A Collective Vision:
Why Plant An English-Speaking Branch Church?
First Word
More than 14 years ago, the following question was raised: “Is OCM (Oversea Chinese Mission Church) ready to plant an English-speaking church?” At the time, the English-speaking congregation was already growing in numbers and spiritual maturity.
On the one hand, many worshippers in the English-speaking congregation are Overseas-Born Chinese. Some, having grown up in America, share a cognitive orientation richly mixed with American and Chinese cultural traits. Others, who were raised in Hong Kong or Taiwan, prefer to worship in English, but their mindset remains Chinese. During worship service, they sing and listen in English, but as they walk out of the sanctuary, they converse with each other in Cantonese or Mandarin.
On the other hand, further talks relating to the needs of ABC’s to find a church home led to the realization that perhaps it was God’s time for OCM to start a branch church among the American-Born Chinese. Casual conversations led to earnest prayers. Earnest prayers led to more serious discussions. After much dialogue among the church leaders, the Pastoral Managerial Team and the Steering Committee at OCM gave their permission and blessing to start an American-Born Chinese branch plant.
In the spring of 1997, God gave us a collective vision to undertake a new church work among the American-Born Chinese. The English-speaking congregation was asked to not just sit there, but to be arrested by this collective vision. For weeks, they received a yellow card in their hands, asking for their commitment to prayer for their involvement in the new church.
Church planting has always been God’s way to reach the unreached and church the unchurched with His salvation. The Bible observes the numerical growth of Christians in the first century Palestine and explains that the reason for this phenomenal expansion was the planting of churches in communities that were unreached and unchurched (Acts 9:31, 11:19-21).
When Pastor Torrey Shih founded OCM in 1961, his vision was to reach the Chinese community through evangelism and church planting. One of OCM’s church goals has been to plant a branch church every five years. Since then, it has started four other churches in the greater New York Metropolitan area.
In 1985, Boon Parish was planted in Flushing, Queens. By 1992, Jireh Church of Aberdeen, N. J. and Grace Church of Teaneck, N. J. were established. In 1994, a granddaughter church was added to OCM when Boon Parish undertook the Community Church of Great Neck in Long Island (formerly named Cornerstone Church).
The Birth of Vision Church
On the first Sunday of July in 1997, a group of about 40 faithful Christians left the safe haven of OCM’s morning English-speaking congregation and became the core members of Vision Church. More than 100 people attended our first worship service in the afternoon on the second floor fellowship hall. Many worshippers came from the morning Chinese and English congregations to show their support and encouragement. Some people, who had helped start the morning English-speaking ministry more than 20 years ago, remembered fondly how they had also begun on the second floor.
Many in the core group were nervous wrecks though. There were too many questions and not enough answers: How many people would show up next Sunday? Are our human and financial resources adequate? Do we have enough committed and gifted people to sustain a meaningful ministry? Besides these nagging questions, a quiet but intense debate arose concerning the wisdom of planting an ABC branch church. Some asked who would be Vision Church’s pastor. Others did not think we should plant an English-speaking church at all.
The dust of some of the unsettled issues mentioned above continues to swirl at OCM. No doubt, for some, these issues will never be settled. Yet the progress we have made is self-evident. The core group is increasingly more convinced that the collective vision we embrace is the right one. They deeply believe in its mission. Many work hard and tirelessly to make Vision Church a viable ministry. Our attendance has more than doubled the size of our core group. And all would agree that God has done a marvelous work in Vision Church for OCM.
Mission Statement
The Vision Church’s call to ministry among the American-Born Chinese is guided and guarded by its mission statement:
To build a culturally sensitive and spiritually
dynamic urban church that would impact our community and city
culturally, socially, economically and spiritually
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Vision Church endeavors to build a culturally sensitive ministry. A significant debate arose during the International Congress on World Evangelism in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974. The issues surrounding cultural pluralism and church planting discussed there are relevant to Vision Church’s mission. Several observations can be drawn from that discussion.
The Chinese community in North America is at once diverse and complex. We do not live in a homogeneous community. It has many people groups that are different in cultural and social orientation. Adaptation of Christianity to the culture of each people group is crucially important. If the church is to succeed in reaching its targeted community, its culture has to set the context for those to come. To serve them well, we need to understand the way they think, speak and act. We must resist the notion that there can be only one Chinese church in North America. Like branches on a tree, branch churches may be from the same mother church, but each is different in its expression of faith and practice. To be sure, the ministry function of the church should never change. The God-given function of the church of Jesus Christ has always been to proclaim the good news of salvation, to nurture those who have responded to the good news, and to equip them for a life of celebration and ministry of the good news.
However, the form of the church’s function should change to reflect its cultural context. The style of its worship, the practice of its pastoral work, the structure of its government and the infrastructure of its community must adjust accordingly. Effective communication of the gospel depends not only on a thorough understanding of its message content, but also on an adherence to its cultural setting in which the message is shared.
Most Christians rejoice in the thought that God has accepted all cultures. As diverse as we are culturally and socially, in the words of St. Paul, we are endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. . . . till we all come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. . . . (Ephesians 4: 3, 13). While working toward the unity of faith, we must appreciate our cultural and social differences, and realize that all of us like to become Christians without crossing cultural, social and linguistic barriers.
No one would argue that each culture is a complex mixture of good and bad. The Chinese and Western cultures are no exception. Not everything we do in our culture is pleasing to God. Ultimately, we will stand before the judgment of God.
With that understanding, Vision Church also endeavors to build a spiritually dynamic ministry. We are doing church work with a generation of people who are Biblically illiterate and morally ambivalent. They come to church from a culture that is pessimistic and cynical. Many see their lives as a series of linear relationships filled with broken promises and unmet commitments. The society they grew up in has shattered their trust and loyalty. Self-absorbed and individualistic, this second generation of Chinese-Americans has a personal agenda that is filled with human and social needs.
They are also highly educated, professionally competent and economically resourceful. No doubt, they are well equipped to influence politically and socially the Chinese community and the greater society in a significant way. The ethnocentricity of many of the culturally Chinese does not tint their view of themselves and the world. As a potential new generation of Christians, they are probably more prepared culturally and psychologically to do cross-cultural evangelism and world missions than the present Chinese church. The call of Vision Church is to do ministry that will give these ‘urban nomads’ a sense of God’s presence that is both life inspiring and life-changing. Beyond their empirical existence of the physical and material, we want to authenticate the transcendence of God in their lives. Being human under God in Jesus Christ gives transcendent significance that is more than the total sum of their paycheck, stuff consumption and social pleasures.
Thus, Vision Church’s ministry centers around worship where a community gathers to celebrate its life in God through Jesus Christ. It seeks to cultivate a place of belonging where those who come can find a group of people for mutual support and acceptance. It also strives to provide an opportunity where members are trained and equipped for involvement in the life and ministry of the church.
However, being culturally sensitive and spiritually dynamic in church work is not an end in itself. Ultimately, we want to reach this generation of ABC’s to make them mature Christians in God’s kingdom and good citizens in society. Our mission states that we purpose to impact our community and city culturally, socially, economically and spiritually with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
That is the justification for our existence. How can we as Vision Church make our community notice that we exist? What kind of impact are we making, if any, in this great city of New York? The presence of Vision Church can only be felt by others when its members make their presence felt in places where they live, work and play. The way its members make money and decisions, the way they spend money and leisure and the way they give of their time, energy and money can have a profound impact in the Chinese community, the city and perhaps even the world.
That is why OCM planted Vision Church. That is the new vision for a new church.
After serving Vision Church for nearly five years, Pastor John Ng has moved on to pursue a full-time teaching position at Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, NY.