pastor | speaker | author | humanitarian
Well, I finally met Rob Bell last night and had an intense conversation with him. Kind of. Like indirectly.
He was in Seattle for the Seeds of Compassion event with the Dalai Lama. I have no problem with that at all. I would have loved to have been invited to participate but no one called my agent. Continue reading “my quasi-conversation with rob bell…about women”
Minhee and I are bracing ourselves for the long, hard, exciting and hopefully, fruitful work ahead as we attempt to lay some groundwork for the humanitarian organization we’re envisioning and its work with global poverty. We are awaiting word and documents [any day] from the State of Washington and will then move forward with revealing the name, raising some initial funds, and other steps. We may be stupid idealists but there is something within us that believe we can be catalysts to a global grassroots movement to help raise funds to fight global poverty.
But before we begin sharing and working in the weeks and months ahead, I wanted to take a post to answer the questions I have received from friends, acquaintances, church community folks, blog readers, and strangers that read an earlier post regarding the public announcement of our family’s decison to give up this year’s salary and additional funds to invest in starting this organization.
In some form or another, the question I want to address has been similar in content to this from a thoughtful blog reader:
…Why are you announcing to the world that you’re giving away your salary for the next year? Why not quietly do it Continue reading “loudly fighting poverty”
During the first year of Quest, I was without salary and had tried so hard to obtain a job – any job – but I realized the painful truth that pastors [outside their jobs in churches] are useless in society. I discovered that my Masters of Divinity degree…well…wasn’t really all that divine. It was actually pretty useless. After several months of looking for work, I finally landed a job as a janitor at a Barnes & Noble store in Lynnwood, Washington.
Not my idea of a “dream job.” It was one of the most difficult jobs and periods in my life – especially because this took place at a time when I thought I would be kicking ass in my “career” as a pastor. Damn my hubris…
But I digress. I want to introduce you to Jason Douros. He’s sort of on staff at Quest Church as our custodian. Why am I introducing you to our church’s custodian? Continue reading “my pastor is a janitor”
One of the most exciting aspects about ministry at Quest is our stewardship philosophy. It has been there from the beginning – even before the church got started. So, it is exciting to see stuff in my heart/mind come to some level of fruition. If you want to get to know someone on a deeper basis, you’ll likely want to know how they earn, save, spend, and give away.
Churches are no different. We can say all that we want to say with our lips but a church’s budget speaks a great deal to its ministry and stewardship philosophy. We have a long way to go but after several years of saving a few dollars here and there [Quest is a 6 year churchplant] and tinkering with our nomenclature, we are excited about the church’s 1 Fund and 3 Foundations. Continue reading “most exciting aspect of ministry”
For folks that are wondering about recommended [theology, ecclesiology, pastoral leadership, missional stuff, etc] books, this guy has some of the best list of books to read – with or without hair.
One of my resolutions is to read at least 12 books this year cover to cover. Continue reading “lover of books”
This is the third and final part of a short series entitled, Fight Poverty. If interested, you can read Part I [An Introduction] and Part II [A Broken World]. We want to do our part so Minhee and I have decided to give up our annual salary next year to join the fight against global poverty.
Global poverty is a very painful and complex situation. But, it can also be seen in a simple angle:
I know it’s too simplistic but we must see ourselves as part of the solution. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the material goods that most of us have access to but we can easily cross the line into gluttony and overconsumption. My family and I have everything that we can possibly need but there are times I still struggle with wanting more. When is enough enough? Continue reading “fight poverty 3 – a vision of compassion and redistribution”
EUGENE CHO 