Growing Healthy Asian American Churches

Volume editors Peter Cha, Steve Kang and Helen Lee, with a team of veteran Asian American pastors and church leaders, offer eight key values for healthy Asian American churches. Growing Healthy Asian American Churches draws on years of expertise and is filled with practical examples from landmark churches like Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles, NewSong Church and Lighthouse Christian Church and with insights from pioneering leaders like Ken Fong, David Gibbons, Grace May, Wayne Ogimachi and Soong-Chan Rah. It is an essential guide for Asian American church leaders wanting to help their congregations achieve health and growth.

"This book is beneficial at the grassroots for those carrying out this ministry. Missiologically, it is of interest for those exploring how a cultural group ministers to its own and beyond."--Daniel L. Wong, Missiology 35, no. 1 (2007), "This timely volume is a spiritually sensitive introduction to these rapidly growing churches. It features dynamic congregations on both coasts and a few places in between. Different chapters . . . take up many of the pressing issues that bear with special force on Asian Americans. . . . I was most struck by the collaborative nature of this book, . . . and also by the consistent reference to local congregations as 'households.' In these instances--and more--insight into the singular perils and potential of Asian American church life quickly became instructive Christian wisdom for believers of any ethnicity."--Mark Noll, Christianity Today, June 2006, "In a world in which many people are on the move around the world, the nature and ministry of immigrant churches are of critical importance. This important book examines the problems and potentials these churches have, and gives deep, biblically based recommendations for building healthy churches as households of worship, fellowship and mission. While the focus is on Asian American churches, this book is a must-read not only for all those working with other immigrant churches but also for North American churches and Christians who have much to learn from the vibrant life and outreach of these Asian American churches, and their response to modernity and globalization."--Paul Hiebert, Distinguished Professor of Mission and Anthropology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and author of Incarnational Ministry, "One can only dream of being a part of a group like the Catalyst Leadership Forum! It was a dream come true to share fellowship and envision what Asian American churches could be with such a remarkable group. Their wisdom, their commitment to the church, their humility--and now to have it wrapped up in a single book--are a rare and precious gift. Like good Asian food, savor it!"--Paul Tokunaga, Asian American Ministry Coordinator, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and author of Invitation to Lead: Guidance for Emerging Asian American Leaders, "This book is truly prophetic for our times--a call for Asian American congregations to embody grace and truth in new ways, as Jesus did. It's essential reading for anyone wanting to learn how God is moving in the Asian American church or serving in this context."--Russell Jeung, assistant professor, Asian American Studies, San Francisco State University, and author of Faithful Generations: Race and New Asian American Churches,

Peter Cha is associate professor of pastoral theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He received his graduate training in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.Div. And Th.M.) and received his doctorate in religion in society and personality from Northwestern University. He previously served as a campus staff member with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and as a youth pastor, church planter and senior pastor. His publications include chapters in Following Jesus without Dishonoring Your Parents (InterVarsity Press), articles in Korean Americans and Their Religions (Pennsylvania State University Press) in Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns (Zondervan) and in This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity and Christian Faith (Oxford University Press), as well as articles in several scholarly and denominational journals.