48.
So, I'm turning 48 years old today. I know that one is supposed to say how grateful they are about life, family, faith, and so forth...and I am. Especially for my family. For Minhee & the kids and their steadfast patience & love for me. But a year ago, I had no idea that I would sense God calling me to step down from Quest & while this has been "the best" of transitions and I've heard from so many around the country that have shared how encouraged they have been by how God honoring this transition has been (and especially in light of some high profile messy pastoral departures and firings). Woah...that previous sentence seemed like a massive run-on sentence.
But I digress.
A year ago, I had no idea that October would be my first month after stepping down from Quest...and yes, while full of genuine gratitude as we reflect on the 18 years since planting the church, I am also so overwhelmed by deep grieving. It's beyond what I could have imagined.
I've preach about this often that we are not our jobs or what we do...but our identities also become so inevitably & intricately woven through our jobs, careers, and professions.
People in Seattle and around the country know me as the pastor of Quest Church. I may have never vocalized it but I've taken some level of pride in the growth and influence of Quest...and slowly but surely, my fear and insecurity has surfaced in this transition.
How will people know me? Who or what am I apart from my title or the influence of Quest?
But beyond that, it's also the sadness of releasing a chuch family & community you love so much.
Minhee (who is a therapist) recommends that I see a therapist for my grieving and I strongly insist that I don't need to see a therapist...which is probably proof that I need to see a therapist. Lol.
I'm lifted by the the words from Mark 1:11 - "And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." I needed to be reminded that before Jesus did much of anything public; before he preached, gathered a team of disciples, healed, traveled...God the Father was well pleased with Jesus. More than anything that we do or have, we are loved by God.
Amen.
God is so faithful and gracious.
In this new season of my life, I'm prayerful of the ways God will use Minhee and I to both learn from and encourage the local, national, and global church including pastors, missionaries, churches, and NGOs.
This past week, it was such a humbling privilege for both Minhee and I to be in Thailand to be with missionaries who serve throughout Asia. We are grateful for their obedience and faithful witness to the whole Gospel. It's a true honor to be able to preach, teach, break bread, pray together, and listen to their stories. It was particularly a special blessing to partner with a few members of the Quest worship team who took time away from their jobs and families to lead worship and the kids' programs.
While I'm back in Seattle, my prayers remain with these co-laborers. The challenges are real but God is still at work...
It will take time to process planting and leading Quest for 18 years. But as this is the first weekend of the new chapter at Quest, I'm praying for the church and its leaders. Minhee and I might no longer be at Quest (for this season) but Quest will always be in our hearts.
One of the reasons why I believe the best days are ahead for Quest are because of our lay leaders, staff, and pastors I will miss being in the trenches with these colleagues. When people think about Quest, they can sometimes overlook our other pastors (inside joke on picture #3), but I've learned so much from each of our pastors.
Pastor @aaroncho is one of the most life giving leaders I know. Wherever he goes, he simply exudes life and joy. I admire his commitment to mentoring others and also happens to be a great preacher.
Pastor @rubyav joined our staff this past year as our Youth & College Pastor but in addition to being so pastoral, she posseses a deep biblical & theological rootedness that is so refreshing.
Pastor @saltermcneil has been our teaching pastor the last few years and will undertake the new role as Transitional Pastor. She's obviously known as a phenomenal preacher but...she practices what she preaches. She lives & breathes reconciliation.
Pastor @kateyhage has been with me for nearly 17 years.Over the years, we've navigated so many changes in our church and she's been there for nearly all of them. She understands leadership and how to navigate self and people through these changes. An incredible leader for our children, families & larger church.
Pastor @gailsongbantum is our Executive Pastor. She first joined our team as our Worship Pastor. Not many people are wired to thrive in both of those spaces. Gail is a culture builder. Meaning, she has vision, commitment, and intentionality to help build foundations for lasting impact.
Pastor @lizverhage oversees our global and local ministries. She's simply brilliant. Not just intellectually brilliant but she understands the importance of teaching which is why I've learned over the years why she talks so much about formation.
Thanks for the joy of being about the whole Gospel together! Praying for y'all!
is that really a complete sentence? it reads weird.
Perhaps a rather simplistic presentation, one that some viewers might dismiss for not discussing a wide array of other factors. My first reaction was, “Yeah right.” If I hadn’t already done some research on it, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
But it’s actually true. The correlation between opportunities for women and economic stability is huge. One stat from the Girl Effect website: Women invest 90% of their income into their families, as opposed to 30-40% for men.
I stumbled upon another organization earlier this morning actually, called Kiva (www.kiva.org). They facilitate microlending opportunities in developing nations. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of individuals seeking loans were women.
That’s a pretty effective video. Davo is right to say it’s no surprise. One of the largest case studies of this of course is Muhammad Yunus’ work in Bangladesh with the Grameen Bank. I got to hear him speak the UW several years ago and the impact on Bangladesh through women becoming business and landowners was pretty striking. One interesting note from here: http://www.grameen-info.org/dialogue/dialogue37/action.html
is that the loan repayment rate for women given micro-loans was 99.4% in this study. Pretty impressive.
@Eugene: are you thinking about micro-credit as part of your new org?
Wow – moving video.
I did a research project in university studying the effects of literacy and education among women on their villages/society. Mostly in Northern Africa and having a lot to do with FGM (female circumcision). It’s amazing what a seemingly small difference to a handful of girls can do to a whole village, region.
I have heard of Kiva, but not Girl Effect.
@tyler: not sure. i was just c/p a short description on youtube.
@davo: kiva is fairly well known now. they even made it on oprah and supposedly the servers got knocked out with the response. i very much enjoy what they’re doing because they’re somehow able to connect the giver to the recipient, empower the individual, and lastly, you’re not really GIVING money but rather, LENDING, money and on their website, they reportedly have an a fairly incredible “success” rate in terms of money being returned.
@beattieblog: not really. its something that we’ll do but probably can’t afford to build the infrastructure do that. as you can imagine, d. richards is a big fan of microlending and sees that as one of the proven ways to systemically change the environment for global poverty. we might engage in microlending as a participant. what we’re envisioning really is granting funds to small NGOs that have a proven or growing effect on poverty in their local context. small NGOs that most people have not even heard of. that’s not necessarily new but how we hope to raise funds is new in the sense that we’re trying to use this thing call the global web 2.0 community. i’ll send you our vision letter and you can mail us a check for a million.
I confess to not being as well educated on this topic as those of you who have responded so far, but from my time in Africa, the thing that touched me and broke my heart was talking to the mothers that we met. They desperately wanted to see their children be whole and healthy. Ulitimately, to do this, their community must be healthly and stable. While there can be no doubt that men want this for their children, speaking as a mother, it is the the very core of of most mothers’ hearts. We are all fallen, men and women alike, but I believe that empowering women with the tools and support they need will make a world of difference (I know it’s cliche, but it’s true).
Very interesting topic.
I don’t have a vast knowledge on how the credit scheme works, but I think it would surely help women get more involved on politics.
In Brazil, there is a program for microbusiness funding, but, as far as I know, most investors are men. I suppose it would encourage more women to get involved if a specific program were developed for them… but that’s the kind of discussion that is not spread, focused or even wanted in society.
Pardon my poor English. 8- |
Shalom.
Tyler,
I think the quote is the definition of “the girl effect”, not intended to be a sentence.
I.e., The girl effect: (n) The powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate in their society.
the “educate the girls” campaign that our denomination (Evangelical Covenant) supports for girls in Congo is a similar attempt to address this very important injustice. thank you for sharing this video Eugene…i continue to read your blog and am excited to hear more about the development of your organization…
altough its a c/p from youtube, but i think its true an really great statement. just imagine there’s no girl, it would be not complete society. girl makes difference 🙂
just check my blog and see the difference.
http://1worldlove.blogspot.com
I think there’s a direct corrolation between how people are treated (i.e. women in this case) and how healthy an environment is.
Perhaps…you see some revolutionizing historical incidents have women’s names wirtten in golden below…for eg:Cleopatra,Mother Teresa,Marie Curie,Florence Nightingale,George Eliot,Princess Diana,Indira Gandhi,Sirimavo Bandarinayike,Hillary Clinton,Condolezza Rice,Aung San Suu Kyi…to name a few.
http://www.adherents.com/people/100_women.html#Influential
You may examine history for solid proofs in support of your claims,if you wish.
http://nirveda.wordpress.com
I don’t understand… Wouldn’t doing this for both boys and girls in developing countries have the same (if not greater) effect? Why can’t we do it for all children, regardless of gender? I feel like there are more problems than solutions in this video…
@Brad
You said, “Wouldn’t doing this for both boys and girls in developing countries have the same (if not greater) effect?” This is a great question, and I’m glad you brought it up. The question to assume that women have equal opportunities when it comes to education and economics in developing countries. However, this simply is not the case. Educational and economic opportunities for men far outweigh opportunities for women in many developing nations. So focusing on empowering women (as this organization promotes) would, at best, raise opportunities for women to the same level of men.
The reality is that harmful societal structures in a lot of countries (including the US) perpetuate gender inequality. This inequality causes instability. Empowering women wouldn’t put them above men (which assumes that women are already on equal grounds with men), rather it would raise women to the same level as men.
There are volumes of statistics showing a direct correlation between investing in/empowering women and increasing economic stability. If you’re interested in learning more, I know that http://www.care.org and http://www.oxfam.org have some good resources.
I’m not sure what I think about this, though I don’t doubt its veracity. In the US among Black communities, women actually have far greater educational opportunity than men and it has not led to stability at all. Rather, it has perpetuated a system wherein men can continue to be radically irresponsible and women can continue to shoulder more and more share of the burden.
hmm.. thank you very much. usefull information