#InContext: Eugene Cho

by | Jun 14, 2017

By: SUTTON ROACH

Eugene Cho, founder of One Day’s Wages and senior pastor at Quest Church in Seattle, was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States when he was six years old. Growing up in San Francisco, Cho helped his parents run a local grocery store, stocking shelves and running the cash register.

In his book Overrated, Cho recounts many of his own vulnerable life stories, including the struggles of growing up in an unfamiliar culture, planting a new church, wading through unemployment, couch surfing with his family while trying to make ends meet, and dealing with the setbacks of beginning a nonprofit cafe and an NGO to fight global poverty. He uses these hard seasons of life to explain how he has been personally challenged to understand what doing justice truly means. Cho’s personal insight provides a motivating call to action as he challenges the depth necessary to actually do justice in a world that is rarely satisfied by the ordinary, slow, and tedious tasks required to instill lasting change.

Throughout his book, Cho discusses society’s approach toward changing the world, stating that doing justice means going farther—generously, sacrificially, and lovingly. He paves a way forward by explaining that the perception of justice must be changed from its current cultural fad and instead be considered a critical component to the central meaning of the the Christian gospel and the character of God.

Cho also questions why we do justice, pointing out that in order to restore areas of brokenness, we must have a firm understanding of what justice is and where it emanates. Sincerity toward injustice matters, but Cho questions whether our access to an abundance of resources is cultivating a generation that greatly desires to change the world and only ends up doing very little. Cho is authentic in pointing out that:

“We all love justice until there is a personal cost. And the truth is, there’s always a cost.”

May our sincerity toward injustice spur us to understand and act accordingly in order to truly change the world.

Want to learn more about our work?

Sign up for our email list

Related News

#InContext: Bell Hooks

#InContext: Bell Hooks

  Born on September 25, 1952, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and raised in a racially segregated  South, Bell Hooks (born Gloria Jean Watkins) grew...