[Lon] on Twitter[Lon Wong] on Facebook[Lon Wong] on Friendfeed[solarCrash] RSS Feed[SolarCrash] Email

Posts tagged as:

Leadership

Do entrepreneurs change the world?

by Lon on June 16, 2009

Grasshopper.com did a great job with their recent marketing campaign using social media. They created the above video, while a bit cliche, I thought it was nicely done.

The video works because its message rings true of the human spirit. We’re all summoned to create, risk, lead, and change, at least in some area in our lives. Whether we’re able to hear that calling, or do anything about it, might be a different story altogether.

I pour my heart into a lot of different things that I think are worthwhile, but I question if I’m changing the world. I’m in a city of nearly six million where a simple stroll through the downtown core can make you feel like a speck of dust.

I think when you’ve changed a life (including your own), you’ve already changed the world.

Am I thinking too small here? What do you think?

{ 6 comments }

Crazy guy #1

by Lon on June 12, 2009

Seth Godin posted this video about a tribe that spontaneously came together at a music festival. He insightfully points out how guy number 2 and 3 make it into a ‘movement’, while guy #49 is irrelevant.

I’m still caught on guy number one. Without the other two guys, he really just looks like one solitary crazy dude. I’ve got to believe that most people who go out on a limb like this do so sheerly for the love of what they do, regardless of what happens. I’ve also got to believe that even passionate crazy dudes feel lonely at times.

What makes you step out when no one else is?

What keeps you going when no one else seems to be joining?

Ever leave someone else hanging like a dancing fool, only to realize you were the fool for not joining in earlier?

{ 5 comments }

Confessions

by Lon on May 6, 2009

More random confessions… I’ve got a number of’em.

I haven’t really watched television in years, but suddenly started watching a ridiculous amount of Battlestar Galactica, almost through three seasons in three weeks, yet I maintain that way I’m too busy these days.

Whenever someone ends a prayer with “Amen”, I can’t help but smile and whisper “So say we all“.

Before I got married, every time a couple said they had to go home early… the only thought in my head was – crap, they’re leaving us to ‘do it’.

My ipod touch has wasted just as much time as it has saved me.

The poverty line for a family in Toronto is $35k.  My earnings last year was about $9k.  I’m going to be saying that the rest of my life… unless I start making even less.

I’m in awe and honored to be leading people and initiatives, but most days i’m just clawing my way through the dark.

{ 5 comments }

Being Asian…

by Lon on February 4, 2009

Some thoughts that have been percolating on being Asian…

I’m Chinese. I don’t think I realized it till about grade three.

I have faint memories of myself squeezing my nose in the mirror in hopes that it wasn’t so flat.

Race itself can be a type of poverty

Is the asian model minority myth, a myth?

In Dreams of my Father, Barack Obama talks about not wanting to associate with the one other black classmate because it would only remind them further of their isolation. I feel that way sometimes when I’m surrounded by Asians.

Asians are rarely included in the black-white race discussions

I’ve heard people say where black and white are on the extremes, yellow and brown are ‘just right’.

Along with the color remarks, I’ve heard people use the term ‘banana’ for Asians that act white. I’ve always wondered if there was something similar for Asians acting ‘black’. Beef patty is the closest thing I can think of, yellow pastry on the outside, dark on the inside?

Labels are rarely helpful, but where else would we start?

When Asians are mentioned in conversations on reconciliation it seems to be merely for the sake of inclusion, not that there might be some form of weight behind it.

Being Asian typically carries more stereotypes behind it than an actual narrative

Many of the circles I travel in, from old-school pastoral gatherings to emergent networks, I’m the only Asian dude.

I wonder if I help validate the movement of Christ to all people when I show up.

Truth is, I long for a truly multi-cultural church as well

At my wife’s school, there’s typically only one token white kid in her classroom.

Statistics say that within a decade the majority of Christians in America will be non-white. What does that mean about our future leadership?

With the Chinese ethnic church booming over the past decade, black and white pastors have asked me, when will the Chinese church begin reaching back out to them?

We as a church need to have a better theology of the human person and of diversity.

God’s not colorblind, and when we avoid the discussions as we do in Canada, we’re negating a part of who God created us to be.

Is there affirmative action happening in our churches? Is that a good thing?

John Piper thinks that Asians might be the next great movement of missionaries

I wonder how China being an emerging superpower relates to the church of the future?

{ 4 comments }

The internet circa 1981

by Lon on January 29, 2009

We had our first web team meeting last night.  I think we’re all totally excited by the possibilities.  No one’s in it for money or glory, we simply want to bring this project into wonderful existence.

It’s definitely a different vibe than most of the other work that I do.  I rarely lead stuff that I have next to no competence on, but it’s going to be an interesting journey ahead.

Currently we’re looking at using a mysql backend with third party api’s over a ruby on rails framework and an ajax-ified front-end… Does that make any sense to anyone?  I’m barely grasping it all too.

Here’s a news report on the early stages of the internet.  Developers described it as something they just wanted to create, even though there was probably no money in it.

{ 2 comments }

Tribes…

by Lon on December 15, 2008

Sethgodin_tribesI’ve listened to  Seth Godin’s Tribes audiobook several times over on my ipod touch these past few weeks.

The premise to the book is simple enough, a Tribe is a group of people connected to each other, to a leader and to an idea.

It’s odd that the church of Jesus Christ has the greatest leader, with the greatest story and the greatest ideas, and yet such a seemingly splintered and weak tribes people.

One fascinating insight from the book is the idea of tightening the tribe.  Deepening the tribe, rather than expanding it.  I wonder if after centuries of focusing on mass evangelization and conversions we’ve ruined our own tribe.

Another interesting quote was “Ultimately, people are most easily led where they wanted to go all along.”

So often it seems like the church at large tries to get people to go where they have no interest in going in the first place.

What would it look like if we were creating and leading distinct and peculiar tribes through our churches rather than maintaining programs or growing numbers?

Godin created his own triiibes network (which I was a day late on getting in before the book came out). Even though he advertises for people to join in the book, you’ll notice that it’s closed for new comers, because his tribe voted to keep it ‘tight’.

Now I want in even more.

If only our churches were this appealing.

{ 0 comments }

Tribes by Seth Godin

by Lon on October 31, 2008

I just finished Seth Godin’s Tribes. Seth’s always great with explaining the obvious, but it’s the obvious we’re often most oblivious to.

If you’re interested in leadership, creating movements, and transformation… go get it if you haven’t had a chance.

You can see his tribes presentation below with notes.

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: book tribes)

{ 0 comments }

Context…

by Lon on September 12, 2008

You’ve got to love google’s ‘contextual’ ads.  

Besides ads for various ’solar’ panels, the two ads that google’s been serving up on my site recently are

“Christian Leadership B.S.”

and

“Meet Christian Girls Free”

Some insights from this.

Picking out key words, is not the same as context. 

Google can brilliantly identify over 63 billion web pages, but still can identify the pulse of who I am, what I value, and what I write about. 

If red flags don’t go up when you advertise your Christian Leadership organization as B.S., do you really have a chance at helping others lead and engage culture in our context?

Maybe Christian Leadership is B.S.

How much are Christian girls supposed to cost?

And if you’re offering them for free, do we really want them?

Besides God, no one will ever fully know the extent of who you are.  And every day you and I make decisions based on snippets of reality.  

What does it mean to engage others as fully human In a world of soundbites and snapshots, where context is a moving target?

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

{ 0 comments }