Asian church vs. multi-cultural church, part 1 5 comments
It’s amazing to me that through a simple question so much information can be found through study and research in order to confirm an answer. I was asked the following question by a Korean friend:
What should be our attitude toward multi-cultural church? Should we seek it out or just build a church without actively seeking it?
As someone that has way more experience on this subject than me, I contacted DJ Chuang and got some insight from him, which he posted on his blog to illicit feedback from others to help as well. Then I started finding that through following blog links that this is a subject discussed a lot within the Asian-American context. As an Asian-American, this interests me a great deal. It seems that there is quite a lot of debate on the issue of having segregated Asian churches in the US or whether we should strive to be an amalgamation of one body within one homogeneous church.
For me, I really feel more comfortable in a multi-cultural church. I want church to be about loving God and loving others and being in-service to my fellow man rather than being served. I feel like being in an ethnic church makes it more about one’s heritage rather than about serving others. In a Korean church, the context of the message is going to be presented in a way relevant to the culture of Korea. Food will cater to Korean taste buds. So, what if God sends a Mexican family to a Korean church? Well, maybe they will connect, but most-likely I think they will feel out of place. Even if they connect, the church is probably so inwardly focused on reaching other Koreans than unchurched Mexican, Caucasian, African-American, Argentinian (etc.) people with the saving grace of Christ for both the Jew and the Gentile, that they will miss out on connecting others to the church and subsequently to the gospel of Christ.
One thing that puts me up against a lot of others in ministry is that I believe church was never intended to be safe and comfortable. The minute it is, where do we need to seek Jesus? If the church is feeling all warm and fuzzy then why would they want to venture out and attract those unlike them to be a part of their community? Jesus called upon the disciples to be challenged and always learning and growing. They were put in situations so risky that at times their life was dependent on whether or not they would be willing to die for their faith in Christ. I don’t think we can truly comprehend this idea in modern-day America.
Looking at the church and it’s amazingly rapid growth under oppression and persecution, it causes me to wonder something. They are Chinese and don’t really have options to worship in multi-cultural churches, but if religious freedom came about, I’m wondering what would happen. As a country that just hosted 200+ nations for the Olympic Summer Games and is reaching out to the US, Middle East & Europe and adopting some of our cultures into their way of life, would they really want to be just a church to the Chinese?
If we are to expect the kingdom of heaven to reign here on earth, will there be ethnically separated churches on that day? Are their segregated streets with segregated worship spaces in heaven? I seriously doubt it! So, we might as well realize that Christ has only one bride and it has nothing to do with our birthplace or skin color. It has to do with our love and faith as we set out in the journey to follow Christ.
For more thoughts, some of which go against my thoughts in this post, take a look at:
- Churches should stay segregated: http://waynepark.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/churches-should-stay-segregated/
- I could write pages and pages on this: http://www.randplaty.com/2008/08/06/i-could-write-pages-and-pages-on-this/#more-223
- Does a multi-cultural church need to be intentional?: http://www.djchuang.com/2008/does-a-multiethnic-church-have-to-be-intentional/
- Asian-American churches…the wave of the future?: http://www.randplaty.com/2008/07/26/asian-american-churches-the-wave-of-the-future/
- In class today: Mosaic Church: http://nextgenerasianchurch.com/2007/10/16/in-class-today-mosaic-churches/#more-352
- Why many Amerians prefer their Sundays segregated: http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/why-many-americans-prefer-their-sundays-segregated/
5 Responses to 'Asian church vs. multi-cultural church, part 1'
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Hey Dave. You should also check out Eugene Cho’s blog and a recent post titled “why many americans prefer their sundays segregated” - I’d post the link but don’t wanna get sent to spam… cheers!
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Wayne, thanks for the reference and the prior dialog on your blog! By the way, my spam filer only kicks in with more than 2 links in a comment. Anyway, I found Eugene’s post and linked it in the post above. I actually had dialog already with some people when that cnn.com article came out. Very interesting!
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Hey Dave,
This issue goes very deep for someone like myself mainly because I have always come from a Hmong church background. What you might find amazingly crazy is that before I attended regular Hmong church, I was actually involved in a white Southern Baptist church between the age of 5 to about my teens. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my growing up in the Baptist church, the way that things ended for me there included objections of race and culture rather than Christ and love.So first things first, do I believe that churches should stay segregated? Of course not. We can achieve amazing things when we put culture, background, language, and upbringing aside. Are we going to stay segregated? Absolutely. Not only are we divided by class, social stratification, gender, and culture, but we are also divided inside of those churches by the people we ‘clique’ with. As often is the case, any large church will form an often ‘underlying rebellion’ through small groups that can divide a church.
Sharon, the youth pastor’s wife at the Hmong Alliance church, said something very profound. She stated that the Hmong Alliance church was about the same size as the Radiant Life church off Stockton blvd and the 99, however, God was greatly blessing that church moreso than the Hmong alliance church, simply because Radiant Life was reaching out to the community, getting themselves involved in establishing relationships beyond their church, and simply, being open as a church - growing beyond culture, class, race, background, and ultimately, creed.
Instead, the Hmong church has stayed closed off, still becoming in bad relations with the surrounding Elk Grove community and losing much of its culture inside its walls and prison that it has created (they’ve lost 5 pastors within the last five years).
Within a cultural church community also comes the hierarchy established inside of that community. It brings gossip, family challenges, old grudges, and old conversations that involve previous generations, somehow transfixed in a surreal ‘ancestor to descendant’ court room. It’s often better to just let it go … and focus on the true prize - Christ; a treasure in a field that we want so much, we are willing to buy the land for which this treasure is found.
The thing about this treasure is, we cannot simply be selfish with it and keep it inside our closet, our house, our community … we must be willing to save all of those who marvel at Him. Because Christ loves everyone, despite their belief or situation … and as followers, He wants us to reach out to those who are lost … every single one. So it’s out job to do so … despite our koreanism, hmongisms, asianisticisisms, or other large words I’m synthesizing on the spot.
You’re right … doing the Lord’s work is not comfortable. Christ comes to the masses and says to give everything up … your family, your loved ones, your friends … the things of this world. When we look at what surrounds us, to save those people out there, we kind of have to give up our own cultural identity, because we believe that Christ is so much greater, so much bigger, so much more than mere skin, eye shape, clothes color, myspace comments, etcetera et all…
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Timothy, you’re correct in that I did not know you were part of a predominantly Caucasian congregation. For you to eventually have race become a factor is kind of my point to blog post part two If leadership is white and the congregation is white, then other people may not feel welcome or be welcomed. You seem to state that this type of situation may always exist. I hope you’re wrong.
Your scenario about the Hmong church makes sense. I could even see it break down even more to Hmong people from Southeast Asia may want more power than Hmong people from mainland China, etc. Sad.
I don’t believe we have to give up our cultural identity though. We can’t change who we are! We aren’t expected to. However, in the context of the kingdom we are not Japanese, Hmong, Korean, Asian–rather we are disciples of Christ intent on sharing the gospel of grace and exhibiting our faith as love to others so that through us Christ can be glorified and made real in their eyes. In the church we should be seeking Christ and wanting to be more like him, rather an exclusive gathering of Asians trying to be more like Christ serving Asian foods and listening to Asian sermon illustrations.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and feedback!
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Hey Dave, it’s my pleasure to comment on these things. I too hope that I’m wrong, for when the day comes that Christ returns, every knee shall bow to Him, the true King of all things, correct? Despite color, creed, age, culture … we will all know that He has returned to claim His prize.
I think that if we really wanted to investigate the breakdown of church, we could go into a very poignant, thorough study of psychology, sociology, and class. In many of Paul’s letters, he made it a larger issue that church should transcend race, since the true prize is on Christ. In many of Paul’s letters, he sends so in correction of these church’s errors.
What letters could Paul concievably write today for the Xaris’, Hmong Alliances, Revolution Churches, Bayside churches of this day? I think most notably would be the absense of absolute love for one another which is described in Acts. This everlasting love, reflective of Christ’s sacrifice, should trancend race, color, class, etc. But what happens when people judge my clothes, my style, the music I listen to, etc.? What happens is, you have the current situation with the church, where we are not only divided by color and culture, but by style … weakening and corrupting the church.
The thing is, once we break through race and culture, what else stands in our way? Denomination? Geography? Worship styles (hymns or worship? standing or kneeling?)? Sermon styles? The only thing that should MAKE US stand is an inherent love and joy to be more Christ like - to appreciate the giving and hope and instilling it in others, be willing to sacrifice our lives to others, and to ultimately develop a strong relationship with Jesus.
Revolutions don’t always happen over night. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy some eggrolls, spam musubi, and rice plates on sunday mornings at Xaris. =)
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Wayne Park
27 Aug 08 at 9:16 am