L2 Foundation Blog

Chronicle of Philanthropy hosted an online discussion last month on the future of religious charities. These 3 panelists fielded questions:

• William O’Keefe, the senior director of advocacy for Catholic Relief Services, in Baltimore, an organization that receives federal money to provide overseas development aid.
• Paul Lichterman, an associate professor of sociology and religion at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, and co-editor of the book Civic Life in American Religion.
• Joshua Hale, executive director of the Big Shoulders Fund, in Chicago. The fund has raised more than $155-million to help defray tuition and operating costs for 93 of Chicago’s most-needy inner-city Catholic schools.

Read the chat transcript online.

From the Project Contempo blog::

Project Contempo is doing a national online survey of the English-speaking congregations of the Canadian Chinese churches. This national survey is not primarily a survey of churches but a survey of individuals. These include all who attend the English service of a Canadian Chinese church, irrespective of their age, employment and ethnicity. All responses will be kept anonymous and the results will be tabulated and analyzed nationally.

… The deadline of the survey is May 31st 2008. It will only take 15 minutes to complete. Simply go to http://projectcontempo.ca and follow the link provided.

They need you to respond to the survey — and please spread the word to Canadian worshipers too.

I just got word of this special event from Pastor Ken Fong of Evergreen LA . This conversation is especially for Southern California Asian American evangelical churches and they are making a short film about this for release in the coming year.

Saturday, May 10, 7:00 p.m. @ Sanctuary of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles www.ebcla.org

WE NEED TO TALK: A Conversation about Homosexuality & the Asian American Christian Church. Sponsored by the Christian Social Issues (CSI) group, an informal gathering of Asian American Christians who discuss wide-ranging social issues and how they relate to our Christian faith. Join three old friends – two straight and one gay – who will engage in a conversation that needs to happen more often in order to dispel ignorance, quell fear and hatred, and foster greater understanding. Debate about scriptural interpretation or scientific evidence is not within the scope of this dialogue. It is not our intent to resolve this highly complex issue. Though we may ultimately arrive at different conclusions, at the very least, we need to break the awful silence in our churches surrounding this subject. We really need to talk.

If you have a friend or loved one who is gay, or you are gay yourself, or you are a Christian who is concerned about this issue, please join us in this much needed and long-awaited dialogue.

Jaeson Ma is a part of the oneTHING conference in Los Angeles, this weekend April 17-19, 2008, particularly for mobilizing Asian Americans to prayer and worship:

Registration is FREE! onething is a part of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri (IHOP–KC).

If you can get to Atlanta on next Saturday, this lecture looks very relevant to ministering in the Korean American context:

History, Identity, & Destiny of Korean Americans: from generation to generation at Columbia Theological Seminary, near Atlanta, Georgia. April 12th, 2008 from 2pm - 6pm. Special guest Dr. Daniel D. Pak. More info >>