pro athletes, jonas brothers, & TONY CAMPOLO

last friday one of our younger church guys was telling us how he saw a few professional athletes (yankees & jets) at his health club in edgewater. i did not recognize any of their names. i felt so out of it & "culturally irrelevant". then on saturday, suhee & i went to paramus park mall. at the main entrance was all this security (black cadillac escalades), a camera crew, & many screaming little girls. we found out that a pop group called jonas brothers was making an appearance. we got to see the three brothers (kind of a like a newer version of hanson), but we had no idea who they were. later when i asked around, i learned that they are a pretty big deal. & they grew up in new jersey. actually they are so young; they are still growing up.

last night tony campolo gave a sermon for a special service at our church. i've been listening to him ever since i was a high school student in the 1980s. i think he's one of the best & most powerful christian communicators. as we made announcements for the event, i realized that none of our young people (under 30) knew who he was. generation gap.

he gave a great message. main point being that we christians are sent out to do even greater works than Christ. greater works of spreading his love & bringing his life to the world. i had to sit on the stage, because i led the "peace" as part of the service. part of the "passing of the peace" is to greet the people around you. i'm not that familiar w/traditional worship services & the passing of the peace. so i turned to tony campolo to shake his hand & maybe hug him. then he kissed both sides of my cheek. that was his way of "passing the peace" as he greeted everyone around him. it caught me off guard, but that was pretty cool. later when he met my family he said, "wow, is that your son. take good care of him." then when he met suhee he said, "is that your wife, you married up".

natural disasters

the cyclone in myanmar, & now the earthquake in china. tens of thousands of people dead & dying. as an asian person, these events feel closer-to-home for me. it's so hard to understand & explain these things theologically.

80-200/2.8

for my 35th birthday suhee allowed me to splurge on a new lens. the nikon 80-200/2.8 afd. i got the old model that will be discontinued soon (no vr). the first shot is taken at the short end at 80mm. the second is taken at the long end close to 200mm. a big difference in bokeh (unfocused background).

what's going on w/conservative seminaries?

today i went to our monthly pastor's lunch here in new jersey, & i heard some strange news about westminster & biblical theological seminary. they have always been two of the most theologically conservative seminaries that i know of. so here's what i heard from graduates of those two seminaries...

westiminster pushed out some of their professors for being too liberal. & biblical pushed out some of their professors for being too conservative. & now people are accusing biblical of being part of the emergent movement. (the emergent movement has been accused of being a repackaged form of liberal theology.) what is going on in the conservative christian world?

bruised knees

at muy thai class i've been learning how to throw my knees. but i think i'm hurting my knees more than i'm hurting other people. when i used to skateboard in my jr. high days, we used to wear our bruises & cuts like badges of honor. i guess my mentality hasn't changed much, because i've been flaunting my bruised knees.

bjj seminar w/joe moreira

last week my mma (mixed martial arts) school had a bjj (brazilian jiu-jitsu) seminar w/joe moreira. joe moreira is a pretty big name in the world of bjj. since i'm not a bjj student, i volunteered to be the "event photographer" (why do i keep promoting asian stereotypes). at the end of the seminar joe moreira awarded our instructor (richard raciti) a black belt in bjj. a black belt in bjj is very rare & is a very big deal. our instructor (raciti) is a former navy seal, executive protection & counter-terrorism specialist. & he's a really nice & humble guy.

conference w/ tim keller & mark driscoll

for the past two days i had the privilege of attending a conference in new york. most of the speakers and attendees came from the reformed tradition. out of the 500 people there, less than 10 were asian. everyone else was a white man. i had a great time of fellowship w/pastor jim om & john kim from the river church. we actually stayed at a hostel-type hotel together in the city. i also got to catch up w/pastor peter kim from chicago. we served together at lakeview church back in the late 90s.

mark driscoll gave an awesome message in which he covered the whole book of Nehemiah in one sermon. i've heard so many sermons from Nehemiah, but he drew some amazing insights & applications from the book. & true to his form, there was a lot of "shock-value" in what he said. i have to admit that i have become a mark driscoll groupie. i guess they call it having a "man-crush". but i was very excited to meet him, shake his hand, look him in the eyes, & say hello.

during the q&a mark driscoll was asked what was the best piece of advice he received about church planting & pastoring. he shared the advice that john piper gave to him several weeks earlier over breakfast, "Be the sanctified version of yourself".

tim keller also answered that question by sharing the advice ray bakke gave to him just before he planted redeemer church in new york, "Seek to build a great city, not to a great church".