Join us as Faith Eury Cho shares her inspiring journey from a young girl seeking God to following her calling to become a preacher and leader in ministry. As the CEO and founder of The Honor Summit, a nonprofit organization that equips and activates Asian American women for the mission of God, Faith brings a wealth of experience and wisdom. Alongside her husband, Pastor David Cho, she is also the co-founder and co-pastor of Mosaic Covenant Church of NJ.
Faith opens up about the challenges she faced as a minority female in ministry, often without role models and navigating the narcissistic tendencies of some leaders. Despite these obstacles, she emphasizes the sufficiency of God’s presence, especially for those who feel marginalized in the church. She underscores that true impact in ministry comes from relying on God rather than seeking control or affirmation from others.
Faith Eury Cho’s story is one of resilience, grace, and deep spiritual intimacy. Her experiences offer valuable lessons on the importance of relying on God, the transformative power of wilderness seasons in shaping our faith, and the necessity of community and discernment in ministry.
Listener Resources:
- If you’re a woman in ministry, we’re here to support you! Explore our curated collection of resources and specialized offerings designed to empower you in your calling. Discover more at transformingengagement.org/womeninministry
- If you are a Christian leader or pastor seeking a space for support, growth, and transformation for yourself or for your team, we invite you to participate in one of our cohort programs, called a Circle. To learn more and to get on the waitlist to be notified when our next Circle is offered, visit transformingengagemeng.org/circles
- Each episode spotlights an organization making a positive impact, and Faith highlights her organization The Honor Summit, a nonprofit ministry dedicated to equipping and activating Asian American women for the mission of God. You can learn more about their work at thehonorsummit.com.
- Check out Faith Eury Cho’s book, Experiencing Friendship with God: How the Wilderness Draws Us to His Presence.
About our guest:
Faith Eury Cho has been a gospel preacher since she was 19-years-old. Currently, she is an international speaker, pastor, church planter, author, and CEO of a nonprofit. The mission of her life is for all to know and enjoy the gift of the gospel, which is the Presence of God. She holds a Masters of Divinity with a concentration in Global Studies from Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University. She has been ministering in the church for 19 years.
Faith is the CEO and founder of The Honor Summit, a nonprofit organization that equips and activates Asian American women for the mission of God. Alongside her husband, Pastor David Cho, she is also the co-founder and co-pastor of Mosaic Covenant Church of NJ.
Faith is a coach and collaborator for Propel, for which she has also been a contributing writer. She is also the author of Experiencing Friendship with God: How the Wilderness Draws Us to His Presence (published with Waterbrook in October, 2023). Faith has spoken on mission fields, churches, conferences, and stages such as Thinq Media and Exponential. She regularly appears on TBN’s Better Together. In addition, she has been a guest on The 700 Club and LIFE Today TV. In January 2023, she was mentioned in Outreach Magazine as one of, “20 Rising Leaders.”
Her most precious role, however, is being a mom to her 4 children— Moriah, Elias, River and Adalynn.
You can connect with Faith Eury Cho on Instagram at @faitheurycho
Episode Transcript:
Jenni: Hello friends, it’s Jenni Wong Clayville here with Rose Madrid Sweatman again, and we have the incredible privilege of being joined by my very close friend, Faith Eury Cho Today. Faith has been a preacher since she was 19. That’s a long time. She’s so old now. Anyway, she holds a Master’s of Divinity with a concentration in global studies from Rowling School of Divinity at Liberty University. She’s the founder and CEO of the Honor Summit, a nonprofit organization that equips and activates Asian American women for the mission of God. I love getting to serve with her in this and she and her husband David, also co-founded and co-Pastor Mosaic Covenant Church of New Jersey. New Jersey. Faith is a coach and collaborator for Propel, which she has also been a contributing writer. So we get to coach in that together. She is also the author of experiencing Friendship with God, how the Wilderness draws us to his presence. And Faith speaks the conference circuit and she’s probably not a stranger to you. She regular peers on tbn, better Together. And in January of 2023, she was mentioned in Outreach Magazine as one of the 20 rising leaders, but her precious, her most precious role, however, as being a mom to her four kids, Mariah, Elias River, and Adeline. Now Faith, that is an incredible bio and I’m so glad I got to introduce you. Thanks for being here.
Faith: I’m so honored. I’m so glad to be here. I’m so excited.
Jenni: Yes. Anything we get to do together. Yes, we love it. We love it. So we want to hear a bit of your story and how you came into this ministry. Let’s be honest, there’s not a lot of us, well first of all, females, that’s still a new thing, but especially Asian American females that are kind of out in the circuit and doing what we do. So I would really love to hear what really draws you into this and what makes you keep going.
Faith: Well, ever since I immigrated from South Korea, which is when I was three years old, I mean there was this deep hunger that I think I could name it from around five years old. I just wanted to get to know God. I just felt like if there is a God out there, then I needed to be on his good side. And so I was seeking God. I remember I would pray to him every night. I would try to bargain for him to show up. I did all sorts of tricks, light candles, I mean, which was quite smart for a, but I did it and thank God nothing burned down. And I remember I was on a family trip and on the television I saw a movie about Jesus. It was like a gospel film. And I remember asking my mother, who is that man? And she said, that is Jesus.
And that moment changed everything for me because that was the moment I figured out God’s name and I was just on this search for God. I remember going to the library asking the librarian, do you have any books on Jesus? Oh God. And that was the first time somebody told me to go to church. And so I would just tell my mom to drop me off at church, but then I would say I didn’t have the salvific experience of God until I was 16 years old because I did not know that I was supposed to give him my life. I did not know that just knowing about him wasn’t enough, but it was really about saying, you are now the reason I live now. That moment changed my life. That was in Mexico when I was 16 years old and it was at a youth camp, and from that moment there was always just this thing in me where I felt like I don’t want to do anything else but serve God, love God, and tell everyone about Jesus and spend my every waking hour thinking about him, reading about him and learning about him.
I remember telling a pastor who was in seminary at that time, he was kind of complaining about his exams and I’m like, wait, you get to just think about Jesus all the time and you don’t have to do anything else. That’s the dream. And I remember him looking at me like I’m crazy, but I’m like I saw even before I knew I was called, I in a way felt it in my being. I cannot tell you that I had a very specific vision of what things were supposed to be. I didn’t have a plan to start a nonprofit ministry. I didn’t have a plan to plan to church. I didn’t have a plan to write a book. But I would say it was from that day at six years old or five years old when I figured out God’s name till now of just following the breadcrumbs of Revelation and just following his voice, what he would call me to do, ask me to do. Even going to Mexico at 16 wasn’t really something that I would do, but I really felt like maybe I should be there and thank God because I would not have had that moment unless I went. And so yeah, everything from there till now, till this very moment in time, I would say everything is just a fruit of knowing him and following his voice.
Jenni: I feel like you and I have had a lot of conversations about growing up in church, immigrant church first of all, but then really where people saw you as a minority female and then also how you were kind of just holding space. I know we’ve talked about narcissistic tendencies from other leaders and how that’s affected you. Tell me a little bit about just that tension in you growing up and really how you are dealing with that now and how you’re kind of combating that.
Faith: That is such a packed question. Oh my gosh, how long do we have? Hopefully forever. I would say it was a journey through mystery, so much mystery because it’s not like I could look over to the next Asian American female leader as an example, right? As a measuring stick of am I doing this right or not? What’s that? And my only measuring stick was either through the Bible or other leaders, which were often male. And I think being a young woman that craved to be right with God and just do what’s right. Sometimes in my eagerness, I didn’t really trust in my ability to hear from God myself. And so in a way I would just lean on what pastors would tell me and sometimes they would tell me things in the flesh and in a lot of ways I had to learn by mistake and I had to learn through mistakes.
I couldn’t learn from example, you know what I mean? I couldn’t quite learn from people telling me, Hey, I did it right, you do it this way. And in a lot of ways I did it wrong. So I wouldn’t call myself an expert in a lot of conversations when it comes to going into ministry like, well, I learned by doing it wrong. But I think God knowing that gave me a lot of grace. Truly to this day, I know for a fact that I am a product of grace. I think as women in ministry being that there are not a lot of us. We want to do it right so bad, so badly. We want to do it right so badly and we want to do it well so badly, but just knowing nothing we do is going to be the fruit of our own doing, but it’s going to have to be grace.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had moments in the spirit when I would just cry out, God, I can’t do it. When I would encounter him in a fresh way. And the truth that would come out of me when he would just give me this fresh and filling would be I just can’t do it. And in a way, I have to be reminded of that every season that I just can’t do it by my own strength. And this is kind of where I believe the presence of God is good news to anyone that is marginalized in the church. Yeah. Because the sufficiency of his presence means that no matter how marginalized, no matter how silence, no matter how overlooked you are, that you could still make an impact in the kingdom of God. That’s so good.
Rose: Absolutely. I’m very struck by your story of not knowing exactly what was ahead of you. You just sort of said yes every step of the way. If there was an invitation, am I hearing you? You just kind of kept saying yes to the Lord and then this thing would open and open, which for me, I know so many women that has been their story because they didn’t have, like you said, they didn’t have models. They didn’t know what they were really doing. They just loved the Lord and wanted to say, yes, I will do it. And sometimes called into some really courageous spaces because I don’t know if this is true for you or for you, Jenny, of being the first in pioneering. I mean, I was the first in pioneering you. Absolutely. In some places. And I know that that struggle where there’s, I mean you guys back in 1995 when I was ordained, I didn’t have any women. There weren’t podcasts, there were no voices. I literally bought Barbara Brown Taylor’s books where she published her sermons to try to get a female voice. How do women preach the gospel? Right. So faith, I love that. Which also then brings me to how did you come across writing the book? What was the experience of wanting to write, experiencing friendship with God? There it is.
Faith: Yes. I would say it was a book that’s been stirring in me since I was 17 years old. I remember going to a youth camp, a different youth camp, not in Mexico, but a different one. I frequented youth camps. There you go. And I remember asking God for a vision for my future, and it’s very specific and I don’t know why I really came to that. But then I asked him and I just started to see books. Now being a young Korean American 17-year-old girl, I didn’t know writing books was something that I could do that I was allowed to do that I would have connections even to do. But I felt it so strongly. And so I started writing from then actually writing devotionals for youth camps, for blogs, for missions organizations. And some would be read, some will not be. It wasn’t really, it wasn’t widely circulated. I would just keep writing. And it took a long time for God to work all of a sudden. And where 2021 I would say was what instigated the process for this book particularly. But then what really got me to spark that light and put all these sermons together and finally compile, this was my experience in 2020 of planting a church. I didn’t want to plant a church in 2020. It just happened to be that was God’s call for us. But that really tested with what I taught, that tested whether I believed what I taught, which was do I really believe that the presence of God is enough to lead and feed a nation for 40 years? Do I really believe that the presence of God is enough for disciples to be sent out two by two and just minister and evangelize by the power of God? Do I really believe it’s enough where just a few disciples were able to change the world as we know it. And it took me being a week away from being homeless with more kids and having nobody in my living room for Bible studies and having no financial runway to start a church to really be convinced of what I’ve been actually teaching for a very, very long time, which is that we as Christians need to be convinced that not only is he able, but he is willing.
Rose: Yes.
Faith: And we need to be confident in that to be able to do kingdom work.
Rose: Yes. I love that you write about the wilderness experience because honestly, I think in so many churches we don’t talk about the wilderness experience. We only talk about the good times or have faith to get through it, but we don’t talk about actually the wilderness experience is very formative. Do you want to talk about that, how you think about that?
Faith: Oh, absolutely. The wilderness is what reveals our purpose for life. What you experience in the wilderness will reveal what you’ve actually been living for. And a lot of people will find that they are devoted to Christ because they’re living for the promised land and not for Christ. And that will get revealed in the wilderness when we want to quit in the wilderness is because we prayed. And yet there’s no promised land, there’s no healing, there’s no fruit, there’s no growth, there’s no movement forward. And I think a lot of people experienced this during the pandemic. What is the point of prayer if you’re not going to give me what I asked for? Are you just watching me from afar, God? And I think the wilderness will reveal what we’ve been living for. And if it reveals that you haven’t been living to know him intimately, authentically, and passionately, then that’s a gift. That is a gift of the wilderness because then you realize, wait a second, the purpose of the Israelites even being in the wilderness was not just to get to the promised land, but it was to be with Yahweh because this is the first time since the garden that Yahweh was amidst his people. What a gift.
Rose: I love that. I think it’s in Genesis 33 or 35, I can’t remember. But it’s talking about him bringing them out and they could have gone a different way and take two weeks, but instead he took them the long way to prepare them to be a people. Yes. Yeah.
Faith: It’s really, really good.
Jenni: I your book in front of me right here, and you write in one of the chapters here, it’s page 91. You’re talking about Simon and you’re saying that although he called himself a follower of Jesus, he was still trying to fulfill his self-serving desires within the Christian context. He lived for power and control and he couldn’t let that go. He chose his agenda over God’s presence. And I like this so much because this is very much the Westerner’s approach to life right now. All of us in this world, we’re for power, we’re for authority, we’re for control. And we fight it when we don’t have it. But we’ve missed out even as Christians, even the church, we’ve missed it completely. And we don’t sit in God’s presence at all. So what do you have to say to the Christian today that’s listening to this and honestly there’s some really great Christians, but we’ve all kind of been sideswiped by this. What do you say to us?
Faith: Yeah, I would say if you are in a situation where you are powerless, silenced, overlooked, marginalized, then you are already learning what many Christians need to eventually learn. You already got there, you already learned what is real, which is everything else. It’s a facade of control.
Jenni: Yeah.
Faith: It’s just a facade of control. For some of us, it’s just more obvious than for others. And hey, if you realize it faster, then actually that’s a gift God has chosen the hidden ones, God has chosen the weak ones, the imperfect ones, the ones that are marginalized different, other God has continually chosen them throughout biblical history. So I would say, Hey, if you’re in that position where you’re like, I have no control over my life, that’s actually great news. That means you are primed to discover more of the power of the Holy Spirit, whereas others will have to go through a journey to figure that out first.
Jenni: So good.
Rose: Yeah. So good faith, another concept that you bring out in your book, and probably because you were writing it during the pandemic is lament. Another thing that I think we haven’t, I did not growing up hearing about lamenting and so we talk a little bit about that.
Faith: Yes. When you lament with the Holy Spirit, where you stand is holy ground. Oof.
Jenni: That’s good.
Faith: And I think sometimes especially because joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, we feel as if we’re failing when we’re not joyful. And in a way joy and peace becomes very performative and we feel like we need to constantly stomp out our disappointment, stomp out our pain to prove that we are Christians of faith. But actually it takes a lot of faith to bring your pain to God with honesty. And when we do the good news in that is that we get to experience steps of his presence that we will not experience when we are just celebrating with God.
For sure. The good thing about making our purpose all about knowing Jesus is that then every season of our lives will have significance. If we are in a season of lament, then we will discover a God the comforter, right? If we are in a season of lack, we will discover God the provider. If we are in a season of failure, we will discover His grace in a way that we will not discover it in other seasons. And so if the purpose of your life is to know Jesus and intimately, authentically and passionately, then your lament is actually a wonderful space to be because you are continually discovering the beauty of God’s comfort depths that you’ll not experience when you are actually very comfortable. And so I would say embrace that time if that’s the season that you are in, because as you bring that truth before God, where you stand is holy ground. That’s so good. Did you have anything for her? Rose? I know you have any
Rose: Other questions. Well, my mind, I’d love what you said about lament and then it brings me to, I was just in a conference where a woman was telling a story about how she came into the ministry and she was part of a search committee in a church. She asked the pastor, I’d like to put my name in the hat. And he said, no, this isn’t for you. And so how many women have heard no, not for you, when felt invited by the spirit, called by the spirit to go into ministry, into a pastoral role. Faith, what do you say to women who might be listening that have heard, no, not for you.
Faith: I know how stressful it could be. Wondering if the passion that you’re feeling is displeasing to God, especially when people are not affirming what you are convicted by. It’s easy to feel like maybe you’re wrong and maybe you are prideful and maybe you are selfish, which it was just a lot of the internal backtalk that we experience when people are not affirming what we see and feel in the spirit. Listen, I would say if there’s a fire in you to serve the Lord and to speak up, know that. Although it would be amazing to have people’s permission, I mean it would be amazing. Hold on, backtrack. Although it would be amazing to their blessing, you don’t need their permission.
Rose: That’s a good point. That’s a good point. Yes,
Faith: Absolutely. Now, like I said, it would be wonderful to have their blessing.
Rose: The blessing, right?
Faith: Yes, absolutely. And that’s in an ideal world and in an ideal setup. But then in order to follow the calling of God, you don’t need their permission. Now, I say this very with fear and trembling. Yes. This is not to say, girl, you do whatever you want. Exactly. It’s not that at all. I do believe in accountability. I do believe in having proper counsel. I do believe in spiritual pastors and leaders and mentors covering for you and counseling you and guiding you as well. However, at the end of the day, we are accountable to what we do with God’s voice in our lives and not how we’re afraid of people’s opinions.
Rose: Right. That brings up another thought because I think that is so good. I’ve also heard many women say to me when I go and talk to whoever in my denomination that about wanting to be ordained or be a pastor rather than the director. Like everybody, all the males have pastor, but I have director at the end of my, and so then the response is, why do you need a title? It’s prideful. I mean, what do you say to women who are hearing, why do you need a title? They’re being shamed for just wanting to answer that call.
Faith: I would say there’s two aspects to this. One, I do believe that the church should honor their leaders according to how God has called them to serve in that community. So there is that. So I do believe women that are serving pastorally should be called pastors, right? As long as it’s according to the bylaws and the spiritual standards of that community, right? I do believe that, hey, if she’s a pastor, then call her a pastor and that we as a community, as a church should honor that. I do believe that. But at the same time, I would also say as the person, so not as the person around the leader, but as the female leader, I want to make the primary things, the primary things and the secondary things. The secondary things. At the end of the day, whether you call me pastor or not, I’m going to fulfill my calling.
I’m going to be faithful. I’m going to crush it. I’m going to do great. I’m going to be excellent. I’m going to love, I’m going to lead. I’m going to preach, I’m going to evangelize. I’m going to do everything I’m called to do. I will stand up for my rights, but if I need to lay down my rights, but that be the case as in for those around her, should they call her pastor? Oh, absolutely. But at the end of the day, I’m going to fulfill my calling the great commission, which is to make disciples of all nations in order to be faithful. I’m going to speak. How I’m going to be heard is up to God and up to people. You know what I mean? And don’t get me wrong, this is not me saying, oh, she should just let it go. No, no, no, no, no. That’s not what I’m saying. But I’m also saying sometimes in our fight for our rights, we even ourselves can get really lost as women. And sometimes we just got to let God defend us.
Jenni: So going even further than that. So what about the woman that’s listening to this that does not have a title that is in her church and feels called, but doesn’t have the resources, doesn’t have the backing. Right now we have women right here between Rose, you and me, we’re all ordained. We have pastor titles. Absolutely. But what about the one that is called but does not have the steps for that? What would you say to that woman listening right now?
Faith: I would say ask God what is the assignment for where you are? And if that assignment is to break down doors, break it down. If that assignment is to tear down walls, tear down. But if your assignment is to be faithful until God is moving you to another location or another space that may honor you for what God has called you to be, then that’s fine too. And I do know of many women that are in spaces that don’t give them what they deserve, but they’re there because there’s an assignment and they’re being faithful to God to that assignment, and they are making a lasting eternal impact and just remaining in that space. I know so many women that have shared with me now, there’s two women on staff, which is so crazy, but it used to be just me. So many changes would happen if you just stay, but that’s not for everybody. And it really depends on the assignment.
Rose: And it sounds to me like you need discernment and possibly for women listening that are in that place where I don’t even know. I am so confused right now because I have this call. I don’t see it ever happening here mean, so they need discernment. So who is it that you can pray with? Who can you can talk with? Maybe it’s a spiritual director. Maybe that’s who you need to talk with and discern what the invitation of God might be. Is it to stay and break down walls? Is it to go? So I like that. Needing to know what is the assignment for this time.
Faith: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
Jenni: There’s so many resources now too. We are in a generation where we can do things online. There are cohorts just for women all over. So if you don’t have the resources where you are locally, you can reach out globally really. But even if we’re saying domestically here, there’s so many different resources that are just for women, and we’re not saying egalitarian or we’re just saying get a community of women around you that know how to pray, how to keep you accountable, but also how to encourage you if you need that extra push to do whatever faith. If you need a lot, knock those walls down. But also that encouragement to stay put if you need to. Stay put.
Faith: Yes, for sure.
Rose: Any other thing you want to tell us about, especially in the book about friendship with God? What are some practical things that you have in the book for those listening, I want them to go buy your book. So give us some little tid point. Yeah,
Faith: I would say it’s a lot simpler than people make it out to be. I think we live in a day and age where people just want a formula. They want a manual, they want to give me an A, B, C so that I could get to D, right? But it’s really about every day doing everything for him. And with him,
That’s just really what it is. Even doing this, I have now been accustomed to building an awareness of his nearness. Even as I do podcasts, even as I speak when I’m washing dishes, it’s something that we could do in every season no matter what, which is in everything that we do. I’m doing it with God and for God. I’m doing it for his glory to the best of my ability. And I’m also doing it with him, inquiring of him, asking him questions, thanking him. And so in everything that I do is doing things with him and for him.
Rose: And what do you say to someone who might be listening to say, I used to feel that and I cannot access God anymore. It’s like God is silent. I don’t know where he went. What would you say?
Faith: I would say, you can access God because that access was blood bought, so that access does not go away. But to the conundrum of not being able to feel him, I would say, that’s okay. You don’t need to feel him, because feeling him doesn’t mean that he’s closer. His closeness was already supplanted and sealed by the Holy Spirit. So sometimes not feeling him is an opportunity to believe. Anyways,
Rose: I like that. It reminds me of Mother Teresa where they talk about how the last years of her life, she didn’t feel like she had any access to God, but she just was obedient to do what her assignment was. But she was kind of in a dark knight of the soul for the last few years of her life, but was faithful.
Jenni: Yes. And in the Bible it talks about that too, between the Old Testament and New Testament, the 300 years of silence. So this would not be the first time. Let’s just hope it’s not 300 years for us.
Rose: Mercy
Jenni: For me, I remember feeling, I can share for me, there’s been times where I have felt God is far away or he is not answering. And thankfully it wasn’t. It was too long. Then I remember thinking, why is so long? God. But in hindsight, there were just kind of moments of that, right? Yeah. And so it’s what you do, like you said, what do you do with it? Do you lean in there or do you pull away? What is our resilience in that? What is our understanding in who God is in all of this? So that was really good faith. So thank you.
Faith: Absolutely.
Rose: Faith, we are so grateful for your time with us, and we want to end by giving you space to shout out to an organization that you see doing good work and we’ll donate to them and we’ll put a link in our episode notes and encourage our listeners to make a donation.
Faith: I’m going to be completely biased and say my favorite organization is The Honor Summit, which is the nonprofit ministry for Asian American women. We equip and activate Asian American women, and we do have a conference this August that would benefit so much from any sort of funding and any sort of financial support as well as our cohorts that we have for Asian American women. I mean, these cohorts are fire,
Rose: Right? Say more about them. Say more about the cohorts.
Faith: Yes. It just offers this nuanced space for Asian American women to grieve about things that are very particular to their story. Also grow and spiritually form in that space with like-minded women. And so we learn about our history, our heritage, but also about activation and even just things that we need to hear. It’s very, for a nuanced group, we need nuanced space. Yes,
Rose: That’s right. I love that so much. And yeah, it’ll be a delight to donate there. So thank you
Jenni: So much. Thanks for being here with us, friend. You’re the best.
Faith: I loved it.
