http://www.aaministry.org/cac/articles/silentexodus.txt

Cindy and I had a talk with Pastor Ron about Chinese churches over the weekend, and there were some interesting things that he said.

1.  According to Samuel Ling (read the article above) only 4% of ABC’s are integrated into the Chinese church.  The reason for this is that the Chinese church is culturally irrelevant.

2.  Pastor Ron said that Asian American churches (Newsong, Evergreen etc.) are not the answer.  Immigrant churches are thriving and will continue to thrive as more immigrants come from China and other Asian countries.  The children and youth from those churches will grow up with American culture and feel that their parents churches are irrelevant.  Therefore most will have already rejected Christianity by the time they reach college, or soon after college depend on whether or not they were integrated into a college fellowship.  Even though there may be a good Asian American church in the area, the immigrant church will still need it’s own “english ministry.”  Parents won’t drop off their children at the local Asian American church while they attend an immigrant church.  The “silent exodus” will continue.

3.  The problem is that immigrant churches are not culturally sensitive enough to allow an “english ministry” to exist that has the resources, programs, and autonomy to be fully culturally relevant to the next generation.  One observation I have made personally is that most Pastors that I know that have worked with ABC’s in any significant capacity are bitter and have been seriously wounded by the immigrant Chinese church.

What to do to stop the silent exodus?