Hosanna Wong
21 min read ⭑
“We were made to know Jesus for real in our unique way based on our backgrounds and our personalities and our schedules and our relationships.”
Hosanna Wong is all about helping people know Jesus “for real.” Raised in an urban ministry on the streets of San Francisco, she spent time traveling around the U.S. to share Jesus’ love through spoken word poetry. She tells the full story behind her popular spoken word piece, “I Have a New Name,” in her book You Are More Than You’ve Been Told. She’s also the bestselling author of How (Not) to Save the World and her children’s book, What God Says About You.
Today, she’s sharing with us some of the biggest lessons she learned through conducting 1,000 interviews for her latest book, Uncomplicate It: Permission to Enjoy God in Your Unique Way. She also gets honest about her struggle with impatience, her passion for evangelism and why one ancient evangelist should get more attention in modern Christian literature.
The following is a transcript of a live interview. Responses have been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
Food is always about more than food; it’s also about home and people and love. So how does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?
Two things come to mind. The first is dim sum in San Francisco, my hometown. My grandma, my ngin ngin, is from Hong Kong and made dim sum a part of our lives early on. There are restaurants I was raised going to and then there are newer ones I go to now, but dim sum has probably been the consistent food group in my life. There’s a restaurant in Hayes Valley called Dumpling Home. In the alleyway between Chinatown and Little Italy, called Jack Kerouac Alley, is a bookstore. I used to joke that I was born in this alley because I’m half white and half Chinese, and I love to read and write. The dim sum around those blocks is the best ever — and I say that with complete bias.
The second food that comes to mind goes with the first. Most people eat traditional Thanksgiving foods on Thanksgiving. But when my ngin ngin came from Hong Kong, she thought, Thanksgiving is an American holiday. I’m supposed to make the most American meal ever. So for whatever reason, every Thanksgiving, she would make enchiladas, so we always had enchiladas and dim sum. That was all I knew Thanksgiving to be until I went to college.
So when I think of my favorite hometown meals, I think of dim sum in San Francisco paired with enchiladas on the big American holidays — because that’s what my ngin ngin understood to be the best American meal.
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QUESTION #2: REVEAL
What “nonspiritual” activity have you found to be quite spiritual, after all? What quirky proclivity, out-of-the-way interest or unexpected pursuit refreshes your soul?
I love this question because I can genuinely say that, at this point in my walk with God, inviting him into what others might deem “non-spiritual activities” has brought me closer to him than ever before. It changed my life to invite him into the everyday and lean into whatever brings me joy. God wants me to have joy, rest in him and glorify him in it.
My husband, Guy, and I are starting to pursue hobbies together. We have been married for 12 years, and we wanted to connect more deeply with each other. We started to do activities together outside of the typical spiritual practices. For example, we go boxing together. When I’m in town, we go boxing six days a week in the morning, and then we go on walks together at the end of the workday. That’s when we’re able to talk and share about church, ministry, life, family, our bodies and our goals. It has brought us closer to each other in a way we’ve never had in our marriage and closer to God, which would surprise people because we’ve been full-time serving Jesus since before we started dating. It was really important to me that the person I married understood my calling to ministry. But I didn’t know how important it would be that they would have fun and join the Lord in everyday things as well.
Each of the activities we do together comes with benefits. Boxing allows us to be a part of a greater community outside of our typical routines. We go on walks together for deeper conversation. We also go to a lot of live shows together, especially when we’re traveling, which brings a lot of joy. Whether it’s a live sports event or stand-up comedy, these events bring us real joy and connect us to the kind of people we minister to. We budget for it. We plan for it. It’s on the calendar. That joy and depth together — we really enjoy it to the glory of God.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness; every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite, and how do you confront its power?
I am a DC Comics girl, so I do understand this reference very well. Something I’m growing in but still struggle with is patience. I’m impatient. I can see that in myself. I’m impatient with myself, with the things on my heart to do. I don’t love the process it takes to finish those things. I can be impatient with others. And with the world. The world is not as I would have it. I think of everything churches and people who love God are trying to do today to build God’s kingdom, and I feel 100 years behind where I would like to see the church and the world. I’m impatient with myself. I’m impatient with other people, people that we lead. I don’t know that I’m good at faking it, by the way. I think people can tell I’m a little impatient. I’m impatient with the processes, I want to be better, the programs I want to be better, the reach I want to be better. I want to execute today what God has put in our hearts.
That’s quite prideful, isn’t it? To think I have a better timeline than God? I would like to skip the process and all the character and maturity he wants to build along the way. God wants to use people who perhaps wouldn’t be my first choice. I have to remember that God chose to use even me, and he has been very patient with me. Thank God he’s a patient God. Other people have been patient with me, too, so that I could be a part of what God wants to do.
God has been working with me consistently, for as long as I can remember, on becoming more patient. I recently taught on the fruit of the Spirit at our church. What is one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit that you feel is clear in your life? What is one you have to work on? I would say self-control is evident in my life. I could say this, but I don’t; I could do that, but I don’t. I know I’m filled with the Spirit because of the amount of self-control I have. But patience is another story. The Spirit has to help me act better than I feel when I want our progress to be faster. It stops me from being a stronger leader, a better leader, a more compassionate, grace-filled leader. I think I’m better today than I was yesterday, but I still have a long way to go.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
I’m obsessed with helping everyday people experience God for real. I want people to know they can experience God genuinely, authentically and truly in their real lives, with their real families, with their real personalities, with their real schedules. That looks like a lot of things in my life. Recently, I came out with a brand-new book, “Uncomplicate It,” for which I interviewed 1,000 people around the world. I asked them: “What stands in the way of connecting with God?” My heart was that every person would be able to genuinely connect with God and that I wouldn’t simply teach people how to connect with God the way I do. I’m uniquely Hosanna. I spent some time with the Golden State Warriors and boxing, and I’m introverted — and, well, not everyone is or has done all those things.
When I interviewed those 1,000 people, I discovered the six greatest roadblocks that stand in the way of feeling genuinely connected with God: busyness, distractions, shame, grief, silence (not sure if they could hear from God) and expectations. Whether expectations from other people, like their parents, spouse, kids or pastors or, more often than not, expectations they put on themselves regarding how they ought to live or spiritual acts they ought to perform. Many people said, “My pastor never said this. My parents never said this. My kids never said this. I just feel pressure.” Their answers exposed lies we tend to believe — that in our busy schedules, we can’t experience God. That there’s no way for us to have power over our distractions. That we have too much shame or too much grief. That we have to wait until the shame and grief are gone to experience God. That hearing from God has to look one specific way. Or that we have to carry expectations of what the Christian walk looks like that don’t come from God.
After trying to point people to Jesus as best as I can for 16 years, my number one passion is seeing souls saved. What I wake up and go to bed thinking about is, Are we using all the tools available to us in 2026 to see as many people saved as possible? It’s all I think about. With every project, that is the hopeful end result. With Uncomplicate It, the new thing I’ve entered into the chat is that we’ve perhaps overcomplicated what a relationship with God must look like and that we need to have more conversations about it.
In every interview, I asked, “Hey, how should a person connect with God?” My second question was, “What are some unique ways you have found to connect with God?” Hearing 1,000 people tell me ways they’ve connected with God — some of which I can relate to and many of which I could not relate to — softened my heart and opened me up to experience God for who he really is, how great he really is, how personal he really is. I discovered seven different worship styles around the world that are found in Scripture, both in the New Testament and the Old. When I discovered Jesus actually worshipped God in all seven of these ways, I realized we’ve greatly overcomplicated it. It doesn’t have to look one specific way.
We were made to know Jesus for real in our unique way based on our backgrounds and our personalities and our schedules and our relationships. With “Uncomplicate It,” I wanted to help people spend time with God the way they were uniquely wired to. That is the freedom I’ve seen come from that book — that parents and kids and wives and husbands and families and churches and communities start to have extra grace for each other, realizing we all experience God differently. My obsession is seeing people know Jesus. I hope we all uncomplicate what a real relationship with God looks like. Jesus is the only way to God, but there are many ways to spend time with Jesus, and that’s why I hope we can “uncomplicate it.”
Below are the seven worship personalities. (I call them “praise-onalities.”) It’s not like a personality test, where you’re stuck in a box. It’s meant to set you free. If you feel stuck in your faith, consider the way you’ve been naturally wired and how you can encounter God in a unique way this week.
(1) The Recreationalist — This might be you if you engage with God best through the outdoors, through nature, on a hike, on a walk or at the gym.
(2) The Beholder of Beauty — This might be you if you engage with God best through beautiful things. Perhaps at a museum or looking at a photo or a portrait. Creative things literally make you feel closer to your Creator. You might see meaning in beautiful things that the rest of us don’t, so please have grace on us.
(3) The Soul Fire — This might be you if you encounter God best through outward expressions of worship. Perhaps through raising your hands high or having a dance party to worship music in your kitchen. It is important to note that not everyone is a Soul Fire. You might be in an environment with a lot of Soul Fires and think, Man, that looks a bit performative or fake. If you’re not a Soul Fire, worshipping God that way might seem fake to you, but if you are a Soul Fire, holding it in might be the fakest thing you can do. You might be cringing in your seat, constantly trying not to let the Soul Fire in you out. To this type, I would lovingly say that we always want to honor the environment we’re in. We never want to be dishonoring or disrespectful or distracting. Also, if you’re a Soul Fire, you must find time in your life to turn your worship music up loud in your car or have a dance party in your kitchen to the glory of God.
(4) The Sacred Space Seeker — This might be you if you encounter God best through tradition. Perhaps through practicing Lent or through spiritual traditions and practices like Communion. It’s important to note that we never want to misunderstand or worship the traditions themselves, thinking that we must do these spiritual practices in order to be saved. You’re saved only by God’s grace when you put your faith in Jesus. For some of us, we literally experience God best when there’s more structure in our lives. I don’t want us to hate the thing that might connect us to God best. If you can have structure and traditions in your life without legalism and you don’t think you have to do it to be saved but can do it with God’s grace and with great joy, you might be a Sacred Space Seeker. Consider the way you’ve been naturally wired.
(5) The Interior Expert — This might be you if you engage with God best through alone time with God. Your sacred space is your solo space. You might be naturally introspective, naturally a deep thinker. You might already have a bent toward silence and solitude. Even if you didn’t follow Jesus, you’d be very comfortable in silence and solitude. I’ve found that interior experts sometimes have a bent toward journaling, and they often have a bent toward nostalgia. Like playing certain music brings them back to a certain place. It helps them remember the goodness of God. They’re nostalgic, and they’re highly introspective interior experts.
(6) The Thoughtsmith — This might be you if you engage with God best through engaging with your mind. This doesn’t mean you’re the smartest person in the room or have to be the smartest person in the room. This means that when you’re reading a passage of Scripture that maybe you’ve read before but then see something in it you used to miss or you hear a preacher say something insightful about a passage, a light bulb goes off in your mind, and fires ignite in your bones. If geeking out is like a spiritual practice to you, you might be a Thoughtsmith.
(7) The Artist of People — This might be you if you don’t encounter God best through portraits or photos. Maybe people are your canvas, and having conversations with others makes you feel closer to God. I’ve found that the Artist of People typically has a bent toward hospitality. They love being the ones hosting the dinner parties or serving others. I’ve met a lot of men who say, “I love to set up and tear down at our church. I know it’s not about what I do, but truly I feel closer to God when I serve.” If that’s you — and you’re not doing it because you think it saves you or to get a pat on the back, but you genuinely feel closer to God — you might be an Artist of People.
It’s important to note that we never want to worship the method. We don’t want to say, “Well, I’m a Thoughtsmith, so that’s why I never serve at my church.” Not at all. God calls us to worship him and obey him and serve him in all these ways throughout Scripture. We also never want to worship the environment — for example, only going to churches if they have a certain worship style or refusing to go to a church if there are bright lights and haze, if the preacher looks a certain way or if they’re not “holy enough” for us. We never want to worship the way we worship or the buildings we worship in. We want to worship God. I hope that our faith is so real and so personal that we can have a real encounter with God in a Catholic church, in a charismatic church, at a soup kitchen, on our couches or on a hike. But if you ever feel stuck in your faith, I would consider the way you’re naturally wired and, this week, plan a time to engage with God in one of the ways you’ve been naturally wired to enjoy him.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Whether we’re cashiers or CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need God’s love flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
When I am genuinely close to Jesus and other people and can introduce my Friend Jesus to my other friends, I’m what the Word of God calls an ambassador. Typically, in our world, ambassadors have to be bilingual. They have to know the language of the kingdom they’re from. They have to know the culture they’re from. They have to know what their king or queen or leadership wants. They also have to know the country where they’re serving really well. They have to know the language, traditions and culture there. The place where they’re going could have faced different wars, different tragedies. I think the call for a Christian and the call of God in my life is to keep being bilingual. It’s not something I do easily because the world I live in today isn’t the world I lived in 20 years ago.
This continuous bilingualness that I feel called to requires being constantly in God’s Word so that it comes alive to me. It requires me to be genuinely close to God — not just people thinking I am. It means being truly close to people and knowing the questions they’re asking, because God has real answers for their real questions. It’s knowing the problems they’re facing, remembering the world I live in and the people I serve.
In my everyday life, whether it’s in a boardroom meeting, in accounting, when I’m writing, when I’m onstage or offstage or when I’m mentoring young leaders — no matter what I’m doing, I hope that I have a strong sense of how the Lord sees a situation. What would the Lord say if he were in my exact shoes, and how can I communicate truth in a way that does not water it down but clearly conveys it to the person listening? I think that’s when I know the Holy Spirit is working through me. Did I convey in simple terms this very complex idea from the Word of God? Am I listening well to God? Am I listening well to other people? At the end of the day, am I translating well? That’s when I feel like I’m in the will of God and doing what I’ve been put on earth to do.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?
I’m introverted. I’m introspective. Alone time is my bent. Because I follow Jesus, alone time with God is my bent. I call my alone time with God untangling the noodles — maybe because I’m Chinese, and everything is a noodle metaphor. I need to be alone with God, so I spend alone time in my yard, alone time at the park, a long time in my hotel room, often with God. That is my natural bent. However, although I believe we need to be who we were created to be, God invites us into things that are not our natural bent to grow and strengthen our faith so we can become less like our flesh and more like Jesus.
A spiritual practice that’s transformed my life that I’m continuously growing in is closeness with other people and gathering with them. Although it’s not my bent, as I’ve stepped into obeying God and creating the kind of communities I long for, it’s become a powerful spiritual practice for my husband and me. We intentionally make gatherings happen. For example, we host a Super Bowl party at our house. All the doors are open. Everybody comes from multiple churches and from our gym down the street. Some friends will fly in to come to it. It’s a space for people to gather. We host a Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) party every year. Lunar New Year for us is a three-day weekend. A bunch of our friends who don’t follow Jesus come, and their kids come, and we have all these different types of Asian food because our friends come from different Asian cultures. The New Year belongs to all of us. We have different traditions, and we create space to celebrate and pray. A lot of our friends who don’t even like God come to this event and tell us what they would like prayer for. They know we’ll pray at some point while we celebrate.
Community, as I understand it from the Word of God, is closeness with people. Growing up, I thought community meant finding a group of friends who looked like me, dressed like me and were raised like me. I thought it meant getting together every Friday for two hours and reading the Bible. I kept thinking, Man, if that’s what Christian community is, I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced it. But as I understand community from the Bible, when I look at Jesus, I see it as closeness through two things: 1) through confession and getting real with God and the people in your life, and 2) through celebration of what God has already done and is continuously doing. That’s how Jesus was with his friends. He was close to them, constantly being real with them, getting real with God and celebrating things all the time. My husband and I have tried to grow in and cultivate that kind of close community. It’s helped us live very open, honest, authentic, not-faking-it lives — because we’re too close to people to be fake. That is a helpful practice. Closeness is the antidote to the temptation to live a fake life. That also looks like being OK with your house not being perfect, being OK with a messy house, a messy life and using paper plates, because what matters is being authentic before God and others.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and changed your heart?
The first one that comes to mind is the book by Eugene Peterson called “On Living Well.” It features excerpts from sermons and writings that were never published but were compiled after his death. I love it because it contains excerpts on starting, continuing and finishing sacred practices. Each piece of writing is about a paragraph long. I usually read through this book maybe once or twice a year. I love his pastoral heart. He did something that I hope to do, which is to know my geographical area so well that I’m trying to explain it to people in my area. The problem is, someone who’s not from my area may need more context for something I’ve said, but I don’t want that to stop me from being a good friend and clear voice for my local area. I have a heart for California. I believe God loves California, and I want to love California well. Sometimes I’ll speak to people in corporate jobs specifically, but maybe people who aren’t in corporate jobs in another part of the country don’t understand the context. Eugene Peterson didn’t seem to fear that, and I like that. I like that he was a pastor before anything else. I hope to translate as well as he did. So I love that book.
My GOAT (greatest of all time) is Watchman Nee. He’s my hero. Watchman Nee was an evangelist. He is a father of spiritual disciplines and a martyr from China, and he didn’t have kids. I believe one of the callings in my life is to continue his work. He can be quite heady, so I have to really sit in his work for a long time. I have to sit in chapters of his work and ask myself, If I could say this in a paragraph in today’s speak, what would I say? In all of my books and in many of my sermons, I quote Watchman Nee and then paraphrase it. “The Normal Christian Life” and “Sit, Walk, Stand” by Watchman Nee are the bomb. He frames following Jesus and surrendering to Jesus not as an extreme version of faith but as the normal faith. I find that he’s not quoted as much in the spiritual disciplines conversation, so I try to make sure I include him often in my work.
I’ll throw in a song for joy: “Bless God” by Brooke Ligertwood. It’s been an anthem for me. She has many songs, but this song in particular is simply powerful:
Bless God in the sanctuary / Bless God in the fields of plenty / Bless God in the darkest valley / Every chance I get I’ll bless your name
Bless God when my hands are empty / Bless God with a praise that costs me / Bless God when nobody’s watching / Every chance I get I’ll bless your name
I’ve sung that song in a small room where she was leading and in an arena where she was leading. I’ve sung it in the midst of tragedies and with my family. I’ve sung it in a hospital room. I’ve sung it in a family home that got flooded. I’ve sung it when receiving news that the miracle we prayed for happened. I’ve sung it while still praying for certain miracles. I love this idea of telling the Lord that, even when I don’t feel it, I’m going to worship him. There’s something greater than what I feel about him — the truth of who he is centers me.
Certain things can be godsends, helping us survive, even thrive, in our fast-paced world. Does technology ever help you this way? Has an app ever boosted your spiritual growth? If so, how?
I was part of the first high school group in the Bay Area to get Facebook. We were the guinea pigs. I’ll never forget it. I love social media, apps and technology as tools to share about Jesus, but I hate them for every other reason.
One I love: the Bible app. They are expanding with more languages than ever. It’s allowed me to share about Jesus more easily because anyone with a phone can access it. I can pull up different translations or other languages. I can point people to a group study. We do a lot of ministry in Latin America and Asia. Most of the languages in those regions are available on the Bible app. It’s made it easier than ever to evangelize, and it puts the Bible in everyone’s pocket. I am thankful to the YouVersion team.
The New York Times Wordle games have helped in my husband’s and my journey toward closeness with our friends and family. We text our friends and family members every day, including those we would never talk to otherwise. All because we play Wordle and send our scores to everyone. I would say that’s a non-spiritual app that has helped create a very spiritual practice in our lives. We call it spreading the wordle. Sometimes I’ll tell some of the younger preachers in our church that the goal is to use today’s Wordle word in their service. We try to make it fun for everybody.
QUESTION #8: dream
God’s continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I mentioned everything I do is to see more people know Jesus, and all I ask myself every day is, Are we using all the tools possible? What does the world know that Christians don’t about reaching people? What technological tools are we not using to their full extent to the glory of God? I’m constantly asking those questions and willing to throw a lot of things to the wall and see what sticks. I’m happy to fumble. I’m great at failing. I have failed plenty.
In my goal to see more people know Jesus, I’ve set out to raise 100,000 evangelists. They can be preachers, leaders or people on mission at their tech job. Up to this point in my life, that’s mostly entailed a lot of one-on-ones, me with five or 10 people, churches bringing me in to be with their staff and preachers or events bringing me in to speak to a room full of preachers and leaders. Along the way, I’ve helped raise up 30,000-ish people to be evangelists in their world. During the remainder of my life, I want to become more efficient and exceed my goal of 100,000 evangelists. I constantly pray, Lord, is there a more efficient way to do this?
For me, one of the best ways to share Jesus is to empower other people to share Jesus. I cannot possibly share Jesus with as many people as I’d like to. I’m constantly praying about more efficient ways to empower 100,000 evangelists way earlier than the end of my life. My book “How (Not) to Save the World” is about everyday evangelism, and it’s had the most fruit in our ministry in that readers realized how they’d overcomplicated evangelism. But as far as training and coaching and empowering, how am I going to raise more preachers, leaders and evangelists in my lifetime? Even this week, there are three different preachers I’m meeting with one-on-one. Praise God. I’m thankful. I’m so thankful to do that. But what else can I do? Three isn’t enough for me. So what can I do that’s more than three individual meetings on top of my obvious meetings? We need a generation of evangelists, and hopefully I get to be a part of raising them, continuously resourcing and serving the local and global church.
Hosanna’s heart to multiply her discipleship efforts is a noble one. It’s also one that Jesus emulated. After preaching all day, he took five loaves of bread and two fish and multiplied them to feed the crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children.
He can do the same with our efforts to reach the lost.
If God is calling us to greatly expand how we’re impacting people for Christ, he will make a way. It might take a miracle. And we might not always see the immediate fruit. But he will do it.
Hosanna Wong is an international speaker, bestselling author and spoken word artist helping everyday people know Jesus for real. Widely known for her spoken word piece, “I Have A New Name,” Hosanna shares in churches, conferences, prisons and other events around the world. Hosanna currently travels and speaks year-round and serves on teaching teams at churches throughout the United States. She and her husband, Guy, serve together in various ministries equipping people with tools to share the gospel of Jesus in today’s world.