because of their courage, faith, and Kingdom mindedness.

As these two churches merge, Interbay will, by name, no longer exist as of May 31 and will join Quest.  However, their legacy will continue.  And Quest will do its part – to love, honor, and value each of the 50 or so folks from Interbay that will join us.  The two videos below is a small glimpse Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: christianity, church, emerging church, quest church

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my tweets

  • We don't have to. We get to. #AttitudeMatters 4 hours ago
  • After 10 years, final day at Quest for Pastor DeAnza. Thank you for leaving a great legacy and...a power tool. http://t.co/GrPgUFj1 18 hours ago
  • Cheap Grace is the proclamation of forgiveness without the requirement of repentence. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer 23 hours ago
  • Boom. Check out what Eastlake and @ryanmeeks are up to with drinks4drinks.com | Beautiful example of faith + action. 1 day ago
  • Dear Seattle: Please put your guns down. Praying for the family members of deceased, wounded, & all impacted by recent shootings & violence. 1 day ago
  • Quest is hiring a full-time Director or Pastor of 'Glocal Ministries': bit.ly/K8TbXv | Challenging but sweet opp for right person. 1 day ago
  • My ODW staff (all 2 of them) are temporarily office-less. We're 90% there but need to get the final green light. Praying it goes through! 2 days ago
  • It's the end of an era. Saying goodbye to our 250sq. ft. ODW headquarters. Never forget your humble beginnings. http://t.co/MQRyjdvA 2 days ago

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