Subscribers can access the first part of this interview from the March/April 2008 issue of Rev! in the back issue archives.
Lee Interview, Part 2
Louis Lee has served as a pastor for 21 years and is the founder of Ministries for English Speaking Asians (MESA), a nonprofit parachurch ministry dedicated to promoting greater harmony within the evangelical Asian-American community. He talked with Rev! recently about the cultural challenges he's observed.
What are the top challenges in Asian churches?
I'm very passionate about supporting and encouraging full-time pastors, so it disturbs me greatly when I see Asian churches mistreating and hurting their pastors. Many congregations are critical of their pastors' preaching, often because they're comparing them with preachers who excel. Asian Christians have access to watch the best preachers in the world online and listen to their podcasts. Then they compare their own pastors to this world-class preaching and they complain.
Because I'm a part-time interim English pastor, I have far greater freedom to "tell it like it is" to whatever Asian congregation I'm preaching to, with far less concern for the possible ramifications than does a full-time permanent pastor preaching to his congregation. There are many Chinese churches seeking even just part time help for their English-speaking congregations. There are usually at least three to five openings like this in the Bay Area at any time. So the irony is that the Chinese churches I serve as a part-time interim treat me very well and avoid any possible offense for fear I'll just quit and go to one of these other churches! But when God provides them with a full-time permanent English pastor, like many churches, they tend to take them for granted after just a few months and even mistreat them.
I'm also very concerned with the need for more Asians going into vocational ministry (especially Chinese, the Koreans seem to have far less a problem with this). Far too many Asian Christian parents praise God when someone else's kid goes into ministry. But when it's their kid? Oh, no, they raise all kinds of concerns and objections.
Some Asian-American leaders recently did an informal study and found that very few of the hundreds of Asian college students who made commitments at the Urbana Missions Conferences actually followed through on those commitments. Some may have been based on emotional responses. But I believe most Asians do not make commitments lightly. Most likely the major reason most did not end up acting on their earlier commitments was due to opposition and discouragement from their parents and even from some of their churches that follow Asian cultural values more than they follow God's Kingdom values.
Another major challenge for me personally is dealing with various forms of prejudice in Chinese churches. Although all humans of whatever culture will tend to struggle with some type of prejudice (racial, socio-economic, cultural, gender, etc), it seems to me that the Asian culture has a higher than average problem with prejudice. Perhaps this is due to their long history of being ethnocentric (the word "China" in Chinese literally means something like "the center of the universe!") or the cultural tendency to be very conservative and less open-minded to those who are different.
But it's incredible to me that there are Chinese who are prejudiced even against other Chinese! Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, or the U.S. are prejudiced against Chinese from other parts of the world! Some Asian subgroups (such as Chinese, Korean) still have prejudice toward the Japanese because of things done during WWI -- mostly the older generations.
I can understand and accept prejudice in non-Christian Asians. That is part of their sinful nature that needs to be redeemed and transformed. But it's the Asian Christians who have been in evangelical churches for decades that still have serious issues of prejudice that really disturb me. Fortunately, it seems God is working through the younger generation who tend to be less ethnocentric and are more open to those who are different. Inter-racial marriage is increasing and, personally, I think this is a blessing in disguise, even though it still creates major waves in some Asian churches and families. I have seen God use inter-racial marriage to force some older Asian Christians to deal with their prejudice.
How can other churches in a community connect with and support Asian pastors?
Non-Asian churches and pastors need to get past the "model minority" stereotype of Asians. They need to see Asians and Asian Americans as separate people groups, with their own unique challenges and struggles. They need to understand that cultural differences are often bigger hurdles than language differences.
Larger non-Asian churches and their pastors can support Asian and Asian-American ministries and leaders by providing resources to those of us who are already doing so. Redwood Chapel is a relatively large predominantly Anglo church in Castro Valley, California (near Oakland). They support MESA financially through their missions program; they make their facilities available to me whenever I need them for seminars, conferences, or fellowship meetings; they ask how they can pray for me and for MESA.
Non-Asian pastors can reach out to an Asian pastor through building a personal relationship. Take the initiative to invite an Asian pastor out for lunch with no agenda, just a desire to learn more about Asian culture and ministry. Please be patient. It may take several attempts. It may help if you invite the Asian pastor to bring another Asian pastor friend of his to join just you or maybe two of you who are non-Asian. When you do spend time with Asian pastors, learn some of the subtle communication differences. For instance, among Asians, a bit of silence here and there is fine; it doesn't mean something is wrong or anyone is mad. Asian culture tends to be more contemplative than American culture. Asians often tend to think a bit more before they speak up, so give them "room" to respond by being silent at times. If you find yourself doing 95 percent of the talking, it's not necessarily because the Asian pastor has nothing to say.
Personally, I think American-Anglo culture tends to be somewhat weak in the area of listening and learning skills. I've had many experiences where a well meaning Anglo pastor approached a group of us Asian-American pastors and immediately said something like "Hey, have any of you tried the Chinese food at such and such a restaurant? They have the best Chinese food around!" Some of us might have been thinking something like "What an idiot! Imagine this Anglo guy trying to tell a bunch of us Asians where the best Asian food or restaurant was around our area!" But we just smiled and tried to ignore his comments.
Actually, there are general principles all of us can use to relate to someone of a different culture or race. We all need to avoid stereotypes as well as the temptation to share whatever knowledge we think we have about a different culture or ministry. It works far better to ask God for the humility to ask good questions and then to listen with genuine interest and concern. If we've heard something from another person of that different culture, we can ask what this person thinks about it, to possibly hear another perspective.
The danger of someone like me sharing in this context is for a non-Asian to think I'm somehow speaking for all Asians and all Asian Americans. Please don't make this assumption. I've tried to share various general observations and experiences. Please approach every Asian pastor and ministry as unique. Get to know us by listening and learning.
The next Asian-American Leadership Conference is being held March 24-26 in Fullerton, California. For more information or to become a ministry partner, go to www.aalc2008.org.
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