largest Chinese churches in North America

Let’s see what we can learn from compiling this list of very large Chinese churches in the United States and Canada. To compare apples to apples, one way to measure church size is average weekend worship attendance including children, as leading megachurch researchers use this as a base line. And, what is called “megachurch” today is a church with over 2,000 in attendance on an average weekend.

List of very large Chinese churches in the USA and Canada:

• First Chinese Baptist Church of Los Angeles [~ 2000]
• Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles [~ 1400?]
• First Chinese Baptist Church of Walnut (CA) [~ 1000?]
• Bread of Life Church (Torrance, CA) [~ 800?]
• San Jose Christian Alliance Church [~ 1000+]
• Chinese Bible Church of San Diego [~ 1600]
• Sunset Chinese Baptist Church (San Francisco, CA) [~ 1000]
• San Francisco Chinese Alliance Church (~700)
• Bay Area Chinese Bible Church (San Leandro and Alameda, CA) [~ 1,000]
• River of Life Christian Church (Santa Clara, CA) [???]
• Houston Chinese Church [~ 700]
• West Houston Chinese Church [~ 700]
• Fort Bend Community Church (Houston area) [~ 1200-1300]
• Dallas Chinese Bible Church (Richardson, TX) [~ 600?]
• Chinese Christian Union Church (Chicago, IL) [???]
• Boston Chinese Evangelical Church [~ 1350]
• Greater Boston Chinese Bible Church [???]
• Oversea Chinese Mission (New York City) [~ 2000?]
• Faith Bible Church (Flushing, NY) [~700; was described as "the 'largest' Chinese NYC church"]
• Rutgers Community Christian Church (Somerset, NJ) [~ 2200?]
• Vancouver Chinese Alliance Church (Canada) [~ 1700]
• Evangelical Chinese Bible Church (Vancouver area) [~ 1200]
• Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church [~ 1000]
• Richmond Hill Chinese Community Church (Toronto area) [~ 3300]
• Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church (Toronto area) [~ 1375]

Note that church size is not an indicator of anything other than size. This is not a competition. God uses churches of all sizes and styles to reach all kinds of people. By maintaining such a listing here is only a point of reference (and of research interest to some), because there are some things that are unique to running a megachurch, and there are some things that can be learned from churches like these.

I’ll do my best to keep this list updated. Please add a comment with new info, or email me at djchuang[at]L2foundation.org [Hat tip: this list was initially compiled with help from John Ng over at FCBC LA.]

[cf. also see the list of largest Korean churches in North America]

talking about church salary

Daniel So met up with YS President Mark Oestreicher to further dialogue about race, reconciliation, and church. Daniel is blogging on his initial reflections on Mark’s review of the L²’s Asian American Youth Ministry book. He breaches the topic of poor salaries for Asian American youth workers :

I have often received advice from first-generation people that pastors should not talk too much about money, lest they appear greedy. Some have even gone so far as to say that we shouldn’t even ask about our pay — just find out when you get your first paycheck. In my last church, they actually lied about how much I would be paid — stating one amount over the phone but actually paying a significantly lower amount. I do not believe we must follow the corporate model of formal negotiations and including every minute detail in a written contract, but churches must begin taking better care of their youth workers.

The Scriptures in 1 Timothy 5:17-18 clearly states fair wages are due for those who shepherd the church as pastors, and by inference, youth pastors and youth directors too:

The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

How does this passage get read in an Asian cultural context? What would it take to bring things to light as a church, since we are children of the light, so that honest conversations can happen about how we manage church finances and salaries?

[update] Daniel So has added more of his reflections in Part 2 on abdicating youth ministry to paid professionals and Part 3 on integrating youth into church life.

Asian American leadership styles

This article about leadership styles and characteristics was published by Harvard Business School, Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique? It compares and contrasts leadership reproduction and succession in various cultural contexts in the corporate business world, which also has implications for the Asian American church:

To a significant degree, large American firms are at a later stage of development than many Asian firms—they have passed from founders’ family leadership to professional management and to capital obtained from the capital markets (rather than obtained from government—directly or indirectly—or from family fortunes). … It is possible, but not certain, that Asian firms will follow this evolutionary path.

Later in the article, it lists 9 key qualities of a successful leader:

1. Passion
2. Decisiveness
3. Conviction
4. Integrity
5. Adaptability
6. Emotional Toughness
7. Emotional Resonance
8. Self-Knowledge
9. Humility

What does this mean for next generation Asian American church leaders? How can we better grow leaders? reproduce leaders? mentor leaders? Is there a difference in developing an Asian leader who can lead Asian Americans vs. an Asian leader who can lead a multiethnic group of Anglo Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans as well?

worship and career choices

I first met Lee Huang at the L² Foundation 2004 Leaders Forum in Chicago, and then visited with him in Philadelphia too. He is particularly thoughtful about living out his faith and working out the implications of the Gospel. He rightly noticed a missing link in how Asian Americans can worship well with great music and personal morality, but seemingly lacking in their choice of career for greater Kingdom impact. Here’s an excerpt from his musing titled “True Worship“:

Many young Asian American churches have a reputation for kickin’ worship. In fact, probably the most worshipful jam I’ve participated in over the last five years was at an Asian American Christian leadership conference – the worship team was just embarrassment of musical riches.

What I’m learning is a struggle for those who work with and in such churches is that that devotion does not always translate equally to various parts of Christian discipleship. Too often, the young Asian American congregation is known for spirited worship, singular devotion to God, upright moral living . . . and no discernible change in the career track congregants choose to pursue.

Read the full entry and add your comments below.

Related, Andre at Every Square Inch quotes Pastor Tim Keller about work being a place of discipleship more than a private devotional life:

You can’t just disciple people on how to be Christians in their private lives (e.g. prayer, witnessing, Bible study). Center-city people don’t have much of a “private life.” If you are in finance, or art, or acting or medicine, your vocation dominates your life and your time. Discipleship must include how to be distinctively Christian within your job, including how to handle the particular temptations and ethical quandaries, and how to produce work in one’s own field from a distinctly Christian world-view.

What do you think it’d take for people to realize that God created us to do all kinds of vocations, secular and sacred both, and every calling is important because it’s God’s calling?

interview with Jamie Kim

I’ve run into Jamie Kim from time to time at conferences, and recently caught up with him about his latest efforts in mobilizing Asian Americans for Kingdom impact. Dr. Jamie Kim is the OMF International’s Asian-American Missions Mobilizer and North Korea consultant, as well as Director of REAH International. Here’s the interview:

Q: Please share with us about your ministry and what REAH International is all about.

Jamie: Reah International’s vision is to empower the people of DPRK with viable and sustainable long-term projects inside. Our mission statement is: Reah exists to serve frontier field workers in North Korea by facilitating the matching of provision, people, prayer, and project support services.

Q: What are the most critical needs in North Korea?

Jamie: North Korea has a lot of natural and human resources which it can offer to the rest of the world. It desires to partner with businesses, for mutual benefit, to export these resources to meet the world’s demands. Moreover, it has a very negative reputation in the international community. DPRK needs good-will ambassadors to help educate the rest of the world about some of the good things that are happening inside.

Q: How will the Empower 2007 conference help people in North Korea?

Jamie: Empower 07 will help the people in North Korea by allowing the outside world realize that there is a window of opportunity to come along side the people of DPRK to develop its resources. Although limited, DPRK is open for people to do business, education, health care, and other opportunities.

Q: What kind of people and skills does REAH specifically need for North Korea?

Jamie: We need attorneys, accountants, businessmen and women, IT experts, and certified English teachers, to name a few of the needs. Most of all, we need people who will not quit praying and endeavoring for this country.

Q: How are 2nd generation English-speaking Asian Americans uniquely positioned to participate in the work that REAH is doing?

Jamie: Second generation English-speaking Asian Americans are well educated and skilled to develop the infrastructure of such a country like DPRK. Since the great famine in the mid to late nineties, the basic infrastructure of DPRK has been destroyed. They need professionals to partner with them to engage the rest of the world. The time for name-calling is finished. Calling DPRK the “Axis of Evil” and calling America, “the Devil” does not help anybody, unless they want to go to war. Instead of fighting, we need to dialogue and build bridges.

Has this stirred your heart and soul? Learn more by attending the Empower 07 conference this Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. Early registration discounts before April 24.