While reading a follow-up comment from Daniel So regarding my previous blog post, I was reminded of the larger conversation going around within Asian-American ministry circles. Daniel wrote:
As the NG.AC [nextgenerasianchurch.com] 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!
I’m all for leveraging all things for the kingdom of God! However, I’m confused at the whole idea of having an identity as an Asian-American in Christ being separate from my overall identity within Christ. I’ve been involved in dialog with many other Asian-American’s that truly believe that there is a cultural context to their Christianity and that it is lacking within the 2nd & 3rd generation Asian-American body of Christ. That Asian ethno-centric churches will have a solid ministry to 1st generation people from Korea, Vietnam and China yet bring in non-Asians to lead english language ministries for the 2nd & 3rd generation therefore disengaging from their Asian culture and supplanting them within a Caucasian America culture. Thus, they lose their identity and wander around confused and feel out of place.
This concept of being lost confuses me because I personally do not feel as if my place is in an exclusive Asian-American setting. I am comfortable gathering with others to worship when they are mostly Caucasian or mostly African-American. I have experience in both settings. In actuality, to have a fusion of these two experiences would cause me to feel right at home. I appreciate the enthusiasm, the call-and-response, and most of all the gospel music that I’ve worshiped to in some African-American churches. At the same time, I embrace the desire for the Caucasian church in America to see more diversity within their congregations.
I must admit that I have struggled with trying to decipher the hidden meaning of my being an Asian-American Christian and how I must relate this to a greater culture and subculture of people that see me as Asian first, Christian second. I’ve heard the old cliche that since I am Asian, I am likely to draw Asians as congregants within our church. I actually rebelled against that notion as it just never sat right with me. My city is integrated, my neighborhood is diverse, my workplace has been an equal opportunity employer–why then must I now take my Christianity on Sunday and cause it to be relevant to just Asian-Americans? In fact, Francis Chan who is Chinese has a mostly Caucasian membership at Cornerstone Church in California and Tim Keller who is Caucasian has a mostly Asian-American membership at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. The shoe obviously doesn’t fit the way some people would like it to.
If I minister to people of various ethnicities and do not cite examples specific to Asians in my messages, does this make me less of an Asian? Will it cause me to question who I am in Christ because I am not being true to my Asian heritage? I really don’t see how this is going to happen. It’s possible I am the only exception to this, but I highly doubt it.
However, let me say something in regards to others that may feel confused or out of place. After having discussions with DJ Chuang, whom I respect greatly because he has examples and experiences from within the Asian context and outside of it as well, I do agree that there are some that have trouble understanding who they are and how they fit in. Often times, it causes Asian-Americans to wander around and look to identify with a body of Christ in some form outside of the ethno-centric church and going back-and-forth in a kind of tug o’ war battle between churches pulling at them to connect. The Caucasian church wants to be multi-cultural, while the ethno-centric church wants to retain people of their heritage for generations to come. In my opinion, the issue of ministry more-so than individual Christianity is the issue. I think we as the church–ethno-centric, white American, or multi-cultural–have caused confusion as we fight to gain believers for the sake of carrying out our human wills. Just as there were many cultures and nations represented on the day of Pentecost when 3,000 came to repent and be saved by the grace of Christ Jesus, I believe the church should be represented in the same way today. If we started looking at how we could be unified, rather than how we can do a better job of being segregated, I think God would move in ways we cannot even imagine.
If you are someone with a sort of identity crisis because of who you are, I’d really appreciate having a chance to see how this affects you and your faith. I ask humbly because while I know this is an issue for you, I don’t quite understand it or know how to minister to you because of it.
