This in from Jim Spoonts, Executive Director of Mosaix Global Network::

To those who are committed to the vision of the multi-ethnic church - To those who want to plant, transform, or revitalize your church toward cultural diversity (but may not know how):

• Do you want to be a resource to others seeking to change?
• Are you tired of doing it alone?
• Do you, your staff, and/or key leaders need to be re-filled with the vision for the multi-ethnic church?
• Do you want to connect with other like-minded leaders?
• Do you need some practical equipping?

Whether you are from the northwest or other part of the country, consider joining us for the Mosaix Portland Conference on Friday November 7 & 8.

Hear from:

• Pastor/author/professor Rodney Woo of Wilcrest Baptist Church in Houston. Rodney has quite a testimony how this church was revitalized into a dynamic missional multi-ethnic church;
• Pastor/researcher/professor Dr. Richard White of Portland State University who shares how multi-ethnic churches can have transformational impact on their communities; and,
• Fifteen excellent workshops related to the multi-ethnic church (for details see mosaixportlandconference.blogspot.com )

To register for the conference, go to www.mosaix.info - click on Upcoming Events and then click on the cart button for Mosaix Portland Conference.

My friend Jeremy Del Rio is a part of coordinating a collaborative effort called
2020 Vision for Schools, starting with prayer for public schools and mobilizing people to be an answer to those prayers. It’s looking really strong there in metro New York City and Chicago too, with lots of key leaders connected in.

I’ve met Jeremy on several occasions, and he comes across as a gentle giant, a soft spoken lawyer. But I know there’s a lot of fire and passion in him, and seeing the fruit of his labor, an amazing guy. Keep an eye on this one, and bring it to your community too.

I’ve been keeping up with a regularly scheduled visit with Dr. Brownley, a chiropractor. He was particularly impressed that I went in for a check-up without having any glaringly obvious “problem”, and I’ve been persuaded it’s a good part of everyday health. Going there is always a temptation to stop by Yogurtland next door. I’ve resisted it, most of the time.

And, a shout out and props for Soularize in a Box. A fascinating of conversations about what’s next in the church, a bit more out on the edge exploring what could be, not so much a case studies of practical how-tos, models, or formula to grow a church or improve ministry operations. Much needed research and development, me thinks. Always a heady trip to meetup with Spencer Burke and Theooze. I started listening to the CDs chock full of MP3 audios, but occasionally it’d skip and the audio quality is raw, which I think keeps it real. Not sure if it was my stereo or the CD.

Let’s kick off a new series, “Developing emotional maturity - part 1 of many”.

What is emotional maturity? Emotional maturity isn’t something that necessarily grows with chronological age, i.e. you don’t get more emotionally mature when you get older. Some adults are very emotionally immature; some have never matured emotionally.

And, you can’t tell someone that. Telling an emotionally immature person they’re immature will get an explosively immature reaction. Childish. Not a pretty sight. And it’s too bad. It’s those emotionally immature people that need a lot of help, but how in the world do you help them? They have to want the help, like the alcoholic who has comes to the point of admitting they need help.

There’s a lot to unpack about this topic, as I began looking more closely at it, and as I review my own journey of emotionally maturing. Not to say that I’ve arrived.

I do think about this topic, and have to say that I haven’t come across great books or teachings on this. Don’t recall any classes or seminars on this. And, it seems that cultures have different categories for emotions and feelings, if the difficulty of navigating both Asian and American cultures is any indication.

Before I find out how does someone develop emotional maturity, let’s consider what emotional maturity looks like. From my quick scan of the Web, these are my tentative thoughts in process:

• Emotional maturity is being responsible for one’s behaviors– both actions and words.
• Emotional maturity is NOT controlling one’s emotions. It’s controlling one’s behaviors and choosing to act in a way that doesn’t impulsively give in to reactive feelings.
• Emotional maturity recognizes it’s okay to feel. It’s human to feel the full range of emotions. It’s not okay to act out immaturely, definitely not illegally.
• Emotional maturity seems to go hand-in-hand with developing mental health.
• Emotional maturity doesn’t mean every person will feel the same way about a situation / stimulus / idea. There’s some kind of relationship between core values and emotions / feelings. Would you believe values can change?
• There’s probably a fine difference between emotions and feelings, but it’s too close to call for me, so I’m using them synonymously. Add a comment to explain otherwise, ok?

James Burns says, Emotionally Mature People Are Responsible. Excerpt below:

Emotionally mature people accept responsibility for their actions. They don?t look for excuses for their behavior. There may be reasons or circumstances why emotionally mature people act in an irresponsible way, but they don?t waste time making all kinds of excuses. Emotionally mature people don?t feel victimized by circumstances or other people. Even when circumstances or events are difficult, they deal with them without resorting to blaming others. … It becomes the responsibility of the individual to overcome difficult circumstances that were not really the fault of that person.

One overly simplistic but sorta fun way to find out how emotionally mature you are is to take an online quiz. Here’s my results:

You Are 60% Grown Up, 40% Kid

You’ve grown up a good bit, but you still have a way to go before you’re emotionally mature. You have the skills to control your emotions, you just have to use them. Whenever you feel yourself acting out, just stop. It’s really that simple. Acting like an adult is all about doing the best you can.

Um, see, I’m not there yet. I can sure use all the help I can get, very open to getting help.

Aside: “How Can I Be More Emotionally Mature?” was asked at Yahoo Answers and people responded with a random lot of suggestions. Doesn’t quite do it for me.

So many books, so little time. This one got my attention — COFFEEHOUSE THEOLOGY: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life by Ed Cyzewski. The title is inviting to the masses, but the part that is crucial is how it surfaces the issue of how culture shapes theology!

The blog book tour starts today, runs through most of October and spills over to November! Ed will stop by here at djchuang.com on October 13th. 1st stop at kingdom grace. I’ll dig into the book more by then, and raise more of the unexplored culture aspects of theology, particularly about the mostly missing multicultural perspectives and explore a bit on the bi-cultural perspectives of Asian Americans. (cf. complete list of bloggers where the tour will visit)

This Thursday, Oct 2nd, @ 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern, CATALYST is hosting a LIVE Webcast on Mogulus.com/catalystspace. Brad Lomenick and Chad Johnson will be giving you a view of Catalyst behind the scenes and answering your questions.

I had drawn up a grid a few years ago about leadership development, and the different kinds of programs to develop that. Nothing replaces the practicing of leadership, which is often not spoken of; but the programs that can be packaged and produced, those get a lot more air-time. I even came up with acronyms to chart out a comparison betwen different approaches/ programs: conferences, courses, classes, cohorts, coaching. Maybe there was one more C. I’ll have to dig that up and share it with you.