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My Story
Steven Chang
After graduating with a BA in Urban Studies, Steven worked for 3 years in marketing & communications in the nonprofit sector while doing college ministry. After that, he worked as a full-time worship director for another 3 years, before entering a 2-year church planting residency while completing his Masters of Apologetics at Biola Unviersity.
Steven & Jamie met while attending the same church at UC Berkeley as undergrads. We love Asia, California, Philly, and our 2 kids - Silas (5) and Brooke (1) - but not necessarily in that order :).
As a kid, I pushed myself to live up to the high and lofty standards of Christianity and Chinese culture. I loved the values they stood for: piety and self-sacrifice on one hand, and ambition, honor, and family on the other. However, as life would have it, I soon realized that what drove me, more than anything, was an unyielding love of self, to ultimately put myself before the people and the things I loved.
I was taken aback and filled with self-loathing by this self-realization. But while I was disoriented, I learned something unexpected. I learned that God had always known this about me and yet still loved me. So He came in the person of Jesus, and in the ultimate act of love, died for me, so that I could be made right - with Him, with others, and with myself - and finally experience life as He intended it. I knew when I heard this that that’s what I wanted, and that’s what I needed. I needed Jesus to be the new center of my life.
Since then, it’s been quite the adventure! God led me to our church in Berkeley during college, where I fell in love with the Acts 2 church and doing college ministry with lifelong friends. God willing, that's what I"ll continue to do for the rest of my life!