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The Emmanuel Research Review is a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, and features articles, papers, resources, and information that we believe are helpful and relevant to urban pastors, leaders, and community members in their efforts to serve their communities effectively. |
Welcome to the second edition of the Emmanuel Research Review, a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center.
We value your
input! Let us
know how we can be of service to you. And please feel free to send us your
comments, suggestions for topics to be discussed, as well as ideas for further
discussion about any of the information presented here. Our hope is to
facilitate dialogue about these important topics to increase mutual
understanding and support fruitful collaboration.
Rev. Jay Broadnax, Director
In this issue:
Reaching the Second Generation. In last month's Emmanuel Research Review, we took a closer look at the ways God has been moving in the Haitian churches. This month we focus on an issue of great concern to many immigrant churches and youth ministers: second-generation ministry. Our first article, Rev. Soong-Chan Rah discusses the rise of ministries specifically targeting second generation, English-speaking Asian Americans in Boston. His insightful models and questions will be helpful for anyone thinking about second-generation ministry. Second, Curtis Chang tells the encouraging story of Boston Chinese Evangelical Church's English-speaking ministry. Finally, for those who want to dig deeper, you will find several useful web links and a bibliography of key works on ministry to children of immigrants to America.
The Story of the English-Speaking Asian-American Ministries in Greater Boston
Main article introduction here...
Anchor links to sub articles, with brief explanation here...
by Soong-Chan
Rah
The Korean Church of Boston (KCB) started in Brookline,
Massachusetts, in 1953, signaling the beginning of today's significant Korean
and Korean-American church presence in Boston. In terms of bi-generational and
bi-cultural ministry at KCB, the waters were relatively still during the period
of 1953 through the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, however, two forces emerged
in the extant Chinese and Korean first-generation churches, which significantly
impacted the development of what we refer to as "EMs" or English Ministries in
Boston.
The first shaping force, the emergence of youth ministries in KCB and other first-generation Korean and Chinese churches, became apparent in the decades following the first waves of Chinese and Korean immigration to Boston. Primary and secondary school aged children of first-generation congregants apparently assimilated into mainstream culture and adopted English as their primary language at a rate higher than their parents. The model of having these children sit with their parents in a native-tongue service soon gave way to separate English language services within the first-generation churches. One church with two different language services became the prevailing model in first-generation Chinese and Korean churches, such as Boston Chinese Evangelical Church, Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston and the Korean Church of Boston until the late 1980s.
The second force, the emergence of college ministries in Boston, suited a city known for its world-class educational institutions. As is the case now, the Korean-American student population was significant, even though the overall Korean population in Boston paled in comparison to that of other metropolitan hubs, such as New York City or Los Angeles. Like their younger counterparts, these college students either found themselves worshiping with their parents in a Korean or Chinese language service, or attending the English youth group service. A strong need for separate English-language services for college students became clear, and the urgency of that need corresponded with the number of college-aged members attending Chinese and Korean first-generation churches.
In 1989, the Korean Church of Boston (Brookline) started a separate English service for college students called Bethany Christian Fellowship. Soon three other churches, St. John's Methodist Church (Lexington), Korean Presbyterian Church of Boston (Newton), and Korean Presbyterian Church of Cambridge, started separate services geared to college students. The significance of this development lies in the fact that while English language youth services, even if separate, were still connected to the parent congregation in terms of leadership, direction and resources, the college-driven English ministries had no such connection, resulting in a strong sense of independence from their first-generation congregations. (In 2002, Bethany Christian Fellowship became an independent church.
The increasing impact of parachurch campus ministries such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship correlated with the emergence of these college ministries. Campus ministries, coupled with the English college ministries in the churches, played a key role in nurturing leadership and vision for college students to create ministries for themselves, and to take ownership of their corporate faith. Parachurch ministries worked synergistically with EM pastors as their college groups grew and matured. An example of this partnership was the establishment in 1994 of the Fellowship of Asian American Ministers (FAAM). Started by two church pastors and two parachurch leaders (this writer, Pastor Soong-Chan Rah, then with InterVarsity, and Pastor David Ro), FAAM continues to be a source of ministry partnership and vision for Boston's Asian-American ministries. FAAM sponsors two major events: the annual Sonrise Service, attended by over 700 people from local Asian American ministries; and the bi-annual Worship and Missions Conference, which registered 700 attendees for the last conference, keynoted by Ajith Fernando, a Sri Lankan author and youth worker.
In short, the emergence of youth groups and college ministries coupled with the influence of Asian-American campus ministries provided the impetus for independent English ministries. Unlike the dependent youth groups, college-age heavy EMs had little, if any, meaningful connection with the first-generation ministry. As these EMs spread their wings since the late 1980s, five different ministry models have emerged.
The growth of EMs has brought a number of challenges to the Asian-American churches, some of which are:
Soong-Chan Rah is the Pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), Cambridge, Massachusetts, a multi-ethnic church ministering to a post-modern generation in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge. Before starting CCFC, Rev. Rah helped to plant a church in the Washington, D.C., area and worked for several years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rev. Rah, who was born in Korea, holds a B.A. in Political Science and History/Sociology from Columbia University, a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Master's Degree in Theology from Harvard University.
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At 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning, the building suddenly becomes a swirl of different movements and sounds. With the benediction of the English-speaking pastor still hanging in the air, several hundred young singles, students and married couples file out of the sanctuary's rear door. Simultaneously, another entrance up front swings open and the group of elderly women who had been peeking through the door scurry in to take their favorite seats. Out in the hallway, the two opposite flows of Chinese faces crowd against each other, but there are only friendly waves and nods. They are, after all, family-and for some quite literally as children going out greet their parents going in. "Hey, mom! How was Sunday School?" "Hao, kwai chu," replies the mother, telling her son to hurry on to his own class.
The founders of the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church (http://www.bcec.net/) probably never imagined that their congregation would be filled with the movements of hundreds and this mixture of generations. The church began in 1961 with a living room as its venue and the Cantonese-speaking population of Chinatown as its mission field. Years of explosive growth followed-partly fueled by the rising influx of Chinese immigrants in the sixties and seventies-and the church kept running out of room at different locations. Finally, it began contemplating plans to construct its own building in Chinatown.
However, the dilemma was not simply in finding more space for everyone attending the services. While the church had attracted adults with its Cantonese language services, it was having difficulty retaining their English-speaking children. At first, the church tried translating the sermon into English after every few sentences. But the youth grew increasingly impatient with, as one long-time member recalled, "the numbing process of turning your mind off and on, off and on." Moreover, their Christian educational needs were not being met fully. The church had gotten some overseas-born graduate students to teach Sunday School, but they could not bridge the cultural gap with the American-born generation. Attendance was weak and many of that generation dropped out or went to Caucasian churches.
Still, there were several factors that might have prevented a more active response. Many of the older generation members simply did not give youth and second generation ministry a high priority-some even wanted their children to learn Cantonese via the translated sermon-and hence did not call for changes. Moreover, the church was in the middle of an expensive building program and funds were limited. Nevertheless, in 1977, the pastor of BCEC at the time, Rev. James Tan, took a risk and hired Steven Chin, an American-born recent seminary graduate, to oversee the English speaking ministry. Steven worked to rejuvenate the youth ministry and help develop the English-speaking Sunday School program. At the same time, increasing numbers of Chinese American college students were beginning to attend the church, since BCEC was located near the hub of several Boston universities. The convergence of the new English Ministries and this influx provided much of the impetus in the growth of the English-speaking congregation. This group began to think about an all-English worship service.
Change in the church, however, was still gradual. The services were still in Cantonese, but other parts of the service besides the sermon were added to the English translation. As the numbers of younger generation Chinese Americans continued to grow, Rev. Tan invited Steven Chin to share the pulpit fifty-fifty with him. Chin recalled that "Rev. Tan's willingness to develop and trust the English congregation was crucial. He gave me a chance to relate to the American-born in a way that he couldn't. He told stories from China that the Chinese-born appreciated while I used examples from TV." At the same time, Chin realized he had to win the trust of the older generation. "I suppose we could have gotten an (all) English worship faster if we had demanded and pressured more. But that could have created a lot of bad feeling between the two congregations that would mean more problems later. Establishing an English service after a bitter fight would only confirm people's fears of disunity. In our perhaps slower approach where unanimity was reached, people could point to our church as a model rather than as proof that having an English service would split the church."
The unanimity eventually came from the sheer numbers involved in the outreach to both Cantonese- and English-speaking populations. The completed sanctuary had a capacity of 300 and was completely filled with the bilingual service. In 1982, the board of deacons finally appointed a committee to study the choice between having two bilingual services or starting a separate English service. After much prayer and discussion, the committee decided on the latter-a decision adopted without opposition at the church's annual congregational meeting.
Over the years, the church has followed that decision by further realizing the need for specialized ministries to the different groups. The leadership has developed a "separate but parallel" philosophy with essentially duplicated pastoral teams, youth groups, and Sunday School, along with the different worship services. The pastoral teams meet once a week to coordinate. "It takes more energy and is in some ways inefficient," Chin noted, "but it keeps everyone headed in the same direction." The two congregations still meet for events like Easter services, church picnics, and the March for Jesus. Relational connection is limited, but there is still mutual influence. For instance, the contemporary worship style of the English congregation has begun to find its way into the Cantonese service. There is also an increasing convergence in age, as the youth of the initial English congregation have grown up, gotten married, and started families.
This philosophy of specialized ministries is evident throughout the church. There are over 30 Sunday School classes for all age groups, with duplicated programs for the different congregations. These targeted classes have been crucial to the success of the church's efforts to serve everyone. Recently, the church began a Mandarin service to reach yet another segment of the Chinese American population. A monthly high school youth service has also begun. With all the growing and Sunday School classes meeting in five different locations near the church, the 10:45 multi-generational traffic jam at BCEC seems likely to continue.
Curtis Chang was born in Taiwan in 1968, immigrated to the United States in 1972, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Harvard University in 1990 with a degree in political science and also studied at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In 1993 he was a summer intern with the research department of Emmanuel Gospel Center. A former director of the InterVarsity campus ministry in Boston, he currently serves on the pastoral staff of The River Church Community in Sunnyvale, California. He and his wife, Jody, have one daughter, Faith. Curtis is the author of Engaging Unbelief, A Captivating Strategy from Augustine & Aquinas (Intervarsity Press), which examines the challenges of communicating the truth about Jesus in our postmodern age.
More history and a brief update on the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church
(from Boston Chinese Evangelical Church website: www.bcec.net/aboutus_history.htm)
The Boston Chinese Evangelical Church (BCEC) was started in June 1961, by a group of 18 founders. This group shared a common vision for reaching the Chinese Cantonese-speaking population of the Boston. Church services were held in homes and rented buildings until the construction of the current church buildings at 249 Harrison Avenue in 1979. The BCEC Annex (237 Harrison Ave.) was completed in 1993.
Between the 1960's and the 1970's, the size of the Cantonese congregation grew steadily. Over time, English speaking and Mandarin speaking services were also added. Presently, we have three Cantonese services, one Mandarin service, and two English-speaking services in two campuses.
Almost 1000 worshippers attend service at BCEC every Sunday. They come from Chinatown, local Universities, and the surrounding suburbs of Boston. The congregation consists of all age levels: infants, toddlers, preschool, elementary, junior high, high school, college, young adults, married couples, and elderly. BCEC offers ministries to meet the needs of every age group.
On September 9, 2003, we launched a new campus in Newton, a suburb of Boston, to further expand our blessing to the greater Boston community. We were blessed by the purchase of a beautiful church building on Walnut Street in Newton, and we will send one English and one Cantonese congregation to start Worship Services there.
As we enter our fifth decade and branch onto two campuses, we rely on God for His guidance and blessings for the future of this church.
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The Emmanuel Research Institute
The mission of the Emmanuel Research Institute (ERI), an applied research and consulting service of the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston, is to make information available that builds the capacity of urban churches and organizations to make decisions for effective action. Through research, training, and consulting, we equip urban churches and the organizations that support their work to better understand their urban community systems and serve them more effectively.
The Emmanuel Research Institute offers:
- Basic research such as The Boston Church Directory, periodically revised.
- Topical research such as studies on church-based youth ministry or access to higher education.
- Conferences and consultations that bring different parts of the community together to listen, discuss results, interpret meaning, and decide on next steps.
- Training on how to do applied research. Applied research is original work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge in order to develop an effective response. ERI’s training emphasizes practical application leading to organizational development and programmatic response.
- Published results of applied research to facilitate applied research by others.
- Individual and group consulting related to applied research, program development, strategic planning, evaluation, systems thinking, systems analysis, and church infrastructure.
- Speakers on a wide range of urban ministry topics.
ERI is working to strengthen and enhance its capacity to provide the following categories of products and services, some of which are already available and some of which are in development:
- Data for Informed Decision-Making – ERI will regularly gather, categorize, and maintain information on ethnic and immigration demographics, socio-political, economic, and cultural trends, trends and indicators of church vitality, trends and initiatives in parachurch and faith-based ministry, community needs assessments, and other topics.
- Training and Technical Assistance – ERI will deliver practical training, seminars, and consulting tailored to the needs of urban congregations and the organizations that support their work. These will include “Developing Learning Teams,” “Using Systems Thinking and Analysis,” “Research and Writing in Urban Studies,” “The Inner City – A Context For Ministry,” and “Listening to Your Community.” Some of this training will be offered through individualized technical assistance (working with a single church or organization), while some will be available in seminar or classroom settings.
- High Quality Scholarship and Tools – ERI will publish, summarize and review studies, papers, and other tools that will help churches and parachurch organizations work more effectively in the urban context. We intend to develop online tools for access to this information, and better catalogue the printed resources for easier access.
- A Network of Resources – ERI maintains longstanding relationships with a variety of institutions that support local congregations, church leaders and faith-based organizations in their efforts to enhance their community effectiveness.
We look forward to working with your church or organization. Please contact us if you have specific questions, if you wish to discuss a project proposal, or if you need information.
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Emmanuel Research Review, copyright © 2004-2008, Emmanuel Gospel Center. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint any or all of this newsletter, contact , Senior Researcher, by e-mail or write to us (address below).
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