Daniel and Yulee sit down with Steve Park, founder of Little Lights—a ministry that has spent almost 30 years serving children, youth, and families in underserved communities in Southeast D.C.—for a wide-ranging conversation about race, faith, and sustainable ministry.
Topics covered:
Steve’s surprising road to faith: a devout atheist in college, a frightening drug experience, a season of vulnerability with a therapist, a breakthrough moment of compassion with his sister, and finally—fittingly—becoming a Christian through reading a comparative world religions book
The origin of Little Lights: meeting an eighth grader who couldn’t read a Dr. Seuss book, and the heartbreak that became the spark for a ministry
Why Little Lights teaches anti-racism and “race literacy” classes rooted in scripture—and how interest in that teaching has shifted with the political climate, from post-Trayvon Martin to the George Floyd surge to today’s pushback
Unpacking the model minority myth: how U.S. immigration policy handpicked certain Asian immigrants for “honorary white” status, bypassing the redlining, segregation, and policing that shaped Black communities—and how that history gets erased into a story about “family values” alone
The challenge and necessity of being a Korean American leader serving primarily in a Black community for decades—gaining trust, navigating being seen as an outsider, and inviting more Korean American Christians into the work
A theology of anger: why Steve believes you can’t fully love without it, and how to direct anger toward justice rather than letting it curdle into bitterness or depression
Hard-earned lessons on healthy ministry growth—including advice from Bruce Main of Urban Promise about not getting desperate for help—and Steve’s conviction that community health, not budget size or social media followers, should be ministry’s true metric
A glimpse into partnering in ministry with his wife, Mary, and raising a family while doing intense, emotionally demanding work
A grounded, hard-won conversation from someone who has done the long, unglamorous work of cross-racial ministry for decades—and has the wisdom (and humility) to show for it.
Little Lights: [linked here]
About Centering
Centering: The Asian American Christian Substack and Centering: The Asian American Christian Podcast are publications of the Asian American Center at Fuller Seminary (AAC). At the AAC, we train and support Asian American Christian leaders of East, Southeast, and South Asian descent, including multiracial individuals and adoptees – grounding their life and work in over 170 years of Asian American history, and addressing their spiritual and psychological concerns.
We do this work through our cohorts, seminary courses, and the programs of our initiatives. The AAC is home to the Asian American Pastoral Formation Initiative, the Asian American Well-Being Collaboratory, the Asian American Christian History Institute, the Filipino American Ministry Initiative, and the Korean American Ministry Initiative.
To learn more, support our work, and subscribe to our newsletter, visit aac.fuller.edu.
For information about Fuller Seminary’s degree programs and continuing education resources, visit fuller.edu.
