Category Archives: multi-ethnic ministry

My Big Vision for the Wesleyan Church

The Wesleyan Church is hosting a Church Leaders’ Dialogue that I have been highly encouraged to be a part. Unfortunately, I just do not have the vacation time, nor time in my school schedule, to travel to Indiana. For this particular dialogue, African-American pastors from our denomination have been invited to attend. This is one of several steps The Wesleyan Church is taking to continue to move toward a church that reflects Revelation 7:9. Continue reading My Big Vision for the Wesleyan Church

Great Expectations

I read an interesting op-ed entitled Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. It really made me think, as I reflected on my life as a son, parent, student, and pastor of a multi-ethnic church. The writer, Amy Chua, admits to making sweeping categories of Chinese parents versus Western parents in terms of parenting style, and pulls a bit away from ethnic stereotypes when she states:

I’m using the term “Chinese mother” loosely. I know some Korean, Indian, Jamaican, Irish and Ghanaian parents who qualify too. Conversely, I know some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or otherwise. I’m also using the term “Western parents” loosely. Western parents come in all varieties.

Continue reading Great Expectations

Strange Fruit & New Fruit

This post may be a case of “misinterpreting boldly so that the Spirit may come” (Ken Schenck).

Yesterday, as I drove away from seminary to visit my brother in Chicago, I had NPR on the radio. A story that played was a recollection of the lynching that led to song “Strange Fruit.” Although the song speaks about “southern trees” being the hanging trees, this particular  famous/infamous lynching occurred in Marion, IN. When I learned that fact, I suddenly felt creepy; Marion, IN is where Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University is located. I realize that Marion is a very different place than it was 1930, and few, if any, of the adults who were a part of this crime are alive today, but as an African-American, some things just disturb my spirit.

Lawrence Beitler took what would become the most iconic photograph of lynching in America, the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith.
Lawrence Beitler took what would become the most iconic photograph of lynching in America, the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith.

Continue reading Strange Fruit & New Fruit

The Right and Wrong Use of Myth

When I heard that Pat Robertson attributed the earthquake in Haiti to a curse because they swore a pack with the devil, I was, mildly stated, frustrated. I wondered, on what basis could he make such a statement. In his broadcast he based his opinion upon the following:

  1. Haiti is a poor country, while the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola, is prosperous.
  2. Voodoo is practiced in Haiti.
  3. In Haitian mythology, the leader Boukman called out to help from a god to free them from “the white man.” Continue reading The Right and Wrong Use of Myth