Do You Mind?

Hello, friends!

About 2 years ago it finally started happening. ACF got to the point that it didn’t need me. The first few years of ACF, everything revolved around me. I was the planner and the executer. Students helped a TON but ultimately, they still mostly just helped. It wasn’t that they weren’t capable. It was just that they didn’t feel like they had the spiritual authority to do stuff without me. My goal has always been to change that mentality.

It was a subtle change but one that I definitely noticed. The questions changed. No longer was it, “hey, can ACF do this?” The question was, “Do you mind if ACF does this?” It may seem like a small change but it’s actually huge. The first question implies that I’ll be the one who is actually doing the work. “Can ACF do this” can be interpreted as, “I have a need that I believe ACF can fill in some way. Can you please put something together that will fill this need of mine?” Mind you, this isn’t a bad question to ask. ACF’s mission is the share Christ’s love with the Asian and Asian Americans on campus and it’s my job to serve students so I’m happy to do it. It’s just a different question that the “do you mind…”

See, the “Do you mind…” question implies planning. It means that the student(s) has already out his or her idea into motion and is asking more for approval than anything else. The “Do you mind…” question really is, “Hey, I have this idea for something that I want to do. Can ACF put their name on it so it’ll be more official?” I love saying yes to that question.

It’s hard to say exactly how we got to that point. It could be because we had student leaders who were full of ideas. Maybe they finally started getting the spiritual authority piece that I’d been trying to tell them all these years. Maybe it was just the grace of God. It’s probably all 3 (and DEFINITELY the third one). It doesn’t really matter. All that does matter is that then, just like now, I really didn’t mind them taking ownership at all. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

And So It Begins...

Hello, friends!

As a general rule, if your supervisor asks you to go out to dinner, it’s usually not a good sign... Oddly enough, it was a dinner with my supervisor that led me on this incredible 8 year journey in the first place.

My senior year, the plan was simple. I was going to graduate then intern with InterVarsity for a year at my Alma Mater (go Bears!). A few weeks after I’d gotten accepted to the internship, my staff worker Jean met me at my apartment and asked me if I would actually consider planting at UMSL instead of staffing at WashU. She said that she saw planting gifts in me that I didn’t personally see, but I’m generally good at following orders so I said sure and starting making plans.

A few weeks after that, Jean called me again and said that Bum, the Area Director, wanted to take me to dinner. At that point I got worried. Had I been fired? Did I do something wrong? Jean wanted to talk to me all the time so that wouldn’t have been weird but going up the ladder one more rung was not something to be taken lightly. Still, he would be buying and we were going to get Bubble Tea so I figured that whatever bad news was coming, I’d at least get a free meal out of it.

We met at Bubble Tea and after we got our food (and drinks, of course) Bum pops the question, “So, what do you think about moving to Columbia?”

Here’s the thing. Up to that point, I had no idea about the University of Missouri. I grew up in Southern California where UCLA and USC dominated the airwaves. Besides, I cared more about professional sports than college sports anyway. WashU was a Division III school so there was very little chance of any big time university coming our way. I didn’t know what Mizzou was and I certainly didn’t know that it was in Columbia, Missouri.

I thought he was sending me to South America.

Bum must have picked up on the confused look on my face because he then proceeded to explain to me that there was a small group of Asian Americans meeting on Mizzou’s campus and he wanted me to go check it out with him to see if there was planting opportunity there. Relieved that I was still going to be a US citizen, I readily agreed to the trip.

When Bum and I got to Columbia, I was introduced to Andrew Moon and Asian American Bible Study (AABS). Andrew was a PhD student in Philosophy who did his undergraduate work at The Ohio State University where he was a part of InterVarsity there. When he moved to Mizzou, he craved Asian American community like he had at Ohio State so he joined the Asian American Association. From there, he started AABS and had a dozen Asian and Asian American students meeting  at his apartment regularly, including about a half dozen non-Christians.

I met Andrew and sat in on an AABS and while I was there, I just knew that God was calling me there. The situation was too ripe and the students were ready for more of the Gospel. On the ride home I told Bum that I was a go for the move and the rest, as they say, is history…

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

7am Breakfast Meetings

Hello, friends!

Here’s a fun fact for you: I am not a morning person. I’m just not. I don’t know if it’s genetics, behavioral patterns, or what, but the morning and I don’t get along so well. Why I decided that breakfast meetings were a good idea early in my staff career is completely beyond me.

My first years out here I learned how ill equipped I was to actually do my job. I’d spent my undergrad hanging out with dudes and gals who liked to play football. Emotions and such weren’t really my thing, unless you counted randomly hugging strangers after the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006. So, of course, God surrounded me with mostly female students those first few years. Female students with emotions…

The cycle usually went something like this: I would do or say something insensitive. A female student would be offended by it and ask to chat. We would decide on a 7am breakfast. We would meet and I would try to defend myself but not do it well since it was too early for me to be thinking straight. Things would be “resolved” but not really. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Looking back, I am so thankful for those first female students. They showed me much grace and kept ACF afloat. They also made me a better staff. Eventually, I got more experience being pastoral. I do a better job of keeping my mouth shut and listening more. I strive for understanding as much as I do being right. I also don’t schedule anything before 9am. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

And We're Off!

Hello, friends!

ACF’s birthday is October 1, 2008. It was on that day that we were officially recognized as a student group at Mizzou. The weeks leading up to it were probably the most tense of my life.

Here’s the thing about the student group process: it has to be completely student led. Students are the ones who submit the paperwork. Students are the ones who answer the questions during the interview. Ultimately, the students are the ones who have to own the group in order for it to function.

We weren’t a super old group when it was time to apply to be an official student org. We had just started meeting in a building instead of an apartment and hadn’t reached that critical number of students yet so as to make us an unstoppable force. We had young students who were still trying to figure out how to be family. I did what I could to prep them but when I heard that I wasn’t allowed to be at the interview, I was less than pleased and more than nervous.

I should have known better. I forgot that ACF students are all stars, that Mizzou wants more clubs, and the God is not going to let an interview stop his purposes from being accomplished. 7 years later, ACF continues to be an org in good standing but it all started with that one day in the Fall.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

The First 20

Hello, friends!

When ACF started, we met in an apartment. We were 5 students and 1 staff who came together for dinner and a bible study. I’d head over to our student Lyndy’s place to cook around 5ish, hoping that everything was ready to go by 7. We’d eat dinner, sing a few songs, study the word, and be done by 9. I’m pretty sure that first year the most students we ever had was 8 inside that little apartment.

By year 2, I knew we needed a new space. The apartment was great but if we were going to grow, we were going to need somewhere to go. Thankfully, right next to Lyndy’s apartment was a church who’s pastor just happened to be the old pastor of my aunt’s church in St. Louis. He said that our building was open for us to use whenever we needed it and our relationship with the International Community Church was born.

As we transitioned from the apartment to the ICC, slowly the numbers grew. One week it was 10 students. The next week it was 13. Soon we had 16 or 17 students coming regularly. It still wasn’t a big group but it felt like we were moving in the right direction.

Then it happened. During dinner, I counted like I always did and when I’d finished counting, we were at 21… It may not seem like a big deal now but at the time, I was ecstatic. My planting coach had told me that once you get to 20, it’s hard to go back down. That word held true for 6 years. Between that week in Year 2 until just this past fall, ACF never had fewer than 20 students show up to an ACF Wednesday. There were some weeks when it looked dicey, only to have a few students show up in the middle of worship. Whenever we hit that 20 count, I remembered God’s faithfulness and how he was intent on taking care of ACF.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam 

Conference Legacies

Hello, friends!

I love conferences. I’m going to be directing the Missouri Fall Conference next year so here’s hoping I love them. =0). One of the things that I love the most about conference is how they change lives and build legacies.

About 4 years back, one of our students Danny invited Willin, a freshman, to go to Fall Conference. Willin wasn’t a Chrisitan but Danny believed that there was a shot. It turns out that Danny was right, and Willin gave her life to Jesus at that Fall Conference.

Fast forward just about a year and we’re getting ready for our next Fall Conference. I tell our Core students that if they have any friends they want to go and those friends need a scholarship to email me and we’ll make it work.

The email I got from Willin is one that I will always remember. It said, “I’d like to give Elaine a scholarship to Fall Conference. If she goes, she will accept Jesus.” Just like that. The confidence and faith that Willin had was amazing. You know what the best part is? She was totally right. We gave Elaine the scholarship and at Fall Conference she decided to give her life to Jesus, standing right next to Willin. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

McVangelism

Hello, friends!

McVangelism is a term that I coined early in my staff career to explain what I’d learned about working with male non-Christian students: they open up to you a lot more about their lives when they have a burger in the hands. I’m sure there’s some sort of science behind it but I explain it this way: when a guy is relaxed and know that you’ve got his back, he’ll open up a little bit more. What says, “I’m cool and I’ve got you,” better than a burger?! =0).

One of my favorite McVangelism stories is with J. J was dating E, one of our Core students but he wasn’t really into the Christianity thing. I’d only met him a few times but usually it was at the campus McDonald’s. He’d usually be eating a Big Mac and we’d talk about how underrated of a sandwich it was.

E somehow got J to go to Fall Conference and from there, the Holy Spirit hit him like a freight train. I was playing on the worship team and I could see out into the crowd so I knew that J had been hit hart. Before we left to go back to CoMO, I made sure that I set up a meeting with J to talk about what he’d experienced.

Of course, we went to the campus McDonald’s and while eating a Big Mac and fries, he shared with me his Fall Conference experience. It was exactly as I’d seen. He’d felt the presence of God and it scared him because he didn’t think he could handle that kind of emotion all the time. We talked through what it meant to be a Christian, about how it is a process and a daily following. We talked about how that “conference high” was not an everyday thing but that every day he would feel closer and closer to God. Right there, during the lunch rush at the campus McDonald’s, J gave his life to Jesus and he hasn’t looked back ever since.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam