Engage
English-speaking Asian American Group Exchange to build, equip, assist and rebuild lay leaders who serve Asian American churches

ENGAGE stands for English-speaking Asian American Group Exchange, a new speaker series presented by Pastoral and Laity Ministries and Chinese Christian Herald Crusades Herald Youth Center. This monthly series (held every 3rd Wed of the month) hopes to build, equip, assist and rebuild lay leaders who serve Asian American churches.

We hope that you join us as we fellowship and hear from some of the most innovative and engaging ministry practitioners.

This series was made possible in part by the L2 Foundation.

ENGAGE 5: "Lessons Learned Accidentally on the Way to the Cross"

Date: Wednesday May 16, 2006
Speaker: Pastor Joseph Tsang, Vision Church
The high rate of drop out in ministry and the low number of years ministers stay at churches may indicate that we have the wrong dreams in ministry. We expect glorious resurrection and renewal galore in our tenures but somewhere along the line we forget that the pathway goes through the cross. We preach the cross but when confronted with the cross, we decide it is not in our plan to wind up there. What is it that God calls us to when we calls us to ministry? Here's a modest and unreasonable proposal to include and re-introduce the cross as the end goal to youth ministry and the lessons he learned accidentally as he stumbled on his way to the cross.

JOSEPH BENJAMIN TSANG

Joseph Benjamin Tsang was born in Brooklyn and raised mostly out in Queens in the most diverse zip code in America (11373). He traveled north for high school at the Bronx High School of Science and even lived in a nearby neighborhood briefly after a rough car accident. It was during this time, Joseph began to attend youth group at OCM. Previously, Joseph attended Chinese Evangelical Church on center street with his other aunts and family. He accepted Christ at a Vacation Bible School at CEC and grew as a disciple at OCM.

For 11 years, Joseph was the youth director at the Chinese Bible Church of Maryland in Rockville. He met his wife, Theresa in Maryland and they were married in 2003. Joseph spent a sabbatical learning to cook some southern food and finding an apartment before starting his new job as Pastor at Vision Church.
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ENGAGE 4: "Mooks, Midriffs, Myspace & More: Engaging Youth and Media Online."
Speaker: Jeremy Del Rio

Corporate profiteers produce and market media for a target youth audience they call mooks and midriffs -- caricatures that exploit adolescent insecurities and hormones; a strategy described as "grabbing below the belt and reaching for their wallets." The result: average teens now consume digital media for 72 hours each week and increasingly digest that media online in what the New York Times calls, "Websites Without Rules." This workshop explores ways to more effectively reach this plugged-in generation.

JEREMY DEL RIO

Jeremy Del Rio, Esq. consults churches and community groups on youth development, social justice, and cultural engagement. He is the co-founder and director of Community Solutions, Inc., a holistic youth development agency based in lower Manhattan. CSI provides afterschool education, summer programs, and community outreach through Generation Xcel, and hosts service learning missions trips nationally through Chain Reaction. Jeremy is the founding youth pastor at Abounding Grace Ministries, and also worked as a corporate attorney in New York.



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ENGAGE 3: "Asian American Youth Ministry: A Narrative of Collisions"
Speaker: Peter Ong
There will be an interactive sharing and also some discussion on the distinctives of Asian American Youth Ministry and Leadership.

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WENDY CHOU
Wendy has been involved in youth ministry for over 17 years, starting as a youth leader at Rutgers Community Christian Church in Somerset, NJ. She also served as the part-time Youth Director at Chinese Evangel Missions Church (CEMC-NJ) from 1996-2000. Retiring early from AT&T/Lucent Technologies where she did tent-making as a manager and systems engineer for 24 years, Wendy has been serving full-time at MCCC since 2002. Defying the stereotypical Asian American youth leader profile, Wendy follows her distinct calling to bridge the gap between generations and raise up a second generation of leaders in Chinese American churches. Her model of ministry has built a multi-generational youth ministry of 120 people at MCCC, a church of less than 500. A frequent speaker to youth, collegians, young adults and parents, she currently also serves on the Board of Directors of Eutychus Youth Ministries, Inc. with Reverend Ian Ma.

Wendy has a Master's degree in Library and Information Studies from Rutgers University and received her youth and family ministry training at Bethel Theological Seminary. Currently she is pursuing a second Master's degree in Counseling at Biblical Theological Seminary. In her spare time, Wendy travels and reads extensively. However, her favorite pastime is chilling with her husband, Pastor Joseph and her two children.

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ENGAGE 1: "Incarnational Ministry for Asian Youth"
To view the presentation, click here.
Speaker: Brian Hall, Area Director of Asian Younglife

BRIAN HALL
Brian is the founder and area director of Asian Young Life in northern New Jersey, a Christian organization committed to making a difference in the lives of Asian American teenagers, especially the unchurched. He is also a high school social studies teacher at the Academies @ Englewood in Englewood, NJ, where he teaches World Studies, Sociology, and Chinese and advises the school's Ultimate Frisbee Club and the East Asian Club/LiNK. Brian holds a Ph.D. degree in sociology from Rutgers University, where for his dissertation he studied the growth of Christianity among Chinese American college students. During the 2002-03 school year he was a Fulbright Junior Scholar in Taiwan, where he studied Chinese language at National Taiwan University in Taipei. He has written several published articles, including a chapter in the book Asian American Youth Ministry, published by the L2 Foundation. In his spare time, Brian enjoys mountain biking and watching the TV show 24.

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