These are my opening remarks to our June 17, 2009 special OBC/ABC Meeting.....
Good morning everyone and welcome to our special OBC/ABC meeting. Today is an historic day. It’s an historic day because this is the first time, and hopefully not the last time, that OBCs and ABCs from the New York Metro area have come together to ponder….to share….and to dialogue about how all of us can work together to strengthen, to build up, and to advance God’s kingdom among our people. For too long ABCs and OBCs have had their difficulties and problems and without a doubt, we will continue to experience some difficulties in the days ahead. But, this meeting and your presence here this morning greatly encourages me and gives me hope to believe that a new day is here and with it comes new potentials and new possibilities.
When the idea of this meeting first arose in my mind, I pondered how we could best use our time together. After much prayer and thought, I came to conclude that the best way that I can help us begin to dialogue about how OBCs and ABCs can begin to work together is for me to first share with you the three burdens that God has placed on my heart that motivated me to call this meeting today.
My sharing of my three burdens with you this morning will be intentionally brief for two reasons. First, our time is short. I don’t want to squander it. And second, I want to give all of us here today the time and opportunity to respond and interact with what I will be sharing. Okay? Let’s get started….
One burden that God has placed on my heart concerns the shortage of ABC pastors serving our churches. Today, as many of you know, many of our ABC congregations do not have ABC pastors. And those churches that do have an ABC pastor are dropping steadily as each year more and more ABC pastors leave the Chinese church. And the future doesn’t look much better with the number of ABCs entering seminary at an all-time low.
If this trend is to reverse, all of us in this room need to be more proactive in plowing the field and helping to recruit and raise up more workers for the harvest. This can be done in a variety of ways. However, we at PaLM believe that one of the best ways to do this is through a program that we call MAP which stands for Ministry Apprenticeship Program.
For those who are unfamiliar with MAP, the primary mission of MAP is to encourage our pastors to look for and identify potential full-time Christian workers within their congregations; and once identifying such a worker, to challenge that person to consider the possibility of serving God on a full-time basis. And if that challenge is accepted, the pastor will then begin to mentor that young man or woman in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively serve God in a Chinese church. If during that time, it is discovered that that the young man/woman does not have the gifts or character for ministry, then he/she is encouraged to return to the church as a layperson, a little better trained than when he or she began. Or, if it is discovered that the young man/woman does have the gifts and character for ministry, then he/she will complete a two year mentoring program with the pastor. And upon completion of MAP, he/she may then go to seminary where he/she can learn the academic skills needed to serve as a pastor or other full-time Christian worker.
Unfortunately, to date PaLM has struggled to find enough ABC pastors to serve as mentors. One reason we haven’t been able to find enough ABC pastors to serve as mentors is that most of our pastors themselves have never been mentored and thus lack the knowledge, skills and experience needed to take up that task. In recognition of that fact, PaLM is in the process of establishing six month mentoring modules where our senior mentoring pastors will help equip and mentor our less experienced mentoring pastors in the art of mentoring. And I am pleased to report that PaLM is in the processing of recruiting our mentoring pastor trainees and expect to begin our first pastor mentoring class this coming August.
Eventually, it is our hope and dream that the OBC side of our churches will also adopt MAP or, at the very least, support it. For such an adoption or support by the OBC side of our churches will only increase the bounty of new workers for our churches whether they be ABC or OBC.
A second burden that God has placed on my heart is our region’s need for more adult ABC congregations and churches. When I was in seminary, I was told that the Chinese church has and is losing 90% of it young people. Now I don’t know how accurate that percentage is. But, based upon my own experience and observations, that 90% figure looks like a “ballpark” figure to me despite how outrageous that percentage looks to a reasonable person.
And it is my conviction that we will continue to lose our young people at that rate until and unless we establish more adult ABC churches. At present, most of our ABC congregations and churches are ministries that are extensions of immigrant churches. Today, most of those immigrant churches understand and realize the importance of establishing an ABC ministry within the church to retain their young people. But, when those young people go off to college, most of those churches are now discovering to their surprise, that many their young people still do not return…even after the church has established an English Ministries service. And if they do return, most don’t stay long. So, why don’t their young people return or stay?
There are, naturally, many answers to that question but I would suggest to you that a primary reason is because the ABC work in that immigrant church is geared for children and not adults. By the time our young people graduate from college, they are no longer children. Instead, they are young adults who feel out of place and boxed in when they return to their home church. They may then stay in their home church for a time to try and help the ABC children but those young people themselves need to be fed, nurtured and cared for. But, there is no one in that church that can do that for them and so they begin looking elsewhere for nourishment…eventually finding other churches such as Redeemer to attend.
At the present only a very few, loyal young people return to their home church and stay. And those that do return are often overworked and overused in the English ministries side of the church. And as a result they eventually burn out. When these burnt out young people leave our churches, they often have a bad taste in their mouths and vow never to return to a Chinese church again.
I understand and realize that most of our churches desire that their young people remain within their home church. But, it is also true that that strategy has been followed for more than 60 years and has only resulted in the lost of 90% of our young people; there’s got to be a better way. One of those ways I would suggest to you is for us, as a region, to establish adult ABC churches so that there are options and opportunities for our young people to remain within a Chinese or Asian American church.
If we are ever to have any chance of retaining our young people in our Chinese churches, more adult ABC congregations and churches need to be established. At present, we do have some adult ABC congregations or churches but they are too few and the few that we have are mostly overcrowded. Our Korean brothers have done a far better job in this area than we have on the Chinese side. I have visited a number of adult Korean American churches that are not only attracting Korean American young couples and families but they are also attracting a significant number of Chinese American couples and families as well. In fact, a few of those Korean American churches could boast that more than half of their congregations are comprised of ABC couples and families.
I have no problems with our ABC couples and families ending up at these Korean American churches because I know that they will be ministered to and that they will be actively involved in serving our Lord in those churches. But, what I find disturbing is seeing so many of our young people going to places like Redeemer where they are nothing more than a number in a crowd and do little, if anything, to serve God.
More adult ABC churches are needed….what can be done about it? How can we, as a region, plant more adult ABC churches?
These questions bring me to my third and last burden…the fissure that divides OBCs and ABCs. My third and last burden is that we ABCs and OBCs heal our relationships and begin to work together for our region. For too long we ABCs and OBCs have work independently of one another as if the other side did not exist. Because of past difficulties, differences, and hurts ABCs and OBCs have stayed out of each other’s way. On the surface that appears to work. But, the truth of the matter is, each side is hobbled because each side is missing a piece of themselves that makes each of us whole.
Adam was incomplete until God made Eve and gave her to him as his partner. Likewise, each of us is incomplete until we can reconcile our differences and mend our fences. For that to happen, each side must confess their sins and seek forgiveness from the other. It is time to put aside our hurts, mend our fences and bring healing to our relationships.
In all probability, most of us sitting here do not harbor any ill feelings towards “the other side” but neither do we make the effort to reach out to “the other side.” Today, you don’t have to work too hard to meet an OBC if you are an ABC or to meet an ABC if you are an OBC. Today, you have the opportunity to begin that healing process. At lunch time make it a point to sit with someone from the other side. I realize that the ratio this morning is a little lop-sided and so not everyone will have that opportunity. But, if PaLM has anything to do with it, there will be other opportunities in the future.
While each side has been able to accomplish some things while working independently of one another, I would suggest to you that so much more could be accomplished if both ABCs and OBCs were to work more closely with one another.
I am not so naïve as to be unaware of the fact that there would be a number of problems and issues standing in the way of our working together. However, I also do not see any one particular problem or issue that cannot be overcome if each side would be willing to set aside its own interests and focus on the interests of the greater good of our region as a whole.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I am not proposing that we form an ecumenical movement; nor am I suggesting that we establish a formal association of churches. But, what I am asking is this…can we, as group, commit to coming together once or twice a year to discuss and implement strategies and projects that will benefit our region as a whole?
That is to say, let us stop looking at our world solely from within the four walls of our church buildings. Instead, let us also look at our world from a regional perspective and see how our church can contribute to the greater good of our region. Too often, you and I look only at own church needs, our own church desires and our own church resources. I would suggest that we need to look beyond our four walls and understand that our churches and congregations are but only small pieces of a larger puzzle.
As I have already told you, this morning I seek only to provide some “food for thought” and give all of us an opportunity to discuss further my brief presentation. I now open the floor to give you the opportunity to respond and interact with my comments.
