Interviewed August 18, 2022
New College Berkeley would like to introduce you to Rev. Dr. Russell Yee, a new member of our Advisory Board. This October, Russell will teach a mini-course called “Navigating Worship.” Find more information and register here. Russell has been a pastor, seminary educator, and is a supporter of New College Berkeley. Let’s hear his story:
Russell, please tell us a bit about your background.
I’m an Oakland native and grew up in a non-denominational Bible church. My educational journey took me from UC Berkeley to Dallas Theological Seminary and then to the Graduate Theological Union (I think I’m literally the only person ever to earn degrees from DTS and the GTU!). By temperament I’m drawn to bridging, balancing, filling gaps, and understanding the differences between various views and approaches. That inclination led me to the study of worship.
After pastoring a local church for ten years I’ve focused mostly on teaching, the greater part of that for Fuller Theological Seminary’s former extension sites and online classes. I have one book in print, Worship on the Way (Judson Press, 2012), in which I explore the need for culturally contextualized worship, using Asian North American settings as a test case.
I still live in Oakland, with my wife, Lisa Yee, who is a longtime family physician at Oakland’s Asian Health Services. We have two grown daughters, who are very active in their churches. When I’m not teaching, I’m probably out running (I caught the marathon bug late in life), serving as a history docent at the Oakland Museum of California, or fulfilling my public duties as one of fourteen current California Citizen Redistricting Commissioners
Could you tell us more about your “Navigating Worship” mini-course?
Sunday worship takes up so very much of our churches’ energies and efforts, and is central to most Christians’ spiritual journeys. However, in many Protestant and especially Evangelical circles, we have a minimal sense of the history and theology of worship, or of the rituals we engage in weekly. This leads to gaps and hindrances in many believers’ worship lives, often experienced as lingering sensations of mismatch, incoherence, semi-engagement, and puzzlement. The worship journey sometimes feels a bit lost and uncertain, without a clear sense of place or direction.
My hope for Navigating Worship is to help believers navigate the journey they continue on each Sunday morning, as well as the larger journey the wider church has been on since the first Pentecost. And I hope that those with Sunday leadership responsibilities will gain a deeper and wider sense of their options and how to navigate them. By surveying the landscape, exploring key landmarks and boundaries, reframing familiar sights, and trying some new tools and skills, I hope this class will help people experience Sunday worship in a more informed, engaging, meaningful, and sustainable way.
What do you hope for New College Berkeley’s future?
I’m grateful for NCB and its calling to lay theological education. In a world filled with so much knowledge, learning and research, it’s vital for the church to have settings where believers can explore matters of faith at a level commensurate with other parts of their lives. As we draw all different levels of our lives into our Christian journey, we can truly walk in newness of life.