Time to play offense
This is no time to be silent. There is too much going on in the world and people have questions. However for Asians, we were always raised to play it safe, keep our heads down, to not disagree with higher authorities, avoid conflict, don’t cause trouble and don’t ruin your chances of making it in life. If you are a 2nd gen Asian then most likely your parents were immigrants from your native/ethnic country of origin. My parents immigrated here from South Korea and my older brother and I are 2nd gen Koreans. My mom didn’t speak English well but my dad did and the game strategy was to always play defense.
My entire childhood and life up to my mid 30’s was a game of defense. I played it safe for almost my whole life. I never tried out for school sports, never raised my hand first, never got in a school fight, always stayed clear from troublemaker students at school, and listened to everything school teachers said. I was a goof off in high school but did nothing to risk real trouble because I knew where the line was. This makes sense though because my parents were foreigners and were trying to follow the rules and the life basics that most people did. I am so thankful for the discipline they taught me. It also caused me to believe that I will always be a subordinate, a follower and to lower my voice.
This is pretty typical in Korean or Asian churches. Most of what we teach is defense. I don’t ever remember a gathering or study that was focused on venturing out into the city and evangelizing or how to engage with your friends/work place when there is opposition to the gospel. Most of the time the answer I heard was, if someone doesn’t believe you just pray for them. Theologically, prayer is always good but the solution was quite unhelpful because it didn’t resolve the need/problem. Maybe once or twice a year there will be a free food event for the community or the yearly Christmas angel tree project. And there is nothing wrong with hospitality which I believe Koreans do very well. However with all the Francis Chan book reads and R.C. Sproul curriculum, there wasn’t much focus on tactics. Instead most of the focus was on theological training through bible studies.
I don’t think members of asian churches know how to engage in real life warfare with current events and real life mental warfare with counter philosophies and systems of thought. For example, when I used to serve in a predominantly Korean Campus ministry on college campuses, I would sometimes stir up the pot with students and ask them “what would you do if someone came up to you and said that they are pregnant or that they had an affair or just got diagnosed with a serious illness”. The most common answer I heard was “I would share with them that God is with them” and then they would share some bible verses with the person. WTH?
The answer is not a bible study. In fact, the answer is not to share a bible verse at all. The answer is to express biblically accurate truth but in counsel and strategic dialogue. Actually sometimes you don’t say anything at all, and you just shut up and listen. But it makes sense for someone who has gone through years of bible study and Wayne Grudem, that their natural response to life struggle would be Rom. 8:28.
We are observing a generation of leaders though that are not as silent on current events especially now. In fact, Gen Z no matter how traditionally asian or old school your church might be, is going to be heavily involved with current events and the collective thoughts of all their friends and strangers around the world. Their entire life has been centered and surrounded by social media that has no comparison to any previous generation. Video games, TV, movies or literature does not have the same reach/access like social media. So unless they don’t have a phone, don’t have a personal computer and the house computer has some sort of restriction on it against social media, your Gen Z children/teens are learning about current events and reading every single person’s subjective opinion about it. You might be silent about it and therefore they are seeking answers outside of the church.
If you’re from a Asian Church, then here are 3 points to help you build an offense.
Be intentional with your bible studies and theology courses. Build clear action points into your application that is relevant to current events, current life stages or current local problems. Do this if it’s possible. By no means would I advocate you forcing a relevant application into the passage if it doesn’t fit within the original author’s intent/purpose. What I often see is application focused more on personal sanctification only (your own spiritual growth usually in advancing your understanding of Scripture/God/Gospel). Although that is not wrong, it doesn’t build an offense either. It’s time to lead and guide your members in expressing their faith and theology to meet critical needs and real life problems.
2. This is the best time to lead your whole church into serving the community/city around you. The easiest and probably the best ministry you can start is a food bank. Make a list of essential groceries and household items, get people from your church to divide it all up and purchase it. Put the essential produce and household items in bags and have people from your community/city drive up and get free groceries. Do whatever your church is capable or able to do. That was just 1 idea. But get your church out there in safe ways. Serve them and then minister to them. You can do this with minimal contact and keep those with health risks at home.
3. Exhort your students and families to experience uncomfortable or challenging conversations. Tell them to evangelize to a Muslim or ask the person to share their faith story of Islam. Speak with LGBTQ supporters and engage in dialogue. Here is an idea I did with my college students 2 years ago. I printed up surveys with 5 questions each. The questions were very basic and non confrontational. I split the students up into groups and we went to the. most popular town center right in front of UCI and they spent the next hour asking random students those questions and recorded their answers. We did that 3 times in 1 year. The first time it was uncomfortable but they realized it wasn’t as scary as they thought. Not all people were there and it was still very hard for them to do that. However the 2nd time most of them weren’t as nervous and came back unfazed. The 3rd time, they knew exactly what to do and they were off.
This might be an uphill battle since culture is strong and most asians have been living in safety for years. So don’t go all blitzkrieg on your church or they will feel disrespected. Take it 1 step at a time. Inject biblical culture into your church
