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Archive of "Asian-American Christianity" Category
Secret to Lasting Longer in English Ministry
During my recent visit to Austin, I had met Ken Liu at Chesterbrook Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in VA. Here’s an impromptu interview of him sharing the trade secret for lasting longer in English Ministry. [Thanks @DJChuang]
He’s made it past 5 years!
Unheard of?What’s Next for ABCPastor?
There’s going to be some changes here real soon. I know I’ve been promising that for years but I think the pieces of the puzzle have finally come together to make ABCPastor more than just my personal musings about faith and life in the Chinese church. Over the next few weeks I’ll be working on a redesign of the site and feature new content as well as features.
Some of you have been asking and anticipating stuff from the NA-CCOWE Conference on “The Challenges and Future of English Speaking Ministries in the Chinese Church” and that stuff will come along. It’s all part of the new shift in the direction of this blog.
Additionally, I’ll be joining the good folks over at NextGenerAsianChurch.com which will also undergo a big transformation itself coming this Spring. Especially look out for amazing posts from some amazing Asian American women like Helen Lee and Kathy Khang.
What do you want to see next?
How Asian American Culture Affects Faith
DJ Chuang recently posted an interview with Brent Wong, a 5th-generation Asian American of Chinese descent. Brent’s searching and questioning may resonate closely with the experience of many Chinese Americans even several generations down the line. You may not speak Chinese or even eat Chinese food but how do your parents respond to your steps of faith?
What cultural aspects transcend language from generation to generation? There’s the academic expectations, the lack of affection and praise…
Many believe Chinese families are close and tight but very often it’s more about order. Our upbringing affects the way we communicate and gives clues to the pains and longings of our hearts.
What other aspects can you identify?
And how does that affect ministry and shape the way you do ministry?Jaeson Ma – “I Am Whole Life” Video
Jaeson Ma has really blown up all over the place online. His stories are captivating and his passion is contagious. He’s an ABC celebrity of faith. Can’t wait to hear more about the ways the Spirit leads him.
Here’s a recent short video that tells an incredible story of how he almost never came to be but…
I Am Whole Life is a campaign to promote “the intrinsic dignity of the human person”
Read more about Jaeson Ma – “Redemption of a Wild Child” [via 700Club]
Seeking Reconciliation after Deadly Vipers
It’s been a week after the Deadly Viper controversy and much dialogue and movement has happened. Moving toward reconciliation Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite have posted their conversation w Asian American leaders as well as Soong-Chan Rah. A conference with Zondervan was also conducted which included Ken Fong weighing in. This is definitely bigger than Mike & Jud or Zondervan could have ever anticipated.
What more is needed? Well. Much. Much. More. It’s beyond Mike & Jud but Deadly Vipers has certainly been an undeniable catalyst for change. If anything it will serve as a great case study in marketing on many levels including conflict resolution through social media.
Let me first say that I appreciate the many non-Asian voices that have added not just their voices to this important conversation but the steps to sincerely seek deep reconciliation and the faith to move towards the vision of a better ‘country’.I think the question that many Asians bring up is, “Do White people get it?”
“Will they ever get it?”This is about all of us and not just demonizing the “White Privilege” of Caucasian men. I am capable of insensitivity, prejudice, and worse. Our church is far from perfect. Our church bumbles and stumbles our way in the ministry of reconciliation but we’re committed to engaging in both conversation and actions – even if we know we’ll fall short. But we’ll keep trying because we know that the ministry of all things reconciliation is not an option but part of our discipleship. – From Eugene Cho
In race matters as well as in real relationships, we’re never going to get anywhere unless we step into the world of another person who is different from us. Becoming like Christ means we willingly step into another person’s reality just. I say this often, I never realized how ‘Chinese’ I was until I married my Italian-German wife. I thought I was more Italian than Chinese growing up in Brooklyn but living with my non-Chinese wife has forced me to confront things about myself. This is how I begin my response to Chinese leaderships that think to be an multi-ethnic church is merely the task of the American born in their church. Not that I think this should or shouldn’t be the goal of ethnic/immigrant churches but becoming a multi-ethnic church will challenge us in ways we cannot begin to imagine and typically fail to acknowledge. It’s a ‘nice’ thing to dream about. Unless we’re willing to step out, reinvent our ways of thinking and have our social consciousness challenged it will always remain a dream. We like being around people just like us. Once we’re doing life on life with those different than us be it their skin color or socio-economic status or something else will we really taste what Christ came to do – deep reconciliation. I have to ask church leaders, are you really committed to building ethnically rich dynamic gospel communities or clusters of likeness where we have lots in common and oh yea Jesus too…
Anyways there’s been some great movement amongst Asian American Leaders about what we need to do next. I had a great tokbox session last week with some great voices including headsparks (Dan So), elderj (Joshua Settles), djchuang, jadanzzy (Dan Ra), NextGenerAsian Church (David Park) including Eugene Cho and Bruce Reyes-Chow who popped their heads in now and then. We discussed identity formation for the next generation of Asian Americans in the church and we want to follow up from that conversation with “Asian American Women and the Church”. What an appropriate next step.
So if you’re around this Thurs 11/12 10p ET / 7p PT tune in on TokBox. I’ll post details on that soon.Non-Asian Responses to Deadly Vipers
Skye Jethani: Hidden Racism?
Jonathan Brink: Confronting the Enemy Within
Ed Cyzewski: How White Christians Can Deal with Racial InsensitivityThe Epic Movement Conference 2009 Live Stream
I’ve been having a great time in ministry speak with various leaders and students here at the second day of The East Coast Epic Movement Conference 2009. You can catch a live stream of the conference via ustream.tv courtesy of Herman Yung (aka doobybrain), his macbook and the Crown Plaza free wifi service.
You can catch tonight’s session from 7-9pm to hear Kenji Adachi.
The cam will probably still remain on afterward. Worth watching if you want to see college kids goof off.
The rest of the schedule looks like this:
Sunday Morning Session 9-11:30am with Tommy Dyo (who’s speaking at the West Coast Conference today!)
Sunday Night Session 7pm-9pm
Monday Morning Session 9-11:30amEpic Movement Conference
The Epic Movement Conference starts today on the West Coast in San Francisco and the East Coast right here in Philly. If you haven’t heard of the Epic Movement yet start paying attention. Birthed out of Campus Crusade for Christ, Epic is a contextualized response to reach the increasing numbers of Asian American students on college campuses across the country. National Dir, Tommy Dyo is a great guy to follow around (esp if you’re on twitter – @tommydyo – c’mon Tommy get tweeting!).
I’ll be giving a seminar RE:Church honestly addressing the experience of church and the post-college transition. The Asian American collegiate experience of church is very interesting phenomenon. Often new graduates and young professionals find themselves in church limbo after they college particularly if they’ve become a believer while in college. Many are looking for that same experience that they had in college and can become very disappointed and disillusioned with what they find in the many local expressions of the body of Christ. Hope to have some vibrant dialogue.
Research on Bay Area Chinese Churches
Just a quickie during my oil change at a Honda dealership. I came across this informative news thanks to DJChuang on L2Foundation on some findings on Chinese churches from the Bay Area Chinese Churches Research Project. They will report their findings at a 3 day conference in the Bay Area with pastors and church leaders. Register online before November 3rd for complimentary free access.
Here’s some highlights.
- There are over half a million Chinese in the six Bay Area counties. Between 1990 and 2000, the Chinese population increased by 45%, compared with a 12% increase in the total population.
- In 1950, there were 15 Chinese churches in the Bay Area. Our 1996 Study listed 158 churches, a ten fold increase. In 2008, the number churches had risen to 194.
- In 1996, total attendance at worship on a typical Sunday was 21,435. In 2008, that number had risen to 29,960.
We need a collaborative effort like this on the East Coast. I’ll get back to that thought after I pick up my car.
ENGAGE Speaker Series: Worlds Apart? The Joys and Challenges of Serving in the Asian Ethnic Church
Worlds Apart? The Joys and Challenges of serving in the Asian Ethnic Church.
There is an old age concern about the challenges of serving in the second and third generation Asian ethnic congregation. Through anecdotes, spiritual reflection and exploring biblical thoughts on the joys and challenges of serving in the traditional Asian ethnic church. We will seek to show how God can redeem this often broken part of ministry.This seminar will be given by Peter Ong, Associate Director Pastoral and Laity Ministries. Peter Ong grew up in Queens as a child of immigrant parents. He is an Associate Director of PaLM and is developing a Laity project to equip and serve Asian American leadership through fellowship, training and mentoring. Peter served with the Chinese Christian Herald Crusades’ Herald Youth Center for seven years before joining the staff at Pastoral and Laity Ministries. He also currently serves on staff with Living Faith Community Church in Flushing as the Director of Gospel Community and also as the Director of Youth Ministry.
Date: Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Time: 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Place: Overseas Chinese Mission, 154 Hester Street, New York, NY 10013 (corner of Elizabeth St.)Please RSVP to peter@palmny.org or call at 212-202-3264.
Pastoral and Laity Ministries presents their Fall 2008 ENGAGE Speaker Series. After participants’ replies to last season’s ENGAGE Speaker Series, they are hosting a series of talks/seminars and conversations on cultural, generational distinctives and issues serving in the Asian American ethnic church. Please forward this to your fellowship groups, leaders and congregation.
Events
"HERO" An EPIC MOVEMENT EAST COAST Conference January 15-18, 2010, Philadelphia
Verge Missional Community Conference,
February 4-6, Austin, Texas
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