Is My Church Too Asian?

I was having a conversation with a wonderful couple at our church recently when they asked, “Is our church too Asian? Wouldn’t non-Asians feels uncomfortable at our church?”

I appreciated their question. I knew where they were coming from. They weren’t ashamed of their Asian-American heritage or their church. They cared about missional effectiveness. They wanted their church to be a place all kinds of people would feel home at. 

I am familiar with this wrestle because it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time as I had pastored in predominantly Asian and Asian-American contexts for over a decade. 

You may be wrestling with the fact that your church is more homogenous than you would like. 

Here are two things I believe should instruct our thinking pattern when we engage in this conversation: 

1. Get Contextual. Let Geography Guide You.

Before we rush into a “diverse vs. homogenous” conversation, we need to first reckon with greater realities. We need to face realities such as the location of the church and the makeup of the city.  

For example, the city of Irvine (where I pastor) is at least 43% Asian. The congregation I shepherd is in North Irvine which has an even higher concentration of Asians and Asian-American residents. This means that our church congregation should be highly Asian in composition. The data demands the demographic. 

In fact, a church in Irvine that is not comprised of many Asians might be the church struggling with missional effectiveness. The data would suggest that the church has not adequately built a missional bridge towards a significant population of the city.

Before we talk about ethnic diversity, we need to start with geography and let the data drive the conversation. Otherwise, we may be in danger of trying to lead and participate in a disembodied, theoretical church rather than the one right before us. 

2. Get Textual. Let Theology Probe You.

Christ and Christlikeness, not ethnic identity, is central to our identity according to the New Testament. Of course, this does not mean the dissolution of ethnicity or cultural realities but it does mean the redemption of them. This means followers of Jesus may be invited to embrace a healthy discomfort in order to appropriately live out the many “one anothers” commanded in the Scriptures. 

This can look like someone from a majority culture willing to embrace the discomfort of partaking in the fellowship of a local church body comprised of a high concentration of another ethnicity precisely because Jesus, not ethnicity, is what drives his or her unity. This can also mean that a homogenous church is mindful of its cultural tendencies towards others to not cause needless offense because Jesus, not cultural comfort, drives their unity. 

If Jews and Gentiles, as an outworking of the gospel, were commanded to love one another and consider the interest of the others more important, then why wouldn’t that apply to us today?

Learning and Loving 

There’s a non-Asian couple at our church who shared with me recently that they’ve never been part of a church comprised of so many Asian Americans before and that they love it. 

I asked them, “And you never feel uncomfortable?” 

“Uncomfortable? Never! We love it here. We’ve never been so embedded into a local body like this before and we’ve been church-goers for a long time. In fact, we are learning so much from your culture.” 

Let geography and theology, not worry or idolatry, drive this conversation.