Thoughts about Church Partnership

Greetings from Talbot everyone.  Currently I am writing this in class, pretending to take notes.  Normally I'd feel guilty about doing such, but I just got my midterm back – I got a 103 with the curve.  Dang I'm awesome.

No, not really. But I do get to serve with a God who is. 

In terms of church partnerships I really do see it as an issue of pragmatics, and it was something that really stuck with me the last time we all met together in Texas.  If the kingdom's economic purpose is to save people, to not partner well is to not operate well.  Simply put, I have a need that you can supply, and you have a need that I can supply.  I have yet to attend an Asian American church where I can say “evangelism” out loud without someone reacting as if I said Voldermort in the Harry Potter universe.  On the other hand, the biggest bane to campus ministry, in which I have experienced, is the lack of physical resources and teachers.  Church partnerships just make sense.

Recently, I had the honor and privilege to visit UCSB Epic, my alma mater.  The current student's appreciation for my dedication and labor was overwhelming, but in someways misguided.  As I reflect upon the achievement of seeing a healthy movement birthed, the only significant role that I played in it was the partnership, I first laid the ground work out with Cru staff.  During my initial attempts in starting a movement, Cru staff, in my own opinion, were hostile to the though of an Epic Movement, let alone allocate their limited resources to it.  This painful experience led me down the path of a renegade – “Screw you, you don't understand, I know I'm right, so I'll just do things on my own.”  It took me too long to realize that this paradigm for ministry is destructive an ineffective.  By senior year, I had experienced set back after set back, and the Lord really changed my heart.  I rebuilt burned bridges and had many and difficult conversations with the all hegemonic Cru staff.  These conversations were long, frustrating, and arduous, but out of them resulted in changed hearts and perspectives, with a stable partnership.  With Cru staff finally on board and God providing phenomenal leaders, such as Katherine, Epic at UCSB had the platform to finally grow.  I guess what I'm saying is this, we subscribe and uphold that it takes a partnership intra-organizationally to launch movements, therefore partnerships extra-organizationally will have the same effect.  

Currently I am attempting to launch a movement at the two local city colleges.  In the past 3 months I have gained more traction partnering well with a church than in the three years as a student trying to launch a movement.  The current structure revolves around Thursday night meetings at church where the focus is on students' relationship with the Lord and bible study.  Wednesday and Thursday afternoons are dedicated to students' relationship with others, especially the lost.   Afternoons are the only time I really “work,” usually it is going over the KGP, strategizing, or actually making gospel presentations – the stuff I'd rather do.  Thursday nights are led by the church's pastor.  My dad tells me I need to work smarter, not necessarily harder.  Church partnerships just make sense.

In conclusion, I'll let Gima describe the Spring Break retreat , but I'll share one last thought about partnerships.  I've yet to experience a partnership that is easy, a partnership is a relationship, and relationships require love, time, intentionality, and communication.  Looking back at it all, my “renegade-ness” as an undergrad was rooted out of a lack of compassion and a lazy disposition.  If there is one thing the Lord is continually molding in my heart is the notion that I need to fight the good fight, not fight the easy fight.  Thanks.

When Time and Confusion collide

God, I've fallen on hard times
This isn't the ideal

I'm a life away from my true home,
doing the best that I can

When my strength fades, it will be You
who I will bide
When time and confusion collide

The highlight of my week found in a simple car ride

Car rides of collisions

but of thoughts, ministry, strategy, decisions

To hear her heart

for people and You

or to argue and be torn apart

To be the image in the corner of her eye,

or to let her sleep as the tail lights pass by
to forget about her tardiness

for the umpteenth time

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
To drop her off, to experience the stinging alarm rung
reminding me tomorrow is obligations, pain

and the lingering thought – “what is there to gain?”

But God, I thank you for being alive

the feeling one gets in the back of his throat, when trying to hold back tears

the feeling when ones heart skips a beat or two, or the time

when I get to explain to her that “everything is going to be just fine”

God, remind me

When my strength fades, it will be You
who I will bide
When time and confusion collide

Job 17:3

When I look for security in this world, 
even in the mind, 
it is like a sad man. 
A man who would chop off his limbs
in order to have artificial ones 
which will give him no pain or trouble.