MCCA 2011: Following the Suffering Servant as an Asian American

Following the Suffering Servant
as an Asian American

Pastor of English (↓) and Youth (↑) Ministries

How smart of
an Asian
are you? ?

Your Relationship with
Self
Jesus
Parents
World

Temptation:
Color-infatuated vs. Colorblind

“There is neither Jew nor
Greek, slave nor free, male nor
female, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus.”
-Galatians 3:28

Color-infatuated: Colorblind:
Being Asian is Being Asian is
Everything Nothing

Colorblind:
Being Asian is
Nothing

In the Christian subculture, some say that our
identity is only spiritual, only grounded “in
Christ,” which I agree is true and ultimate. Yet,
when this theological conviction is held to the
exclusion to the reality of who we are on earth
and our innate social and genetic context, it
sounds an awful like Gnosticism, the first
heresy of church history, a belief that our body
doesn’t matter and only the spiritual matters.”

-DJ Chuang

“If you subscribe to a color-blind racial
ideology, you don’t think that race or racism
exists, or that it should exist. You are more
likely to think that people who talk about race
and racism are the ones who perpetuate it.
You think that racial problems are just isolated
incidents and that people need to get over it
and move on.”

-Brendesha Tynes

“I think, therefore I am.”

The Asian American Pressure Cooker

Success Health

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75

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2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
Success Health

“Popular opinion may project Asians and
Asian Americans as super achievers,
scoring high on the SAT, dominating
prestigious colleges and working as high-
paid professionals, but the dark side of
that narrative is that they are much
more likely than the average American
to commit suicide, according to a recent
report from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).

At Cornell University, for instance, 13 of the
21 student suicide victims between 1996
and 2006 were Asians or Asian Americans.
That picture is not complete unless you
consider that Asians make up of only 14
percent of the total Cornell student body.”
-Andrew Lam

“Although we don't have good statistics
[yet], we believe that many Asian American
students are prone to feeling depressed
over a lack of achievement," Sue says.
Getting Bs instead of As on a report card
may not seem like a great sin to most
students, Sue says.

But in a culture and family structure where
sacrifice by an older generation for the
advancement — and education — of its
children is a deep-seated tenet, feelings of
shame for "failing" can become unbearable,
Sue says, noting that this pattern is most
evident in families with immigrant
parents and among foreign students sent
to study at U.S. universities by their
families.”
-Hilary Hylton

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Spiritual Success Spiritual Health

“I did, therefore you are.”

Temptation:
Parent-pleasers vs. Parent-haters

Pa re nt - p leasers: Parent-haters:
Parents’ words are Parents are worth
Everything Nothing

Parent-haters:
Parents are worth
Nothing

“. . . many even among the leaders
believed in him. But because of the
Pharisees they would not confess
their faith for fear they would be
put out of the synagogue; for they
loved praise from men more
than praise from God.”
John 12:42–43

Your parents love you!

▪ Word of affirmation
▪ Quality time
▪ Giving gifts
▪ Acts of service
▪ Physical touch

“[Chinese parents] assume strength, not
fragility, and as a result they behave very
differently....Chinese parents demand perfect
grades because they believe that their child
can get them. If their child doesn't get them,
the Chinese parent assumes it's because the
child didn't work hard enough. That's why the
solution to substandard performance is always
to excoriate, punish and shame the child. The
Chinese parent believes that their child will be
strong enough to take the shaming and to
improve from it.”
-Amy Chua

“Submit to one another out of reverence for
Christ.” (Ephesians 5:21)

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is
right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the
first commandment with a promise— “that it may go
well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the
earth.”

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead,
bring them up in the training and instruction of the
Lord.” (Ephesians 6:1–4)

“Go to your room and study.”

“You need to clean your room
before playing basketball.”

“You must worship at our
ancestral shrine.”

“You cannot get baptized.”

“You cannot go on the STM trip.”

“Our default is to disobey our
parents, but any acts of obedience
in the name of spiritual maturity
must be a thorough and prayerful
decision made over a long time.”
-Greg Jao

Multiracial World

1 in 7 marriages
are interracial.

By 2042 there
will be no racial
majority in the
United States.

Multiracial Church
“In 1900, 80 percent of the world’s Christians lived
in Europe and North America. A century later, nearly
70 percent of the world’s Christians live in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America. Christian adherence and
vitality are waning in the global North and West, and
they are rising in the global South and East.”
-Joel Carpenter

Multiracial Church
“If we want to visualize a “typical” contemporary
Christian, we should think of a woman living in a
village in Nigeria or in a Brazilian favela. . . . Soon,
the phrase “a White Christian” may sound like a
curious oxymoron, as mildly surprising as “a
Swedish Buddhist.” Such people can exist, but a
slight eccentricity is implied.”
-Philip Jenkins

Asian Value Western Value

Collectivity Individualism

Duty & Obligation Rights & Privilege

Hierarchy Equality

Deference Self-Assertion

15.2 M
A s i a n
Americans

7,000
A s i a n
American
Churches

• 86 percent of Asian Americans are high school
graduates.

• 49 percent of Asian Americans are college
graduates.

• 20 percent of Asian Americans have graduate
degrees (M.A., M.D., J.D., Ph.D.).

• Asian Americans have the highest median
household income of any racial group ($64,238).

Waste them
Leverage them for self
Leverage them for Christ

Q&A
text 220465 and your message to 22333

MCCA 2011: Following the Suffering Servant as an Asian American

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MCCA 2011: Following the Suffering Servant as an Asian American

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