Over the last few weeks, I have hosted a few Asian-American guest

Over the last few weeks, I have hosted a few Asian-American guest bloggers to share their thoughts on church and/or culture. Three weeks ago, Ray Chang wrote about empowering across ethnicities in the body of Christ, two weeks ago, Helen Lee wrote about cultural intelligence, and last week, DJ Chuang listed 9 things about Asian American Christianity.

Today we hear from my friend DJ again. DJ Chuang is a strategy consultant, working with organizations likeAmerican Bible Society, Worship Leader Magazine, Leadership Network and with L2 Foundation developing leadership & legacy for Asian Americans. He also hosts the Social Media Church podcast for conversations with church leaders about social media. He has been blogging at www.djchuang.com since 1999, curating many links to resources pertaining to churches multiethnic and/or Asian American. He is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and Virginia Tech. He resides in Orange County, California, with 1 wife and 1 son.

DJ was also on the Exchange just a few weeks ago, where we had some conversation about multiethnic ministry. He’s back today to talk about why evangelicals often don’t know / understand Asian Americans.

The posting of An Open Letter from the Asian American Community to the Evangelical Church (dated 10/13/13) illustrated how we have quite a ways to go towards ending racial stereotyping in Christendom and developing a missional church that’s contextualized for all peoples.

Coincidentally by the sovereignty of God, I’ve had a unique vantage point on these series of events because I’ve got good relationships and friendships on all “sides” involved. It grieved me to see my family members unable to resolve their differences.

Before I unpack some of the multi-layer complexities to begin to understand why all this was so challenging, I’ll briefly comment on 2 resolved incidents that I’m most familiar with.

At the Mosaix 2013 Multi-Ethnic Church Conference with 1,000 other in attendance, I watched a video introduced by Ed Stetzer, where Lifeway President Dr. Thom Rainer apologized for its publication of a racially insensitive VBS curriculum almost 10 years ago. Some would consider this apology unnecessary, but yet it brought healing and closure for the Asian Americans offended and hurt. Hopefully, this is one of many steps toward progress of evangelicals being more sensitive to all people, for the sake of the Gospel.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2013/november/why-evangelicals-dont-know-asian-americans.html