diversity

church / culture / diversity / multi-cultural church — 2 Comments
21
Sep 11

In the church, lack of diversity can be good

The title of this post needs some immediate clarification. It’s strictly in the context of segregated churches that stand on their own for a particular reason, such as ethnic churches (Russian, Chinese, Spanish) or fringe churches (Biker, Hip-Hop, Urban).

I wrote two previous posts here and here that had to do with the apathy of being a diverse local church and why I feel it is important to embrace and celebrate cultural diversity more so than ethnic or socio-econimic diversity.

Having served in pastoral ministry in an ethnic church, I find it very awkward to not be part of the group. Many people will immediately think that me being Asian means I must be comfortable around others Asians. However, I was a Japanese American in an almost exclusively Korean American church and it was not very comfortable for me. I had to learn an entirely new culture and how I could transcend that at times for the sake of communicating effectively. To come in from the street and connect during a Sunday gathering would be great. On the surface the only difference would be that the congregation was Korean in appearance, yet not much would seem different. However, if you kept coming back every week, you’d begin to notice the context of the sermon illustrations were very Korean, some of the words in a sermon were Korean because there really wasn’t a good English equivalent, and the people seemed to have an unspoken communication that outsiders wouldn’t quite get. Many days were spent with me feeling like such an outsider. Many days I felt like those I was serving in the church didn’t appreciate me being different.

As uncomfortable as much of my time in ministry with my Korean American brothers and sisters was, I can’t tell you how much I learned from them. How I could have been (and probably was at times) judgmental of them, before learning of certain things that are taught and seemingly inherent in their nature and personalities. A small thing that ended up being a big thing was the use of titles. Even as a youth pastor intern, I had to be referred to as pastor by the teens in my group. I hate titles and don’t like the formality of being referred to as “Pastor Dave.” However, if the teens just called me Dave it was a sign of disrespect. I was okay with it, but their parents were not. On top of that, I was not really an official pastor in the church since I was not ordained at the time. So, I was referred to differently by adults in the church. I was the jundosa and the senior pastor was the moksanim. It had everything to do with respect and hierarchy. A tough pill for me to swallow at first, but once I grew to understand the culture more, I knew it had to be that way.

In the same way, there is culture that surrounds a church of bikers. As much as we in the suburban local church like to say that we welcome everybody and encourage anyone to “come as they are,” I can assure you that in most white, upper-middle class suburban churches, if a few bikers came in on a Sunday it would freak people out. If they chose to come back several Sundays in a row, it would cause some people to leave for another church. Being surrounded in a church with people that understand the biker culture may be much more positive for them than being around a bunch of accountants and soccer moms sharing stories.

Not just cultural differences that cause a lack of diversity to be a positive thing in a church, but language itself is a barrier. If people immigrate from Spain and only speak Spanish, having a church where they can worship in Spanish would be a good thing, whereas English-only may make it impossible for them to gather in the name of the Lord. Having a church where people of Vietnamese, Russian, or Mexican descent has a place in the community. They serve a particular need that an English-only church cannot. Language, more than culture, can determine diversity sometimes--even if that language is from being a biker or Hip-Hop.

At some point I have to believe that there will be blending of cultures in America. As we make the shift very soon to caucasians being the minority in the US, things are going to change--like it or not. My hope is that rather than continue segregating churches that we will someday be able to celebrate the diversity of cultures in America and embrace them and learn from them. What makes me who I am is a conflict of being a Japanese American with certain traits inherently Japanese, yet feeling fully American. I hope you’ll want to learn more about me as a person so you can understand me and others like me better. I want to learn more about you so that I can relate and celebrate those things that are unique to you and your culture that I may not know or experience had I not come to know you. That makes the world a better place and converges our cultures into something far more beautiful than if we just kept it to ourselves. Don’t just show me your skin color, but take me on a journey with you and let me hear your story and get to know you. We’ll both be better people as a result of our time together.

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church / diversity / multi-cultural / multi-cultural church — No Comments
20
Sep 11

In the church, diversity is mostly a misnomer

[This is a continuation of a previous post titled "In the church, ethnic diversity is meaningless," which you can read here.]

Continuing with my perspective on church diversity, let me start off with the three positions the local church takes on diversity (or lack of):

  1. The church should be racially diverse because heaven is diverse.
  2. The church should be relevant to one’s own culture where people can explore the context of their culture relative to the context of Jesus’ culture.
  3. We want to be a church to all people, where everyone feels welcome.

These days it’s hard to escape diversity. We find people of different races and economic levels in the: workplace, school yard, and suburban neighborhood. Yet, in the local church, diversity is tough to come by. Should our local church reflect of the demographics of our neighboring community? I think it should. That goes along with points 1 & 3 above. So, for the purposes of this post, I am going to save point 2 for a third post and focus on points 1 & 3.

We are led to believe, as Christians, that heaven is a place where we will find people from all nations. As we walk out our driveways and look down the street we will probably see people of various ethnicities and varying income levels. So, if we are called to see heaven here on earth the local church should be diverse in its makeup. If we are to be a diverse church in our community, then we have to strive to make all people welcome. Makes sense, right?

I argue that diversity, for the sake of being a colorful congregation is just a facade. It’s something put in place to make congregants feel like they are being cosmopolitan and for ministry leaders to put a feather in their cap. I won’t say that it is all done in the name of vanity, but if you really break down the effect of diversity on the church, what do we accomplish by encouraging it? If everyone in your Sunday church service closed their eyes, would the effect of diversity really have any meaning?

You see, I am not a fan of diversity. What I am is an advocate for infusing culture into the local church. I believe that when we are in a church gathering and we were to close our eyes, that we could feel culture--and its influence on our lives--regardless of the skin color or job title of those around us. To me, beauty is not skin deep. In fact, I contend that our true beauty can only be realized when we get to know what lies under ones skin.

Not only is understanding other people’s culture relevant when it comes to ministering to them, but I say that it is more important for us to take the opportunity to learn their culture for the sake of making us better people. Offering different styles of music or having colorful faces in leadership in the church has no bearing on who the church it is. It may influence some to come so they don’t feel like standouts, but it doesn’t have much impact on us as a gospel community.

If we use the epistles as a reference, we can easily see that each church Paul wrote letters to was praised or admonished differently. They each battled different idols and ideals and were written to differently as a result. We don’t just align ourselves with one of the churches in the New Testament and then say that we will only learn what Paul taught from that particular Epistle. We take each Epistle into account and learn the context of each church and therefore understand why Paul wrote to each individually. We should do the same thing when it comes people of other cultures. Only when we get to know people deeper than what we see on the surface, can we truly be connected and stand alongside them. Only when I see you reach out to me to learn about my culture, will I truly believe that you care about me, rather than desire to see my Japanese face added to the mix of your congregation to confirm that you have your good deed. It is culture, not diversity, that will cause us to grow and become more beautiful as people.

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church / church relevance / culture / diversity / multi-cultural / multi-cultural church — 4 Comments
15
Sep 11

In the church, ethnic diversity is meaningless

I’ve made many, many attempts to engage people in a continuing dialog about racial diversity and cultural diversity within the local church. There seems to be three camps within church circles these days:

  1. The church should be racially diverse because heaven is diverse.
  2. The church should be relevant to one’s own culture where people can explore the context of their culture relative to the context of Jesus’ culture.
  3. We want to be a church to all people, where everyone feels welcome.

The problem with scenario number 1 is that diversity for the sake of coloring a room to give it the appearance of heaven, isn’t really heaven. Think about it. When you walk into a church gathering and see a lot of races represented, is it truly any different than if you walk into a room with only people that look like you? Is the music any different? Is the perspective of the message any different? What do you take away from a room filled with people of different races vs a room filled with only your own? Maybe pride that you’ve done a good thing?  Aside from that, you have gained--nor learned--nothing.

Scenario number 2 is most often used in the context of an ethnic church such as: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, etc. However, it does apply to the White American church as well. Growing up in Mexico, China, or Russia comes with a different set of cultures than growing up in America. Certain practices/customs/viewpoints/taboos are going to be different than here in the United States. As people migrate to our nation, should we force our culture on them from day one? Do we make them feel unwelcome in the land known as the melting pot of people? Not only do these issues conflict with culture, but they also conflict with faith. One’s faith as practiced in Korea is probably not going to look like ones faith as practiced in Tennessee. Gathering in this manner can lead to exclusion, which leads to inclusion. That’s he problem with this scenario.

Number 3 is like the Disneyland of churches. Most conversations I’ve had with pastors and church planters describes their ideal view of this scenario. A church of diversity, both in race and social/economic class. A church where the alcoholic can worship next to the millionaire and everyone can experience love and grace. I know churches like this do exist in some communities, but what can one learn from such an experience? Just because you enter a room with people that do not look like you, that can afford more or less than you, that speak different languages than you, what difference does it really make?

We’ll never escape any of these three scenarios. Each has some merit and will have those people drawn to gather within those contexts. As I continue this topic in my next blog post, I will argue that what we want to gain from each of these can only truly be found when we get past race and learn to embrace culture. It’s what the first century church did, and I believe it’s what the twenty-first century church must do.

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book review / Christianity / diversity / evangelism/outreach / multi-cultural — 4 Comments
4
Aug 10

Book Review: Not Like Me by Eric Bryant

Not Like Me: A Field Guide for Influencing A Diverse World is a reprint of Eric Michael Bryant‘s previous book titled Peppermint-Filled Pinatas. I did not read the first release so I am not sure how it is different, but I do know that in the form of Not Like Me, this book is like gold! There is so much in here to take away and apply that it could easily take me a year (or probably more) to get through all of it. Apparently, I’m not alone as Eric has provided small groups resources and teaching materials from the book’s website: http://notlikeme.org/.

Pastor Bryant shares his own personal stories and incorporates a lot of humor in a way that helps break down defenses and makes us want to connect with this book in a more personal level. It’s exactly the type of thing Bryant advocates for us as Christians--and as the church--to do with those we encounter outside of Christian community. He calls us to help overcome the Christian stereotypes that unchurched people tend to have of churched people. In doing so, he wants us to understand that we must hold others in a new light--that which does not include judgement. As Eric writes, “We [Christians] have created an environment where we are seen as judgmental, irrelevant, mean, and hypocritical.” and “We should not be surprised when people who have not surrendered their lives to God live differently [than we Christians should].” In order to see this happen, Bryant’s answer is to practice “the art of woo.” It is through this “art of woo” that Pastor Eric unfolds a story of how we might learn to develop diverse communities, resolve conflict, overcome bitterness, create a better future, and even heal our fractured world. “Wouldn’t it be amazing,” Eric asks in the introduction, “if as followers of Christ we found ourselves as part of the solution in our divided world rather than as part of the problem? In the end, don’t people matter most?”

Sharing stories and ideas on realizing diversity within the church and reaching those that do not know Christ in a relevant way, Not Like Me is a training manual of sorts. It’s a book written by someone that has accomplished all that he offers to teach us. As a pastor and influencer of Mosaic--a diverse and amazing community that seeks to follow (and be more like) Christ with services that are in various locations such as a nightclub--Eric Bryant is someone who lives what he preaches. His heart for seeing diverse communities of Gospel love, compassion, and grace is big. Eric gets why it’s important to celebrate cultural diversity and why the church must be about loving others more so than becoming a shelter filled with Christians trying to escape from the world that doesn’t know Christ.

Thanks to Zondervan and Eric Bryant for allowing me the opportunity and privilege of being a part of the Not Like Me: A Field Guide for Influencing a Diverse World blog tour. It is with great passion and enthusiasm that I will continue to refer to the pages and apply the things that Eric graciously shares for communicating and building community with those around me, especially those not like me.

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Asian-American / diversity / multi-cultural church — 11 Comments
18
Nov 09

If Francis Chan is a sellout, I have no clue why

Long before the whole incident of the Deadly Viper/Zondervan use of Asian culture to promote a book arose, there was a lengthy dialog from the Next Gener.Asian Church blog about how white evangelicals were using Francis Chan because he was a safe spokesperson from the Asian-American ministerial community that would relate to a broad audience. It was titled: Is Francis Chan a sell-out? At the time of this writing, there are 162 comments in reply to that post and more are added each week. It’s a polarizing issue and one that is totally misunderstood. Due to some recent events, it seems that this conversation has taken on a new life and either people are voicing their opinions or left on the sidelines scratching there heads in confusion. If Francis Chan is an Asian-American pastor and his messages don’t have much relevance to his being Asian, how can that be bad? Should there be a Chinese gospel along side a Caucasian/Anglo one? Weren’t we all called to be part of one church anyway? Some people are looking upon the Asian-American Christian community as one that wants to be segregated and appearing to be somewhat elitist.

I’m kind of in the middle on the whole issue--I understand both sides, yet I’m not quite sure I have the answer to build unity on the matter. However, maybe my perspective will help some gain more understanding the heart of the matter.

If you are a white evangelical, a lot of this will probably resonate with you:

  1. It’s not about what we want, but it’s about who God sends to our church. God builds the church, not us.
  2. While we may be white, we are open to people of all races coming in to worship together with us. Not only are we open, but we encourage people of other cultures to join us!
  3. There should be no Black church, White church, Asian church, Latino church--there should just be one church as we are all one in Christ.

In actuality, there are some in the Asian-American evangelical church that would agree with all three of the above-points as well. However, there is a bit of a different perspective that is predominant within Asian-American Christians. Unfortunately, many within the Asian-American community can’t quite place their finger on it or even understand there is an issue.

The perspective from the Asian-American evangelical is like this:

  1. I grew up in a (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc) church that had services for my parents in (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc.) and services for me in English. Often times the English services were presided over by a Caucasian pastor who spoke English well, but didn’t really understand the (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc.) culture I was raised in. My friends aren’t Asian, my neighbors aren’t Asian and I want to go to church with them somewhere that isn’t (Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese, etc.)
  2. When in a predominantly Caucasian church service, I feel like I don’t fit in. I’m not connecting beyond a surface level with others in the church.
  3. I don’t embrace all of the culture forced upon at my parent’s church, yet I don’t feel like I get any culture from the predominantly-Caucasian church.

On an even deeper level, some Asian-American Christians struggle with their identity. They don’t quite know how to feel about being Asian. Are they to look past their cultural heritage and integrate with everyone else disregarding why God birthed them as Asians or is there some relevance they should appreciate by being birthed by God as Asians?

When someone says, “I don’t see color, I just see people. When I look at you Dave, I don’t see someone who is Asian. I just see you as Dave.” I think that’s great. However, what you fail to realize is that you just discredited my cultural heritage. I’m not just like you. Even though we may think and speak in a similar manner, we don’t have similar stories. If you are white growing up in America, you can never really know what it’s like being Asian growing up in America. Racism aside, imagine what it’s like growing up with the pressure to be smarter than the average student. There is a stereotype that Asians are smart and they become accountants and engineers. Not only is there pressure from Asian parents to excel in school, but there is pressure to stay in school and at least obtain a master’s degree. I can understand how some non-Asian people will tell me how they had similar pressure to excel in school, but it’s just not the same. I can’t tell you how many times I have been introduced to people that aren’t Asian and the first thing they ask me is what I do for a living, then they ask me what school I went to. When I tell them what I do (and it’s not being an accountant or engineer) and when they ask me where I went to school and I tell them I did 2 years part-time at a community college and went to seminary when I was 38, they usually walk away from the conversation confused. They spent time trying to quickly assess me before asking the questions, yet my answers were unexpected. At the heart of the matter is whether they would ask me what I do and where I went to school if I weren’t Asian.

So, being deemed too smart and a geek by white students, yet not smart enough for the Asian students is not a very comforting place to be. It leads to conflict and some resentment over who we are.

Another problem is in how we as Asian-Americans represent ourselves. Why should non-Asians really be cautious over what they say or what they find humorous if Asians say and laugh at the same things? Isn’t that hypocritical? In short, yes it is. When there are people like Bobby Lee of MadTv mocking Asians for the sake of getting a laugh, it absolutely sends a confusing message to non-Asians. Unfortunately, for some that aspire to be actors or comedians, perpetuating stereotypes is the only way they can get work. Some Asians don’t even understand how wrong it is to perpetuate the stereotypes and connotations of playing up being Oriental.

As an Asian-American, does Francis Chan have a responsibility to be some super-Asian and season every statement he makes with an Asian perspective? Not at all! From Francis’ perspective, he is doing what is right for him and his messages connect with lots of people. However, at the same time, should Francis Chan operate in circles of influence that only care about his Asian appearance rather than his Asian cultural perspective? No, I don’t think he should. As an Asian-American Christian, I think he does have some responsibility to other Asians. He may speak the language of white evangelicals, but at the same time he obviously doesn’t look like a white evangelical. There is a reason for that. Chan is Asian-American and is gaining respect in the white evangelical church, yet he isn’t white. This has to have some meaning and can’t be equated as just some random thing. It’s similar to Obama’s presidency. We all pat each other on the back and the world stands and applauds us for voting in a black president. However, our expectation is that he is black in appearance only, not in a cultural context. President Clinton went to McDonald’s and was criticized and stereotyped as a result. Imagine if President Obama went to KFC on a regular basis. Even though you may explain to me how you aren’t prejudice or racist and that you see Obama as just another president, I know that your mind wandered into a place of stereotype as you envisioned Obama eating at KFC. It’s the same reason why if Obama plays basketball you’re okay with it, but if he played basketball poorly you’d question it. Stereotypes are difficult to overcome. They wreak havoc on our perceptions even on subconscious levels. As much as we as non-black Americans see in these stereotypes, how do you think black Americans feel? They see Obama as a sign of hope and change. That a black person can be elected president and ultimately bring some respect to African-Americans. They expect that he will represent them in some way that someone like myself couldn’t. In the same way, there is some expectation that Francis Chan will use his opportunities to lend a voice for the voiceless Asian-Americans who deal with conflict and self-esteem issues and feel out of place in the church. In an extreme sense, just as pop culture and Hollywood exploit people like Bobby Lee on MadTv to show some diversity on the set, the white evangelical church can exploit Francis Chan for the sake of claiming some diversity in the pulpit.

In the end, those of us that are Asian-Americans don’t have a unified philosophy on racism, prejudice, stereotypes or exploitation. Some of us (Asian-Americans) laugh at skits that remind us of the days of being an Oriental in a white land because we never lived through that pain and accepted environment oppression. Some of us Asian-Americans use our Chinese voice and squint our eyes and make fun of parents to our white friends because they don’t know what it’s like to be physically threatened because we as Asians were caught talking to a white girl on campus. Yes, some of us Asian-Americans can be insensitive to those that have walked before us because we feel we are above the racism so much so that we can laugh at stuff just like our white friends. In the end, it’s this passive perpetuation of stereotypes that fuels non-Asians to make the same jokes, pull at their eye lids and make the buck teeth while putting on thick coke bottle glasses, say things like “Heh-rro!” in a room full of Asians and expect to get a laugh.

Just so you know, I am an American first. I love my country and am willing to defend her. However, God created me for a reason and I am called to live my journey as a guy born in Japan and brought to California to live amongst a diverse group of people and find my own identity in Christ. It must have some perspective of my culture otherwise my story which begins with being born in Japan is insignificant and irrelevant. If that were to be true, then why are there so many nations of varying cultures on Earth? Why not just be one continent with one people? Even in the Bible we see people of different nations all playing a role. Some positive, some not so positive, but they all are important in the context of entire story. Even Moses was created by God to be extracted from his land and placed into the culture of Egypt, only to be reunited with the people of Israel and lead them to the promised land. His culture was of great importance in the greater context. Mine isn’t to be considered on the same magnitude, but it is still significant in some small way. I am a child of God with a Japanese perspective and heritage living in America. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

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