david park with peter ong

great thoughts.


Peter Ong: I liked that. not theologically mind blowing but there is something to be said about cultural expressions (or the heart language) of a people group and to enter it with a sense of wonder and discovery of how they express the gospel in their culture then it is not so hard to negotiate that…

exportjoy: and you haven’t found that difficult to do even among other asian churches?

Peter Ong: not particularly, because I really believe that God appoints people of authority and we are to submit and respect them. I haven’t met too many leaders who are “evil” but mostly misunderstood

exportjoy: i would agree with you there. and it does take people like yourself to be bridges within the community

Peter Ong: i really have strong convictions about leaders. i think a lot of American born pastors have undermined their ministries by not honoring that not being strategic about their ministries within a cultural context

exportjoy: wow, please feel free to expand. what are some good ways to be strategic?

Peter Ong: being missional…

Peter Ong: doing things the “chinese” way, I think there is a confucian element to our culture that is not biblical and that is something one has to be careful about
exportjoy: what confucian elements do you mean?

Peter Ong: prestige, academic achievements, money, morality versus graces, being moral, conservative mindsets, keeping the old… but I think that if we see things in their lens and helping to work under that understanding there are ways of negotiating

Peter Ong: i am an ARC so my chinese wasn’t that great when i started ministry, but I took time to learn so that I can speak to my senior pastor in chinese because i should respect him and the culture and i aligned myself with leadership who I could communicate better with so they can be advocates

Peter Ong: and I am being honest. I had trouble with some of the way they did things but I honored them as long as I trusted that the leadership had God’s glory in the big picture…. that is critical….i trusted my pastor completely but I didn’t think he did things along the way that were ethical or even biblical but it was very chinese so I accepted it and in two years, he gave me more support and more resources because I submitted and made alliances with key people who loved God and loved he church

exportjoy: i think what you’ve shown is a powerful display of patience and of reaching back to the older generation

Peter Ong: I think that it was important for healing