Bananas and Eggs
photo by .Larry Page
HIRE CAUCASIAN ENGLISH MINISTRY PASTORS!!!
I just watched a pretty lengthy presentation by Kenneth Carlson on his dissertation which talks about English ministries (EM) in a bilingual Chinese church. It can be long and boring if you’re not interested in that type of thing. (Much to my surprise I saw Eric and Cindy in the video at the end of the presentation asking a question) Part 1 Part 2
He had a lot of interesting things to say, but I think the most interesting part of all of it, was a question that was raised at the end of the presentation regarding Pastor Ken’s own ethnicity. His professor called him an “egg” meaning white on the outside but yellow on the inside… playing on the term “banana” for a person who is yellow on the outside but white on the inside.
Pastor Ken seems to have had a very successful ministry for a long period of time in an immigrant Chinese church. He seems to have made a lot of headway in a lot of areas that ABC pastor’s have not. He mentions that a large percentage of English ministry pastors are Caucasian almost equal to the number of ABC english ministry pastors. It’s been well documented the conflicts that ABC pastors have had with immigrant Chinese churches; how has Pastor Ken seemed to avoid this?
He says in his blog that he approaches his ministry like it’s a mission field. He himself was a missionary to Taiwan and he mentions in the video that OBC’s seem to respect that a lot. It seems that he has a lot more grace towards the OBCs than ABCs would give them.
“The not-so-subtle message of these leaders [AA church leaders] is that the Chinese church is hopelessly broken, and that the best thing for ABCs to do is to abandon ship and start new, healthy, hip AA churches.”
I have heard this many many times from ABC leaders and I am starting to agree with them… but Pastor Ken takes a different tact. He writes, “where there is conflict the fault is almost never entirely on one side.” He is able to say this because he is more “objective” and gives more grace because he was not placed into the situation but chose it. An example of this is that he chose to learn to speak Chinese rather than having his parents force him to learn it in Chinese school.
OBCs also afford Pastor Ken more grace than they would give an ABC pastor. Pastor Ken says in the presentation that they respect missionaries. I think its more than that. They look at him as someone from the outside coming to help them out rather than one of their “kids” who is “supposed” to do certain things. Of course this is speculation on my part, but if Pastor Ken asked to have an English ministry board, it would not be viewed as a challenge to the authority of the older OBCs because Pastor Ken is not an ABC “child.” If an ABC pastor asked for that, the board would afford the ABC pastor a lot less grace.
Again, this is all speculation, but it seems to me that there would be a lot of advantages in having a Caucasian English ministry pastor over an ABC English Ministry pastor. ABCs who wanted to afford more grace to the OBCs and treat them like a “mission field” would not be able to because the OBCs would still treat the ABC like one of their children. They wouldn’t even be given the opportunity to do what Pastor Ken did. An OBC pastor or OBC board who wanted to extend grace to an ABC pastor would not be able to because the ABC pastor would not be able to see past the cultural insensitivities of OBCs. It requires both attitudes at the same time which is VERY difficult to come by. Of course there are still a lot of difficulties for any EM pastor regardless of race and a lot of Caucasian ones will still run into many difficulties, but perhaps they would have a slightly better chance than ABC pastors?
Solution… Chinese churches should hire Caucasian EM pastors.
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10 Comments, Comment or Ping
Tor
very insightful
Jul 24th, 2008
Cindy
From a family system therapy point of view, this makes a lot of sense. ABC pastors are part of the Chinese cultural/emotional system. That’s why ABC pastors are more emotionally reactive toward Chinese Church leadership than a Caucasian pastor would be. A Caucasian pastor is an outsider, a third party outside of this emotional system and therefore he/she can be objective, and the Chinese church leadership can also function more rationally and respectfully with him/her. Great post.
Jul 24th, 2008
tareshannon
Very interesting. PRon is Caucasian and he offered an objective viewpoint when working with the English congregation as well as with the OBC board. I am not opposed to it, but I must be honest in saying… my gut reaction is to think negatively upon looking for a caucasian pastor or favoring them over ABC. I think ABC pastors have a lot to offer in being able to relate to the ABC kids (who usually make up the English ministry).
Jul 24th, 2008
kingdomsheepdog
I don’t know if we can generalize this. PRon probably has a different opinion than Pastor Ken. Even if PKen is right, calling a Caucasian pastor still is only a solution working around the problem, not really solving it. Perhaps, that is the best we can hope for.
Jul 24th, 2008
Cindy
regarding Tareshannon’s comment - there’s no doubt that ABC pastors offer more insights to chinese american culture and can relate to ABC kids better. But that’s not the problem. The main problem in chinese churches right now is that ABC pastors/leadership cannot get along with OBC pastors/leadership. ABC pastors, having grown up in chinese churches themselves, carry a lot of baggages. Their baggages often lead them to react negatively and emotionally toward OBC pastors/leadership, which in turn provoke OBC pastors to react negatively toward the ABC pastors.
Personally, I don’t know if this problem can really be solved….unless the entire church goes to therapy. Or at least, the pastors should go to therapy to get some clarity.
Jul 25th, 2008
randplaty
Of course no generalization is going to fit every situation… the best ABC pastor is going to be better than the worst Caucasian pastor… but I think there might be a little bit of a trend or an advantage in one direction.
Jul 25th, 2008
ECSUPA
i disagree. white pastors instill a sense of white dominance in chinese churches–somethign that is counterproductive in asian american christianity. we need a niche for ABC/AsiAm leadership to be nutured and developed. ABCs need ABC pastor role models to look up to, not white people…we’re always told to look up to them.
i believe in AsiAm churches. i would like to see OBC churches planting AsiAm churches as a form of affirmation as well as a healthy recognition of generational and cultural differences.
Jul 26th, 2008
Ken
Thanks for taking the time to watch my presentation, and for sharing your thoughts. I don’t think that anyone is entirely objective, and I certainly don’t claim to be. I hope that I didn’t imply otherwise in my comments in the video. I think that as a Caucasian I have some advantages as well as some disadvantages serving in a Chinese church. Whatever advantages exist, I want to use them to further God’s Kingdom.
I also think that we need many more ABC pastors. I was surprised and disappointed by the large percentage of Caucasian EM pastors in Chinese churches.
Aug 5th, 2008
Daniel L. Wong
I am glad for the pastors that God calls to English ministry in the Chinese church. My sense is that it needs to be the right fit for church and pastor. Some Chinese churches are not ready for a non-Chinese pastor. Some might need a bilingual Chinese-English pastor at that stage to bridge between both sides. Others would like an ABC pastor but there are not too many candidates for the many churches looking for one. Even so the ABC pastor does need a calling, self-awareness, and cultural sensitivity as the Chinese church is not an easy place to serve. In fact many of us, like Pastor Ken, have needed to approach the ministry like a missionary.
In our Chinese church English ministry in the Toronto area there are Canadian Born Chinese pastors, bilingual ones, Caucasians, and also Filipinos, and blacks from Africa and local born.
Oct 11th, 2008
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