Three Questions is a semi-regular series introducing individuals across the NAB by asking them about their story, their ministry, and what they are learning. These features on members of our NAB family also provide great opportunities to pray for them as we get to know more of their story. This week, we hear from Adrienne Jang, a member of the NAB Governing Board and a member of Cornerstone Trinity Excelsior (CTX) Church in San Francisco, California.
What’s your story?
God saved me when my dad dropped me off at church alone one Sunday when I was in middle school; he didn’t know what else to do when I was caught shoplifting at the mall with my friends. I was a relatively obedient, oldest daughter in a typical Chinese-American household in San Francisco, California, but I didn’t grow up in a Christian family and simply lacked a strong moral compass. I walked into Sunday School, and the rest is history. Grounded and barred from seeing my friends, the community and structure of the youth program were just what I needed. A relationship with Jesus sounded foreign yet interesting, and I set off on a path of knowing him more from that point on.
The rest is a typical youth group experience with all the awkwardness, laughs, memories, relationships, and drama of growing from a teenager into adulthood in a family church setting. I’m thankful that on that roller coaster ride he transformed my heart, strengthened my faith, and somehow placed a burden in my heart to seek him first and his Kingdom above all else. By the time I graduated from college, I knew I wouldn’t know what life would look like but I promised myself I would follow God to the fullest, whatever that looked like.
“Whatever that looked like” turned out to be one of my greatest blessings, because God filled in those blanks far better than I could have ever imagined. . . .
Shortly after Dr. Shane Prewitt took on his role as senior pastor of Cross of Hope Church in Parma Heights, Ohio, the world shut down from the COVID-19 pandemic. While this was certainly a rough patch for Cross of Hope, as it was for many churches, this time allowed them to reexamine the things that needed to be reexamined.
“We really want to think of ministry in a different way,” said Pastor Shane. “Instead of looking at our church property as the place where God works, how do we train our people here to go out into the harvest fields and do ministry where they’re at?” This struggle is what missiologists have long defined as the end of Christendom, and Cross of Hope’s response is on the frontlines of where God is working in the North American church to recapture a fervor for the Gospel.
The kind of missional imagination Pastor Shane and the people of Cross of Hope share is at the heart of the NAB. Because God is a missionary God at work in the world, our joy-filled task is to discern that work and receive his invitation to join with him. When you give to the Ministry Resource Fund, you are, in part, creating space for NAB leaders and churches to expand their own missional imaginations through trainings like Blue Ocean, Year of Equipping, Discovery Project, and Bonfire. In essence, each gift plays a small part in training churches and their leaders to bring the hope found only in Jesus to the world around us.
When you give to the NAB 2025 Summer Offering, you will greatly assist us in supporting local NAB churches as they share the hope found only in Jesus Christ. See the links below to give online, or you can text your gift amount, followed by “SUMMER”, to (204) 400-2238 for Canadian giving or to (916) 249-0534 for US giving.
Canadians can also give via e-transfer using givecanada@nabconf.org with “Summer” in the note field.
Give to the Summer Offering (CND)
Give to the Summer Offering (USD)
Episode five of the NAB Stories podcast is now available to stream or download.
In this episode, host Drew Steinhart chats with Mike Anderson. Mike, the new regional minister for the NAB’s Saskatchewan Baptist Association, talks not only about his new role but also his decades-long tenure as the associate pastor at Springside Baptist and the pitfalls and joys of serving in one place for so long.
You can listen or download this episode directly from the NAB website, or you can subscribe through Apple Podcasts or Spotify at the links below. New episodes are released twice a month through July.
Listen to the NAB Stories Podcast
For the past year, a group of twenty- and thirty-something leaders from across the NAB have been gathering monthly as part of the inaugural Year of Equipping cohort. (You can read their reflections from the Vancouver, Detroit, and Chicago in-person gatherings.) The time has come for us to begin putting together the Year 2 cohort of emerging leaders within the NAB, those individuals in their twenties and thirties who hold some position of ministry leadership in the church, or even in a parachurch organization.
The Year of Equipping consists of three, three-month modules, each reflecting the three modules in Blue Ocean. Each module will have multiple components: a book pertaining to the subject matter, Zoom discussions, and one in-person meeting. The goal of this experience is to develop and enrich the relationships of our emerging leaders, to provide instruction and conversation about the movement of God in the world and how we participate, and to deepen the preparation of our emerging leaders for the future of the NAB.
If you are or know a twenty-something leader in your church, we welcome you to apply for the Year 2 cohort using the link below. The deadline to apply is June 20.
Apply for Year of Equipping: Year 2
The Summer 2025 edition of Onward is out now! If you are signed up to receive this bi-annual magazine from the NAB and it hasn’t reached your door yet, it should be arriving soon.
This newest issue is centered around the idea of Hope – what it means for us as followers of Christ and how our actions can help proclaim the hope only found through Jesus.
If you haven’t already received your free copy of Onward in the mail and would like to stay abreast of the news, stories, and updates from the NAB family, you can follow the sign-up link below to be added to the mailing list.
