Cohi, anyone?
Just curious to hear some of your thoughts regarding Cohi... over the years, I've had mixed feelings about Cohi. There's been some great stuff, and also some not-so-great stuff. Considering how long it's been around despite its lack of consistent leadership is perhaps an indicator of God's faithfulness to continue to use it (though I'm not completely sure about that). Anyway, after directing in 2002, then seeing it fade off into the distance (or fall through the cracks, whatever- choose your metaphor) for 2003 and 2004, I'm wondering whether or not people think it ought to continue.
As May Ching and I decided to gather a group of people to prayerfully discuss this about 6 months ago, we hashed it all out and were open to just letting the ministry "die" so to speak in hopes that maybe the efforts typically directed towards Cohi could be invested in other ministries. But as we all got together to share and hear where everyone was at, we felt that it would be worthwhile to continue Cohi, and also revisit its mission, core values, and overall purpose.
We ended up concluding that Cohi was really about building up and connecting local churches through fostering community between people who normally did not cross paths, and so we decided to move away from the "churchy camp" retreat model (since there are so many of these already throughout the year), and move towards a more relevant context- a conference in the city that was more accessible in every way- cost, location, and place in life. In that sense, we wanted to make it cheap, close, and appealing for people in various places in their spiritual journey.
Anyway, I could ramble on and on about all this, but the reason I'm posting is because a recent development in the broader Seattle-Asian-American-Christian community has introduced some questions:
1. Who does the "Cohi" name really belong to?
2. Who has the authority to represent and steer the ministry?
3. What is the purpose/essence of Cohi and how do you define the Cohi ministry?
Because I'm deeply invested in Cohi, it's hard for me to see it from the outside. What's really going on is the possibility that there may be 2 Cohi gatherings led by 2 entirely different bodies of leadership with 2 similar, but distinct visions for the future of Cohi in 2005- one in February and one in October. I find it all very odd and strange and quite possibly confusing, but maybe I'm weird. Am I crazy?
As May Ching and I decided to gather a group of people to prayerfully discuss this about 6 months ago, we hashed it all out and were open to just letting the ministry "die" so to speak in hopes that maybe the efforts typically directed towards Cohi could be invested in other ministries. But as we all got together to share and hear where everyone was at, we felt that it would be worthwhile to continue Cohi, and also revisit its mission, core values, and overall purpose.
We ended up concluding that Cohi was really about building up and connecting local churches through fostering community between people who normally did not cross paths, and so we decided to move away from the "churchy camp" retreat model (since there are so many of these already throughout the year), and move towards a more relevant context- a conference in the city that was more accessible in every way- cost, location, and place in life. In that sense, we wanted to make it cheap, close, and appealing for people in various places in their spiritual journey.
Anyway, I could ramble on and on about all this, but the reason I'm posting is because a recent development in the broader Seattle-Asian-American-Christian community has introduced some questions:
1. Who does the "Cohi" name really belong to?
2. Who has the authority to represent and steer the ministry?
3. What is the purpose/essence of Cohi and how do you define the Cohi ministry?
Because I'm deeply invested in Cohi, it's hard for me to see it from the outside. What's really going on is the possibility that there may be 2 Cohi gatherings led by 2 entirely different bodies of leadership with 2 similar, but distinct visions for the future of Cohi in 2005- one in February and one in October. I find it all very odd and strange and quite possibly confusing, but maybe I'm weird. Am I crazy?
posted by david @ 3:02 PM
4 Comments:
At 11:34 PM,
anon said…
maybe you should just copyright "Co-Hi". sort of a brute force method, but it'd work... provided you were willing to sue people who infringed on it :P
seriously tho, maybe CoHi needs a name change? Sure there's lots in a name, but the CoHi [college-high school] moniker seems to limit the role of non-students [i.e. people around our age 23-30] to pretty much planners/helpers as opposed to being an active participant. Would it be too weakening to the overall theme of CoHi [or whatever it would be called] to have a portion for people my age? After all, it'd seem that there'd be less of a need for people in the time intensive role of the typical cabin counselor if you're steering away from the retreat model.
At 10:00 AM,
anon said…
yeah, actually i considered before i posted whether or not i was being bit selfish or not. Ultimately, i decided being too lazy to post when i had something to say and not sharing my view was more lame.
What my thoughts stemmed from was this comment from Dave on the CoHi website:
"Cohi is a conference, not a retreat; thus, it is in the city, not some far away place. It is intended to help people bridge contexts and engage their culture, be it high school, college, the campus, the workplace, the city, the suburbs, the community center, the concert, the sports event, the bar, the club, or the church"
which seemed implicitly, at least in part, aimed at a slightly broader [on the higher side] age range than the typical CoHi participant. And let's face it, if you're helping out at a CoHi event you're not really doing much bridging and engaging on your own.
It is quite possible my suggestion is biased due to us all having different burdens for different people, and that mine has shifted from the typical CoHi age to people more around mine. However, since CoHi is reinventing itself, i think it's valid to at least take a look at the possible extension of "CoHi" to people a bit older.
On the issue of the CoHi name, my personal opinion is that i wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. God is going to bless who he's going to bless. I don't think he really cares too much what a ministry is called. It is even possible that the CoHi name will be a hindrance to the new effort given that it's being retooled, and people will retain the expectations that come with CoHi's past.
At 10:04 AM,
anon said…
hmmm the thought did occur to me that I forget exactly how much babysitting high schoolers and even college kids need. Which also brings me to the logistical problem of just keeping the kids in the same building. I mean we are responsible for them and at least when we're in the boonies they ain't got nowhere to go. Maybe the CoHi budget will have to include heavy duty chains for the doors?
At 1:35 AM,
G said…
Just got back from Cali, but I thought I spill a few quick thoughts I had.
1) The origin of the "CoHi" name comes from CollegeHighschool. Too move far beyond that seems odd, especially when that age group of asian ams (college & highschoolers) is still has a great need to be ministered too.
2) As Mel and others have noted, there's already been a pretty well-established pattern of the "CoHi Authority" being passed from one set of leaders to the next. And always in amicable way.
3) The essence of CoHi has constantly changed through the years, but I believe that there are some basic paradigms: older generations of Asian American Christians investing in younger generations; showing the reality of Christ by sharing life experiences; drawing strength from a community of local churches, and not just a single denomination or Asian ethnicity.
Not to place blame on those who came before me at CBC, but from my own experiences, but gap between my generation and the "adults" at my church was pretty significant. Attending CoHi for the first time as a senior high schooler allowed me to bridge that gap briefly. So the question is, now that it us who are in that same situation, what do we do? Wait for some other organization or church to pick up the slack?
I think the burden that God has laid on some many of our hearts for carrying out the continuation of CoHi in a meaningful way is evidence enough that we are being called to this ministry and like I said before, invest in the kids. After all, WE WERE THEM only about 4-10 years ago.
.:.
As for the question of a young career ministry... hrmmm. It's important, but it's never been a primary focus of CoHi.
Since CoHi counselor ranks are primarily drawn from young career / young adults, I believe that the way in which CoHi has ministered to this age group in the past has been that those who minister are in turn ministered to by those they minister to - meaning the exchange is both ways, not just counselor to camper.
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