Summer Immersion Program (SIP) 2007

When? July 25-28, 2007
Where? Los Angeles, California
Who? Seminary and college administrators, denominational, parachurch organization, business, and professional network leaders.
Program? A cross-cultural immersion experience into diverse Asian Christian communities in the Los Angeles area (i.e. Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, others)
Why?
1. To develop a curriculum or program that helps your organization become better equipped to teach about and work with Asian American Christians.
2. Observe how the church and Christian social agencies ministers in Asian American communities.
2. Learn about the history and contemporary experiences of Asian Christians in the Southern California and U.S. contexts.

SIP'S GOAL:
We would like your organization to partner with ISAAC to develop innovative curriculum and programs that enhance your organization’s capacity to teach about and work with Asian American Christians

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES:
1. Collaborating with ISAAC to design an experiential course for seminarians interested in understanding and ministering to Asian Americans.
2. Collaborating with ISAAC to design staff training programs and/or resources that provide cultural sensitivity and deepened knowledge of issues that Asian American Christians face.

SCHEDULE:
For site locations contact Mark Hearn

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
11 AM Registration at Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC)
12 Noon Catered Lunch at JACCC
12:45 PM Welcome, Introduction, Overview
1:00 PM The Contemporary Japanese American Christian Community with Cyril Nishimoto (Iwa)
1:30 PM Session 1: Asian American History (Chinatown) with Bob Linthicum (vans transport participants to Union Station)
3:00 PM Session 2: Asian American History (Little Tokyo) with Bill Watanabe (vans from Union Station to JACCC)
4:30 PM Debriefing at JACCC
5:00 PM Break: Hotel Check-in for out-of-town guests
5:45 PM Depart from New Otani for dinner in Chinatown
6:00 PM Dinner at Empress Pavilion
7:00 PM Depart for Session 3
7:30 PM Session 3: The Contemporary Chinese Congregation: First Evangelical Church of San Gabriel Valley; panelists (Dr. Wing Ning Pang, Dr. Chloe Sun; Rev. James Yu; Rev. Wayland Wong)
9:00 PM Return to hotel/home

Thursday, July 26, 2007
8:30 AM Depart for KIWA
9:00 AM Breakfast and overview at KIWA; commuters can park at Immanuel Presbyterian and shuttle over to KIWA
9:30 AM Session 4: KIWA
10:30 AM Take subway to Session 5
10:45 AM Session 5: Contemporary Korean Congregation @ Immanuel Presbyterian
12 Noon Catered lunch at Immanuel Presbyterian Church
1:00 PM Depart for Session 6 in two vehicles
1:30 PM Session 6: The Pilippino Context and Advocacy Organizations
- Group A: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (1:30-2:30pm)
- Group A: Asian Pacific Health Care Venture (3:00-4:00pm)
- Group B: Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center (1:30-2:30pm)
- Group B: Pilipino Workers’ Center (3:00-4:00pm)
5:00 PM Debriefing at First Baptist Church of LA (Mid-Wilshire)
5:45 PM Depart for K-town Dinner
7:30 PM Return to hotel/home

Friday, July 27, 2007
8:30 AM Depart for Session 6: Little Saigon and Union College of California/sack continental breakfast
9:45 AM Session 7: Vietnamese immersion in Little Saigon
12 Noon Lunch at restaurant in Little Saigon
1:30 PM Depart for session 8
2:00 PM Session 8: Newsong-Irvine
3:30 PM Debrief at Newsong
4:30 PM Depart for Dinner at Caspian in Irvine
6:30 PM Return to hotel/home

Saturday, July 28, 2007
8:30AM Check out of hotel/check bags in with concierge.
9:00 AM Continental breakfast and overview at Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS)
9:45 AM Session 9: Plenary session: Critical, theological and social analysis and reflection
12 Noon Lunch (TBD)
1:30 PM Session 10: Affinity group reflection: Integrating this learning experience with our respective contexts, institutions, and organizations
3:30 PM Feedback and Evaluation
4:00 PM Contextual liturgy and communion
4:45 PM Closing remarks
5:00 PM SIP ends

REGISTRATION FEE: $250 (this fee is waived if you represent a sponsoring organization). Please write your checks to "ISAAC" (memo - SIP) and send it to:
Dr. Russell Yee
Treasurer, ISAAC
4044 La Cresta Avenue
Oakland, CA 94602-1731

Contact Tim Tseng if your seminary, denomination, parachurch organization, professional network, or congregation would like to be a sponsor!

If you need housing, ISAAC has made arrangements with the
New Otani Hotel & Garden in Little Tokyo
120 South Los Angeles St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
800.639.6826 or 213.629.1200
213.622-0980 (fax)
http://www.newotani.com/
$125/night for double queen or single king

Please identify the group name: Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity" [ISAAC]

AIRPORT SHUTTLE to/from LAX to the New Otani

SUPER SHUTTLE (door to door airport service)
(800) BLUE-VAN
Price: LAX to New Otani Hotel ($16.00)
Directions: Wait for dark blue shuttle outside the Luggage Claim area at LAX.
Seats are first come for serve, or individuals can reserve a seat online at: www.supershuttle.com

FLY AWAY (Union Station airport bus)
Price: LAX to Union Station (only $3.00)
Directions: Wait for the big turquoise FlyAway charter bus outside of LAX luggage claim area. Arrives every 30 min and drops passengers off at Union Station.
Upon arrival at Union Station, call the New Otani Hotel and they will send a complementary hotel driver to pick up the pasenger (213.629.1200).

PARKING FOR HOTEL GUESTS:
The New Otani Hotel will give a discounted rate of $8.80 per car per day for hotel parking. (regular parking is $15.00). SIP hotel guests must tell the front desk at check-in that they need parking at a discounted group rate.

COMMUTER PARKING
Joe's Parking on southeast corner of Los Angeles and 2nd Street (please hold on to the parking receipt for reimbursment).

• REGISTER FOR SIP HERE (Note: you must be invited to participate)
• DOWNLOAD SIP BULLETIN INSERT
  

SIP Planning Team
• Mark Hearn, Coordinator, Ph.D. student, Claremont School of Theology
• Kenneth Kho, Pastor, Atwater Baptist Church
• Young Lee Hertig, ISAAC Southern California Regional Director and Azusa Pacific University
• Jonathan Lew, Ph.D. student, Claremont Graduate University
• Russell Moy, ISAAC Board
• Timothy Tseng, ISAAC President
• Karen Yonemoto, Ph.D. candidate, University of Southern California

SIP Co-Sponsors
Logos Evangelical Seminary
Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS)
A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary

APNA Summit - attendees

March 8, 2007

Connie Kang, staff writer of the Los Angles Times, wrote a story about the recent Asian and Pacific North American Seminary Centers Summit held at Fuller Seminary on February 17th. You can find the story here.

The summit was co-sponsored by ISAAC and the Korean Institute for Advanced Theological Studies (KIATS). Participants at this gathering included:

• David Bundy, Fuller Seminary
• David Chai, Pacific and Asian American Christian Education
• Grace Choi-Kim, ISAAC
• Virstan Choy, Asian American Ministry Program (McCormick Seminary)
• Jin Hwang, KIATS
• Young Lee Hertig, Azusa Pacific University and ISAAC
• Don Kim, Asian American Center (Garrett-Evangelical Seminary)
• Faith Kim, Kim Intercultural School (Golden Gate Baptist Seminary)
• Jae Hyun Kim, KIATS
• Jonathan Kim, Talbot Seminary
• Joo Hong Kim, Young Nak Presbyterian Church
• Sang Hyun Lee, Asian American Center (Princeton Seminary)
• Won Lee, Nagel Institute for World Christianity (Calvin College)
• Fumitaka Matsuoka, PANA Institute (Pacific School of Religion)
• Daniel Newman, Asian Center (Haggard School of Theology)
• Kirsten Oh, Fuller Seminary
• Wing Ning Pang, Chinese Bi-Cultural Ministry program (Alliance Seminary) and ISAAC
• Timothy Tseng, ISAAC
• Ruth Vuong, Fuller Seminary

In the next few months, ISAAC will explore ways to work with seminaries that have APNA programs or want to strengthen their efforts with APNA students and faculty.

Peace,
Tim Tseng

APNA Summit - LA Times story

LA Times reporter Connie Kang covered a ISAAC and Korean Institute for Advanced Theological Studies gathering of seminary-based Asian American Center directors at Fuller Seminary on Feb. 17th. It was an important first step towards making theological education more relevant to Asian and Pacific North American Christian communities. Please contact her if you have any comments. Hope that you find it useful. For a list of participants, follow this link.

- Tim Tseng
President
Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity
(510) 962-5584

latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs3mar03,1,1318985,full.story

Asian American churches face leadership gap
Pastors aren't being prepared to handle congregational conflicts over cultural and generational issues, experts say.
By K. Connie Kang
Times Staff Writer

March 3, 2007

Asian American churches are going through a "crisis of leadership" because seminaries are not preparing a new generation of pastors to work in multi-generational and multicultural settings, Asian American Christian leaders say.

The problem, the leaders say, affects churches throughout the country but is particularly pronounced in California.

At a time when Christian immigrants from Asia and Asian converts in the United States are fueling what a study calls "the most dynamic changes in American Christianity," few U.S. seminaries offer courses designed to prepare pastoral leaders for the linguistic and cultural needs of Asian American congregations. That was the view expressed by experts who gathered last month at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena for a national summit of directors of seminary-based Asian American Christian centers.

One result is decreasing enrollment of Asian Americans in seminaries.

Recruiting Asian American seminarians is "a major challenge," said Fumitaka Matsuoka, former dean of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. "We have generous financial aid, but even with that, it's hard."

Matsuoka said only three or four Asian American students are enrolled at his seminary, a stone's throw from UC Berkeley, where 43% of students are Asian American. "The discrepancy is incredible," he said.

At Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, Asian American students number about 50 — down from more than 100 in the 1990s, according to the Rev. Sang Hyun Lee, a professor of systematic theology and director of the seminary's Asian American program.

Pastors, seminary professors and lay leaders said at the session and in later interviews that generational schisms in Asian American churches are causing clergy attrition and turnover among pastors born or reared in the United States. Some young pastors experience so much frustration that they start their own English-speaking, pan-Asian churches. Others become so disillusioned that they leave the ministry, experts said.

A 2005 Duke Divinity School study, "Asian American Religious Leadership Today," said the "most acute tensions" in Asian American churches revolved around two issues:

• Continual clashes between the generations over cultural differences in the styles and philosophies of church leadership and control.

• Young pastors' view that immigrant churches are "dysfunctional and hypocritical religious institutions" that demonstrate a "negative expression" of Christian spirituality for the second generation.

For example, some American-born or -reared pastors consider the hierarchal structure of heavily immigrant churches and their emphasis on prosperity difficult to handle.

The situation is complex because many immigrants start on the lower rungs of the social ladder in America, and the church is one of the few social outlets where they can display trappings of success — whether it's their children's achievements or luxury cars.

Also, second-generation pastors, who often handle English-language ministries within Asian churches, say they have no influence on church policymaking because most English-language ministries are not financially self-sufficient and the big donors are often first-generation parishioners.

The problems are so pervasive that Jonathan H. Kim, an associate professor of Christian education at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, is doing a study on clergy attrition, conflict and burnout among U.S.-born Asian pastors.

The Duke Divinity School report also said that pastors trained in Asian seminaries or Bible schools appear better equipped to serve churches in Asia than Asian American congregations in North America.

Even those who are trained in the United States may be better able to lead churches in Asia or predominantly white congregations in North America, because their training fails to impart an understanding of Asian American issues, the study said. The Roman Catholic Church has the most extensive program among American Christian groups for preparing Asian priests for ministerial leadership in U.S. churches and society, the study said.

Seminaries affiliated with mainline denominations are experiencing the biggest loss in Asian American enrollment.

Princeton's Lee said that only 15% of Asian American seminarians attend seminaries affiliated with mainline denominations. The overwhelming majority — 80% — choose evangelical institutions.

Serving the complex Asian American Christian communities today requires "crossing boundaries between East and West, immigrant and native-born, and between various ethnic communities," said the Rev. Tim Tseng, president of the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity.

"Like Hiroshima, the fusion jazz band that blends Asian and Western instrumental and musical sensibilities, the formation of the next generation of Asian Pacific North America church leaders requires improvisation and a willingness to redefine what it means to be an Asian Christian in North America and the world," Tseng said.

For example, a young American-born pastor might have to balance his inclination to speak his mind with the assumptions of elders who expect deference from the young.

Tseng, who was born in Taiwan and reared in New York, and the Rev. Young Lee Hertig, a Korean American Presbyterian minister and lecturer at Azusa Pacific University, are co-founders of the institute.

Its goals include training culturally sensitive and biblically grounded professionals and lay leaders to serve Asian American churches.

The institute also aims to educate colleges and universities, religious institutions and the public about Asian American Christian history and to encourage research that brings in-depth understanding of Asian American Christianity.

Joo Hong Kim, a lay leader who teaches college students Sunday school at Youngnak Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, a Korean mega-church with a $15-million annual budget, said Korean churches have difficulty finding qualified Korean American pastors to teach the younger generation, and he doesn't know why. He asked experts at the conference to help.

Some seminaries use creative approaches to encourage Asian American students to enter the ministry.

With a grant from the Lilly Foundation, McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago embarked on a $1.9-million, four-year program to encourage, support and challenge new generations of Asian American young adults to consider and possibly pursue a Christian vocation.

Called AADVENT — Asian American Discipleship for Vocational Empowerment, Nurture and Transformation, the program includes a summer conference and "taste of seminary" leadership seminars to encourage students to consider the vocation.

McCormick has eight Asian American students, according to the Rev. Virstan Choy, interim director of the Center for Asian American Ministries at McCormick and a visiting professor of ministry.

"You have to start with junior high to raise the question early on about vocation," he said.

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

Asian North American Center Summit at Fuller Seminary (Feb. 17, 2007)

News Release - February 15, 2007

Crisis in Asian American Church Leadership to be addressed by Seminary Leaders

On Feb. 17th, 2007 a national summit of directors from seminary-based Global and Asian North American Christian centers will be held at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Participants will address what some have deemed a “leadership crisis” in Asian and Pacific North American (APNA) Christian churches. APNA Christianity has experienced impressive growth over the past forty years - contributing to what sociologist Stephen Warner has called the “de-Europeanization” of North American Christianity. Today there are 2.6 million Roman Catholic APNAs and more than 4,000 Korean and 1,300 Chinese Protestant churches in the United States and Canada. Nevertheless the churches are fighting a losing battle to shape a new generation of pastoral leaders with the ability to work in multi-generational and multi-cultural settings. They also struggle to identify pastors who can help their congregations engage complex civic issues such as racial discrimination and immigration from a faith-based perspective. The results are ominous. An already diverse population, APNA Christianity is becoming increasingly fragmented across the generations and unable to adequately address broader APNA community issues.

Since the early 1970s, numerous APNA centers have been formed at several theological institutions and seminaries in North America. Most of these centers serve Korean or Chinese language constituents, but a few work with broader APNA populations. Dr. Timothy Tseng, the President of the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity says that “APNA centers were created to help North American seminaries diversify their theological menu so their students could serve dim sum, kimchee, and sushi as well as meat and potatoes.” The centers have focused on equipping pastoral leaders for APNA churches, but have struggled to develop sustainable curricula and scholarly research. Furthermore, the tendency to indiscriminately merge international and North American Asian issues has often submerged the concerns of the latter. This has resulted in less than satisfactory responses to needs of the rapidly changing APNA churches. Tseng says that serving the complex APNA Christian communities today requires crossing boundaries between East and West, immigrant and native born, and between various ethnic communities. “Like Hiroshima, the fusion jazz band that blends Asian and Western instrumental and musical sensibilities, the formation of the next generation of APNA church leaders requires improvisation and a willingness to redefine what it means to be an Asian Christian in North America and the world.”

The summit will address the APNA Christian leadership crisis by
* enabling directors of APNA centers to become acquainted with each others’ programs,
* developing a strategic plan for common efforts to strengthen theological training and scholarship for APNA church leaders, and
* developing opportunities to bridge Global Christianity programs (with an Asian focus) with Asian North American programs.

The summit is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (ISAAC) and the Korea Institute for Advanced Theological Studies (KIATS).

About the Co-Sponsors

The Korea Institute for Advanced Theological Studies (KIATS) was established in 2004 with the purpose of founding the ground for Koreans to be independent and active in their theological studies in the context of global Christianity. We believe that God has called the Korean Church in this generation for the establishment of God’s Kingdom. In order to respond to the call, it is necessary for the Korean Church to pray and be passionate, to know better its inherited Christian tradition and treasure, and to found a healthy and mature theological ground upon which to challenge this generation. The founding of this ground for the Korean Church is the aim of KIATS.

KIATS exists for three major purposes: people, infrastructure, and network. First, we aim to find and nurture people with ability and vision who will pursue the study of Christianity at the global level. Second, we provide appropriate bases and opportunities to Korean theologians so that they may concentrate in their study of the Church and theology as global Christians. Third, we organize networks for building meaningful relationships between theologians and pastors, clergy and laity, from Korea and non-Korea, Asia and the West, and Western and non-Western Christianity, all for their mutual flourishing. Upon these bases, KIATS desires to support and promote Korean Christianity as the center of Asian theologies, and as an axis of global theologies.

Based upon this vision and statement, KIATS Theological Journal was designed to promote creative scholarly work on critical issues in Korean and world Christianity. Many articles in our journal from the inaugural issue have reflected a gradual embodiment of our theological visions. The spring issue of 2006 consists of three sections: the special theme of science and Christianity, KIATS lectures by foreign scholars in Korea, and selected issues in Korean and Asian Christianity.

Dr. Jae Hyun Kim is the Executive Director of KIATS.

* * *
The Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity (ISAAC) is an educational resource organization that advances Asian American Christian presence and perspectives in order to broaden the multicultural and global commitments of the Church and the Academy.

ISAAC’s core conviction is that Christ-centered faith and calling must be integrated with Asian American cultures and identities. This is a crucial element in the life-long journey of following Jesus towards Christian maturity and wholeness. It is an important way to embody God’s fullness in the world.

ISAAC’s priorities are to:
▪ Equip culturally competent and biblically grounded professional and lay leaders for the Asian American churches and communities.
▪ Educate the seminary, the university, the church, and the public about Asian American Christian history, presence, perspectives, and prospects.
▪ Encourage research that brings breadth and depth to our understanding of Asian American Christianity.

Dr. Timothy Tseng is the President of ISAAC.

ISAAC at AAR/SBL 2006 meeting

Four members of the ISAAC Board attended the American Academy of Religion- Society of Biblical Literature meeting in... (more)