Revitalizing Asian American Churches for New Generations

Revitalizing Asian American Churches for New Generations DJ Chuang www.djchuang.com September 26, 2007

what have I done

Engineer

Pastor

Strategist

Editor

Researcher

Facilitator

Father

who I work with

Developing leadership and legacy for Asian Americans

bless & empower the next generation

connecting leaders for innovation and healthy leadership development

mobilizing legacy partners to invest in the next generation

Connecting innovators to multiply their impact

2 print-on-demand books

Asian American Youth Ministry

Conversations: Asian American Evangelical Theologies in Formation

revitalizing the church

Why?

Statistics

Number of people

Number of churches

Church life cycle

scriptures

signs

stories

When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’, and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. Matthew 16:2-3

50+

U.S. churches close each week

from http://www.newchurchinitiatives.org/morechurches/index.htm

80%

U.S. churches plateaued or declining

from http://www.newchurchinitiatives.org/morechurches/index.htm

Four stages of organizational decline Cf. Mark Driscoll’s Confessions of a Reformission Rev pp.141-144 http://www.encounterthis.com/blog/?p=142

5% of the US Population is Asian American (July 2004) http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/006587.html

14.4M Asian Americans in the US (July 2005)

2000 U.S. Census, cf. wikipedia entry on “Asian American”

33.4M Asian Americans by 2050 (projected)

87% of Asian Americans are high school graduates (age 25 and older)

49% of Asian Americans are college graduates (age 25 and older)

20% of Asian Americans have graduate degrees (Masters, Ph.D., M.D.)

$61,094 Highest median household income of any racial group

11.1% Poverty rate for single-race Asians (up from 9.8% in 2004)

17.9% Without health insurance single-race Asians (up from 16.5% in 2004)

For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation , he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.

Acts 13:36

75% of Koreans in North America are affiliated with a church (estimated) http://www.djchuang.com/2006/05/d1296

56% Asian Americans unchurched http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=229

26% Asian Americans under age 18

69.7% Asian Americans who speak English “very well” derived from the Census 2000 report "Language Use and English-Speaking Ability" at http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf

12

churches per 10,000 people

(national average)

from http://www.citychurchsf.org/planting/planting_print.htm

Asian American Churches estimated numbers from online directories, CM&A, ISAAC

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved . Matthew 9:17

Four stages of organizational decline Cf. Mark Driscoll’s Confessions of a Reformission Rev pp.141-144 http://www.encounterthis.com/blog/?p=142

Revitalization: Window of opportunity

Southeast Asian Leaders (2006 national conference)

Next Gen South Asians Leaders

Evergreen LA (here)

NewSong (Irvine + NOC + LA + Bangkok + more)

Quest Church (Seattle)

photo credits: BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / The Seattle Times, http://flickr.com/photos/54896089@N00/487696832/

Lakeview Church (Chicago)

Grace Covenant Church (Philadelphia)

Vox Veniae (Austin, Texas)

http://flickr.com/photos/speedye/1305243195

100+

English-speaking Asian-led multi-Asian / multi-ethnic churches less than 10 years old

$50,000 Sarang Community Church’s annual fund for church planting by 2 nd Generation Koreans and other minorities http://blog.l2foundation.org/2007/08/29/multiethnic-church-planting-fund/

what existing churches can do