Jon Wang

Culture I hail from: I was born in Ft. Wayne, IN and lived there until I was 8.  After that I moved to El Paso, TX and then to Bejing, China for grade 4-6.  Then I moved to Milwaukee, WI for 7 and 8th grades and started High School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia .  I moved again to finish my last two years of High School back in Beijing, China and finally moved to St. Louis for college where I have been living for the past 8 years

Books, Musicians, or Movies have shaped me:I think I really love the movie Gladiator.  I was watching it the other day and comparing in my mind the different attitudes of Maximus and Lucious to being a leader.  Lucious is only interested in leadership because he wants to be admired, respected and loved which ultimately leads to his abuse of power.  Maximus is not interested in leadership at all but instead desires only to go home and live out his life with his wife.  However, because of Maximus' selfish desire to return home when he could make a difference via his position in the empire, the entire country suffers under the abusive authority of Lucious Aurelius.

How and why I'm interested in cross cultural work: I believe that God created us to live in community with each other  to mirror the image of Himself (Father, Son, Holy Spirit - He is His own community).  I believe that Cross-Cultural Communities can open our eyes to the many different facets of God's character that we might not otherwise appreciate and can therefore deepen our relationship with Him.  For example, I work with a number of different worship leaders around the country and because we are all from different cultural and denominational backgrounds, I often find myself in uncomfortable situations.  Once I found myself sitting through a 4 hour praise service at a Black Pentecostal Church right here in the inner city of St. Louis.  I was the only Asian in the place and of course, was very uncomfortable with that especially as many of the church traditions there seemed strange and foreign to me.  Though at some point during my stay there I felt God saying to me that I needed to tear down my walls of inhibition and look at this church from His eyes.  I immediately started to see how in this particular community the freedom of Christ was one of the most powerful aspects of the gospel that stood out in that culture from the freedom to use your spiritual gifts of dance, step, or mime to singing songs expressively with a very loose structure to even the lyrics of songs like "breakaway".  Since then I've greatly appreciated going outside my Asian-American context to experience more fully God's goodness to  all His people.

One of the biggest things I've learned by living missionally/hanging out with internationals: I lived in International communities all my life, from my own moving around to visiting friends and family around the world in China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand (to name a few).  When I think about how these experiences have shaped me (and continue to shape me) the most important thing I have learned is that my cultural norms and expectations are NOT the standard around the world.  In other words, not everyone thinks / acts like me.

Where I am and what I'm doing: I will be working part-time planting a new chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a campus ministry, at U of Missouri in Columbia (Mizzou).  The rest of my time will be spent working to develop a worship leader development ministry across multiple campuses and chapters.  For more information / specific details about my ministry please visit my online blog at http://matt513.blogspot.com/.  

God has already revealed himself where I'm working:  MIZZOU CHAPTER PLANT
An InterVarsity Alumni from the East Coast currently doing grad work at Mizzou started what we call a GiG or (Group investigating God) and has about 9 non-believers that come regularly every week to learn more about who Jesus is through the study of scripture.  He is excited about learning how to reach more non-believers on campus and how to develop more Christian witnesses who are able to effectively communicate the message of the gospel in a way that is well received by the post-modern generation.  
UNITED: WORSHIP LEADER DEVELOPMENT
Since the formation of UNITED in early 2007, there's already over six universities and multiple churches & leaders involved.  The current challenge is on how to connect the large number of people who want to be involved who have questions about growing as worship leaders or developing their teams with each other and with the numerous experienced worship leaders involved in the ministry for mentorship. 

God is at work where I am and I am a part of this: Here are some student testimonies from a leadership conference I helped develop and run earlier this year in our InterVarsity region (for more stories and testimonies please visit my blog at http://matt513.blogspotcom ):

"[God] took away my doubts about being a leader"

"[God] Delivered me from lies I had been believing about myself."

"Jesus gave me peace with the changes on the leadership team and gave me a vision of huge growth for next year and after I leave."

"HE reassured me that he can use me despite my weaknesses and reminded me that he rejoices over me."

"[God] Showed me my strengths in leadership and also my weaknesses in my relationship with Him and in my responsibilities as a Christian (such as evangelism)"

One thing people should know about University Students: "The University is arguably the single most significant institution in the Western Civilization ... change the university and you change the world."  -  Charles Malik, Former President of the United Nations

One thing I wish people knew about cross living missionally: It's not just going to another country or leaving your job for "full time ministry".  It can be done by anyone in any context.  It's also incredibly rewarding, not because you can feel good about your 'high-calling' or the 'honorable work' you are doing but mainly because your relationship with God is strengthened through it.  If you are a believer and haven't been feeling like God is evident in your life, the best thing you can do is to look for opportunities to be involved in the work of spreading the gospel to those around you.

What I'm doing is part of the  global Church and my American church: College students in InterVarsity graduate and become the world's next church leaders, deacons, elders and pastors as well as catalysts of change in their communities.  Currently, one of the students I am discipling is wanting to go to seminary to be a pastor.  I hope that as I continue working with both him and others in leadership that one day they will all do things to redeem the world around them. 

What it means for me to partner with The Journey: In addition to helping to support my ministry financially The Journey has been a great community through which I find myself continuing to grow as a Christian.  A number of Journey members have also volunteered with me to do everything from campus outreach to leading worship & discipling worship leaders around various parts of the US.

For more info on what I'm doing: Visit my ministry blog at http://matt513blogspot.com I also write bi-monthly prayer letters that are archived in pdf on that website