MI YUN LEE JEONG

Why Thailand?

Since early 2005, I have felt called to Thailand. I first traveled to the south of Thailand to help in rebuilding efforts following the 2004 SE Asia tsunami and have never looked back. Over the next eight years, I traveled back and forth while finishing my undergraduate studies at the University of Oregon and graduate studies at Multnomah Biblical Seminary and Multnomah University.

By the time I entered seminary, my heart was set on the mission field. But it was at Multnomah that I first learned a theology of cultural engagement and thought deeply about how to faithfully contextualize the gospel. I began to scratch the surface of what it means to love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind, and wrestle with the meaning and outworking of godly, missional living in my own city of Portland, Oregon.

Despite a long history of missions and lasting missionary presence, the gospel has faced much opposition and slow growth in most cities and provinces. A deeply embedded Buddhist worldview, systemic injustice, and corruption are only a few of the strongholds that hinder the work of the gospel. A lack of biblically sound pastors, lay-leaders, seminaries, and gospel-centered churches have led to the growth and spread of false teachings, including the prosperity gospel. These are major points of prayer that call for committed and faithful workers.

Why Bangkok?

God loves us. And He loves the city. Small cities, big cities. The people in these cities.

While in the States, I began to notice a trend of believers often disparaging those in the media and entertainment world. We often seemed to be the loudest voice of condemnation. But God delights in mercy over judgment. So I began to pray for the famous ones. Those in the US. Korea. Thailand. People who live in an intensely glamorized yet isolated world of self-promotion and temptation. If you’re one to notice trends in pop culture, you know that many celebrities follow a predictable trajectory of pain and destruction. It isn’t merely a downward spiral, it often leads to years of suffering from various addictions, depression, and much too often ends in suicide. This breaks any heart that knows the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

It was hard to explain to others why I felt a call to do so. But I felt if anyone should pray and reach out to those in this type of industry, it ought to be us. Because along with the free gift of grace, Jesus calls us to new life. A life of surrender and obedience that leads to joy and true freedom, brimming with eternal value and worth. Meaning. Calling. Purpose.

A complete and total recall.

Rebirth.

Reconciliation.

Redemption.

Many people thought I wanted to enter the industry myself. Please, no! But I do have a heart to build relationships with people - to care for their needs and to learn from them, to show them a new way of being human and relating to God and others. To serve people, in any sphere, through the journey of discipleship by helping them to become rooted in a local church family that can walk alongside them as they live out their calling.

Amazingly, believers are given the ministry of reconciliation, as seen in 2 Corinthians 5.18ff. When people struggle and suffer, we're meant to be there, struggling and suffering with them while pointing them to the cross of Jesus Christ. With the Word of God as our foundation, we can equip and train others to live a life of godliness - with a biblical worldview that corrects and reorients our perspective on our broken world with hope.

This burden for professionals in the media and entertainment industry was the primary catalyst for turning my attention to Bangkok, where nearly 10 million people reside. For a little more perspective, Thailand has approximately 70 million people, of whom 96% are Buddhists. The spiritual and cultural dynamics of Bangkok are incredibly complex and multi-layered. Prayer is a must as we seek to serve the city with wisdom and discernment.

How?

A few years in, I now know that in order for mission work to succeed, we must work to build up the Church. The Church is the bloodstream of missions. We must think of missions and the Church as one! In order for ministries to grow and bear lasting fruit, there must be churches shepherding and feeding the people of God, a role that God has uniquely equipped the Church to fulfill. This means a Christ-centered, gospel-proclaiming, grace-oriented body of Christ that exists to exalt the name of Jesus in all that we do. To do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with Him. This also prevents missionaries from mistakenly and unnecessarily thinking that they must do all the work of sharing the gospel. It awakens and empowers the Church to embrace and live out the power of the gospel through the Holy Spirit in every area that it exists. This dynamic partnership between the local church and the international church (read: you and me!) brings to life the truth of Ephesians 2.19-22:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

Let’s love God, and then let’s love one another in real, true ways. Ways that bring honor and glory and praise to God.

Let’s pray for the the welfare of our cities in Jesus’ name, for Jesus’ name.

tim keller

center church

alex g. smith

edward glaeser

Traditional evangelical churches tend to emphasize personal piety and rarely help believers understand how to maintain and apply their Christian beliefs and practice in the worlds of arts, business, scholarship, and government. Many churches do not know how to disciple members without essentially pulling them out of their vocations and inviting them to become heavily involved in church activities. In other words, Christian discipleship is interpreted as consisting largely of activities done in the evening or on the weekend.

First, mobilize prayer, the essential base for advance.

MI YUN LEE JEONG

Christians should seek to live in the city,
not to use the city to build great churches,
but to use the church's resources to seek a great,
flourishing city.

Building relationships is of paramount importance, especially among urbanites who tend to be isolated, lonely, suspicious of strangers, and distant from their close family networks.

Media forms are reshaping traditional Buddhist values and cultures in the cities and media of various kinds can have influential roles in reshaping the reshaped worldviews of those in urban environments.
This has vital implications for gospel proclamation.

The city is one of the key biblical visions of humanity's final destiny, and thence the meaning of human history. Urbanization is, therefore, the apparent consequence of obedience to God's cultural mandate.

krungthep

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?

SEEKING THE REDEMPTIVE HEART OF GOD

THROUGH WORD, CULTURE & SERVICE

words & thoughts

on life and ministry in the city

In a missional church today, however, believers are surrounded by a radically non-Christian culture. They require much more preparation and education to “think Christianly” about all of life, public and private, and about how to do their work with Christian distinctiveness.

If we never deliberately think through ways to rightly contextualize gospel ministry to a new culture, we will unconsciously be deeply contextualized to some other culture.

SIX MARKS OF A MISSIONAL CHURCH

Tim Keller, Center Church

Alex G. Smith

Stimulate churches to serve the communities in which they are located. The service and ministry of urban churches of all kinds need to be tailored to the resources and the number of members that they have in their fellowships.

Alex G. Smith

Urban churches train their members to be neighbors in the city, not just consumers.

Tim Keller

Cities are the absence of physical space between people.

Edward Glaeser

Active contextualization involves a three-part process: entering the culture, challenging the culture, and then appealing to the listeners.

Tim Keller

The gospel has supernatural versatility to address the particular hopes, fears, and idols of every culture and every person.

Sound contextualization shows people how the plotlines of the stories of their lives can only find a happy ending in Christ.

MI YUN LEE JEONG

Christians should seek to live in the city, not to use the city to build great churches, but to use the church's resources to seek a great, flourishing city.

Building relationships is of paramount importance, especially among urbanites who tend to be isolated, lonely, suspicious of strangers, and distant from their close family networks.

Media forms are reshaping traditional Buddhist values and cultures in the cities and media of various kinds can have influential roles in reshaping the reshaped worldviews of those in urban environments. This has vital implications for gospel proclamation.

The city is one of the key biblical visions of humanity's final destiny, and thence the meaning of human history. Urbanization is, therefore, the apparent consequence of obedience to God's cultural mandate.

krungthep

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?

SEEKING THE REDEMPTIVE HEART OF GOD

THROUGH WORD, CULTURE & SERVICE

words & thoughts

on life and ministry in the city

In a missional church today, however, believers are surrounded by a radically non-Christian culture. They require much more preparation and education to “think Christianly” about all of life, public and private, and about how to do their work with Christian distinctiveness.

If we never deliberately think through ways to rightly contextualize gospel ministry to a new culture, we will unconsciously be deeply contextualized to some other culture.

SIX MARKS OF A MISSIONAL CHURCH

Tim Keller, Center Church

Alex G. Smith

Stimulate churches to serve the communities in which they are located. The service and ministry of urban churches of all kinds need to be tailored to the resources and the number of members that they have in their fellowships.

Alex G. Smith

Urban churches train their members to be neighbors in the city, not just consumers.

Tim Keller

Cities are the absence of physical space between people.

Edward Glaeser

Active contextualization involves a three-part process: entering the culture, challenging the culture, and then appealing to the listeners.

Tim Keller

The gospel has supernatural versatility to address the particular hopes, fears, and idols of every culture and every person.

Sound contextualization shows people how the plotlines of the stories of their lives can only find a happy ending in Christ.

Christians should seek to live in the city,
not to use the city to build great churches,
but to use the church's resources to seek a great,
flourishing city.

Media forms are reshaping traditional Buddhist values and cultures in the cities and media of various kinds can have influential roles in reshaping the reshaped worldviews of those in urban environments.
This has vital implications for gospel proclamation.