In the past five months, the theme of my faith journey was: Surrender. (My last blog)
As I learned what it might look like to surrender, many opportunities were placed before me, including the following:
- South Carolina: A retreat with veteran ministry leaders
- Colorado: A week long retreat with Christian international student leaders
- Texas: A weekend retreat with the house church two hours east of Dallas
- Alabama: A week visiting a missionary family
- California: A week meeting a dozen ministry leaders in Silicon Valley and Bay Area
- California: Two weeks back in Los Angeles to share about digital missions with my family and homechurch
- Arizona: Three days brainstorming new ideas for missions
- Dallas: A week at a missions conference networking with leaders and sharing the vision of Indigitous to 1000+ people
- Florida: A week at one more missions conference building collaboration
SEASON OF TRANSITION
During this season of transition, I continued to take on projects with ministries including Indigitous, Chinese Mission Convention, China Evangelical Seminary, and others. To start with “surrender” I committed to putting all of my working hours into ministry. At the same time, it was fun to be learning new and creative ways to serve with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
CAREER CHANGE?
While this work in creative content production felt meaningful, I found myself at a crossroads with my career. How am I to be effective in ministry, especially in the missions world, when all I have to offer are nice videos. Don’t get me wrong, I love making videos as a tool for storytelling. It’s even opened up opportunities to produce documentaries overseas in Iraq and China. Creative content production may still be part of my future in ministry, but I’m starting to see that God also has a greater story in my life that I also need to share with others. How might I surrender my work to really be able to serve in God’s global mission?
GREATER CAUSE
I was now diving into a season of transition, essentially rebranding myself. I needed to pursue excellence beyond my current skill set to truly give God my effort. And Christ had to be my full motivation, especially his commission for us to go and make disciples of all nations. I have plenty to grow in all aspects of my head, heart, and hands.
To be an effective steward of God’s gifts, I began to test my capacity while learning new workplace skills as well as theology. Part of my week now goes to learning more about Design Thinking as well as starting a single course at Dallas Theological Seminary (MA in Intercultural Studies). No, the plan isn’t to be a pastor. The goal is to have a deeper foundation in order to encourage and activate fellow believers around me to steward their gifts for God.
MY CONFESSION and PRAYER REQUEST
While I know in my head that my works of service are beneficial for God’s kingdom, there are times when I see my heart disconnected from the burden of people who don’t know Jesus. God, I pray for a heart that softens for those who might not ever get a chance to properly know of your truth and your goodness. I pray that you will stir in my heart a true conviction of sacrifice and surrender as I continue to count the costs beyond myself. God, I offer all of my head, heart, and hands to be your servant!
Thanks for reading!