It’s taken me forever to finally devote time to this, but I feel the need to respond to a blog post from nextgenerasianchurch.com. It was a guest post from Danny Yang that generated over 100 responses so far. It’s a post that I have serious issues with.
First of all, if you aren’t familiar with Francis Chan know that he is a Chinese-American pastor that is gaining notoriety in Christian Church circles. He recently wrote a book titled Crazy Love that has a lot of buzz behind it. He is the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA, which is also home to Eternity Bible College.
In my opinion, the frustrating thing to me is that for all the accomplishments Pastor Chan has done--including Cornerstone plating 9 churches throughout the US--he is being viewed as a token Asian in a white man’s world. However, it is sad to know that now Francis Chan’s notoriety is being used to drive discussions on how Asian an Asian-American must be with blog posts scandalously being titled like “Is Francis Chan A Sell-out?”
After talking about being surrounded by a “sea of whiteness” at the Orange Conference and how wrong that was, Yang concludes the blog post by stating:
don’t really think he’s a sell-out; I believe Chan is living faithfully to what GOD has called him to be. But I do think Chan is being used by white evangelicals to alleviate their unwillingness to engage race and faith. Chan is welcome at these conferences only because his message could come just as easily from a white male.
Sometimes a little diversity is worse than no diversity.
So, it’s great to know that Yang writes in the end that Francis Chan isn’t being considered a sellout, but in essence Danny Yang affirms that Chan is a sellout when he puts Chan’s speaking engagements as merely a tool used by white evangelicals to relieve themselves of the burden of engaging race and faith. In essence, as I read it, Yang is saying that Francis Chan is a sellout, but he just doesn’t know he’s a sellout.
To take a man that stands on the truth of the Bible and has gained attention outside of the Asian-American church context and then knock him for speaking to white evangelicals really just rubs me the wrong way. Chan has done things as an Asian-American that speak to how big God is within him. He is not being asked to speak because he is of Chinese descent--He is being asked to speak because he has a relevant voice that is drawing people to truly understand what discipleship means. White, black, yellow, brown, neopolitan..it doesn’t matter!
When I think of this subject, it reminds me of the issues that the Apostles had after Jesus had risen to take his place next to the Father and let the work of evangelism to the Gentiles be done by his people. Issues such as eating only what was considered clean by Jewish law and requiring circumcision for Gentile Christians. As much as the Jews wanted to retain their customs and favor as God’s chosen people, God instead was moving them to understand this passage from Galatians 3:28:
- There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Yes people, it’s true: We are all one in Christ! Does it matter that an amazingly gifted and talented servant of God named Francis Chan is speaking to groups of Caucasian Americans? I think not. Don’t you know that through opportunities such as Chan speaking at the Orange Conference or any other forum where the attendees are predominantly Caucasian, that it will inspire other Asian-Americans as well as Latino-Americans, African-Americans, Native Americans, Italian-Americans, etc to embrace a call to preach the gospel to all nations? Just as Christ transformed a Jewish Pharisee of Pharisees and caused him to speak to Asians, Greeks, Romans, and others in the name of grace and love, so too will he call upon people like Francis Chan to do a similar work. Regardless of race God will bring people near to him through the ministry of Francis Chan and we should celebrate this, not downplay it by judging who Chan speaks to and whether or not he recites cultural Chinese aspects in his sermons.
How can we get from a place of no diversity to a place of great diversity? It starts with one person and grows from there. In order to get a place of diversity, it must begin as just a little diversity. I appreciate who Francis Chan is, what God is obviously doing through him, and the fact that regardless of who one is or where one is born, Chan is speaking relevant truth in a loving way to everyone.
Whether you like it or not, one day we will be in a place where there is no Asian, Latin, German, French or Russian--instead we will be in a place of undeserved love and grace in the presence of the God that created us to be one with him through his Son Jesus.
Related posts:
- If Francis Chan is a sellout, I have no clue why
- Asian-American Christians, part 3: Who Am I In Christ?
- Asian-American Christians, part 1
- Can Acts 2 be lived out in a second-gen Asian-American church?
- Asian-American church vs multi-cultural church, part 2
Tags: asian-american christian, diversity, francis chan, multi-ethnic
Great post, Dave. Francis is being used by GOD just as any of us will be when fully surrendered to Him. To call Him a sellout is to insult his faith and his commitment to God’s calling upon his life. Does Chan have any control over who invites him to speak? Not at all. He is speaking the message God gives him on the platform God established for him.
Kudos to you for speaking boldly.
Stan: Thanks for your comments. I concur with you and celebrate the opportunities Francis Chan is given, just as I would celebrate opportunities given to any other minister of the gospel. Unfortunately, it’s going to be other Asian-Americans that will take exception to the context of where speaks. It will be interesting to see if anyone chooses to dialog about this in the comments.
Dave — I appreciate your thoughtful response to the provocative Next Gener.Asian Church post. I especially like what you wrote here:
“How can we get from a place of no diversity to a place of great diversity? It starts with one person and grows from there. In order to get a place of diversity, it must begin as just a little diversity” … that echoes a comment I made very early on in that thread :)
I don’t know if it’s personality or temperament, but I know I felt uncomfortable with the title of the post as well (esp. since Danny wasn’t saying that Francis Chan is a sellout). In the ensuing discussion/debate, I felt like some very valid and important topics were obscured by the borderline-inflammatory title.
I think among Asian Americans (at least from my experience), we’ve had so little room to talk freely (whether because of an Asian need to save face, or feeling out of place in the American context) that — even though I struggled with it — I am glad for the conversation that is happening at NG.AC.
My only concern with your last paragraph is the way in which many well-intentioned folks have used that to try and deny our God-given ethnicity. I don’t think you’re trying to do that at all, but I’ve seen it many times. Especially in my work with Asian American youth groups, it kills me to see them embarrassed, ashamed or alienated because of their God-given identity. To me, that’s part of the beauty of the picture of heaven in Revelation: that people from every single tribe, nation and tongue will bow down before our beautiful King!
Sorry for writing such a long comment! Massive blessings on your launch this weekend. Can’t wait to hear all about it!!
Also, my friend Chico Woo has a parallel dialog about this topic going on at his blog: http://chicowooblog.com/2009/05/why-i-dont-like-crabs/
Daniel: I actually had a tagline of sorts that I ended up deleting from the post. My sentiment is that while we will one day be called to a place where we will not be seen as Asian, European, Latin American, Canadian, etc we will still be known as individuals. It’s not an amalgamation of one spirit with many voices in heaven, but instead a collaboration of each individual, unique voice all of one spirit. I embrace diversity in an individual sense, but I believe that the topic of segregating ones ministry and gauging ones association of being an Asian-American by the language used in their message or the circle of people that are connected to has no place in the scope of a kingdom mindset.
As always, thanks for your insightful post and your ability to mediate and interpret potential miscommunication.
Dave, what a great post! God promotes whom he desires and through any means he desires. Francis Chan is a powerful voice in the Asian-American, African-American, Latino-American and the White-American communities. God is using him to bring many to into the kingdom and to cause many more to grow up in him. Are we jealous of the grace and favor of God? Thanks, Dave, for responding to this issue and giving us perspective.
Marvin: I completely agree with you. Some of the people I looked to as kind of distant mentors as I was learning how to discern my call to preach and teach were guys like Jentezen Franklin and Gregory Dickow, whom I watched on tv. They inspired me and it is my prayer that God will use his work in me to inspire others regardless of whether or not they are Asian-Americans.
Thanks for your comments! Next time, do it as spoken word ’cause I love your talents….ha, ha :)
Dave — You’re the man! Thanks for sharing a little bit more. I hear what you’re saying.
As the NG.AC thread shows, many Asian American followers of Christ struggle with figuring out their identity (myself included). That’s part of why I have been *loving* Dave Gibbons’ “The Monkey & the Fish” — I think third culture could transform many insular communities (Asian, Caucasian, whoever!) into Kingdom-minded movements. Embrace who God made us to be (including our ethnic identity) and leverage all of that for the Kingdom!
Francis Chan is live tonight on http://internet.lifechurch.tv at 6:30pm Central — you can join in Church Online! [a total of 8 times you can catch him this weekend June 6/7 — check worship times at http://internet.lifechurch.tv/times/
And, check out the One Prayer blog for more info at http://internet.lifechurch.tv/2009/06/oneprayer-messages-at-church-online/
(for those of you who want to see him in action and/or those who have never seen him speak and inspire thousands)
Great post, Dave! I’m a Caucasian / Indian mutt and was heartbroken to see anyone disparage someone whom the Spirit of God is obviously all over… I don’t listen to Francis to make myself feel better about interacting with other races – I listen to Francis because what he says resonates so deeply in me and allows me to worship God more freely and genuinely. God bless Francis and may God bring us to a time when all this talk of racism is outdated.
A few years back,I was working as a youth pastor in a “family” sized Chinese church. We took the group to hear Francis speak at our annual denominational state youth conference. The conference attendence was majority white but Asians were the largest minority represented. There was almost no intermingling, people kept to their own groups. In one of his talks Francis tells a long, involved, hilarious story from his childhood, he gives the punch line in Cantonese. My American born youth with OBC parents roar with laughter. Francis doesn’t bother to translate the punch line, smiles at the response of the Asian youth and moves on to his next point. The white students sitting next to us, start asking my Asian kids,”What did he say? What did he say?” On the basis of this incident,I’m pretty sure, he gets it, he impresses me as a pretty smart guy, and he found a clever and constructive way to address the issue.