David Park and Dan Ra blog about faith and culture from an Asian American perspective at Next Gener.Asian Church. They’ve just written an article for Emergent Village’s blog, “Pushing the Boundaries Together”, exploring the need for engagement with minority ethnic cultures in the emerging church conversation.
They identify the traditional strength of the Korean Christian community, church planting, as a strength that needs a new level of self awareness and discernment. There’s a reference or two to Soong Chan Rah’s recent work, “Exploring The Next Evangelicalism“, but a warning that Koreans need to learn to ask questions as well as give answers.
The common lack of Asian American interest in the the “emerging church” conversation, they suggest, is linked with the theological apathy found not only in Asian American circles, but in the broader culture as well. “Most of us would find theological angst and exploration absurd and unnecessary… most Asian Americans, like most Americans if we were to be honest, don’t care about the unraveling of certain “major†theological notions.”
David and Dan provide a challenge to those involved in “emerging church conversation”. “Will we actively engage and invite racially alternative voices, even from the academic sphere? Will we step into Korean Presbyterian, Ethiopian Orthodox, Latin Pentecostal, and black American baptist churches and see how young, hyphenated American parishioners are experiencing the faith?”
Check out Fuzz Kitto’s response from Sydney