Though well-intentioned, the results of pursuing racial reconciliation through multi-ethnic ministries over the past several decades have proven to be mixed. As proposed by Dr. Andrew Ong in his article, “Neo-Calvinism and Ethnic Churches in Multiethnic Contexts,” a more holistic vision for racial reconciliation might include the pursuit of multi-ethnic/cross-cultural churches and homogenous/ethnic churches, even in relatively diverse contexts.
In this regard, reaching the next generation of Asian Americans will continue to necessitate the planting and expansion of Asian American churches and campus ministries, a conviction sometimes not shared by those pursuing multi-ethnic/cross-cultural ministries. Indeed, if church plants are the most effective means for reaching non-believers, Asian American churches must continue to think about what reaching a new generation of Asian American de-churched and unchurched people might entail.
An Older Approach
Models for Asian American church planting remain wanting. Aside from launching scratch plants, the previous generation (Gen X) benefited from a hyper-contextualized church planting model that often had its genesis from existing English Ministry congregations that eventually planted their own churches.
But this model is incredibly difficult to replicate for a new generation of Asian American church planters as most (not all) English Ministries with that kind of vision and capacity remain stagnant or are in decline due to a drop in the number of new Asian immigrants and more Asian American Christians leaving for second-generation or multi-ethnic churches.
A Mixed Approach
Others, including myself, have sought to plant churches through multi-ethnic institutions and networks pursuing racial reconciliation that might carve out a small space for us to reach Asian Americans. Yet, in many (certainly not all) of these spaces, White cultural norms tend to be dominant, making it difficult for minorities to contextualize their ministries for other minorities.
Healthy and organic multi-ethnic and cross-cultural ministries require a plurality of cultural norms depending on the space and context. But just because people of different races speak the same language doesn’t mean the dominant culture’s values will automatically dissipate. Instead cultural barriers will hinder most minorities, including children of BIPOC (Black, Indegenous, and People of Color) immigrants who can speak the majority-culture’s language(s), making them feel un-welcomed in majority culture spaces.
For example, though Asian American Christians might appear to be making headway with integrating into majority-culture spaces, the reality is that integration is oftentimes conditional with invitations only offered to those who won’t “rock the boat” too much. In fact, minority voices continue to be weaponized against other minority voices to muzzle “troublemakers” who majority-culture leaders perceive to be a threat to their power: “Why can’t you be more like so-and-so?” “Your abrasiveness makes it hard to listen to you.” This is why you’ll see many majority-culture Christians creating/leading spaces for racial reconciliation but rarely join ones led by minorities.
Not surprisingly, the results of these types of multi-ethnic ministries have been mixed, if not outright harmful for minorities. Oftentimes, minority-led church plants are characterized as not being multi-ethnic enough if not located in urban neighborhoods while institutional leadership might pursue multi-ethnicity without an emphasis on justice and equity, resulting in disillusioned and traumatized BIPOC Christians.
A Proposed Approach
The fact of the matter is that Asian American Christians can most effectively reach other Asian Americans in Asian American cultural spaces. Campus ministries such as InterVarsity and Epic Movement (Cru) have proven this point year after year in their influences across the nation’s universities.
In Scripture, we see Antioch being a model for Paul’s multi-ethnic church planting model but we also see ethnically homogenous churches in Judea. Some might argue from Revelation 7 that the eschatological goal of the church is multi-ethnicity even though that passage doesn’t clarify how ethnic groups speaking their own languages are assembled – –are they arranged like a bag of randomly mixed Skittles or are the Skittles arranged by color? We don’t know. Yet, what we do know is that the New Testament includes examples of both multi-ethnic/cross-cultural churches (e.g., Antioch) and homogenous/ethnic churches (i.e., Jerusalem).
Reaching Millennial and Gen Z Asian Americans will need innovative collaborative models for church planting, much similar to The Crete Collective that focuses on reaching urban Black and Brown neighborhoods. Being mindful of the growing generational chasm and decreasing cultural acuity of older generations of Asian Americans in relation to the younger generation of Asian Americans, we’re long overdue for having a conversation about what a collaborative, inter-denominational Asian American church planting network might look like to reach future generations of Asian Americans.
This might mean starting a new initiative in existing national-level, multi-ethnic church planting networks or starting an entirely new church planting network focusing on Asian Americans.
The growing generation gap will also require younger Asian American church planters. Consider how the perception of Baby Boomers by Millennials is analogous to the perception of Gen Xers by Gen Zers in terms of generational distance. Baby Boomer Christians have also had the greatest success with reaching Gen Xers, and Gen X Christians have had the greatest success reaching Millennials. Yet, we’re barely on the cusp of empowering Millennial Asian American church planters and, in ten years, the first cohort of Gen Alpha students will enter our universities.
Going forward, we’ll need to answer more questions for this conversation to materialize into something more tangible:
- How will the decreasing number of Asian American immigrants to the US affect outreach to Asian Americans?
- What might a flourishing Asian American ecclesiology look like for the younger generation(s)?
- What would it look like to resource, empower, and commission a new generation of church planters?
- How might Asian American Christians maintain ethnocultural distinction while demonstrating solidarity with other ethnic groups?
- What can Asian American Christians do to address our own cultural, systemic issues of ageism and sexism in our churches?
My hope is that we at least start the conversation more intentionally in order to begin sorting through the details.