“…but He will take me and all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory…”

… I heard as I descended the stairs of this church I was visiting. It was 2019, and I was visiting churches during my first year in college. I had spent all my church-going life at ACCCN and ACCCNW, with almost no experience in majority-white churches. This is the fifth church I had visited, and it was clear that there was something different already during the worship service. But when I walked down the stairs that Sunday, I heard a child reciting answers from the Heidelberg Catechism.

I had never heard of the Heidelberg Catechism before. I later learned that this middle-school girl was somewhat of a catechism-prodigy, memorizing the First Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, and much of the Westminster Larger Catechism by the time I graduated college. Though this child was not representative of all the children at this church, it was a good example of what the church valued when it came to their children—they took seriously the Bible’s command to

“bring your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

As I started to get involved in Bethel Presbyterian Church (in the OPC denomination), I had numerous opportunities to visit the homes of the families at the church. I realized that catechesis was just the surface of the daily and weekly rhythm of a Christian family. I saw families have morning and evening worship every day, with children from newborns to adult children. I even saw a family maintain daily worship of God in their hectic family of five crying children. And I wondered, how come I had never heard of this before? Why did my friends and I, growing up in our churches, never learn of the fundamental aspects of our faith in our families? Why did our Christian parents not read the Bible with us and pray with us? Why did families send their children to Chinese school, swim practice, violin lessons, or track competitions, rather than go to church?

Eventually, it was clear to me and my church leaders that I should go to seminary after college graduation. When I got to the seminary, I looked around, and noticed a lot of different people. Indeed, my seminary is much more diverse than I expected. People from Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Uganda, Senegal, Brazil, Canada, Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico. And I saw Korean Americans, African Americans, Appalachians, Alaskans, and much more. There were more than 10 Chinese students. But I never met a Chinese American like me.

Then, I reflected on my experience. I remembered that I had a Korean and a Malaysian as my youth pastors. I remembered that the Chinese churches in my college area had Korean youth pastors. And I recognized that the Chinese churches next to the seminary had white and Korean youth pastors. I could count on one hand the amount of Chinese American pastors I know. But it is not that Chinese Americans do not exist. And there are plenty of Chinese churches, though perhaps not as many as Korean churches. But not only do Chinese churches graduate less ministers, they seem, to me, to graduate less Christians in general.

During these past 4-6 years, I have had a lot to mull over. I have watched from afar all the happenings of the ACCCs in Atlanta. I have rejoiced from afar over any good news, and—unfortunately—often mourned with y’all over the disappointments in ministry. You could characterize my attitude towards the ACCC family as a concerned child that has grown up and has thought about his upbringing a little too much. I have thought a lot about the questions above, and I do have a few answers, some more comprehensive than others, some more helpful than others. I am sure that these things are already known by many, yet I might still be able to provide some insight to church members and leaders. Below, I would like to share a few things I have learned from my presbyterian church itself, and a few things I have learned from comparing it to Chinese churches.

The main thing I learned from these Gospel-preaching presbyterian churches I attended was that they valued raising children “in the Lord.” They did this in two ways: theologically and practically.

Theologically, they believed that their children were “children of the covenant;” they were part of the body of God and should be treated and discipled in the whole counsel of God, and not just in the fundamental elements of the gospel every week, month, and year. They catechized their children to give them answers to life’s most important questions, building in their children, from an early year, a Christian worldview. If we do not disciple our children, the culture will. And I think, if anyone, we Chinese churches know this fact painfully intimately.

Secondly, they practically took measures to raise their children in the Lord. Their belief in Jesus led them to maturity in the faith, and one of those aspects was discipling their children and guiding their path through the Bible. They read the Bible, prayed the Bible, and sang the Bible with their children on their own initiative. They saw that the Great Commission was not just fulfilled outside of their homes, but inside their homes as well.

As I compared this with Chinese churches, I saw that the biggest obstacle is that most Chinese church members are new believers. The most common testimony in a Chinese congregation in America is that they found Christ after moving to America, either in a fellowship, or a retreat, or a service (compare this with the Korean church, who already believed in Christ before they moved to America). This late conversion creates two problems: one for the parents, and one for the children.

The late conversion of parents creates a lack of Christian maturity in Chinese congregations. Most Chinese congregations in America do not have many models of mature Christian living. There is low awareness that Christians need to be different in their lifestyle than non-Christians. This is especially true for raising children. Because Christian parents do not change their child-raising habits after conversion, their Chinese American children become no different from the child of a completely secular parent.

The late conversion of parents also encounters another, more difficult problem: it is often too late for their children to accept a wholesale religious change in their family. For those families that have tried to start family worship, take their children to church and youth group, pray with their children, etc., they have often found much resistance from their children. Many, if not most, families have children that are already in 5th-10th grade when they become Christian. Their children are already accustomed to worldly habits like hours of social media consumption, video game addiction, academic idolatry, drugs, or sports mania. In this case, it is extremely hard to convince children to respect and obey their parents in a new routine in life. This is often exacerbated by only one parent believing, marital tensions, or insubordination of children due to harsh or unwise parenting techniques.

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So, what is the way forward for the Chinese church? How can we take seriously the call of the Gospel for our next generation, so that our children and our children’s children do not become the modern-day Book of Judges? Here are some ideas:

1. We should encourage all parents to have a deeper understanding of what the Gospel requires of us in our regular Christian lives, especially in child-raising. This should start in the pulpit, with pastors emphasizing the demands of the Gospel upon the various parts of the lives of Chinese congregants, including raising children. This also means that parents should be taught to not rely exclusively on a 2-hour a week youth group to disciple their children; church leaders should show them how to go out of their way to instruct their children about the Lord at home.
2. We should endeavor to instruct parents of children that are still quite young to start a daily routine of family worship, in order that this routine might shape a child’s whole upbringing and worldview as they grow up.
3. For families with older children, we should encourage families to not be too ambitious, but to start small. Is a weekly, 30-min, devotional something too far out of reach? I think not. Is praying before you eat difficult? But I hope it is not too challenging.
4. We should, as a church, young and old, be praying for our children in the church, as well as children that have already graduated. We should pray for our own children, and for the children of other families.
5. Churches should encourage struggling families to learn from the few families that are able to disciple their children well.
6. As a long-term consideration, if churches do not have enough maturity in their congregation, partnering with a like-minded white church is a possibility. Though this is not realistic nor the best solution in every instance, I’ve seen ethnic church mergers with white churches effectively, including the thriving Wellspring Alliance Church in Wheaton, IL, and Madison Chinese Christian Church w/ Providence OPC in Madison, WI. In the former, there is one congregation in English; in the latter, there are two congregations: a more mature English congregation, along with a Chinese ministry. The more mature English congregation would not only help the parents, but it would also help the youth grow up surrounded by mature Christians, instead of just with themselves.

I pray that these memories, questions, and action items might prove insightful for families, church leaders, and even young adults that, like me, are reflecting on their time growing up. I am praying that all the Chinese churches in Atlanta might grow into mature and godly examples of Christian living, just as you have already shown yourself to be zealous in evangelism.