Mako Nagasawa
Mako grew up in Cerritos, CA and went north to Stanford, where he studied Industrial Engineering and Public Policy, with a focus on education. He worked at Intel Corp for 6 years while serving a Spanish-speaking ministry to Mexican immigrants in East Palo Alto, CA. He married Ming in May, 1999 and moved to Boston, MA. He then worked for two startup companies trying to bring technology and jobs to inner city communities. Since 2000, Mako, Ming, and their two children John and Zoe have lived among friends in a Christian intentional community house in a black and brown neighborhood in Dorchester. Mako has done campus ministry since 2001 and founded The Anástasis Center in 2014 (then called New Humanity Institute). They worship at Neighborhood Church of Dorchester. Mako contributed the chapter, ‘How to Empower Personal Healing and Social Justice, with Medical Substitutionary Atonement,’ to the book Honor, Shame, and the Gospel: Reframing Our Message for 21st Century Ministry (William Carey Publishing, 2020), wrote for the Christian Century on Relational Economic Justice (April 2016), contributed to the Justice Study Bible as a commentator on Ezekiel (2016), and co-authored the Lazarus at the Gate economic discipleship curriculum with Dr. Gary VanderPol (2007). He was a guest on the Almost Heretical podcast on the topic of atonement, called "Beyond Penal Substitution," and the Gravity Leadership podcast on “It’s All About Power: Racism Past and Present.” He earned a Master’s in Theological Studies from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary in May 2019. In addition to Christian ethics, theology, biblical studies, and early church history, Mako enjoys food, tea, and stories from around the world. He misses the Pacific Ocean.
