By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on June 6, 2018
Author, Simon Chan of Grassroots Asian Theology gave the best question we can be asking ourselves when evangelizing Christianity to the Asian culture: “what spiritual and intellectual resources of the Christian faith can we bring to bear on the Asian context such that an authentic Christian faith can be effectively communicated and received?”[1]Chan gives…
By: Shawn Hart on June 6, 2018
In Simon Chan’s work, “Grassroots Asian Theology,” the author touches deeply upon the need to not only understand the role that Christianity plays in Asian cultures, but also the impact that role may have already had on modern theology. Early on Chan discusses the two processes by which he will try to interpret Asian Theology:…
By: Katy Drage Lines on June 6, 2018
Focus on the (true) Family I have distinct memories growing up of my home being a Focus on the Family home. That is, my parents read James Dobson’s books on parenting, we went through Preparing for Adolescence together, listened to cassette tapes of Adventures in Odyssey, and newsletters from Dobson regularly arrived in our mail.…
By: Chip Stapleton on June 4, 2018
https://prezi.com/view/ga2aa7snybFybgDFftli/
By: Kyle Chalko on June 3, 2018
Grassroots Asian Theology by Simon Chan is a fun read for me. Having lived in Japan for three years as a child, currently working in a (formerly) Chinese congregation and about to become brother-in-law to a Filipino Chi Alpha Missionary, there was a lot of common interests. I was also drawn to the concept of…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on June 3, 2018
This week we read the book Chasing the Dragon by Jackie Pullinger. I am amazed at her grit, commitment and dedication the her calling as she ministered in the Walled City in Hong Kong. In reading chapter 10 “Try Jesus” I was captivated by her determination to reach the hardest and dangerous Chainwan drug lords.…
By: Kristin Hamilton on June 2, 2018
https://prezi.com/view/ubEHJ46KOtZNd5CafcPY/
By: Jason Turbeville on June 2, 2018
In his book Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking The Faith From The Ground Up, Simon Chan presents the reader with a challenge to see theology in a much different view than western churches do. In reading how Chan views theology, one senses a deep love of Christ and a desire for understanding just how theology can affect…
By: Trisha Welstad on June 1, 2018
Grassroots Asian Theology by Simon Chan may take on the assumption of a basic approach to faith in Asia until opening the text. Chan approaches the content from an academic perspective, and while he lays a strong foundation for the differences between Asian Christianity and other parts of the world, it is technically and theologically…
By: Jennifer Williamson on June 1, 2018
In his book Grassroots Asian Theology, Simon Chan explains that “healthy theological development requires holding together two processes in a healthy tension: ressourcement and aggiornamento.”[1] This statement caught my attention because I’m coming to believe that much of the Christian life is lived in healthy tensions. Justice and mercy. Faith and works. Spirit and truth.…
By: Chip Stapleton on June 1, 2018
Jackie Pullinger’s book, Chasing the Dragon: One Woman’s Struggle Against the Darkness of Hong Kong’s Drug Dens is an engaging read that is at once heartening and disturbing as it manages to capture both the depth of human weakness and depravity as well as the incredible power of God’s love for us demonstrated first in and through Jesus…
By: Greg on June 1, 2018
“You are a criminal, you have committed a crime and need to confess.” While looking around to see if anyone heard you, they respond, “I am not a criminal, what crime have I committed? I am a good person in this community. Criminals should be lock away in prison and that is not me.”…
By: Kristin Hamilton on May 31, 2018
As someone who has prayed for the healing of my daughter for years, reading Jackie Pullinger’s Chasing the Dragon was bittersweet. I love stories of miraculous healing and lives lived in a deep faith that seems like insanity or naiveté to others. Pullinger tells such a story and it is breath-taking. With a boldness few…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on May 31, 2018
Faith, innovation, and grit are the key leadership character traits aptly used to describe Jackie Pullinger’s ministry in the Walled City of Hong Kong. Purposefully and passionately, she pursued the vision God placed on her heart about being a missionary. Faith – “the hope of things unseen…”[1] Her faith was remarkable as she relied on…
By: Mark Petersen on May 31, 2018
Simon Chan’s insightful book Grassroots Asian Theology upends Western theological presuppositions and invites one to consider the gift of indigenous theologies birthed and nurtured at the margins. While his observations are frequently surprising for the Western reader, in no way is Chan attempting to be heretical. Indeed, because he speaks from the fringes, his voice…
By: Jay Forseth on May 31, 2018
I am not a Greek scholar, but I immediately noticed the word “ekklesia” in this week’s reading of Simon Chan’s, Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up.[1] While studying for the ministry, I was taught ekklesia was the Greek word most often used for “church” in the New Testament. However, ekklesia (sometimes spelled…
By: Stu Cocanougher on May 31, 2018
Kowloon Walled City Inseparable from the history of Hong Kong was a former Chinese military fort turned densely populated settlement known as Kowloon Walled City. Britain was given possession of Hong Kong Island in 1842 in the aftermath of First Opium War. In 1898, after the Second Opium War, Hong Kong signed a 99-year lease…
By: Katy Drage Lines on May 31, 2018
Living among people in a non-Western setting, I learned early on that I couldn’t (or at least shouldn’t) put God in a box. That is, as we mature in our faith, we understand more about God and the way God works, but when we begin to pattern our expectations in order to “make” God work…
By: Dave Watermulder on May 31, 2018
There’s an old saying about how to eat an elephant: you have to do it, “one bite at a time.” A similar conundrum faces anyone who seeks to understand or explain Christianity in Asia in a comprehensive or all-encompassing way. The region is a behemoth that is home to 4.4 billion people, which makes it…
By: Jean Ollis on May 31, 2018
As much as Jackie Pullinger was chasing the “dragon” (heroin, gangs, sex trafficking) in her text, Chasing the Dragons, Simon Chan appears to be chasing the Holy Spirit in his text, Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up. Chan’s work is an important and relevant read for any and all intercultural studies…
