Comments for Emerging from the Chinese Church

Comment on CBC’s: They Like “Anything” but the Church by Shu

Shu — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:47:48 +0000

wow! this is so late response jl but good stuff… if you dont mind, I’d love to use some of your responses someday for some research material

peace,
Shu

Comment on CBC’s: They Like “Anything” but the Church by Jean-Luc

Jean-Luc — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:08:13 +0000

Hey Shu,
Here is my take on things.
1) Different people like different things. Some people will like a traditional approach to church, while others will like a more modern approach (ie. meeting house, mark driscoll, etc…). I don’t think there will ever be a ‘best’ church that caters to the culture of everyone.

2) Since #1 is essentially making it a moot point for me to answer the question, I do believe that there are characteristics of churches that draw people like me (I would classify myself as a committed open-minded Christian Westernized ‘Chinese’ Christian)

a) People are the church: This concept seems to evade many churches. It is not the institution that determines the church. Individual people do.

b) Facades: Putting on masks at church don’t help the community. Openness and transparency almost seems foreign in our culture today. I admit I put on a lot of masks on Sunday as well, but let’s all try to be a bit more real to each other.

c) Existing not for its own sake: A lot of people find church to be a meaningless existence because it does not seem to exist for any other good than for its own sake. If the church exists for the wrong reasons, people go to church for the wrong reasons. Instead of focusing on self-sustainment as I see in many churches, it should focus more on the sustainment of its peoples, the community around them, and the world.

d) Christianese:
Ie. “Our sovereign Alpha and Omega. May the sacrifice of the cross be our daily bread by which we live our lives. We come together to glorify the risen Prince of Peace from whom we have been redeemed.” Instead of using big words, I’d believe we should aim to speak more with simple words and rich imagery as Jesus did.

e) Seeing people with an inexplicable passion for God:
I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. It isn’t easy to grow excited about a church that doesn’t even seem interested about God. Leaders need to be put accountable for their pursuit of God. Stagnancy and complacency is a real killer of any church in its pursuit of God.

Random thoughts, from a random dude. =P

Comment on CBC’s: They Like “Anything” but the Church by Shu

Shu — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 05:51:40 +0000

Hiya Umpa,
I’m digging that we both have the asian names yet are pretty removed from our Chinese heritage. Ironic isn’t it? I think unlike America (which is considered a melting pot of culture), Canada definitely strives to be more of a “mosaic”. So what I mean is that although, you are 4th gen CBC, you can still at least speak even a little bit of chinese and you still want to relate to your chinese culture to SOME degree (hence the trip to china?). But anyways, I think that CBC culture, although becoming very westernized will not “forsake” its chinese roots, but it’ll definitely be quite far from it. As a 2nd gen CBC, I see myself as a bridge builder in terms of communicating to an older chinese rooted generation and the up and coming cbc’ers who sometimes both only think one way and not consider and appreciate each other. I hope that helped you in any kind of capacity umpa It’s pretty late as I type this response, hehe!

Comment on CBC’s: They Like “Anything” but the Church by Umpa Tan

Umpa Tan — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:12:20 +0000

I am a fourth generation Canadian born Chinese. I speak very little Chinese, and it was strange to go travel to mainland China last year where I had trouble communicating. They asked me if I was Japanese or Korean, and when I answered that I was a Chinese Canadian, they were upset to see that I did not know any Chinese whatsoever. It was interesting to see my ancestral land. I realized that when I got my visa for my ancestral homeland, and when I could not communicate with them, that I was truly Canadian, and not Chinese. I want to know if any of you have any thoughts on this.

Umpa Tan.

Comment on CBC’s: They Like “Anything” but the Church by Lon

Lon — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:48:26 +0000

little late on this… but I love the church… i just don’t think many of them are what God desires for them to be.

Comment on About by shubox

shubox — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:43:16 +0000

Hey shelaine,
There’s no 2nd gen asian church that I know of… I guess I could suggest Westside church in Mississauga, http://www.westsidechurch.ca/. They are mostly predominantly 2nd gen korean canadians. In terms of chinese churches, there are not many 2nd gen churches… the closest one is probably Cornerstone Christian community church, http://www.cornerstonechurch.on.ca/index.htm. I only know that these churches are mostly run by 2nd gen asians, however, I am not sure of what they are like.

I believe Toront is still going through a transitional phase in where 2nd gen asian christians are becoming the leaders of their “inherited” church while slowly, new churches/communities are being formed which are distinctly different than their parent’s churches. This has been a slow process, but it is emerging.

Hope that helps!
Shu

Comment on About by shelaine

shelaine — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:17:14 +0000

Just surfed on. I’m from the westcoast and recently finished a seminary degree with a focus on Chinese (Asian) cultures, specifically the second gen. Out here a number of second-gen pastors are church planting or wanting to. Tried looking for similar churches in TO but couldn’t find any. Any second-gen Asian type churches in TO do you recommend? Drop me an email!

Comment on I’m a Chief-Sinner Leader… by wk

wk — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:40:05 +0000

Nice quote! There’s a lot in there to soak in…

Comment on Booklist at the moment… by Lynna

Lynna — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:54:34 +0000

I don’t want to see threads like this whonews.,

Comment on My Cardboard Sign by Bern

Bern — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:08:50 +0000

This is pretty amazing!!! thanx man

Lost and insignificant

Found and loved