A final reflection from my fellowship project.

I feel like I’ve started a lot of papers concerning Lutheran identity and how I have encountered my theological identity with the phrase, “The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) acknowledges that they struggle to be a diverse mainline Protestant denomination within the United States.” That struggle has become part of my faith formation and part of a personal challenge for me as well. Part of that struggle is having a sense of being “the other” within my denomination, which has contributed to a limited experience of being a member of the body of Christ. Part of that limited experience comes in naming the demon of racism. Racism, I found, was not a random occurrence, but institutional and systemic.

Throughout the discernment process, I was not only struggling to find my identity as a pastor and church leader, but also struggling to find my identity as a minority member of the ELCA, remembering that within the demographic makeup of the denomination, I represent less than 0.5% of the population within the ELCA. As such a small percentage of the ethnic makeup of the ELCA, I constantly wondered what would it mean to embody pastoral leadership? Were there others within pastoral and lay leadership that were willing to share their stories and experiences with me? Within part of my field study and academic coursework, I was very taken with testimonies and an exercise called “talk story.” It was through the means of testimony and “talk story” that the experiences of people deemed as “the other” had a very human face. Sharing stories and sharing experiences could be used as tools to create a community. With the opportunity to hear marginalized voices, I wanted to figure out ways to not only hear additional voices, but also find ways for voices to be heard throughout the denomination. With these testimonies, I wanted to think of ways to turn painful experiences into something constructive and life giving. Sharing stories is important for the church’s mission, partly to realize that we have different and rich experiences to share in our faith tradition, but also to recognize that individuals are created as special and unique beings that have unique experiences within a life of faith. Part of evangelization is through the sharing of testimony and personal stories of faith and experience. Within my discernment circle, I talked about a desire to interview Asian American pastors and lay leaders within the ELCA. It was important that the interviews take place face-to-face, as so much of a story and personality can be shared when being in the presence of a storyteller. I realized that I need to look speak with ordained and lay leaders who have had parallel experiences, sharing experience and talking to one another about those lived, embodied experiences. I had a desire to hear different stories, but to also wondering if sharing such stories would normalize my experience by getting to share my story within a community.

Part of the adventure of this project was finding interview subjects. I ended up taking a “snowball sample” of sorts. I would speak to one person, who would then refer me to more people. One of the successes of my project was the opportunity to network with Asian and Asian American pastors and lay leaders within the ELCA. Since I was lacking an ethnic community with which I could relate, this project provided me the valuable opportunity to speak to pastors and lay leaders and share our experiences with one another. There was the opportunity to find new to me brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of these new brothers and sisters in Christ shared similar experiences of confusion and otherness within the denomination. In sharing stories with one another, there was a common thread in conversations in thankfulness of meeting one another and having the opportunity to share stories with one another, face-to-face, and Incarnational, as opposed to reading words off a page or computer screen. Snowball sampling was also a weakness to the project. While it was adventurous to travel around the country speaking to new people, throughout the course of the project I heard about more people that I could have interviewed. While the project itself is over, I am still contacting people from the snowball sample.

I had personal expectations of interviewing people every day while visiting a new city. I prepared six questions used in every interview. Some of the questions were tailored depending on interviewing a pastor or a lay leader, but overall, the questions were very similar. I was surprised that many of the interviews were quite lengthy, some taking place over the course of many hours. I thought I could be mechanical in interviewing pastors and lay leaders. Initially, I was disappointed that I didn’t have interviews lined up every day, but I didn’t realize how I became emotionally invested in each interview. In retrospect, I am now glad I didn’t have interviews scheduled for every single day traveling. With some time off in each city I visited, I had time to process the interviews and if necessary, debrief with close confidants.

What did not work well in the project was part of my ingrained cultural conditioning. In speaking with older Asian and Asian American pastors, there was a sort of awkwardness with age and gender roles. Many interviews felt like a parent giving a child advice, and that as a dutiful and respectful child, I needed to follow through on such advice. I also wonder if my personal cultural issues contributed to me holding back on some of the interviews and asking more questions about the advice I received from the older male pastors.

Trying to edit a film in time to hopefully present something to the fellow’s retreat was also a mistake. I have around thirty hours of video for the interviews, as well as two hours of only audio recordings. With limited knowledge of film editing and software, this was a huge mistake. When I completed all of the interviews and returned home, I was overwhelmed with sifting through all of the video and audio to find a way to create a coherent short film. Since I only gave myself two weeks between the end of the interviews and the start of the fellow’s retreat, I realized in the midst of those two weeks that I would not be able to complete a short and coherent film in that amount of time. I’m still going through the video interviews, though, so I can have something to show my synodical office for next year.

Another aspect of the project that did not work for me was expanding the scope of my project. I went outside the scope of my revised proposal and visited three ELCA seminaries to talk about diversity education and how that was included in a seminary’s pedagogy. Since I was visiting three cities that were home to an ELCA seminary, I thought it would be a good opportunity to explore if and how diversity was being included in a seminary education. One of the three visits was successful. My time at Lutheran School of Theology Philadelphia was very valuable, but it was not necessary for me to visit Luther School of Theology Chicago and Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. I had hopes that other ELCA seminaries were including diversity within their pedagogy in different ways, but I was not adequately prepared to ask the right questions when making these visits.

Initially, I felt that I was adequate in networking in a new community. When starting seminary, I did not know of the existence of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Ministry within the ELCA’s Office of Multicultural Ministries. This project gave me the opportunity to meet many pastors and lay leaders involved with AAPI. When I initially started my seminary education, I was lonely and felt like a misfit toy on the island of misfit toys. I was no longer in solitary with my thoughts of being an Asian American woman seeking ordination and how that seemed to be an outlier of sorts within the ELCA.

I can share the conversations I had with AAPI pastors and lay leaders with my fellow seminarians, and hopefully with more people within the ELCA and other mainline Protestant churches. Through my seminary coursework, I have been repeatedly exposed to the dominant western European narrative of the Lutheran church and the European Lutheran migration to the United States. Part of my project was to explore my personal narrative and the narrative of Asians and Asian Americans within the ELCA. In getting to hear the stories of other Asians and Asian Americans, I was discovering new and unheard narratives within the church. I heard a dominant voice and a dominant story, but I was coming into conflict with some parts of the dominant narrative. I wanted to listen to voices that were within an underlying narrative. Part of me was seeking out people to tell their versions of their faith formation and faith journey. I was seeking a story that was maybe parallel to my own, but also a voice that was lying underneath the dominant narrative.

Much of the story telling and building community will continue past the life of this particular project. In the adventure of “snowball sampling,” I continue to hear about more conversation partners and storytellers. Even after presenting at the fellow’s retreat, I continue to meet with Asian and Asian American pastors and lay leaders to talk about lived experiences in ministry. I am continuing to meet with contacts and references in the San Francisco area because the process of community building and sharing stories will continue past my proposed FTE project.

Another continuation of the project is to nurture the relationships I’ve made throughout my summer travels. Part of continuing relationships will occur at the American Academy of Religion/ Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in San Francisco this year. This will be the first year the Asian Theological Summer Institute will host a reunion. I will be able to attend this reunion and grow relationships with professors and doctoral students I met at the conference, as well as meet with previous institute alumni.

One of the consequences of my project involves a form of truth telling. While the ELCA struggles to be a diverse church body, there have been various actions of attempting to be a welcoming community. The ELCA will not name the demon of racism, yet still struggles with being a predominantly Caucasian church. Many within the ELCA do not want to talk about racism because it is an uncomfortable subject that reveals incredibly unfair power dynamics. While conversations about racism are incredibly uneasy and uncomfortable, avoiding such conversations is avoiding a root problem that prevents a church becoming a welcoming and diverse representation of the body of Christ.

One of the themes prevalent within my project that greatly impacted me was the use of voice. Using one’s voice to communicate love, pain, gratitude, and injustice can be a powerful act. One of my struggles was the actual use of my voice; part of my apprehension of using my voice came from cultural conditioning. In joining the church, I thought if I simply stayed quiet, problems would disappear. In seminary, I came to the realization that while using my voice was initially scary, voice was needed to talk about issues and ideas that were lying beneath the dominant narrative. I continue to form and reform my personal voice, and I wanted to explore my personal narrative within a greater denominational narrative. Mental models that greatly struck me were listening to as may voices as possible; the use of voice can be empowering, and if multiple voices come together, there is an incredible amount of strength that can come in delivering a message.

This project has been a transformational exercise for me. I joined the church with a certain naïveté; that naïveté transformed to something different when I entered seminary and was exposed to the institutional racism within the seminary and the systemic racism within the denomination. I remember reading Hauerwas’ Resident Aliens, calling the church to be counter-cultural against a secular culture; I started to compare the insular culture of the ELCA, and that such a culture conflicted with my definition of community, encompassing the diversity of imago dei found in the world. With this project, Hauerwas’s words became an Incarnational reality as there is a need to move from “church culture” in an insular guarded sense to a greater “Church Culture” to be representative of the diversity of the body of Christ.

I still truly believe the entire church, not just the ELCA, is called to evangelize and share the Gospel. The ELCA must re-examine being the “Evangelical” Lutheran Church of America if it is to be a diverse church body representative of the diversity found in the world. In questioning the issues of racism and my personal struggle with identity, I believe much truth-telling needs to take place within the denomination. Truth telling is a relational process. I believe that there is a need to honestly speak about contextual definitions. There is a need to openly and honestly talk about racism, but with the realization that such conversations need to happen in love. While I am still uneasy with conversations about racism, I am called to speak truth to the matter, but also to be in conversation with members of my denomination. speaking truth when it’s uncomfortable, awkward, and challenging the status quo is a drastic action. What does it mean for the denomination to talk about the face of God’s church? What happens when the face of God’s church bumps up against my notions and the notions of others concerning the face of the church? Are we listening to the petition in the Lord’s Prayer of “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?”

Truth telling comes with continued sharing of experiences and story telling with one another. In telling stories of personal experiences, there is an opportunity to build community. With the story telling process comes the exposure of new narratives. In sharing our experiences in an embodied way, there is the potential to further discover and discuss the story of the church and the world. God’s work is that we are all the body of Christ.

What is it like to put a collar on this body?
Do I become asexual?
Do I wear long earrings as a distraction?
Is my skirt too short? Too long? Too funky?
My shoes. I wanted something comfy, but in my vanity, not frumpy.
I do not relate to the women in WomanSpirit ads, their hands clasped piously and wearing Mona Lisa smiles.

Twin Cities, Part II

My third visit in the Twin Cities was to Luther Seminary. This was outside the scope of my original proposal, though. I had the intention of traveling around visiting Asian American pastors in the ELCA (which means my visit to the Church of All Nations was also outside the original scope of my proposal), but the nature of a proposal is that it is merely that: a plan or a suggestion put forward. And the nature of plans or suggestions is that they are able to change, morph, and evolve. I realized while wandering around the library lounge at Lutheran School of Theology Chicago that I would be visiting cities that are home to ELCA Lutheran seminaries. I started this journey out at Lutheran School of Theology in Philadelphia, getting to wander the campus and interact with some of the professors. I attended chapel in Chicago, but did not have time for a guided tour of the physical building of the seminary and to speak to professors and staff about curriculum.

Why visit a seminary at this phase of the journey? Well, why not? I'm currently a seminary student at an ELCA seminary, and I was curious as to how other ELCA seminaries speak to "multicultural ministries." The staff at Luther made sure that I had a full day, but with this full day came many questions and some frustrations with seminary education and reactions with particular individuals in the ELCA. One conversation in particular was a struggle for me. The person I spoke with would throw out general terms such as "students of color," "international students," "us," and "them." Throughout the conversation, I asked her for clarification on these terms, to which she would add, "You know what I mean?" I told her, "No, actually I don't know what you mean." With words being used as powerful symbols, I get frustrated when words get thrown around without an adequate personal definition. I remember asking, "What do you mean by 'us'? Am I a part of this 'us'? Because if you're talking about students of color not being called to a congregation based on their physical appearance, I am not a part of your 'us.'" Honestly, I was sad and frustrated that this individual has a position which greatly impacts all students at Luther. She then asked me, "Well, you have all the answers, right?"

This is where I have an issue with diversity within the ELCA. Who then is responsible for acting to make the church a diverse body representative of humanity? Is it the responsibility of people of color to bring in diversity? Or is it the responsibility of each member of the denominational church body? Who then is accountable? Will the individual-ness of each person be honored if they come to the church, or will they be forced to act in a certain manner to match up with the dominant population?

I spoke with another individual who talked about some of the multicultural components that goes into a seminary education. One of my gripes with the whole of seminary education is that I wonder if I'm learning about ministry and theology that is applicable to the parish? Are future church leaders being trained to speak about race, gender, and class issues? Are future church leaders being trained in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue? Also, what the heck is multicultural ministry? There have been different definitions flying around since I've started this journey. There is no concrete definition for a multicultural ministry. With the constraints of seminary education, there is an incredible nuance; there can be a significant difference between what one is trained to do and what one is called to do.

I spoke with one of the staff of Church of All Nations before I left the Twin Cities. It was an insightful and challenging conversation. Part of the discussion led to the question, "Can there really be a 'multicultural' ministry?" What happens if populations are segregated? What happens when one population is forced to act unlike themselves to act like the majority? Colonialism still happens in the church, yet can we love one another when people don't fully understand who they are? Ultimately, I still think to John 13:34-35, which is one of the verse I carried with me during my Clinical Pastoral Education experience. "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Yet, what does it mean to love? What does it look like to love? I revert back to my conversation with Pastor Jin Kim when he spoke of letting go of fears into the hands of the Spirit, freeing us to love each other, giving us the ability to tell each other, "I care about you" with genuine love and compassion. 

Catching Up and Processing.

I realize that I haven't visited this space in a couple of days. My time in Minneapolis/ St. Paul provided immense food for thought. I think I'm still processing a lot of the conversations that took place in Minnesota, because I see similar conversation threads appearing in people I'm speaking with in Los Angeles.

I had three meetings scheduled in the Twin Cities. My first meeting was with Pastor Thiem Baccam of the Lao Evangelical Lutheran Church of Robbinsdale, Minnesota. I found Pastor Baccam through the ELCA Asian American Pacific Islander Church listing. I pretty much cold called him, and he graciously agreed to be interviewed for my project. I was engrossed in Pastor Baccam's life story and ministry experience. He was raised as a Christian in Laos, but fled his home country in the mind 1970s. He and his family relocated to Iowa. While he identified as a Christian in Laos, he became Lutheran when he lived in the United States. He went on to attend college and seminary in Iowa. His ministry experience is also filled with incredible, blessed, and challenging events. He was called to lead a Laotian congregation in the Twin Cities area when he left seminary. His congregation fluctuated in size, nested with white congregations, had their own physical church building until Minneapolis seized the building for eminent domain as the church sat in an area of the city that was being redeveloped and revitalized, and making the space to minister to first and second generation Laotians. Parts of my conversation with Pastor Baccam resonate in my head. He and lay leaders within his congregation had to restructure the liturgy for worship so that worship communicates to his congregation's context. He also wrestled with having separate language services; he currently has one service which is bilingual. He stated there is challenges in such worship, as the first generation is comfortable worshiping in Laotian and the second generation is comfortable worshiping in English. Pastor Baccam has provided pastoral care to both groups, but also letting both populations know that room must be made for community to exist as a *single* community, as opposed to a community separated by language and generational differences. Pastor Baccam is highly invested in the younger people in his congregation, seeing ministry leadership traits abound in this population. He wants to grow leaders from within his church; he encourages such leadership in worship and organizing community activities. He believes that part of his ministry is to strengthen the priesthood of all believers.

Pastor Baccam's congregation has experienced numerous changes. He stated the congregation has nested in several buildings, even owning their own building at one point. Membership increases and decreases. Latinos, Blacks, and Whites are now coming to worship in his bilingual Laotian/ English services. He's wondering how to be an inclusive church, recognizing that the life of this congregation continues to change and evolve. He's partnered with the Pentecostal congregation that shares the same church building and they're having their first joint worship service on July 10th. He is also working to strengthen the relationship with the white congregation that owns the physical property of the church. They share in fellowship activities, but Pastor Baccam acknowledged that there are some cultural differences between the two communities that hamper clear communication. In speaking with Pastor Baccam, he is living in a space where he as the opportunity for creative ministries. Since I only spent time with him, I wonder what ministry within this congregation will look like in the coming months and the next few years.

My next meeting was transformational and incredible. I read about Church of All Nations in Dr. Joanne Doi's Asian American Theologies class. In Sang Hyun Lee's book, "From a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology," he talks about the diverse population within the congregation at Church of All Nations. How can such a diverse population worship as a single community? What does the church leadership look like theologically and physically? What advice would the lead pastor (in this case, Pastor Jin Kim) have for future leaders of the church? What advice would the pastor and staff have for congregations that are wrestling with a sense of identity? I spent a couple of hours in the church staff meeting. I was intrigued by the meeting; I've sat in meetings where the church is concerned about the needs of the immediate congregation and the physical building of the church with little regard to the church catholic. I also realize this can be seen as an unfair statement because no church meeting is the same and each church has its own unique concerns. But I can speak to the church meetings I have attended (and at different congregations) and the similarity was focusing on the immediate needs of the immediately present congregation.

Part of looking at the greater church was from the pastor and one of the staff returning from a Korean caucus meeting. Changes in ordination processes (similar to the ordination of LGBT clergy within the ELCA) are coming about within the PCUSA. In Pastor Jin's keynote address to the caucus, he stated that the Holy Spirit has left the PCUSA. Pastor Jin and the staff talked about this present time being a critical period within the PCUSA's history, and also a critical period in history for the Korean church in America.

In visiting with Church of All Nations, much of the conversation with Pastor Jin focused on identity and the state of mainline Protestant traditions in the United States. I was intrigued by a list I saw on the wall titled, "Who We Are." It is a ten-point list that was created at their Board of Deacon's Retreat on May 2, 1010. Their "Top 10" can be found if you scroll down on this page. In pastoral identity, Pastor Jin spoke to me about transforming character. They have an internship program where there is not an assigned time limit; character cannot be developed within a rigid amount of time. Transforming character is something that cannot be confined to the constraints of time; it is instead carefully developed.

I was excited and challenged by my conversation with Pastor Jin and interacting with the staff at Church of All Nations. I cannot fully describe in words on this blog how I was impacted by the visit. There are so many topics in my head, particularly transformation versus deformation, fear in church communities, placing fears and apprehensions on the Holy Spirit to freely love people as they are, self-esteem, and Jesus being victimized but never playing the victim. I will probably come back to this space to communicate my experience with the people of Church of All Nations.

With all of this processing, I will use my next post to talk about my visit to Luther Seminary, my frustrations with theological education, and my journeys in the southern California area.  

Sowing of seeds.

I had a wonderful last couple of days in Chicago. Friday was spent visiting Lutheran Theological Seminary Chicago and attending a chapel led by a Missionary Baptist praise team. The sermon was titled, "Desperate times call for desperate measures." The text was from Matthew 15 of the faith of the Caananite woman, desperate to heal her child. I continue to struggle with the text concerning the Caananite woman, because Jesus comes off as kind of a jerk. The preacher spoke of Jesus pulling reversals on everyone, being an expert of sorts. But the Caananite woman is the one to pull a reversal on the ruler of reversals. She does this in great desperation for her daughter, but also in great faith. The preacher spoke to how he has been marginalized in so many ways, and in his desperation, Christ comes to meet him. For just coming off a bus and walking into the seminary's chapel, this sermon was spiritual food.

How does spiritual food come about? Agriculturally, seeds need to be sown in order to grow food. I thought about the sowing of seeds my last couple of days in Chicago for many reasons. One reason was that so many people from transitional parts of my life were in Chicago that same weekend. A member of my failed master's thesis committee was in Chicago visiting friends. One of my first friends from Fuller Theological Seminary was in town for his 25th high school reunion. A fellow PLTS student was in town for meetings. And Chris Heavner was in town. My husband and I lovingly refer to Christ Heavner as PC; many of Chris's flock call him PC as well. PC is the campus pastor at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. It is through PC's conversations and patience that I became curious about Christianity. As a joke, I tell people that I became Lutheran because I went to a potluck, but I think the Spirit was working on me through PC. I met PC when I was a sophomore in college; one of my best friends invited me to a potluck at University Lutheran Church and I went because there was going to be free home-cooked food. But what came out of that potluck was a sense of koinonia and love; being in community was actually awkward for me since I was so used to worshiping with just my family. I graduated from Clemson thankful for knowing PC through campus ministry and Habitat for Humanity, not thinking much about how PC would impact my future. I worked as a consultant for a couple of years. I met Karl. Then Karl and I decided to get married. PC re-entered our lives, and in quite an interesting way. PC, Karl, and I met once a week for two years so I could ask PC anything about Christianity; PC would answer my questions to the best of his ability, and he could ask me questions about my faith journey. This was an incredible time of learning and growing for me. And it was at University Lutheran, in the midst of singing "I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry" that I experienced God's love and grace. I was actually so freaked out by the experience, I burst into tears in the middle of the hymn. And I was scared. I experienced a real God in church, but didn't know if I wanted to follow God. So I wavered. I wavered for two years, when I was finally baptized at Salem Lutheran Church in Glendale, CA, on the other side of the country from Clemson, SC.

Getting to spend time with PC in Chicago was a wonderful experience for me. It was in Chicago where PC was a seminarian and worked for the church office. It was wonderful to hear of his experiences in the city and to share my own with him. We wandered around the city talking about ministry experiences. We talked about loving people, even though it's not always easy. We talked about changes in mainline churches. We also talked about internship and community.

After such a rich experience getting to spend time with PC, I was excited to go to church on Sunday morning. I planned to attend First Evangelical Lutheran Church located in Logan Square. When I stepped off the Blue Line, I was reminded of my experiences in the neighborhood around University of Southern California. There were shop signs in Spanish, but also upscale eateries. The neighborhood looked like it was in transition. I reached the church and met Pastor Eardley Mendis (Pastor Mendis is originally from Sri Lanka). I joined in the Bible study, which was in both Spanish and English. I participated in worship, where I read the Hebrew Bible reading from Jeremiah 28:5-9 concerning true and false prophets. I was also asked to give my testimony at the end of the service. I spoke to the congregation and told them a brief version of my story and how I am currently a seminarian. I spoke to the awesomeness and mysteriousness of God's love. I joined members of the congregation for lunch. I was hoping to interview Pastor Mendis, but the realities of ministry made the interview not possible. We were hoping to speak after lunch, but the front wheel of a parishioner's bicycle went missing. The bicycle was the only means of transportation for this parishioner, and there was a search for the missing wheel. I spoke to Pastor Mendis later in the evening, and he gave the parishioner money for a new wheel.

I was very struck by the mural immediately behind the chancel space in the church. The mural was a sign that the congregation itself appeared to be in fluctuation. The mural depicted a predominantly Caucasian population, ranging from crusaders, pilgrims, and pioneers. Native Americans were placed at the bottom of the mural, not directly gazing at the congregation like the other people in the mural. Representative in the congregation, however, were Latinos, Blacks, Whites, and Asians. We knelt together at the communion rail, recognizing our common bond in brother and sisterhood in Christ. I was happy to be in church that Sunday morning.   

Thoughts on the day.

Today I participated in a roundtable discussion at Truth Lutheran Church in Naperville, IL. This was a valuable opportunity to talk to Asian pastoral leadership in the ELCA. En route to Naperville, I had an interesting conversation with Pongsak Limthongvirtan about Multicultural Ministries in the ELCA. He had some advice for me, which was to get a PhD. I'm still struggling with this as part of my discernment process, because I'm called to serve the church, yet I still don't quite know what that looks like... is it as a pastor, or as an educator, and of course, why not a pastor/ educator? This comment also made me wonder about my future in the church. Maybe I'm over-thinking the comment, but is the PhD to prove something, and what

In speaking with the pastors and lay leaders in attendance, we spoke about pastoral identity, "Lutheran identity," hopes and expectations for the Office of Multicultural Ministries, creative ministry, and a church that is becoming increasingly marginalized.

One of the aspects of "multicultural" ministry with which I still struggle is separated services. Two pastors in attendance stated that they have a native language service, with the second generation population attending a separate English service. Truth Lutheran Church even has two separate sanctuaries and the native language service is the same time as the English language service. There is a combined service once a month. There are fellowship opportunities to bring the separate worship communities together, but what binds the communities together?

Two of the pastors also spoke of bringing not just their ethnicity to the table, but their life and ministry experiences. There was mention of segregating the Asian/ Asian American population to their own church, but at what cost? Is that representative of the body of Christ? 

We also talked about definitions of "identity" and "multiculturalism." Words have such loaded meanings, especially in speaking about self and lived experience. A word as a symbol can mean entirely different things among different people. How then do we communicate when a symbol carries a multitude of meanings? How then does translation occur?  

Think Glocally.

The past couple of days have been wonderful and interesting. Yesterday started the second part of my trips focusing on my FTE Fellowship project. I left San Francisco in the morning and arrived in Chicago in the afternoon. Once I checked into my hotel room, I hopped on the Blue Line to meet a fellow FTE Fellow, Jennifer. Jennifer, her friend, and I dined at a Puerto Rican restaurant called Borinquen where I ate my first jibarito (meat between pieces of fried plantains). The discussion over dinner was amazing. Jennifer and I talked about the similarity of our projects, and Jennifer's friend had phenomenal input on speaking of embodied experience and "languages" learned by our bodies. The conversation continued at Jennifer's apartment over dessert. It was an incredible conversation and such a sacred space. As Jennifer's friend stated, she didn't believe in accidents. Last night's conversation reminded me of words as symbols, and that such symbols have different definitions in different contexts.

Today I visited the Churchwide Office of the ELCA. I spoke with Sunitha Mortha, director of the ELCA Global Formation Program. We spoke about issues of identity as well. We spoke at length about the nebulous concept of "Lutheran identity," and how that is a highly contextual notion. What could be considered Lutheran in one location may not be considered as Lutheran in another location. We spoke a lot about shifting ideas in theological education, and paradigm shifts in not only theological education, but in ministry.

Sunitha is currently working on "Glocal Mission Gatherings," which are taking place all over the United States throughout 2010 and 2011 (click on the link to find out more about these gatherings on Facebook; the ELCA link is here). These gatherings are asking vital questions, such as "What is mission?" and "Who is the neighbor?" particularly in a world of migration and immigration. We talked about the changing world of mission work; missionary work does not have to be an exotic notion of colonizing a far-away land, but mission can happen in the pews, immediately outside the walls of the church. She is working to create spaces where people can share their feelings, thoughts, and ideas concerning ideas of modern mission. Trinity Lutheran Seminary is going to be the first seminary to host a Glocal Gathering. I think speaking of Glocal Mission is vital for future church leaders; when she told me that there was a seminary participating, I was excited that a ministry experience was being brought to future church leaders. I think Glocal experiences should not be limited to a cross-cultural requirement, but that mission work should be integral to theological education.

We also spoke on issues of diversity and responsibility. How can the church become more diverse? We talked about the continuing paradigm shifts in ministry, but we also talked about coming from a tradition of reformation. The church, in light of recent economic problems, is being forced to reform. We also talked about Martin Luther; what would happen if he walked into a present-day ELCA church? What would he say? 

Meeting Sunitha and having the opportunity to speak with her was such an incredible experience which parleyed to last night's discussion with Jennifer and Jennifer's friend. This experience continues to be an incredible experience and blessing.