Photo by US News Peter L. Berger in his book, The Noise of Solemn Assemblies writes, “There is a continuum of values between the churches and the general community. What distinguishes the handling of these values in the churches is mainly the heavier dosage of religious vocabulary involved… Another way of […]
One Desire Fast 2010
Photo by HMCC Publication Team Today is the start of the One Desire Fast. As we enter into this 2-week period of fasting and prayer, I am expecting great things from God. It is exciting to see many churches around the world committing an extended period of time throughout this first […]
Church on the Move
Photo from Photobucket I was recently reading a quote from Lesslie Newbigin’s book, The Household of God. Newbigin writes, “The Church is the pilgrim people of God. It is on the move – hastening to the ends of the earth to beseech all men to be reconciled to God, and hastening […]
Big Dreams, A Big God
Photo from indiainfo I was thinking the other day that it must be an exhilarating feeling when you know that you are the first one to do something that no one else in the world has ever done. On May 29, 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary became the first person to reach […]
Internationals Making a Difference
One of the fascinating things that I have been discovering over the years is that there are many international students who come to the States to study. By pastoring on a college campus, I have seen many international students who represent many nations come to the States and then return to their country. In […]
Alumni Rippling Out the Vision
I have been so encouraged by many of our alumni in recent years, especially the international ones. Whenever I travel around the world and make some stops in Asia, it is always a blessing to reconnect with them in their “home turf.” In many ways, it brings a sense of fulfillment for me to […]
20th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre
AP Photo by Jeff Widener This picture will be forever etched in people’s minds. It was a powerful statement made by an unknown person, who stood up against the tanks that rolled into Tiananmen Square in Beijing to dismantle the pro-democracy gatherings. Tiananmen Square was known as the epicenter of the […]
40 Days and Counting
It is hard to believe that our departure date for Jakarta is approaching so quickly – July 7th, 2009. It just seems like yesterday that Christina and I were praying about whether to take this step of faith to plant our first international church. Things have moved along so quickly within […]
First Vietnamese-American Congressman
Things are happening. History is being made all over the political landscape. It is encouraging to hear about how people in the state of Louisiana elected the first Vietnamese-American to Congress. Joseph Cao came out of nowhere. But his committed to the community and wanting to bring change, helped him get […]
The Power of Words
I always get mixed reactions when it comes to creating new words. When we first came up with the word, Transformasphere, people were not that enthusiastic (maybe rightly so). But for me, I am all for it as long as it serves the purposes of trying to: 1) Communicate a vision or movement; 2) Help […]
Jakarta Information Meeting
I am excited about this day. Not only is Pastor Paul Liu going to be speaking in both our Sunday Celebrations, but we will be having our Jakarta Church Plant information meeting. While I was out in Indonesia, I was able to meet some key people who will be able to open the door for […]
Heading Out to Jakarta
Now it is official – my family and I will be heading out to Jakarta, Indonesia for one year to plant our first international church. The estimated time of departure is July 2009. It has been a long journey for us to come to this point as a family. But as I look back into […]
Radical Love… Radical Lives
Tomorrow, I will be introducing our theme for the 2008-2009 year. If there is ever a theme or a message that I would want to preach on, this would be it. In many ways, this is my testimony and the testimony of many people in our church. Once a person has […]
Singaporean Skype
Early this morning (at 3:15AM), I was able to Skype with some of the former HMCC alumni. The marvels of modern technology! It was great reconnecting with them and also meeting a couple of new Singaporeans that some of our alumni had relationships with. As we are seeing more international students graduate from UM (and […]