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A Letter to the Asian American Church: Embracing the Call
For years, the church has said indirectly and directly to the Asian American faith community that they must find a place in a multicultural church or even the majority culture church disguised as a multicultural church. The collective voices in this book argue that there is underappreciated beauty, diversity, joy, benefit, and place for the Asian American church. Asian American leaders need to joyfully embrace the call to serve the Asian American church, not only for the emerging generation but for the broader church.
This book was written by faithful practitioners affiliated with SOLA Faith Chang (Grace Christian Church), Steve S. Chang (Living Hope Community Church), Joey Chen (Sunset Church), Aaron J. Chung (Exilic Church), Cory K. Ishida (Evergreen SGV), David Larry Kim (Harvest Church), Monica M. Kim (CCEF), Harold Y. Kim (Christ Central of Southern California), Kim N. Kira (Lighthouse Community Church), Michael Lee (All Nations Community Church), Owen Y. Lee (Christ Central Presbyterian Church), Enoch Y. Liao (Boston Chinese Evangelical Church), Hanley Liu (First Chinese Baptist Church of Walnut), Soojin Park (TGC), Jason M. Tarn (Houston Chinese Church), and Heidi K. Wong (Exilic Church).
This book was written by faithful practitioners affiliated with SOLA Faith Chang (Grace Christian Church), Steve S. Chang (Living Hope Community Church), Joey Chen (Sunset Church), Aaron J. Chung (Exilic Church), Cory K. Ishida (Evergreen SGV), David Larry Kim (Harvest Church), Monica M. Kim (CCEF), Harold Y. Kim (Christ Central of Southern California), Kim N. Kira (Lighthouse Community Church), Michael Lee (All Nations Community Church), Owen Y. Lee (Christ Central Presbyterian Church), Enoch Y. Liao (Boston Chinese Evangelical Church), Hanley Liu (First Chinese Baptist Church of Walnut), Soojin Park (TGC), Jason M. Tarn (Houston Chinese Church), and Heidi K. Wong (Exilic Church).
207 pages, Paperback
Published April 5, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 12, 2025
Even though our church is not an “Asian American church” by letter, we are a multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial church. I feel like every pastor should read this book. It is helpful. So long as you are humble and willing to listen, you will be blessed, even in your personal walk with Jesus. I was encouraged.
June 30, 2025
I'm grateful for this project and the path it seeks to carve. Having personally known many of the writers, the tone is incredibly pastoral and intimate, especially for those acquainted with Asian American church ministry. Some of the chapters were some of the most encouraging things I've read on paper because of the closeness of proximity I have to the authors and our ministries.
Collected works are, however, always a bit of a hit or miss. The cadence, tone, and content ebbs and flows with each chapter. The primary point of critique, though, is that as a collected work, it lacked any sort of cohesion. Despite many of the chapters bleeding into one another, stepping on one another's toes of themes and focus, there was a lack of uniformity across chapters, or a shared trajectory of where the book as a whole was intended to lead the reader. The repetition of common Asian tropes—of honor-shame, not feeling comfortable in one's own skin, feeling lesser than bc of our Asian heritage, etc.—may have been the intended thread, but instead it made this work feel repetitive and not as deep as it could have been. More than anything, this speaks to a weak editorial process. Having been involved in multi-author book projects, a good hands-on editor who understands and can execute the vision can help prevent shallow repetition, and bring depth that leads toward a cohesive whole.
Overall, though, this is a great first step in this direction of speaking to and equipping Asian church leaders, and I hope future efforts where build where this was headed, but sometimes fell flat.
Collected works are, however, always a bit of a hit or miss. The cadence, tone, and content ebbs and flows with each chapter. The primary point of critique, though, is that as a collected work, it lacked any sort of cohesion. Despite many of the chapters bleeding into one another, stepping on one another's toes of themes and focus, there was a lack of uniformity across chapters, or a shared trajectory of where the book as a whole was intended to lead the reader. The repetition of common Asian tropes—of honor-shame, not feeling comfortable in one's own skin, feeling lesser than bc of our Asian heritage, etc.—may have been the intended thread, but instead it made this work feel repetitive and not as deep as it could have been. More than anything, this speaks to a weak editorial process. Having been involved in multi-author book projects, a good hands-on editor who understands and can execute the vision can help prevent shallow repetition, and bring depth that leads toward a cohesive whole.
Overall, though, this is a great first step in this direction of speaking to and equipping Asian church leaders, and I hope future efforts where build where this was headed, but sometimes fell flat.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews