A Festschrift for Manny

I mentioned a while back that I had “completed a painting assignment... whose details I’m not at liberty to share with the world just yet.”

Well, the time to unveil the work came yesterday, when my dear friend and mentor Manny Ortiz was presented with a Festschrift (we all need some help with knowing what in the world this exactly is, so here’s the Wikipedia definition) in his honor at Westminster Theological Seminary: “Globalization and Its Effects on Urban Ministry in the 21st Century.” Our good friend and Manny’s longtime colleague Sue Baker (the Ortiz and Baker families have ministered together for thirty years in Chicago and in Philadelphia) put the whole thing together—a true labor of love.

I contributed a chapter named “Repentance and Bonding Dynamics Within Cross-Cultural Church Planting Teams” (edited from a couple of chapters in my Doctor of Ministry dissertation) and the painting used for the cover: “Global Urban Cross.” Many of the contributors and the Westminster community got together for a chapel service when Manny was presented with the work; I also had the privilege of presenting him with the painting.

Global Urban Cross, by Kyuboem Lee. © All rights reserved.

(The work was inspired by aerial photos of various cities around the world. Clockwise from top left: downtown Tokyo; favelas in Rio; rowhouses in Philadelphia; and Marrakesh in Morocco. The crucifix itself is a freeway interchange in LA. Some of you have asked me about purchasing prints of the painting; you can do that right here, at Imagekind, where you can also get prints framed and matted, or as greeting cards.)

Being an unpretentious man, Christe and I knew Manny was loving it (because of all the relationships) and hating it (because of all the attention). A better mentor I could not have hoped for. He was not only my closest teacher in seminary (both Master’s and Doctorate levels), he introduced Christe and me to each other, and he performed our wedding. He led us to pray about Germantown and walked with us through all the ups and downs of planting a church here. He baptized our boys. He got me started teaching at the graduate level. The amazing thing is that I’m not alone in being so indebted to him. There were so many lives deeply touched by Manny in that chapel; many more still weren’t able to be there. Even among the contributors, friends serving in cities all over the world—in Peru, Serbia, South Africa and Nigeria—weren’t able to be travel to the presentation, but wished they could.

I’m delighted that I could help celebrate how the Lord has worked through your life and work in this way, Manny. Many blessing on you as you continue to work for justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord!

Delightful also to have lunch with various good friends, contributors, and the Ortiz clan. I went around and got autographs from all the contributors present—Manny and Sue, of course; Bill Krispin; Jeff Jue; Mark Gornik; William Shaw (who is based in Belfast; we want to go visit him this summer during our N. Ireland trip!); John Algera; John Leonard; Tim Witmer; and Pedro Aviles—that was fun. The Ortiz clan found a ping pong table in the second floor of the Student Center where the luncheon was held, and proceeded to play ping pong, Ortiz style. It consists of the whole group (more than 20 of them) rotating around the table hitting the ball across to whoever just rotated in. If you don’t keep the ball in play, you’re out. I’d never seen anything like it before; I don’t know how many of them actually got a chance to eat! A great day of celebration, for which I am thankful.

I’d of course appreciate it very much if you could go out there and purchase the book for yourself! Deepest thanks in advance.