multiethnic church planting fund

In this letter from Henry Koh, Coordinator of Korean Ministries for Mission to North America in the PCA (Presbyterian Church of America), he announced that Sarang Community Church Offers Financial Support to First-Time Multiethnic Church Planters::

… Sarang Community Church of Southern California has set aside $50,000.00 per year to help Korean second generation and other minority church planters–up to $500 per month for the period of 30 months for those who went through church planting assessment and endorsed by the Mission to North America in the PCA. I am praying more churches will start to offer such a fund to help second generation church planters with vision to reach America and the world.

Please let me hear from you if you interested in church planting and want to know about how to take church planting assessment and the procedure to applying for the fund. You may email me at hkoh@pcanet.org or contact me by phone at 678-825-1221.

Read the entire letter for full context. Encouraging to see a church and denomination recognize the potential of second generation Korean and Asian American pastors to reach people of all ethnicities in multiethnic America with the Gospel, and putting real financial support behind this conviction. With $50,000 per year distributed at the rate described above, this amount can support more than 8 church plants at a time.

Chinese and Korean Americans can Learn from Each Other

David Ro shared this at a conference in 2000 that is very informative as a compare and contrast of cultural values between Korean and Chinese people groups. David himself can be considered as a consummate Asian American prototype since he is 1/2 Korean and 1/2 Chinese.

This chart gives an outline of overall data (some outdated by now) along with strengths and weaknesses based on his personal experiences in working with both groups. You may download the chart in PDF format or view it online via scribd.com. (published with permission from author)

Korean churches for the next generation

KoreAm Journal is the most widely-circulated independent English-language monthly magazine that highlights the news, stories and issues of Korean Americans nationwide. In its December 2005 issue, this article titled “The Church Divide” [free registration required] brings out a wide range of stories to illustrate the Korean churches’ attempts to reach the next generation:

With over 75 percent of Korean Americans identifying themselves as Protestant, the church has long been a haven for a community with immigrant roots. However, the appearance of English-speaking ministries within Korean churches has presented progress along with problems, and now second-generation churchgoers’ needs are changing. KoreAm examines the culture of Korean churches and their future.

Inside the Dream Church in Pasadena, Calif., a robed minister reads solemnly in Korean from the Gospel while latecomers tiptoe in and head toward the back pews. When the choir stands to sing, about 250 congregation members dressed in their Sunday best — blouses, coats and ties — stand with open hymnals. It is just another Sunday morning in this stained glass setting — a traditional picture of church that hasn’t changed much for Korean immigrants over the last few decades.

But walk behind this sanctuary and you’ll almost miss a hall where another service is taking place. This one is a generation away. On a small stage, a young, animated pastor in a suit speaks frankly to a room full of the fashionably casual. With just half the crowd of the Dream Church, this feels more like an intimate meeting. Seated in rows of fold-up chairs, members take notes during the sermon and laugh at the pastor’s jokes. When the praise team (a band consisting of a singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer) takes over and plays catchy pop medleys, members sing along with words projected onto an overhead screen. This is the Community Church on Holliston (CCH), the English-speaking ministry, or EM, of the Dream Church.

With the Rev. Sam Park at its helm, CCH has rapidly grown from five members to nearly 200 in six years. A graduate of a liberal arts college who once worked with Teach For America, Park was dubious about joining forces with a Korean ministry (KM). His ordination thesis on first- and second-generation ministries showed him that these relationships were often tenuous.

“There are scant examples of [English-speaking] ministries doing well, along with Korean ministries. It’s very rare,” says Park, 36. “There is no question that there is patronization sometimes. They think that we are their kids. Every Korean ministry, when they start an [English-speaking] ministry, says, ‘Oh, we hope it does well.’ That’s, quite honestly, not their biggest problem. It’s when we end up doing well. Because then, all of a sudden, how much ownership do KMs give us?”

To read the entire article, “The Church Divide,” free registration is required.

reaching young Asian Canadians

This article by Connie Cavanaugh, “Whatever It Takes Churches: A church in Canada helps second-generation Chinese put down some ROOTS,” reiterates the compelling need to reach the next generation with the Gospel::

How does a church “be a church” if few of the people they reach are free to assemble? This is a key question at ROOTS, a church reaching the teens of Chinese immigrants in Calgary, Alberta. ROOTS was born in an attempt to bridge the generation and culture gap between Asian-born parents and their Canadian-raised children.

The children of immigrants are “third culture kids.” Young Asian Canadians are caught in the middle of a culture clash where they’re not quite Canadian and not fully Chinese. In their interactions with family, fellow students, co-workers and each other they’re always conscious of the divide between their Chinese roots and the mainstream of Canadian society.

During the past 10 years, 281,300 people have emigrated from mainland China to Canada. Since 1998, more people have emigrated from China to Canada than from any other country. Chinese is the third most commonly spoken language in Canada, next to English and French.

Canadian and Chinese believers are continually looking for effective ways to reach people whose Communist upbringing practically guarantees they’ve never heard the name of Jesus.

Norman Wang, a 40-something engineer in Calgary, returned to China for a high school reunion and while there spoke enthusiastically to an old classmate about Jesus Christ. After listening for some time, his Chinese friend interrupted Norman and asked, “What’s a Jesus Christ?” Canadian Southern Baptists are trying to reach these Chinese men, women and children who so desperately need to know Jesus Christ.

ROOTS is a daughter church of Truth–a church planted to reach out to first-generation Chinese. ROOTS meets on Sunday morning in a classroom at Alberta Bible College in Calgary while Truth–literally the “parent” church–meets for worship in the chapel. Between 30 and 40 high school students gather to sing, pray and hear a Bible message. After the service the teens hang around for a few hours to play sports and eat together in the gym.

“The teens who call ROOTS home have something in common with first century slaves,” says Paul Johnson, ROOT’s volunteer pastor who is also on staff at the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists. “Because of the time restrictions of rigorous academic pressure, they’re seldom free to assemble.” Recalling that slaves in Jesus’ day met early before anyone else was up, Johnson asked himself, “How do I help students who are under such tight restrictions?” Welcome to instant messenger or IM. Before getting involved with ROOTS Johnson had never used IM. Now he and the other leaders spend hours each week connecting with teens electronically and virtually assembling online. “Their world is online. I have over 80 on my IM list,” he reports. “The other leaders and I counsel by IM. I email them on their birthdays,” 55-year-old Johnson comments. “We even pray by chat.”

Read the rest of the article at OnMission.com and see photos >>

Austin church lives faith in new ways

Vox Veniae is a mostly Asian faith community that emerged from Liquid, a college ministry at Austin Chinese Church in North Austin. Vox Veniae (Latin for Voice of Grace) members tend to be college students and young professionals who want to view their Sunday worship services as an opportunity to refuel for the week when they continue to live their faith, and they were one of several churches featured in this Austin American-Statesman article, Austin’s ‘emergent’ Christians finding a new path: Groups slipping away from traditional churches to express their faith in other ways ::

Gideon and Karen Tsang prayed for a year before deciding to sell their spacious North Austin home and move into a modest 800-square-foot house in an East Austin neighborhood.

The couple and their two boys, ages 7 and 3, left higher-rated schools and a lower crime rate. They had to sell nearly all of their furniture because it wouldn’t fit into the new house.

But they were pretty sure this is what Jesus wanted them to do.

“We feel the path of Christ is not in upward mobility; it’s in downward,” Gideon Tsang said.

The son of a Chinese missionary, Tsang, 33, grew up in Canada, attended an evangelical seminary in Illinois and eventually landed at Austin Chinese Church — a North Austin congregation made up mostly of immigrants from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — where he led a ministry for college students called Liquid. That grew into Vox Veniae, which formed last year with a core of middle-class students and young professionals who, like Tsang, longed “to be the hands and feet of Christ in Austin.”

Vox members have now bought or are renting six homes in the predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood, driven by a desire to share their resources by living among people who have less. Vox members hope to set up computer training classes, teach kids to build bikes and work as mentors in nearby public schools.

“It’s all grace,” Tsang said. “What we receive, we now have to give back.”

The Tsangs and their friends are among thousands of young Christians around the country and abroad who are re-examining what it means to follow Jesus and changing not only how they worship, but also how they live.

They say they are paring down the Gospel message to what they see as essential and challenging the definition of church. Following Christ, they say, is not about building bricks-and-mortar sanctuaries but seeing the world outside church walls as God’s sanctuary.

“It’s not that the church meeting on Sunday isn’t sacred,” said Evan Wilson, a 20-year-old Vox Veniae member, “but that everything we do is sacred.”

Read the full article to see photos and other churches trying new ways to express their faith. Also see video feature of Vox Veniae and 2 other Austin churches.