What if this is much ado about nothing? What if there is no difference? What if my white friend is right–that I’m “just American” and the longer I wrestle with my Asian-ness that, the less constructive I can and will be? After all, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ”. And if “Christian” is the ultimate property of my being — how does one slough off other defining characteristics (i.e., male, middle-class, heterosexual, and Asian American)? Are all these issues and bringing them up merely a sinful, Sisyphean exercise to carve myself some property in existential significance? What if this issue of defining a cultural distinctiveness and lens to respond to who Christ was, is, and will be is a non-sequitur?

I’ve heard that one needs to find one’s identity in Christ, not in the world. While confidently calling Christ my savior, I still find this a difficult teaching. Jesus was a Jew, a rabbi, the fulfillment of prophecy, the Messiah, and the hope of the world. Perhaps, as others suggest, my problem is that I do not fully grasp how much of a sinner I am–implying that my preoccupation with my ethnic-specific issues is a mere red herring, a fruitless diversion that I commit myself to,  as though it would make me holy. I confess I’m speechless. I thought that my walk with God had been leading me to this point–towards confession and healing, not away from it.

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I don’t remember how I got on the Saddleback Church mailing list, but was fascinated with the following email and its implications. Obviously megachurches are showing substantial growth and there probably is at least one in your metropolitan area. I know there is a prominent one which seems to attract Asian Americans where I live. It’s a place that offers a number of resources without, how shall I say this, the baggage of an immigrant church or the growing pains of a second generation church. Is this the future? While we debate and hack it out, are many just opting out? Multi-ethnic and ethnic under one roof, now that’s the best of both worlds, isn’t it? Is it? Asian American churches– are we too small in our vision? Or can we unearth the diamonds in our rough?

January 21, 2007

Re: Saddleback Vision at Korean Connection!

Come and meet other Saddleback folks who share an interest in the Korean culture on January 28, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in Room 405, As Pastor Rick Warren has said, the face of Saddleback Church is changing. And our International Small Group team is part of that change. ALL are welcome to come and hear an exciting vision on how God is working in and through the Saddleback Korean small groups and community to show HIS love and reach others for Christ.

If you have any questions or want more information, please contact at (562) 555-5555 , [email address].

We look forward to seeing you on January 28^th!

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” –Matthew 28:19-20

Serving Christ together,

Saddleback Church

INTERNATIONAL SMALL GROUP TEAM

P.S. There will also be a video presentation of a P.E.A.C.E trip to Rwanda by one of our Korean Small Groups!

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Much thanks to theCuttingTruth for finding this absolute gem of a sermon by Soong Chan Rah.

As an Asian American Christian who seeks to walk with a greater of sense of how God made me and with a bigger passion for what God made me for, this is an absolute must-hear for our generation. There is much work to be done…work that is waiting for us, and for many of us, should stoke more flames of destiny than many of our churches are willing to speak for. Thank you Soong Chan, you are a voice for us — may we heed this word and prepare the way.

Please, please, please give it a listen (just hit the “play” button below) if you have the time, or go here and download it here.

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This is a little overdue, but Pastor Eric Foley has generously provided me with his subsequent articles on the “The Ten Korean Virtues…” series for our consumption. These articles have unique perspective of Pastor Foley who, while himself is not Korean, has ministered in the Korean American context for some time, is married to a Korean, and works for peace among immigrant churches. We’ve posted the previous contributions on this blog, please feel free to search for those, but enjoy the next in the series.

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TEN UNIQUE KOREAN VIRTUES THAT EM’S AREN’T TEACHING OUR KIDS (BUT SHOULD BE)
How to Help Your EM Cultivate Unique Korean Virtue #3: Respect for Elders

In 1967, the great American soul music singer Aretha Franklin produced one of the most popular rock and roll songs of all time—a song that became a battle cry for the feminist movement of the time. That song was “Respect”.

It was not a new song. Two years earlier, soul great Otis Redding had recorded the song on Volt Records. But Aretha’s recording is the one that went on to make history, and part of the reason why is due to an “ad lib” (words she made up herself without thinking about it ahead of time) that Aretha did as she recorded the song.

Here is what she ad libbed:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB

(The final “TCB” is an abbreviation that stands for “Taking care of business”.)

You may be asking yourself what this little piece of music trivia has to do with our subject at hand. Let me surprise you by saying that the future of the Korean church in America hinges on the 1.0 generation understanding and passionately acting upon lines 2 and 4 of Aretha’s lyrics.

In this column, I, am American pastor, married to a Korean wife, raising four children in a multicultural home in an average size city in the United States where Koreans make up 2% of the population, ask the following question:

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In many small businesses, sales are all that matters. Sales = revenue. Sales = top line. However, the more sophisticated a marketplace becomes, marketing comes into play. Marketing is often viewed as the processes that support sales, but that’s a rather insufficient definition. Rather, Marketing is everything that you do to reach and persuade prospects. The sales process is everything that you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract. Often, these two dynamics in an organization can create a lot of friction, as evidenced by this article where it opens with the stereotypical debate:

Marketers generally think of salespeople as lowbrow monkeys or pushy parrots whose sole calling is to repeat the same sales pitch ad infinitum to new prospects.

Salespeople generally thinks of marketers as lazy liberal arts graduates who use the word “branding” to describe activities that are in actuality “a colossal waste of money.”

Ultimately each function needs the other if the company as a whole is to succeed. What’s less obvious is how they should work together.

And this is no simple or localized debate. Nor is it limited to the business world. It seems that while we haven’t named it as such in the context of church, I think we have a similar struggle when it comes to evangelism. Is it sales or marketing?

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Around the country in Asian churches, on any given Friday night there are dozens of “praise nights”, revivals, and retreats, but although “a life of worship” may often be the rallying call, worship itself is often an afterthought, a gimmick, an attention-getter for the young generation. Musical worship is the “opening act”, or in some cases, a talent showcase, or at worst, a church bragging rights contest. But if I might be so bold…worship is something sacred, where the deepest part of me cries out to the Deep. So while I don’t consider myself a worship leader who has the right to offer these suggestions, I do consider myself a worshipper.

1. Stop singing Chris Tomlin / David Crowder / Matt Redman / Hillsong songs (or whatever songs you always sing) for a few weeks. What would you sing that is not part of the contemporary Christian worship industry? “Sing a new song…”
2. Write your own worship songs with talented people in your midst. Write from your heart and your story. What has God done in your life, neighborhood, community? Sing that for Sunday worship. Can you imagine an Asian American church that actually offered worship that was particularly written from our hearts? Wouldn’t we sing about growing up latchkey kids who now have keys to the Kingdom? Or how our pursuit of success and security is a chasing after the wind, not the breath of life.
3. Unplug — quit trying for that electric sound. These aren’t performances, these are collective prayers. Imagine a sanctuary that is filled with pure, unamplified, unadulterated praise.
4. Don’t practice the music, practice the heart. Too many praise teams work on timing, transitions, chorus buildups, and harmonies, but the real work of worship happens before an instrument is ever picked up. Asians love to get organized and ordered, but let’s be honest, you can’t schedule a true revival and you can’t pinpoint a move of the Spirit either, so if you think practice is going to take you there, you’re almost all wrong.
5. [Read more...]

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