January 19, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of us have birthdays to party. Many of us are blessed to have a committed partner to celebrate anniversaries. But ministers are privileged to have a third event to party; our ordination anniversary!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifty years ago, to the date, I was ordained at my home church, First Baptist of Boston. I grew up in this church as a baby and a toddler in the nursery, as a student in the Sunday school, as a youth in the BYF, as Sunday school teacher, and as a church leader on many boards and committees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before I was approved to be ordained, I was examined by delegates from the Samuel Stillman Association when 50 people from 24 churches questioned my beliefs and determined whether or not I was fit to be ordained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the prevailing advices for anyone considering ordination is that when they ask you if you believe in the Virgin Birth, the answer is always \u201cYes,\u201d particularly in Catholic Boston. When the questioning took longer than my 3rd<\/sup>-grade Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Beatrice Wyatt thought was enough, she stooled up and said something like, \u201cI know Donald Ng to be fit for ministry because I was his teacher and he memorized 1 Corinthian 13 and recited in front of us!\u201d There were no further questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many people like Mrs. Beatrice Wyatt who shaped me to whom I am today. The signatures on my certificates included Ellis Holt who went by Sam Holt, the regional executive minister of the ABC churches of Massachusetts. J. Walter Sillen was the pastor of my home church when I was ordained. And there was Millie Brooks who was our BYF advisor for the years of my youth. When I was still in high school, I made Millie cry when I challenged her why we couldn\u2019t dance at church when David did so in the Psalms. Maybe that\u2019s the reason I don\u2019t like to dance today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On January 19, 50 years ago, Joy\u2019s parents were there from New York, my mother and nieces and nephews were there. Even Greg was technically there because Joy was 4 months pregnant. I asked my homiletics professor, Dr. Eddie O\u2019Neal to preach at my service. And what he preached on I was apalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine 50 years ago, I was only 25; cocky, arrogant, proud of myself, and received and accepted a call to come to the famous First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco! By the way, FCBC was famous because James Chuck was the pastor. He was a sensational speaker at a biennial in Atlantic City, NJ when I was in seminary. I was told that when he started his last Bible study, he knew it was the last day because he put on his last clean underwear! Going to San Francisco, I was the envy of my classmates who were going to obscure places around New England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From the pulpit, Dr. O\u2019Neal called me to be a \u201cCoolie for Christ!\u201d For years, I have been trying to erase this derogatory name from my identity. But at the pinnacle of my Christian journey, he called me a \u201ccoolie!\u201d I was fuming and when he gave me the cassette tape, I refused to listen to it again. In retrospect, Dr. O\u2019Neal was a prophet and my counsel. He put me back on the track to be a servant leader that I have never forgotten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I studied psychology in college, the question was trying to answer, \u201cWho am I?\u201d But in seminary when I studied theology, the question we asked is \u201cTo whom am I?\u201d That little preposition made all the difference. To be a coolie for Christ is the answer for my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like we have one day when we are baptized, we are being baptized everyday until that day when we give everything to the Lord, ordination is much like that too. God was ordaining me even before January 19th<\/sup> fifty years ago when I preached Youth Sunday sermons, rode a yellow school bus to pick up kids for Sunday school, and completing my Master of Divinity at Andover Newton Theological School. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Roger Tom believed that the church should spend enormous expenses to move us in 1975 to San Francisco to succeed the beloved Debbie Allen, I was ordained again. When Bud Carroll who grew up in Oakland and served in Chico recruited me to serve on the Youth Ministry staff in Valley Forge, I was ordained again. And when I saw my predecessor, Jeff Sharp having lunch at the Mission Center in Valley Forge to accept a new call, I sensed the call that this might be a sign for me to return to FCBC in 1998. You know the rest of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are indeed many who have affected my life and calling but I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t honor James Chuck in my life and in my call to ministry. It was James who made FCBC well-known. James was like the bookends in my ministry. He was my supervising minister when I started full-time ministry in 1975 and he was there to endorse and support me as senior pastor when I returned to FCBC in 1998. As a pastor to pastors, James commemorated my anniversaries by creating his signature calligraphies. He remembered my 25th<\/sup>, my 30th<\/sup> and if he was still with us, I\u2019m certain I would have a 50th<\/sup> anniversary calligraphy. It\u2019s without saying, that I stand on the shoulders of many giants in the faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Joy and I met in college in my senior year in 1970. Our first encounter was over misperceptions. She saw me as more endearing to Black students than claiming my own Asian American identity. I saw her as this entitled Asian girl from the Big Apple. But when we agreed to write the Constitution for the Asian Dragon Society (ADS), something like the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), we fell in love when I thought her shoes were cute. While we may still perceive things differently, behind any pastor, is a very competent and gifted spouse. She moved 3 times across the country with me because of my calls to ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Being ordained and being a pastor can sometimes be a burden or a liability to the rest of the pastor\u2019s family. It\u2019s not like our children have to believe in what I believe; particularly since we are Baptists, soul freedom is one of our principles. But being ordained did mean that I was often away from home and missed some of children\u2019s activities. To that end, I am striving to make amends by being as present with our grandchildren as I can possibly be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Being ordained means to be \u201cset aside\u201d for ministry. Being set aside is reading the Bible and taking its messages of the Peaceable Kingdom in Psalm 8 so seriously that I became a vegetarian. Here, at Wildseed tonight, I am secretly trying to convert you all to being vegan or vegetarian! No apologies here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n But being \u201cset aside\u201d didn\u2019t mean that I was no longer the father of Greg and Lauren. I am very proud of them; very proud of the life-long partners they have formed\u2014Heather and Daniel, very proud and impressed over the beautiful and wonderful 6 grandchildren whom I have undeniably spoiled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for this evening. Let it be known that God calls every one of us into ministry, especially as Baptists who believe in the \u201cpriesthood of all believers.\u201d Like in the Book of Hebrews, I count you among the many who have testified the Good News of Christ Jesus and because you have been faithful, you will have many descendants as \u201cmany as the stars of heaven and as innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.\u201d (11:12b)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you very much for being here. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 19, 2025 All of us have birthdays to party. Many of us are blessed to have a committed partner to celebrate anniversaries. But ministers are privileged to have a