About Wheaton College

Wheaton College serves Jesus Christ and advances His Kingdom through excellence in liberal arts and graduate programs that educate the whole person to build the church and benefit society worldwide. Wheaton College is an explicitly Christian, academically rigorous, residential liberal arts college and graduate school located in Wheaton, Illinois, 25 miles west of downtown Chicago. The college is home to more than 40 undergraduate degrees in the liberal arts and sciences, and 18 graduate degrees, offered by top-quality professors from around the world who engage in robust research agendas. This Christian liberal arts approach to education and research expands intellectual horizons through engagement with the issues, ideas, and methods central to a broad array of disciplines. It trains students to think, read and write skillfully and prepares them to understand the complex challenges facing our communities and our world.

About The Humanitarian Disaster Institute of Wheaton College

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute (HDI) of Wheaton College is a faith-based academic research center dedicated to helping churches prepare and care for their communities. HDI helps address the needs of today’s world by applying the liberal arts to urgent contemporary societal challenges for the church: disasters, international development, migration, and more. HDI does this through research and research translation into distinctively Christian educational programs, professional training, resource development, outreach activities, and partnerships. Since launching HDI has created campus-wide opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to serve churches and communities in over 40 countries. In the first six months of the COVID pandemic, HDI’s resources trained more than 29,000 people around the globe.

About The Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC)

The Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC) seeks to see Asian American Christians established in their spiritual and cultural heritage. AACC is committed to amplifying the voices, issues, and histories of Asian Americans in the church and larger society. AACC aims to equip, empower, and encourage Asian American Christians towards holistic discipleship, helping them unlock and unleash the fullness of their God-given gifts.

About Flagstone Foundation

Flagstone Foundation is a volunteer-based, faith-oriented non-profit organization comprised of devoted Christians who share a desire to glorify God through various community services.

Vision: To be an incubator rooted in Christ, based on volunteerism, and promoting self-governance.

Mission: To cultivate the spirit of volunteerism with the heart of Christ.

About the Seminar

On July 9, 2024, the unveiling Seminar of the comparative research report exploring Chinese and Korean Churches (CKC) was held in the Courtyard Gaithersburg Washingtonian Center in Maryland. This event is sponsored by the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation, hosted by the Flagstone Foundation, and co-hosted by the Wheaton College HDI and AACC.

The Seminar is designed to be interactive, emphasize the research’s practical applications, and reach unity in the spiritual. It aims to foster meaningful conversations among Chinese and Korean pastors, elders, campus ministries, researchers, and other ministries in the DMV area.

We had 8 pastors from the Korean Church, 31 pastors and ministers from the Chinese Church, 11 researchers from Institutes or Seminary, 6 Campus and Family Ministers, and 7 family members attend the Seminar. 23 staff and volunteers from foundations served this event.

Opening Speech

by Mr. Dao Feng He from Dao Feng and Angela Foundation

Mr. He, the president of the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation, delivered the Opening Speech. He shared his life journey and the Foundation’s transformation and indicated why the Foundation funded the Research.

“The ‘Comparative Study of Chinese and Korean Congregations in Greater Washington D.C. Area’ report released today was a research topic proposed in 2021. We funded Wheaton College HDI to conduct a comparative survey study to find out why Korean Americans have a much higher proportion of Christian faith than Chinese Americans and why the generational transition of pastors in Korean American churches seems better than in Chinese churches.”

Mr. He then exclaimed the Foundation’s mission and position for the Work of the Lord.

“The Dao Feng & Angela Foundation does not directly evangelize. Together with its partner organization, Bedrock Foundation, we are committed to supporting and promoting the unity of evangelical ministries in Christ, supporting new visions, promoting new ideas, and applying new tools, thereby helping usher in an evangelical revival to protect the roots of universal values.”

Finally, Mr. He thanked the Wheaton College HDI team, participants, and volunteers and looked forward to more opportunities to promote unity among churches and ministries in Greater Washington.

As Jesus prayed for us before He was crucified: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.” (John 17:22) “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:25-26)”

Research Report

by Wheaton College HDI

As the representatives of the research team, Dr. Jamie Goodwin, Dr. Andrew Lee, and Ms. Joy Lee delivered the presentation of the CKC report.

Dr. Jamie Goodwin introduced the background, the methodology, and the key findings of the CKC report project.

Dr. Andrew Lee shared a literature review of the Chinese and Korean Churches, explaining their differences and the historical context.

Ms. Joy Lee discussed the case studies of local churches that contributed to the key findings, providing a piece of the puzzle to the CKC report.

You can download the full version of the CKC report using the link button here.

Keynote: What Can the Church Do? Asian American Mental Health

by Dr. Charles Liu from Wheaton College

Based on the key findings of the CKC report, the Seminar chose two major problems that both the Chinese and Korean Churches are facing. One is the mental health issue; the other is the loss of the young generation.

Dr. Charles Liu, an assistant professor of Psychology at Wheaton College, shared his research’s key findings and pointed out that “Stigma (耻辱,오명) towards mental illness significantly shapes many of our understandings and responses.”

Dr. Charles Liu’s presentation addressed the pain points of the local pastors and ministries facing the increasing need for mental health services.

“This is the first time for me to sit down and listen to a professional psychologist’s analysis of the mental illness and dilemma in the Asian American community.” One of the pastors said, “Although I don’t completely agree with all the speaker’s points, he pointed out very important issues that we intentionally or unintentionally avoid discussing.”

Keynote: How can we support the flourishing of the faith of young people?

by Dr. Raymond Chang from AACC & TENX10 at Fuller Seminary

Dr. Raymond Chang shared a series of data from current research indicating that churches are losing young generations. Currently, over 1 million young people are drifting away from church. If nothing changes, by 2050, 35-42 million young people are expected to disaffiliate from the Christian Faith.

Dr. Ray cited the data and pointed out that Irrelevant, Unloving, and Inauthentic are the three major factors that drove young people to leave the church.

Rebuilding the confidence of the church has become an important and urgent issue for Churches.

When it comes to Asian American Christianity, the trend is similar. According to one of the citations in AACC’s State of Asian American Christianity Report, there was an 8% decline in Asian American Christianity from 2012-2022/23, and Korean and Chinese/Taiwanese Christians saw the largest declines. The report exclaimed three challenges the Asian Americans were facing: Diminishing, Abandoning, and Self-Erasing. Dr. Ray provided a list of contextual issues that Asian American churches should consider, and suggestions for the church leaders to take the next steps. However, before taking action, Dr. Ray emphasized an efficient approach is to schedule a listening tour and ask young people questions.

Closing Speech

by Rev. John Lee, the Academic Dean of Leland Seminary

We are honored to have Rev. John Lee to deliver the closing remarks for the Seminar.

Rev. John Lee cited German sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s book Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World to describe the problem in the modern world and a possible solution.

“In the modern world, acceleration is a problem. Things are changing so fast that, along with acceleration, there is alienation. It’s not just the Asian churches. We are living in a world where it’s impossible to slow down the rate of change, but nevertheless, if we help people to resonate meaning, to connect, connect with one another, connect with God, connect with their history, connect with their community, then they will thrive. And so if God has created us for relationship resonance, then there is real hope that these young people may find the life that’s connected. So the key is the connection, connection to one’s personal history, own ethnic history, national history, but also history as a people of God.”

Rev. John Lee concluded the whole day meeting as a “mixture of hope and to-do list” and expressed his feelings and expectations.

“I feel at the end, more hope than the despair, more possibilities than dead ends….We need researchers and scholars who are putting in the work to find out trends and understand why people leave, and also the flip side, what would keep them connected? We know through all this it’s the Holy Spirit. It’s not human ingenuity; it’s the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is speaking through wisdom, not just for wisdom. And so my hope is that we come into a place of prayer, hope, study, and conversation, and if we do this in various ways, it’s going to get better, not worse. Things will change for the better.”

Acknowledgment

As a volunteer foundation, Flagstone Foundation has no full-time staff. The Seminar was organized by 23 volunteers in DMV areas. Please allow us to express our sincere gratitude to the volunteers for their hard work.

We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to all the guests who attended the event. Thank you for taking a full day out of your busy schedule to participate in the on-site discussion and contribute your views.