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Adoption Misconception

March 5, 2009 By JJ Leave a Comment

OrphansAs well tell more and more people about our plans to adopt a child it seems that there is a common misconception people have on why we are choosing to adopt. This is just an opinion, but it seems like most people believe adoption to be the last resort to having kids. It’s the choice to make if you can’t have your own biological kids! So we get comments like “we’re praying that you’ll have kids of your own” or “we’re praying that you’ll get through this difficult time”.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with adopting because you are unable to have biological children, but this mentality has to change if Christians are to answer the call to care for orphans. So to set the record straight, my wife and I are adopting because we feel called to adopt and care for orphans in that way. We do desire to have biological children, but our greater hope is to raise up God-honoring and God-fearing kids!

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27

So what is your understanding of why people adopt?

photo credit: SSTEC

Filed Under: Adoption, Faith, Orphan Care, Personal

GiANT Impact Webcast – Mark Sanborn

February 27, 2009 By JJ 2 Comments
  • 4:35 PM Jason Jeong - getting started…8 million people watching?
  • 4:35 PM Jason Jeong - Mark Sanborn’s newest book, Encore Effect
  • 4:35 PM Jason Jeong - first book, Fred Factor
  • 4:39 PM Jason Jeong - Encore Effect is about getting remarkable performance especially from replicable tasks
  • 4:40 PM Jason Jeong - Q: what are some tips for leaders in tough economic times?
  • 4:41 PM Jason Jeong - leadership is fundamentally the same, but focus changes
  • 4:41 PM Jason Jeong - keep people to playing to win, not keep from losing
  • 4:41 PM Jason Jeong - encourage based on realism
  • 4:42 PM Jason Jeong - Q: how can you be remarkable in a down cycle?
  • 4:43 PM Jason Jeong - Sanborn: don’t become completely self consumed; yea, be concerned about keeping your lights on, but call clients and customers and maintain existing relationships
  • 4:45 PM Jason Jeong - Q: in working with high profile leaders, what are the biggest challenges they face and what counsel would you give them?
  • 4:46 PM Jason Jeong - a paradox, the higher you rise, the harder it is to confide in what you are concerned about…not many people to talk to…hard to keep accountability
  • 4:47 PM Jason Jeong - it’s tough to talk about what is necessary v. what is strategic…like whether or not letting people go; we are in a phase where we [leaders] don’t know what will work…keep agile
  • 4:48 PM Jason Jeong - Q: what are you reading and researching right now?
  • 4:49 PM Jason Jeong - he doesn’t read business books anymore; finished, Embracing the Wide Open Sky by Daniel Tammet;
  • 4:51 PM Jason Jeong - Sanborn is working on: whole new way of looking at leadership, one ingredient that is irresistible when added to a product or service, and a team building book
  • 4:52 PM Jason Jeong - he was at a point where he had over 2000 books and have given away all but about 200…when he gets a new book, he gives away a book now; giving away books have given him focus
  • 4:53 PM Jason Jeong - Q: how are you taking advantage of the downturn to get ready for the upturn?
  • 4:53 PM Jason Jeong - he thinks that capital preservation is primary; next, getting past the thoughts of exploiting this surge and staying conservative; err on the side of caution
  • 4:57 PM Jason Jeong - right now, faith, family, and friends is important to him…everything else is icing on the cake
  • 4:57 PM Jason Jeong - Q: how do you keep your confidence up if you lost your job?
  • 4:59 PM Jason Jeong - men in general equate their work and their worth, break this paradigm for yourself
  • 4:59 PM Jason Jeong - evaluate your long term career plan, what do I have to do in the short term to hedge against the long term
  • 5:00 PM Jason Jeong - become a veracious reader and get outside the box in thinking and apply that to finding new opportunities
  • 5:02 PM Jason Jeong - people are not hiring intentions, they are hiring results
  • 5:02 PM Jason Jeong - Q: who is the most influential leader in the United States?
  • 5:04 PM Jason Jeong - Lincoln is the highest among Presidential leaders; impressive that he was clinically depressed, lost kids, Civil War; Sanborn’s opinion is that the challenges Lincoln faced has made him into the great leader that we think of him now
  • 5:05 PM Jason Jeong - Final thoughts: leadership doesn’t make a difference, it makes the difference

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Filed Under: Faith, Leadership

Idols of Our Country

February 4, 2009 By JJ 1 Comment

an expert from The Divided States of America? by Richard Land

“The conservatives too often assume that God is on America’s side, making patriotism idolatrous and the country and idol…Liberals too often don’t believe it matter whether God has a side in public policy debates, or they believe such questions are disqualified from consideration by a supposed constitutional mandate of church-state serparation. That viewpoint makes a particular judicial interpretation or the Constitution an idol.”

Here inlies the deterioration of faith in our country…it does boils down to idolatry. Perhaps even ourselves becoming the object of idolatry in the midst of it all.

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Seriously, Put Your Differences Aside

January 13, 2009 By JJ Leave a Comment

Will you find some common ground?

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It’s Not About You

January 7, 2009 By JJ 7 Comments

2008 Unicef Photo of the Year

Surviving in Haiti

Surviving in Haiti

What say you?

Filed Under: Faith, Orphan Care Tagged With: ,

A Little Love for UGA

December 15, 2008 By JJ Leave a Comment

Yea, so I am a Georgia Tech alumni, but this video of Mark Richt is undeniably touching, real, and full of truth.

My wife and I will be starting our adoption process early next year and will be an exciting time in our lives…

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27

Filed Under: Adoption, Faith, Orphan Care Tagged With: , , ,

Private Devotion vs Public Promotion

December 13, 2008 By JJ Leave a Comment

Simple question on your faith:

Does your private devotion exceed your public promotion of Christ?

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Seth Godin Gets Discipleship

December 4, 2008 By JJ 2 Comments

So Seth Godin is offering a 6-month apprenticeship that starts in Januray next year provided that he finds the right people. After reading the description of the program, I must say it’s a dream opportunity. Interestingly, it also has the elements of discipleship. I mean, listen to this…

Here’s the program I’m interested in creating:
One hour a day of class/dialogue
Four hours a day of working on my projects
Three hours a day of working on your personal project
Five hours a day of living, noticing, doing and connecting [emphasis mine]

That last line is what jumped out here. He’s got a 12 hours work day divided out and over 40% of it is dedicated to “living, noticing, doing and connecting”! If he’s putting that kind of emphasis on that, I can only image it applies to the other 7 hours of the day. Let’s keep looking at the application…

The program I’d like to do is not an internship. You don’t get paid, you don’t do scut work, you are not on your own. This is guided quest, one that delivers value to you (from the learning and the doing) and to me (from the teaching and from the work you’ll produce.)

He’s called it a guided quest.

In running internships, I’ve tried to take a hands off approach. “Here,” I say, “this is the goal, these are the tools, shout if you need me.” The idea is that people with motivation ought to be able to push themselves if they just have the opportunity.

I’ve discovered that this doesn’t work nearly as well as I’d like. It’s simple: if it were easy to change, people would do it. It’s the pushing and the coaching and the daily expectations that help the change occur.

So that’s my obligation this time around. To create enough expectation and support that you actually achieve what you set out to do. It’s a lot more work for me (sort of scary, actually) but I’m willing to try. Which raises expectations/effort for you (a lot).

Are you seeing the level of investment he’s willing to make? He will be an integral part of your life and in all aspects, in coaching you and teaching you. Most jobs and personal levels of investment look more like the internships he’s described.

Seth Godin’s got discipleship (apprenticeship) figured out. He’s got community figured out (read Tribes). He’s got a lot of things figured out that many Christian’s don’t. We all have something to learn from him.

Filed Under: Faith, Leadership Tagged With: , , , ,

Let Ministries (and Car Companies) Die

November 12, 2008 By JJ Leave a Comment

So the government is considering pumping $25B into the US auto industry after years and years of

Is your ministry getting rusty?

Is your ministry getting rusty?

opportunities (and legislation) to catch up with the rest of the auto world. Why don’t we allow these companies to feel the hurt and reform? Many of us do the same with ministries. We raise money to get something started. We recruit a bunch of people to get involved. The first couple years of the ministry are extremely fruitful, but as the years pass it seems to slowly die (for various reasons). That is the point where we can’t let go of those ministries we’ve started, thinking about the countless hours and resources spent. Perhaps it’s in God’s timing to let things grow and die so that new things can grow from it. Let reform(ation) happen.

What ministry are you not letting die?

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A Lost Understanding

November 12, 2008 By JJ 5 Comments

Discipleship is a lost discipline. Most of the Millennials (Gen Y) that I work with don’t even know what it is. Most of them have heard of it, but haven’t seen it in practice. It is time to re-educate Millennials of what discipleship is all about and for people to quit using the “mentorship” or “investing in people” synonymously.

here’s an excerpt of an article from Rev magazine

“The lowest common denominator of the church for engaging society is not the religious leader but the everyday disciple because each disciple is in a different domain.  We’ve made the preacher the hero of the church.  The job of the pastor must be to equip, mobilize, and help the disciple engage his or her world.  Discipleship is undergoing a major shift.  It’s moving from an educational, information-based model to Hebraic life-on-life behavioral transformation.  As their lives are transformed, disciples transform the domains of society where they work and live.  We’re talking more than a Bible study at work, but rather how people use their vocation for transformation by living out the gospel.  Today the focus is on engagement and transforming communities.”

Seriously, who are you discipling?

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