My weekends are accounted for. I can easily be found
at Unity Church of Castro Valley every
Sundays. Saturdays are my "catch-up" days since I work Monday
through Friday. It's a weekly clockwork routine regularly interrupted by
the inconsistent service level of BART.
For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may wonder why I
choose to trek from Daly City all the way to Castro Valley simply for church
service. For starters, I serve in several capacities for UCV: prayer
chaplain, treasurer, sound person, coffee/hospitality, and that is every single
Sunday. That doesn't include the fact that the Rev has entrusted me
enough to comfortably take more time off as I share the message on selected
Sundays. (Of course that was beginning in 2014 after my attendance began in November of 2011) For those of you not familiar with the SF Bay,
travelling from Daly City to Castro Valley is definitely a commute. If I
had a car, the commute would be 45 minutes. With BART, the commute is 1
hour and 15 minutes.
The closest Unity to where I live is in San Francisco,
located 3.8 miles away from home according to Google Maps. It’d be a 10 minute commute by car if I had
one, however with public transit and walking, the commute is more like 30-45
minutes. Not much of a difference than
with commuting to Castro Valley. Aside
from all that, I live in San Mateo County.
There are a total of 0 Practical Christianity, New Thought, or Unity
centers in San Mateo County. The nearest
Unity directly south of the aforementioned location in San Francisco is Unity
of Palo Alto which is a part of Santa Clara County. The distance between locations is about 40
miles.
Long story short: I’m in the East Bay every Sunday. Period.
Let’s just keep it at that.
I’d given up on mainstream Christianity out of sheer disgust
back in 2010. What sustained me over
that period was a support system created through the personal development
program I'd undertaken back in 2008-09. It was
brought to my attention that there existed a “link” per se between those
programs and what fragile religious practice I futilely struggled with back
then. That link was New Thought
Christianity and/or Christian Metaphysics.
In 2011 I made it a point to find and locate a center to grow. It was unfortunate that those were the years
that most centers affiliated with New Thought and their leadership decided to
distance themselves from any identification with Christianity altogether. It was a disheartening discovery as I felt
that books by Eric Butterworth and Barbara L King helped me restore my faith in
God.
I’m grateful to the internet because I was able to research
and receive information needed at that time.
I don’t believe in coincidences, but the fact that Truth Unity was developing into an online resource
when I needed resources convinced me that this was indeed “a God thang.”
I contacted Unity Institute and inquired about advanced
training around 2011-12 and received such a bizarre response I decided not to
have anything to do with them and went through different avenues including Hillside, Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary,
and eventually Samaritans
Institute. As a prayer chaplain and
as the substitute speaker at Castro Valley Unity, people often wonder if I’m
being groomed in the event of the current minister’s retiring. The answer is absolutely no. 1) She’s not going anywhere, and 2) I still
do not view myself as a long term minister in any capacity, and 3) Castro
Valley isn’t where I want the teachings of New Thought Christianity taught and
spread. I have a heart for Oakland
California and for Southeast Asia.
Thankfully, Oakland has Lakeside
Temple while we need some serious inroads into Southeast Asia.
I am an actor at heart.
I’ve always have been. People often
think that acting and doing ministry are compatible because ministry requires
public speaking. Yes and no. I’m undergoing the training that I chose to
undergo simply because of the lack of teachers and centers out there, and because
Christian Metaphysics/New Thought Christianity is a passion as up there with
acting. I’m undergoing the ministry
training for the same reason I began writing screenplays and plays 15 years
ago: out of sheer necessity and frustration.
As an actor in the beginning, roles that I was auditioning for simply weren’t compatible with my inner artistic
voice, so I began to write in order to create such roles. Likewise, it’s frustrating of the lack of
centers and like-minded communities with a passion for the teachings and
practice of New Thought/Christian Metaphysics while other centers place an emphasis on the "guru/energy healer of the month."
Think about it. As of
this typing, the overall religious discussion has been about the Pew
research and findings regarding American religious practices. First of all, I find the report to be
somewhat inconsistent because people who attend services and activities provided
by Unity, Religious Science (Center for Spiritual Living), UFBL, Divine Science
and other New Thought would most likely identify themselves in the
survey/research under the “Noner/nothing in particular” category whose umbrella
category includes atheists and agnostics, the “other Christian” category, the “other
world religion” category, and most likely the “other faith” category. And here’s the thing: while the overall
Christian category dropped about7%, the “nothing in particular” had grown about
4%. How many of that 4% include those
attending New Thought locations?
Needless to say, there is a need for more available resources
to teach and spread the message of New Thought.
Although the internet has been a godsend, filling gaps worldwide, there’s
no substitute for face-to-face interaction.
As I stated, I live in a county with an area of 450 square miles, and a
population of 750,000. There are no New
Thought centers located within that county.
(At least to date of this writing)
Another thing: I attend Unity Church of Castro Valley with a
weekly average attendance of 15 people and an average age of 70. While the teaching is more welcoming and can resonate with a younger generation, members of such a younger generation cannot
attend if they don’t know that such teachings existed. If you look at the mainline Christian
churches, you’ll see an aggressive proactive outreach towards that age group. Now we've made attempts in outreach to that group such as Facebook and Meetup, but unfortunately the responses
have been from those who had their own personal spiritual agenda.
And that leads to the next reason why I decided to undertake
the ministerial route. From the time I first
entered a Unity center back in 2011 and from all my experience and interactions
with other people undergoing the New Thought approach, I observed first-hand
how existing New Thought based churches and centers have been utilized more as
a platform for these entitled eclectic spiritual energy figureheads pushing
their own personal agenda at the expense of the core teachings of New
Thought. That isn’t fair to those who
are sincere in their pursuit of studying New Thought. Hiring a third party consultant on marketing
your organization while abandoning your core teaching is only a band-aid,
short-term, temporary approach if it had worked at all.
I was hesitant and had reservations about whether or not to
pursue advanced training in New Thought Christianity. As I stated, I identify myself more as an
actor and as a performer. Secondly, I did
do a short-term missionary assignment years ago through The Salvation Army in
Asia and although the experience was enriching, it was also simultaneously constricting. This was my very first
trip outside of the United States, and my first trip to Asia. I didn’t get laid at all. It was like walking through numerous buffets
and not eating. I wouldn’t want to
subject myself to that all over again. Thirdly,
I also served in various youth counseling capacity within the church and from what
I observed regarding what the pastoral kids were subjected to, (aka, “Preachers’
Kids) I decided that I wouldn’t subject my own children to that kind of political BS.
But perhaps the most compelling reason of my reluctance to
ministerial training could be summed up by this hypothetical example:
Not only have I pursued acting professionally for over 18
years, I’ve practiced Chinese traditional martial arts and its peripheral arts
of lion and dragon dance for over 30 years.
Let’s say I decided to pursue a PhD in Martial Arts. The study is 3 years of academics including 1
academic year of different post graduate courses and 2 years of a doctoral
thesis. Meanwhile my martial arts school
accepts this new student at the same time.
During the course of my 3 years of academic study, this student has
learned just one set (set of choreographed movements) during his first 6 months
upon joining. In addition, he
consistently undergoes the physical conditioning and workout regimen from Day
1. After he learns his first set and
from month 6 to the time that I’m awarded my PhD, all he did was his physical
conditioning/workouts, hand-to-hand drills to practice the techniques from the
set, and the set itself. If he were to
enter a martial arts tournament, most tournaments would categorize a year 3
student as “intermediate,” so for the purpose of this example, he’s considered
an “intermediate” student. Also for the
sake of this example, I did not practice or learn during the past 30 years;
instead I “studied” the martial arts entirely through my Ph D. program.
Having established the groundwork of this working example,
in the aftermath of my reception of my PhD in Martial Arts studies, I accept a
full-contact match with this intermediate student. Oh in addition, let’s also say that as part of that post
graduate courses taken in year 1 included an academic quarter learning
ju-jitsu, an academic quarter learning Choi Li Fut Kung Fu, and an academic
quarter learning penjek silat in the form of an upper division "physical education" classes.
So on paper, there’s an “intermediate” martial student having
a match with a “doctor” of martial arts studies. On paper, who looks like who is going to win the match? In the actual fight, who’s most likely going
to win the match, and why? At the end, who is really the "expert" in martial arts?
So now you can see why I wasn’t in such an urgent state
regarding my advanced/ministerial/teaching studies of the New Thought Christian
curriculum. Why spend up to 2-3 years studying something where at the end, my prayer life, happiness, overall life
satisfaction may or may not be in the upper echelon? Why pursue the studies if I’m not going to
live it?
Here’s the thing: people will not express or pursue an
interest in such a teaching until they witness first-hand what a positive impact
it made on our lives first. Whether or
not I receive a Masters or Doctorate, or a certificate, or an ordination, if my prayer and faith isn’t impacting my own life for the better, then why am I there up front?
Then I’ll just be “acting.” Hmmm...
