diversity

church / church relevance / diversity / multi-cultural church / people / prayer — 2 Comments
7
Oct 09

The American Church and Racism

Continuing a bit with a theme I started on yesterday’s blog post here, I wanted to clarify something. For those of you that don’t know my story, I wanted to give a bit of background and to confirm my thoughts on race and the American church. Being an Asian with the last name Ingland, you can imagine that it can easily lend to some confusion :)

I was born in Japan, but put up for adoption. My adopted parents are bi-racial, being that my dad was white and grew up in a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania and my mom was a native Japanese woman. My parents met in Japan while my dad was stationed there in the US Air Force. So, while I have my adopted father’s last name, I am 100% Japanese. However, the context of my culture is really American. While my mom is Japanese, due to prejudice and racism she did everything she could to assimilate us into our exclusively white neighborhood. I was one of 3 Asians in my graduating class in high school. So, for me, most of what I know is rooted in white, American culture. In the conversation of Asian-American church, I am kind of the oddball. However, there are aspects of me that are inherently Asian…things that I don’t consciously think about or purposefully do or think, yet they are ingrained in who I am. This is the conflict I have spent the past 9 months trying to figure out--who am I and who am I supposed to minister to?

When I look at the predominantly white, American church I don’t necessarily see it as evil or racist. I don’t even really consider it segregated. What I do see though is that there is a perspective present there that only someone not white would understand. When a white pastor proclaims to a white congregation that they want to purposefully try and reach out to people of color, I know their heart is in the right place. However, in reality, this is a very difficult challenge because of the current establishment. Just as most white people would feel uncomfortable driving into a black neighborhood and worshiping as the only white person in a black church, people of color can feel the same discomfort in a white church. I know that you’re reading that last sentence and believing that it is not true of you, but I think if you were being completely honest you would agree, even if not publicly. Know that not only is there a discomfort for non-whites in a white church, but there is also a disconnect. American culture, as mainstream as it is, really lacks diversity and the incorporation of other cultural perspectives. You can bring in an African-American pastor to share a message on Sunday about Kwanzaa, but that really doesn’t help us break down the discomfort and the disconnect that exists in our churches today.

Having said all of this, let me reiterate again: I do not believe that churches that are predominantly one race are racist. I just believe that the method is causing them not to realize a congregation that truly represents the diversity of their community.

If you are part of a white church, in a white community, in a small farm town in the midwest somewhere, does that make you racist? Not at all. Part of the conversation of diversity and multi-culturalism has to exclude some people just because their ministry has no choice except to be predominantly white. Same is true if you are part of a black church in a predominantly African-American neighborhood.

Does racism exist in the church today? Yes, it absolutely does. However, so does idolatry, addiction, hypocracy, the making of celebrities..etc. The church today is not perfect! We don’t always practice what we preach. If we better-understood the message of Christ and grace, we’d be a happier church without judgment and criticism.

While I acknowledge racism exists in the church, I also believe that racial segregation is a by-product of how we “do” church today. It is rooted in how we have “done” church in the past. It’s become more about us and less about Christ. That being said, I still know that the heart of many churches is in the right place.

Know that if a church is trying to establish a ministry to Russian people that have migrated to the US and still know more about Russian culture and the language than they do about America and English, it does not make them racist. Also know that if white people in a swank suburb are being ministered to in the context of being white collar professionals with no programs or ministries to connect with people other than themselves, does not make them racist. People of different cultures, in different communities, will just naturally want to congregate together.

Know this as well: There are people being called into ministry to start doing a new work that goes beyond color or socio-economic classes. As the future of our American culture changes, we as the church must change with it. For some, the status quo isn’t about racism and segregation, but there is a feeling that change must take place. Let’s not try to bridge the gap of black and white, but instead let us bridge the gap to be people reaching people, regardless of color or social status.

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Asian-American / diversity / multi-cultural church — 12 Comments
5
Jun 09

Asian-American Christians, part 2: Is Francis Chan a Sellout?

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.

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church / church relevance / culture / Dave (personal) / diversity / God / life / ministry / multi-cultural / multi-cultural church / people / Uncategorized — 7 Comments
13
Oct 08

I’m Japanese, you’re not…therefore I win, and you lose!

While responding to a blog post recently I was compelled to introduce a concept to those that follow my blog. It’s a story that was briefly introduced awhile ago, yet only engaged new Asian readers into the discussion, while most of my readership is not Asian. Asian or not, this is an issue that we must face within the church and I’m curious what you all think.

A reply to one of my comments on the blog was:

“In the short-run, you are right, i don’t think you’ll see much positive growth at all, but ethnicity needs to validated as a gift from God and our inheritance from our immigrant parents. so while i agree with your implication that many would benefit from a multi-ethnic or missional church (culture/ethnicity can be viewed as an inefficiency from many people’s eyes, but), an honest exploration into the question of why God created us to be from a certain place and of a certain people should inspire us to discover our ethnicities and cultures in a redemptive light.

This is where i think the example of the people of israel and the biblical practice of remembering, remembering what God has done, who God is, and who God has made us to be, a very real practice to engage in the ethnic context.”

First of all, let me state very clearly that I am extrapolating something from a post that had a larger context. It is not my intention to argue or criticize the blog author or anyone that shares his viewpoint. I am just taking the statement and inflecting my experiences and ideas in the hopes of engaging in some dialog about the subject (hopefully) from both Asian and non-Asians.

Okay, so I’m Japanese, but I’ll admit there were some times in my life where I wished I could have been born looking like Brad Pitt or Joe Montana (nod to my NorCal upbringing) or David Cassidy. Usually it was so that I could have a girl attracted to me that wouldn’t date me because I was Japanese or so that I could avoid the words and violence associated with racism and prejudice. However, I am who I am and all that I am is for the glory of God.

However, do I want to celebrate my heritage in such a way that I need to have everyone around me be Japanese and understand my culture and my language when I’m in a Sunday church service? Is preserving my heritage in such a way something that can honor God much in the same way that the Israelites were true to their place as God’s chosen people? Did God create me as a Japanese person to engage only other Japanese people and rally us around a common cause of preserving who we are?

The Israelites were in-fact God’s chosen people. They were to inherit the earth as Abraham’s descendants. They were not to intermarry or in anyway corrupt the lineage. However, even in the Old Testament we see evidence of something that goes against this notion. Ruth was a Gentile that came to faith in the one true God. Not just any Gentile, but a Moabite and therefore hated by the Israelites. Ruth marries Boaz and bears a son that can be traced to the family line of Jesus himself.

As we see here, introducing Ruth into the Israelite culture of Judah had a profound place in history. Therefore, what is my place as a Japanese person living in the United States? Am I to segregate myself to a place where I can teach the things of God based on the context of my Japanese culture for those that will understand it because they too are Japanese? Or should I celebrate who I am in Christ and share my culture and experience with others so that they may benefit?

Let me shift to a different scenario to help me make my point. With Barack Obama’s candidacy the discussion of black church and white church came up in the media. There were some black churches (I personally dislike this label even though it is socially acceptable) where the message was preached against white America. It was almost an us-against-them mentality that was glorified. However, what if instead of trying to empower African-Americans in the church to stand up to social injustice from the caucasian world they tried to share their stories outside of the black church in a way that brought attention to what has gone on and continues to go on in their lives? How can white America know what is going on in the black community if the black community segregates themselves from the rest of us? The same is true with Asian-Americans in my opinion.

I talk to so many people today that have no clue what I go through as an Asian-American in society. So many think that racism and prejudice is a thing of the past. You wouldn’t believe how many people think I must be smart in math or must have gone to college at UCLA or Cal or that I must be an engineer or know all there is to know about computers or ask me questions about sushi. The outright hatred of me due to my Asian features has diminished greatly over the years, but the stereotypes have not. How does being exclusively with other Japanese people on Sundays help me to make a difference? What if I could take the fulfillment of one of God’s Ten Commandments to honor your mother and father to a whole ‘nother level by introducing my Japanese culture of being there for my parents in ways that aren’t the norm here in America?

I believe that God created me more to honor him and bring glory to his Son Jesus through my unique perspective of a Japanese person with my own individual experiences than he did to see me perpetuate my ethnic values and cultures at all costs. As the Great Commandment in Matthew 25 calls us to do, we are to preach the gospel to all nations and teach them what Christ has taught us. He didn’t say each nation is responsible for the preaching of the gospel to themselves. Three thousand didn’t come to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and believe so that they could go back to their nations and keep their faith within the borders of their individual nations. Paul didn’t preach there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile only to see us reverse that in order to preserve our ethnic culture in a new land.

I should not have the viewpoint that I am Japanese and you are not so I can perpetuate my culture and heritage in my church and you are excluded, therefore you lose out on all that you could gain through knowing and understanding who I am and what I experienced. Through knowing my struggles with racism and prejudice and the pressures I faced in school here in America you can have some insight on persecution for who I am and how I dealt and continue to deal with that now that I am a Japanese person and a Christian. You can learn how some of the values revealed to us through the Scriptures have been in place in the country of my birth even though less than 1/10th of 1 percent of its people are Christian and how that breaks my heart. You can learn how to look at me as a brother or sister in Christ with individual experiences I can bring to the table and share rather than someone you have no idea how to address since you couldn’t be as mathematical or technologically savvy as me or because you don’t like sushi or whatever.

The harsh reality is that I am different from most of you. Heck, I’m different from many Japanese people as well. However, not only do I truly believe that you can learn from me, I absolutely know that I can learn from you. Together we can celebrate all of God’s people and all that he is doing in this world as the brothers and sisters he created us to be.

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Bible / church / church relevance / culture / diversity / God / leadership / life / ministry / multi-cultural church / people — 3 Comments
27
Aug 08

Asian-American church vs multi-cultural church, part 2

We must face our fears, mistrust, and ignorance and become a society of one. It is often said that Sundays are the most segregated time in America. I would tend to agree. As I watch the news on the Democratic National Convention and underlying question that is always looking my commentators is whether Obama as to overcome racism in 2008. Simply put, yes he does! Race and racism are still in existence today. However, if we try to drive racism by pointing out differences between black and white culture we are on shaky ground, yet when it comes to the church, I rarely hear anyone take issue with calling a predominantly African-American church in Atlanta, GA a black church or even talking about the black church as if it is its own denomination.

It’s not so mainstream in America, but there is such a thing as the Chinese, Korean, Japanese or more-generic Asian-American church.

Should American churches be black, Chinese, Mexican, Russian, etc.? I say yes, and no. Let me define my point:

  1. For first generation immigrants that have a language barrier, yet want to be able to worship, there should be a church that exists to allow that to happen. If Russian-speaking immigrants can gather in the name of the Lord, then that is great!
  2. Regardless of language or race inherently the second generation will want to assimilate into American culture and be taught English and encouraged to become Americans. Will this second generation want to stay in an ethnocentric church the rest of their lives? Their friends are diverse ethnically, their school is ethnically diverse, their workplace, etc. Why wouldn’t they want their church to be representative of their Monday-through-Saturday environment?

Looking at Jesus’ ministry on earth, we know that as a Jew he broke away from traditional custom to walk though Samaria on his way to Jerusalem. It is on a walk through Samaria that he encounters the woman at the well. The end result is that a wave of Christ followers came to know salvation even though they weren’t the chosen people of God (Jews). We also read testimony of Jesus being in the company of prostitutes, those with leprosy, and the much-hated tax collectors. Jesus didn’t care whether someone was of the “chosen” or not, because one of the primary things about his gospel was that anyone that believed in him was granted forgiveness of their sins and brought into the brotherhood of God’s people. Looking at the New Testament, most of it was written by the Apostle Paul, whom Jesus called to preach to the Gentiles (non-Jews). Greeks, Romans, Ethiopians, all would come to know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ through Paul’s outreach. Paul gathered the Jews and Gentiles and assembled them into one church in the community. There were the Ephesian, Galatian, and Thessalonian churches with Jews and Gentiles in unity, not the Jewish Ephesian church, and the Greek Ephesian church on the other side of town, etc. One church, one God, one love for all.

With such examples from the Scripture, why do we so often choose to be segregated during worship? Why must we use Sundays to try and preserve our culture, when God calls us to him above everything else when we come before him in worship?

One argument I hear from some is that if God sends us an Asian-American congregation, then that is who we are to shepherd and minister to. Okay. The problem with this argument is the leader/visionary. I’ve heard (and experienced) that the church will generally take after the senior pastor. If the senior pastor is Caucasian, mid-40′s with a college degree, married and has 2.3 kids then people of similar makeup will be drawn to him/her because they can relate to each other equally. So, me being an Asian-American, it would make sense that I could attract those that have similar cultural backgrounds to me. Therefore, if as Asian-American pastor, I have to be intentional about attracting those that are different than me. Can I as an American cross cultural lines and connect with people that are Hispanic, African-American, Russian-American, etc.? If I can’t, then personally I believe I have a problem because Jesus doesn’t differentiate based on race and I should be doing the work of Jesus, not the work of myself. If the population at large still won’t accept me because I am not of their heritage, then I believe that empowering leaders within the church that represent diversity can help people overcome such personal issues. If I have an Asian-American leadership team and talk about my experiences growing up with racism and certain aspects of Japanese culture, then I am going to relate to Japanese-Americans almost exclusively. It just makes sense. However, if I preach and exemplify the gospel of Christ and do so to Hispanic, African-American, Russian-American people in my community and they see the love of Christ and not a Japanese-American, then they will be drawn in by Christ’s love and not because we are of identical cultures.

To be diverse, I have to agree with DJ Chuang’s position in his blog post and state that it does take being intentional. However, I don’t believe that this is some form of manipulation or relying on some system of diversity rather than trusting God to build his church. If God wants the church to be multi-cultural, then I believe the leadership, attitude, sermon illustrations, etc. must be ethnically/culturally/socio-economically diverse in order to facilitate this happening.

Imagine what it must be like for some Asian guy to invite an African-American unbeliever to his church only to find out that his African-American friend doesn’t fit in and isn’t really welcomed because he is not Asian. Is that the example we should be setting for unbelievers? Would Christ only want to see African-Americans saved in African-American churches? When Scripture states that Christ will return to claim his bride, do we really believe that we are to be a segregated bride seeking solace in our cultural customs rather seeking peace and joy in unity and love? Interesting complementary post to this from Laurence Tom titled, “Is your church more Chinese than Christian?“

We can only stop talking about racism when we start coming together and worshipping together with our community rather than just our cultural community. We can only stop talking about racism when we are viewed as light and love rather than black or white or brown or yellow. I believe the church is an important instrument in this process of change and that someone needs to not be afraid to be a little uncomfortable for the sake of seeing ignorance win in the battle of racism and prejudice. When we should be leading the charge for this in the church, we are the last to embrace this concept!

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Bible / Christianity / church / church planting / church relevance / culture / diversity / evangelism/outreach / God / leadership / life / ministry / multi-cultural church / people / worship — 5 Comments
27
Aug 08

Asian church vs. multi-cultural church, part 1

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:

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