2025 in Review: Ten Key Updates
1. Leadership Transition and Organizational Maturity
2025 marked a significant season of leadership transition for SOLA Network. Steve S. Chang stepped into the role of President following Harold Kim’s transition to Korea. In addition, SOLA formally launched a Board of Trustees to strengthen governance, accountability, and long-term sustainability, with Michael Lee serving as Chair. The Council, now chaired by Joey Chen, was clarified as a body of local church pastors focused on theological vision. Together, these developments represent an important step toward organizational maturity and long-term health.
2. Clarifying SOLA’s Core Vision
Throughout the year, SOLA sharpened its sense of calling. Two convictions came into clearer focus. First, reaching the next generation requires healthy, gospel-centered churches led by healthy leaders. Second, the Asian American church needs thoughtful, theologically grounded, and culturally contextual resources. These convictions now shape all of SOLA’s initiatives, partnerships, and content.
3. Investing in Youth Workers and Leaders
In partnership with Rooted Ministry, SOLA hosted its first Youth Workers Conference in March 2025. The conference sold out and gathered youth volunteers and leaders for training, encouragement, and connection. The event was supported largely by leaders from SOLA’s long-running youth pastor cohort. That cohort, led by Ervin Liang, entered its fifth year, and due to growing demand, SOLA launched an additional youth pastor cohort led by Todd Hoshiko and James Song Kim. These cohorts continue to serve as a backbone for SOLA’s youth-focused work.
4. Significant Growth in Content and Reach
SOLA’s editorial team (Heidi Wong, Jee St. John, Aaron Lee) produced over 100 pieces of original content in 2025. Website traffic grew from approximately 10,000 monthly pageviews in 2023 to over 43,000 monthly pageviews in 2025, representing more than fourfold growth in two years. Articles addressing anxiety, pastoral ministry, suffering, identity, and faith resonated deeply with readers across the Asian American church. See SOLA’s Top Ten Articles in 2025.
5. Filling a Gap in Asian American Theological Resources
SOLA published Here We Stand: Reformation Truths for the Church Today, a collection of essays on the Reformation from an Asian American perspective, edited by Tom Sugimura. This project reflects SOLA’s ongoing commitment to producing theologically faithful and culturally aware resources for the church.
6. Launching Two Podcast Streams
At the beginning of the year, SOLA partnered with Rooted Ministry to launch the Asian American Parenting Podcast, releasing episodes twice a month and hosted by Danny Kwon and Monica Kim. Mid-year, SOLA launched the SOLA Leaders’ Podcast with a team of hosts including Steve S. Chang, Will Chang, Dave Park, Aaron Chung, Wilson Wang, and Kristen Whitmore. These podcasts seek to surface thoughtful voices and conversations on topics often overlooked in broader Christian discourse.
7. Expansion of Ministry Leader Cohorts
At the beginning of 2025, SOLA supported four ministry leader cohorts. By the end of the year, that number had grown to eight. This expansion reflects SOLA’s growing commitment to long-term, relational investment in pastors and ministry leaders.
8. Launch of the Ministry Leader Health Assessment
SOLA introduced the Ministry Leader Health Assessment (MLHA), a tool designed to help pastors assess their spiritual, emotional, relational, and ministry health. Nearly 100 leaders have participated thus far. In addition, SOLA launched the Congregational Health Assessment to serve local churches more holistically.
9. Launch of the Ministry Opening Page
To better serve local churches, SOLA launched the Ministry Opening Page. This page has been used by twenty churches in a short span of time and have allowed several churches to fill their ministry needs. Our hope is to continue to provide this service to churches and leaders. We want good people to be at good churches.
10. Expanding and Deepening Church Partnerships
Throughout 2025, SOLA intentionally expanded partnerships with local churches and ministry leaders across North America. Rather than working independently, SOLA sought to come alongside churches already doing faithful gospel work, offering consulting, coaching, resources, and long-term relationships.
Looking Ahead to 2026: Ten Areas of Focus
1. Asian American Leadership Conference
SOLA will host the Asian American Leadership Conference, its flagship gathering for church leaders across North America. The 2026 theme, Reimagining Family: Transforming Family Dynamics through the Gospel, will explore how the gospel speaks into family life amid cultural, generational, and immigrant complexities.
2. Welcoming New Council Members
SOLA will welcome Paul Kim (Redeemer Presbyterian Church San Diego) and Greg Mah (South Bay Community Church) to the Council. Along with the full Council, they will help guide SOLA’s theological vision and discernment for the church and kingdom.
3. Deepening Partnerships with Local Churches
A key priority for 2026 is strengthening formal, long-term relationships with local churches. SOLA remains convinced that gospel ministry ultimately happens at the local church level and seeks to serve churches with humility, partnership, and trust.
4. Significant Expansion of Cohorts
SOLA anticipates overseeing 18 or more cohorts in 2026, led by approximately 30 leaders. These include cohorts for lead pastors, associate pastors, women in ministry, youth pastors, and children’s ministry leaders. Cohorts remain central to SOLA’s Connected Pastor Initiative.
5. Continued Emphasis on Pastor Health
SOLA will continue refining and expanding the Ministry Leader Health Assessment (MLHA) and related care initiatives. The goal is not simply ministry effectiveness, but long-term spiritual, emotional, and relational health for leaders.
6. Ongoing Content Creation
SOLA plans to continue producing high-quality written, audio, and video content. Platforms such as the SOLA Leaders’ Podcast will remain key avenues for amplifying thoughtful voices within the Asian American church. In addition, we are planning to produce more resource videos for youth, children, and pastoral leaders.
7. Advancing Book Projects
Several book projects currently in development will continue to move forward in 2026, further contributing to the theological and pastoral formation of the Asian American church. These include the topic of raising children (ed. Steve S. Chang), honoring parents (ed. Steve S. Chang), loving spouses (ed. Tim St. John), and youth workers (ed. Danny Kwon).
8. Strategic Staffing Developments
As SOLA’s work grows, staffing adjustments and potential new roles are anticipated. These changes aim to support sustainability while maintaining SOLA’s lean, relational posture.
9. Guardrails for Faithful Growth
SOLA will continue to operate within clear guardrails: prioritizing depth over breadth, remaining firmly church-centered, and guarding humility as visibility increases. The goal is to platform churches and leaders, not the organization itself.
10. Trusting God for Provision
As SOLA scales its work, financial sustainability remains a prayerful focus. God’s provision in 2025 through supporting churches, families, and grants has been encouraging, and SOLA looks to 2026 with continued dependence and gratitude.
Header Photo Credit: Christoph Kehl