This Advent season, four authors will walk us through these four names of Christ from Isaiah 9:6 in a short series of devotionals. You can look for them at the start of each week on our blog as well as compiled in an online magazine. Keith Fong wrote our third installment: Christ, Everlasting Father
SOLA Network is excited to co-host an inaugural Asian American Youth Workers Training Day with Rooted Ministry. Steve Chang, Hanley Liu, Monica Kim, Clark Fobes, and a handful of other familiar faces will lead workshops and panels with attendees throughout the day. The Conference will take place on March 15, 2025 at Living Hope Community Church in Brea, California from 9AM to 5PM. Learn more.
Keep in touch on Twitter and Instagram. For more, check out my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group and TGIF Playlist on Spotify. This newsletter is one of the many ways you can stay connected with SOLA Network. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Aaron Lee, Editorial Curator
Enter our giveaway! Thanks to Harvest House Publishers for providing, in partnership with @diveindigdeep, SOLA Network, and FCBC Walnut. 1 winner will receive these beautiful books! Links open to my reviews:
- How can moms stay grounded in their faith? In Gospel Mom, Emily A. Jensen and Lauren Wifler share how to make biblical decisions and discover the mom God created you to be.
- What are some of the most important matters in life? In A World Wonder, Laura Wifler writes a children’s story on what makes life truly meaningful.
Articles From Around The Web
1. Benjamin Bae: Humble Confidence as Secure Curiosity
Ministry leaders need to build their curiosity muscles to exercise healthy power, build up other leaders, and create a culture of trust and vulnerability that comes through humility.
2. Jeremy Writebol: The Presence of Advent
As much as Advent is a season for gathering with family and friends, for the church it is a missional launching point for us to inhabit and take the gospel to the world. The world sits and waits year after year for a savior. They make functional saviors of sex, power, possessions, comfort, and a billion other idols they can find. Yet, all the while being let down year after year by their little, failing, and distant gods. The world is waiting, the Savior has come, the church must be present!
3. Colin Fast: What Does Your Pulpit (Or Lack of One) Communicate to the Congregation?
The Ministry of the Word has fallen on hard times – people grumbling to gather together in a majority of churches now for a thirty-minute sermon (if that!) once a week. No doubt, the Word does the work – pulpit or no – but there are visual cues we can give that the Word is still fundamental to our faith and our practice.
Will you join us in embracing the call for the Asian American Church? The collective voices in our new book argue that there is underappreciated beauty, diversity, joy, benefit, and place for the Asian American church. Asian American leaders need to joyfully embrace the call to serve the Asian American church, not only for the emerging generation but for the broader church. Find a sample, links to purchase, and a free discussion guide at sola.network/book.
Books, Podcasts, Music, And More
1. Raychel McKelvy: Defying Gravity and the Weight of Sin
Wicked’s climactic number serves as an exhilarating metaphor for finding freedom in Christ.
2. Sam Koo: Best Books for Pastors in 2024
9Marks asked pastors around the world a simple question: what books did you read in 2024 that helped you be a better pastor?
3. Aaron Lee: Related Works
Book reviews: Walking with God Through the Valley by May Young, The Nature & Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship by Ian Hamilton, Historical Theology by William Cunningham, Church Planter by Tony Merida. Listen to our TGIF playlist on Spotify. Join my Asian American Worship Leaders Facebook group.
Our Books and Reviews page is your one-stop resource for all of your reading needs. It features Asian American authors and issues, recommendations, and interviews.
Featured This Week On SOLA Network
1. Aaron Lee: Vivid and Vibrant: A Book Review of The New Testament in Color
How can we read the Bible from a different perspective? In The New Testament in Color, IVP Academic presents a multiethnic Bible commentary.
2. Heidi Wong: A Blind Man, A Crowd, And The Call Of Jesus: Advent 2020
As we continue to await the second appearing of our savior, let us with great anticipation be persistent in our pursuit of Jesus, no matter our condition. Like Jesus, let us hear the cries of lament from our neighbors, and draw them near to the only one who can save.
3. Patreeya Thorn: A Letter to the Lonely
Jesus’s definition of a “Merry Christmas” is not one without sorrow, longing, or messiness — but one that is infinitely sweeter because he is there with us in all of it it.
4. Keith Fong: Christ, Everlasting Father
The king’s role was to protect, provide for, and preserve his nation with the benevolence of a father. The name “Everlasting Father” rejoices in Christ’s everlasting kingship. Christ is King, and throughout redemptive history he has loved his people with a kingly, fatherly love.
5. TGIF: Roundup for December 13, 2024
Modernity Makes Us Spiritually Sick: Or Why You Should Read Byung-Chul Han / 4 Ways Healthy Church Members Cultivate True Growth / Mobilize the Globalized / How Music Helps Us Understand the Meaning of Advent and Christmas / A Bible for the People
6. SOLA Network: TGIF Subscription
Get our TGIF installments delivered straight to your inbox for free every Friday. Join today so you never miss out.
General disclaimer: Our link roundups are not endorsements of the positions or lives of the authors. Header image by Zaz Noba on Unsplash.