Through the Google Books project I have been able to access some of the earlier books on the German Lutherans in the U.S. and it has made interesting reading.  In A brief history of the Lutheran church in America by Juergen Ludwig Neve (1916) we read about heated debates in the early 19th century over the introduction of English language worship services.  Some of the immigrant generation saw English worship as essential to reaching the next generation while others feared it would lead to the abandonment of their German language and culture.  Neve’s section on “The Language Question” on p. 82 is worth reading.  In this case the English worship service proposal was voted down and the English speaking group left to form a new church.

Change a few of the details and it sounds like what has taken place in many other immigrant churches.  Although most Chinese churches now accept the importance of having an English worship service, I have been told that in the 1980’s there was considerable controversy over this issue.  It seems like there is something here that may apply to many different immigrant churches.

Most immigrants desire to hold on to their language and culture, and to gather with others from their homeland.  It is understandable that they also want to pass their heritage on to their children.  But it is also understandable that their children want to adapt to the culture of the new country so that they can fit in there.  When this tension inevitably shows up in the church it makes it challenging to reach the next generation.

It is usually encouraging to know that the challenges that you face are not new, and it is even better if you can learn from the experience of others.  Do you know of examples from other immigrant churches, either contemporary or in the past?  If so, I would be very interested in hearing about them.

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Everyone who is familiar with Chinese churches in the U.S. knows that most ABCs are fairly young (for details, see the chart in my post on ABC Age Structure and English Ministry). The contrast with OBC age structure is striking. Since OBCs are, by definition, born outside the U.S., it is not surprising that only a small percentage are aged 19 and under. Only 9.7% are in this age range, compared with 60.5% for ABCs. (Click on the chart for a larger image.)

These numbers pose a challenge to raising up mature leadership for the English Ministry (EM). In order to enter the parallel stage of ministry structure, the EM must find its own leaders for each ministry area. But usually those leaders are quite young. This is not surprising, since in 2000 only 16% of ABCs were over 40. In a culture that respects age and values experience this can pose a problem. It is difficult for the Chinese Ministry (CM) leaders to respect their EM counterparts as equals when there is a significant difference in age.

This problem becomes particularly acute when it comes to finding EM leaders to serve on the church board, which is an essential step in helping the EM to move toward maturity. In principle, my church is committed to having board members from both congregations and has not set a minimum age. Yet culturally it is very difficult for a 27 year old to serve as an equal with board members who are in their 50s and 60s.

The temptation is to look to the few older people in the EM and put them into leadership positions whether they are qualified or not. But spiritual maturity is a non-negotiable requirement that does not automatically come with age. Furthermore, spiritual gifting cannot be ignored. Some of the older people will not have the gifts necessary to be an effective leader, and it is a mistake to make them leaders simply due to seniority.

It also won’t work to tell the EM that they should try to attract older people, because ABCs in their 50s and 60s are very scarce. In “first wave” and “China town” churches the situation is very different, and there are different challenges. But most of the Chinese churches in the U.S. are “second wave” churches which face this sort of problem. The fact that many of our key EM leaders will be relatively young is a given.

What is the solution to this problem? If we try to wait 20 or 30 years for the ABC “baby boom” to reach their 50s and 60s we will lose an entire generation of young adults, and very few of them will come back. I see two possible approaches, which work better when they are used together:

1. Try very hard to work together despite the usual age differences. For younger EM leaders this means being careful to show respect to older leaders, even when you need to express disagreement. For older CM leaders this means trying to treat younger EM leaders as equals and allowing them to lead at a relatively young age.
2. Allow the English Ministry to have enough independence to run most of their ministries on their own. If most of the day to day ministry decisions are made by separate EM and CM ministry teams, it gives the younger EM leaders a chance to grow in their leadership without feeling that they are “under” CM leaders. But it will still be necessary to make a way for younger EM leaders to serve on the board.

Have you encountered this age difference in your church? How has it impacted your top leadership? How have you dealt with this challenge?

For those who are interested or who are doing their own research, these data are based on the 5% sample microdata file from the 2000 Census, selected for “Chinese alone” using the Data Ferret program. The charts were produced by saving the results as a .csv file and analyzing it using MS Excel.

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ABC Age Structure

This confirms earlier observations that the ABC population is quite young. As of the 2000 census, 50% were under 15 years old, and 75% were under 30. Only 16% were over 40, which helps to explain the young average age of the English congregation in most Chinese churches.

There are two notable change points in the graph. One is around age 50, which would have been those born in 1950 at the end of WW II. At that time Chinese American GIs returned from the war, and a increasing number of Chinese were admitted into the U.S. Those aged 35 and younger were born after the Immigration Act of 1965, which greatly increased the flow of immigration. The ABC baby boom that started around 1965 continues to this day.

The correlation between the immigration rate and the ABC birth rate suggests that most of this surge of new ABCs had immigrant parents. This is confirmed by one statistic that I found which stated that in 1995 91% of ABC births were to immigrant mothers.

Implications for English Ministry

These data raise important issues for English Ministry in U.S. Chinese churches.

1. If we are serious about reaching ABCs, we need to have strong children’s and youth ministries. Furthermore, since most of these young ABCs have immigrant parents, bilingual Chinese churches are probably the best place to reach them. It is essential to have a strong, mature English Ministry (EM) not only to care for the children of church members but also to reach the unchurched majority of young ABCs. The majority of Christians come to faith or are impacted with the gospel as children or teenagers, so is critical that we reach this group.
2. Many 2nd generation ABCs are now reaching their 20s and 30s. In the eight years since the 2000 census, the bars on the graph above will have shifted to the right. How can we reach this growing group of adult ABCs? What new ministries must be developed to reach them? What will be the role of Chinese churches?
3. The leading edge of the ABC baby boom has now reached their 30’s. As they begin to raise their own families it will create a new wave of 3rd generation ABCs. How will we reach them, and what role will the Chinese church play in this task?

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I have set up the presentation on slideshare.net so that the audio portion is synced to the presentation slides. You can see the presentation here. I hope that this will be of benefit to those of you who were interested in the presentation be were unable to attend. There is one place where the audio seems to skip. That is due to a 40 second section of the file that had been corrupted, which I deleted.

Meanwhile, work is progressing on the video file. When it is ready to be viewed, I will update this post with the link.

Please share any comments or suggestions that you have on the presentation in the comments here.

Update: The video of the presentation is now available: Part I and Part II. Thanks to Vinci for all his hard work in putting this together!

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Then in growing autonomous churches via duplex model he describes the ministry direction taken by the Young Nak Korean church in Los Angeles. The “duplex model” is one of a number of possible solutions the the challenge presented by having two or more different congregations with different languages in one church. In the “duplex model” the different congregations function largely independently but share a common facility, much like a duplex housing unit includes two separate homes under one roof. DJ’s article includes a link to the proposal submitted to the leadership of the Young Nak church in 2001 outlining the rationale for and structure of a duplex church model.

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