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?

Culture of losing

I just watched the Seahawks game. As soon as the announcer said that the Seahawks that all they had to do was keep the Cowboys from scoring twice in two and half minutes I knew what was going to happen. The Cowboys were going to score twice in two and a half minutes. What is it about Seattle sports teams that makes me believe they're destined to lose. When I watched the old Blazers (Drexler,Porter,Duckworth, etc.), I always expected them to be able to pull it out. The same can be said for Jordan and Elway. It's not the same with Seattle. I expect the Sonics to start shooting bricks next week when their legs get tired. I believe that it's a culture of losing, the self-fulfilling prophecy that you can't win.

I realize that I've pretty much been experiencing that culture of losing in my own church for at least the last two years. For whatever reasons, I've been going to church and to fellowships expecting not to learn anything. I expect the messages not to touch my heart. I expect to leave unchanged. When I see new people, I expect not to see them the next week. I expect not to connect with other people besides the ones I normally connect with. How does one change the culture of losing?

I just hope I'm not the one that has the ball bounce off my forehead in the endzone.

Synchronicity

God's timing is incredible. As Gar has created this blog spot for Wudan, I just resurrected the old Wudan Mountain Yahoo list - we had no idea that we were both working on these seperate (but related) ministries. I've been gathering brothers together (albeit slowly) to meet Saturday mornings; just an informal coffee chat opportunity to catch up and share about what we're reading (which is currently the Da Vinci Code). We call this spiritual convergence.

welcome.

hey everybody,

This blog has been a project in the back of my mind for a long time, and I've finally decided to give it a try.

For those us who were members of the original Wudan Mountain at UW AACF, many of us have now graduated from school, moved onto working, grad school, new cities, and even new countries - but that doesn't mean that God hasn't stopped calling each us to minister to our communities and those around us.

This blog is for the purpose of being able to report on ministry opportunities, church events / news, network, prayer requests / praises, etc that happening in your life now.

Personal posts without spiritual content or frivolous posts (ie, lava lamps killing people) should NOT be posted on this blog - save that stuff for your own pages.

Other than that, there are no restrictions to what you can post - so please, feel free to write whatever you think is important for everybody else to know.

I want this page to be both useful and belong to everybody - hopefully, it'll be a resource to keep us all connected and informed about the greater Christian community.

Enjoy and God Bless!