Chesterbrook Taiwanese Presbyterian Church

I meet with some local Chinese American pastors every month over lunch to mutually support each other. Each of us have unique blessings and challenges serving in an Asian American context so it’s great to sit down and talk through the different issues we face. Our recent conversation revolved around this question:

How can we, as Chinese American pastors (who all happen to be Reformed), conceive of a ecclesiastical model that is both biblically/theologically informed and contextually relevant/helpful to our unique circumstances (1st to 3rd generations, multiple languages, cultures, etc.)

Well, this question certainly could not be answered in one meet-up, but there were a few things we did work through and established upfront. Here’s a summary of our conversation…

every context is different…

• in its history, its struggles, its uniqueness (the good and bad), etc.
• in the make up of its leaders, its theology, its methodology, etc.
• not all Asian churches are the same!

yet the word remains the same…

• there are things in scripture that are constant… the gospel, centrality of the cross, the purposes of the church, it’s mission, etc.
• we learn from church history both recent and past to attempt to live out the word faithfully in our context.
• we learn from each other and its convictions to sharpen and edify out of mutual respect

need to do the hard work of a missionary

• each church situation requires the mindset of a theologian and missiologist… and the endurance to stick it out with a people…
• needing eccessiology that is both faithful to scripture, but practical to deal with the multicultural realities of our community, region, and nation…
• needing partnerships regionally (and globally) to sharpen each other…

In Youth Group, we will be exploring the theme of “identity”. Tim Keller shows us why identity matters:

“Identity is a complex set of layers, for we are many things. Our occupation, ethnic identity, etc., are part of who we are. But we assign different values to these components and thus Christian maturing is a process in which the most fundamental layer of our identity becomes our self-understanding as a new creature in Christ along with all our privileges in him.”

We will explore the identities that makes us who we are and enter into that process of seeing how our identity in Christ shapes us and changes us. Here’s a sampling of what we may cover:

cause identity – “I’m green”

ethnic identity – “I’m Taiwanese”

political identity – “I’m democrat, republican, DDP, etc.”

generational identity – “I’m 2nd generation, gen X, millenial”

material identity – “My car is who I am”

occupation identity – “I am a systems engineer”

gender identity – “I am a woman, hear me roar”

sexual identity – “I’m hetero, homo, bi sexual”

family identity – “I’m from the Coreleone family”

sports identity – “I’m a Redskin…”

school identity – “I go to TJ”

student identity – “I’m in college”

married identity – “I’m married”

parents identity – “I’m a mom”

regional identity – “I’m a New Yorker”

online identity – “I’m kungfuliu98″

Anything else? What makes you, you? Join us on Friday!

Our English ministry is exploring what it means to be a community on mission. Through the book of Jonah, we are realizing how easy it is to be indifferent and unaware of what God is doing around us. We are asking God to open our eyes to the needs around us. One way is just to observe who our neighbors are. And according to this article in Wapost, it’s increasingly single:

Living alone is on its way to becoming the new norm in parts of the Washington area, as the proportion of households headed by married couples has declined and one-person households have jumped.

Population statistics released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday, based on samples taken from 2006 to 2008, reflect national trends that have accelerated since the 2000 census. The Washington area figures were particularly stark.

Every jurisdiction in the region showed a leap in single households. In most places, they now make up 20 to 30 percent of all households. In the District and Alexandria, almost half of all households have just one person.

“This sort of rubber-stamps Washington as the nation’s mecca for singles,” said demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution.

Read the rest here:

In most churches, the age group of 18-35 is largely missing. How can we be a church who reaches and cares for the spiritual needs of this demographic?