ABSTRACT MULTILINGUAL MINISTRY OF OAKLAND BURMESE

ABSTRACT
MULTILINGUAL MINISTRY OF OAKLAND BURMESE MISSION
BAPTIST CHURCH: A CASE STUDY
LONE WAH LAZUM
In recent years, the number of Burmese immigrants in the United States of
America increased with the arrival of refugees from Burmese ethnic groups such as
Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Rakhain, Chin, and a few Bamar. With the influx of diverse
cultures, Burmese immigrant churches, like the researcher's church, faced uncertainty in
the direction of the ministry. The challenge was to find a way to resolve issues relating to
ethnicity, cultural relevancy, and meet future generational needs. The focus of this
research was related to questions regarding the kind of ministry paradigm that could help
resolve the needs of the Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church.
This researcher initiated a research project using the case-study method. He
conducted surveys and interviews, documentary research, and participated in programs
on site of four local churches. Of them, two Burmese immigrant churches were surveyed
on their Burmese language and ethnic ministry paradigm. Two other Asian immigrant
churches, Korean and Chinese in origin, were researched regarding their English
language ministry. The purpose of this project was to establish an effective ministry
model to administer to Burmese immigrants in Oakland, California, by implementing
principles based on this project's findings. Thus, the hypothesis of this project was a
multilingual ministry model that provides for a multiethnic and generational ministry in
the North American culture context.
Approval
By
The Doctoral Project Committee
Of Temple Baptist Seminary
Accepted by the Doctor of Ministry Committee in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of Ministry degree
Committee Members:
__________________________________
Date____________________
Dr. Wayne Layton (Committee Chairman)
________________________________________
Date____________________
Dr. Andrew T. Alexson (Committee Member)
__________________________________
Dr. Roger Stiles (Committee Member)
Date_____________________
MULTILINGUAL MINISTRY OF OAKLAND BURMESE MISSION
BAPTIST CHURCH: A CASE STUDY
A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO
THE FACULTY OF THE TEMPLE BAPTIST SEMINARY
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF MINISTRY
BY
LONE WAH LAZUM
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE
OCTOBER 15, 2012
© 2012
LONE WAH LAZUM
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ii
CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES..................................................................................ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................xi
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION OF THE RESEARCH STUDY......................................1
Context of the Project..............................................................................................5
Project Rational............................................................................................6
Hypothesis....................................................................................................7
Research Problem....................................................................................................7
Research Question.......................................................................................9
The Subsidiary Research Questions...........................................................10
Significance of the Project.....................................................................................10
Professional Goals.....................................................................................10
Ministry Goal.............................................................................................11
Conclusion to the Introduction...............................................................................11
Potential Beneficiaries of the Project.........................................................13
Chapter Previews.......................................................................................15
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................17
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Four-Focused Study of Church Models.................................................................18
Generational Classification Model............................................................19
Multiethnic Church Model.........................................................................22
Functionalized Classification Model.........................................................26
Emergence Church Model.........................................................................30
Theological foundation..........................................................................................42
Theological Influences...............................................................................43
Foundation of the Church..........................................................................45
Theoretical Foundation..........................................................................................56
Study of Burmese Church Culture.............................................................56
Causative Factors.......................................................................................59
Significant of the Problem.....................................................................................67
Direction for Solution............................................................................................68
Conclusion to Literature Review...........................................................................69
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH PROCEDURE AND STRATEGIC PLAN........................71
Methodology..........................................................................................................71
Instruments and Data Analysis..................................................................73
iv
Case Study Churches and Criteria for Selection........................................76
Development of Interview Questions and Observation of Senior Pastor Role......77
Designation of Case-Study Interview/ Survey Questions......................................80
Method of Measurement........................................................................................88
Three Dimensional Scopes........................................................................91
Growth Aspect...............................................................................91
Leadership Quality.........................................................................91
People Factors................................................................................91
Five-Focused Function Assessments.........................................................92
Teaching.........................................................................................92
Fellowship......................................................................................92
Worship..........................................................................................92
Evangelism.....................................................................................93
Service............................................................................................93
Conclusion to the Methodology.............................................................................93
CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY RESULTS............................................95
Burmese Immigrant Churches Case Studies .........................................................95
v
Case Study of Myanmar Christian Assembly, Bangkok, Thailand...........98
Case Study of Judson Baptist Church of Singapore, Singapore..............119
Structural Analysis of MCA and JBCS (Burmese and Ethnic Ministry).146
Asian Immigrant Churches Case Studies.............................................................153
Case Study of New Life Church, Fremont, California............................155
Case Study of First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco, California.161
Structural Analysis of NLC and FCBC (English Language Ministry)....166
Chapter Conclusion..............................................................................................168
CHAPTER V. DEVELOPING A NEW CHURCH MODEL IN OBMBC.....................172
Focusing on OBMBC Ministry Needs.................................................................172
Implication of the Principles in OBMBC Ministry..............................................174
The Plans that Build on Pragmatism........................................................175
The Plans that Found on Biblical Principles............................................176
Essential Elements in Ministry and Implications.................................................179
Leadership................................................................................................179
Discipleship..............................................................................................184
Evangelism...............................................................................................191
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Ministry Structure Implication.............................................................................200
Constructing the Infrastructure............................................................................207
Method of Implementation..................................................................................213
Chapter Conclusion..............................................................................................218
CHAPTER VI. CONCLUSION AND FURTHER STUDY...........................................220
Conclusion of the Project.....................................................................................220
Future Burmese Immigrant Churches..................................................................228
Further Study and Implications............................................................................230
APPENDIXES.................................................................................................................233
Appendix- A: Interview Questionnaires and Senior Pastors...............................233
Appendix - B: Case Study Questionnaires and Surveys......................................245
Appendix - C: Myanmar Christian Assembly, Bangkok.....................................249
Appendix - D: Judson Baptist Church of Singapore, Singapore.........................252
Appendix - E: New Life Church, Fremont..........................................................256
Appendix - F: First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco...............................258
Appendix - G: Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church..................................260
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................265
vii
viii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables
4.1. Programs and Activities of MCA and JBCS............................................................146
4.2. New Life Church English Service Survey................................................................157
4.3. FCBC English Language Ministry Survey...............................................................163
Figures
4.1. Burmese Immigrant Churches Senior Pastors' Inquiry...............................................96
4.2. Growth of Attendance in MCA.................................................................................106
4.3. Financial Growth of MCA........................................................................................106
4.4. Five Focused Functions of MCA..............................................................................111
4.5. Priority of MCA Ministry.........................................................................................113
4.6. MCA Burmese and Ethnic Ministry.........................................................................115
4.7. Growth of Attendance in JBCS.................................................................................128
4.8. Financial Growth of JBCS........................................................................................129
4.9. Five Focused Functions of JBCS..............................................................................136
4.10. Priority of JBCS Ministry.......................................................................................138
4.11. JBCS Burmese and Ethnic Ministry.......................................................................139
4.12. MCA Leadership and Ministry Infrastructure........................................................149
4.13. JBCS Leadership and Ministry Infrastructure........................................................150
4.14. New Life Church English Service Survey Response..............................................158
4.15. Philosophy of NLC Ministry Paradigm..................................................................160
4.16. FCBC English Services Survey Response..............................................................164
ix
4.17. Philosophy of FCBC Ministry Paradigm................................................................166
4.18. Four Churches' View on Language Ministry..........................................................170
5.1. Tri-Vision of OBMBC..............................................................................................208
5.2. Core Values of OBMBC...........................................................................................209
5.3. Mission Statement of OBMBC.................................................................................210
5.4. Ministry Strategy of OBMBC...................................................................................212
6.1. Philosophy of OBMBC Ministry Paradigm..............................................................225
x
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise God for enabling me to accomplish this challenging project. I thank my
Savior Jesus Christ for His gracious mercy that causes me to be who I am and what I
have become. I also thank the Lord for Temple Baptist Seminary (TBS) for its
outstanding academic training and true evangelical spirit. I am grateful to my teachers,
advisors, and faculty members for their consistency and steadfastness in guiding me with
my study at TBS. Especially, I am thankful to my project advisor Dr. Wayne Layton and
the project committee, Dr. Roger Stiles and Dr. Andrew T. Alexson for their guidance
and concern of my doctoral project. Special thanks to Mrs. Nang Kai Lahpai, who edited
and gave additional counsel on the writing of this dissertation. I cannot thank her enough
for her dedication and endurance while editing my paper. Thanks to Miss. Mable Chow
for her additional editing work on my paper.
I also like to thank senior pastors, church leaders, and members of the Myanmar
Christian Assembly of Bangkok, the Judson Baptist Church of Singapore, New Life
Church of Fremont, and First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco, for their
participation and support in the interviews, surveys, group discussions, and document
research. I am obliged to them for their hospitality and kindness during my research
study. In addition, I appreciate the cooperation of all senior pastors of the Burmese
immigrant churches, who participated in my survey study.
I am thankful to all members and leaders of the Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist
Church (OBMBC) for their prayers and financial support throughout my doctoral study.
This project is dedicated to OBMBC members, in response to their kindness with a
grateful heart. I am greatly indebted to my parents and my family who believed in me and
encouraged me to pursue this study. To God be the glory!
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION OF THE RESEARCH STUDY
Aubrey Malphurs posed three organizational questions with regard to strategic
planning in local church ministry:
The first is the identity question, Who are we? This gets at the church's DNA. The
second is the direction question, Where are we going? This identifies the church's
mission and vision. A third is the ministry strategy question, How will we get
there? This addresses how the church will accomplish its mission and vision.1
The Burmese immigrant church like Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church needed to
ask herself those critical questions. The identity, direction, and strategy are needed in her
endeavor. The people of Burma (now known as Myanmar) are resettling in
unprecedented numbers in different parts of the world, in their quest for better economic
opportunities and freer political climates. Burmese immigrants are not an ethnically or
linguistically monolithic group. They come from different ethnic backgrounds, each with
their own unique traditions, cultures, languages, and belief systems. Many of these
Burmese immigrants happen to be Christian and political refugees from ethnic minority
groups. Devout in their Christian belief, and loyal to their cultural heritage, they seek to
establish Burmese churches, wherever they resettle, be it in the United States or
elsewhere.
Statistically, over 25,000 Burmese immigrants arrived in the United States during
the period of 1977 to 2000. This included Burmese from diverse ethnic minority groups
1
Aubrey Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning: A New Model for Church and Ministry
Leaders, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005) 25.
1
such as the Kachin, Karen, Chin, and Karenni. The largest of these groups were the
Karen. More than 12,000 Karen arrived from refugee camps in Thailand from October
2006 to August 2007 alone.2 The editors Donald A. Ranard and Sandy Barron stated,
To date, the United States has resettled nearly 5,000 refugees from Burma,
according to the Department of States Worldwide Refugee Admissions
Processing System (WRAPS). Of these, about 3,500 have been Karen. More than
1,000 Burmans and about 400 Chin have also been resettled. Most of the Karen
and Burmans have been resettled from refugee camps in Thailand. Most of the
Chin have been resettled from Malaysia.3
More than four hundred Burmese ethnic refugees resettled in the city of Oakland.4
Among them, the majorities were from the Karen, Kayar, and Chin tribes. Most of the
Chin and Karen refugees were Christians but a few were Buddhist Karen. Becky
Palmstrom, a reporter with the Oakland North News link had this to say, regarding the
first hand experiences of Burmese refugees in the researcher's church.
On a Sunday earlier this month, anyone looking in on the afternoon service at the
Oakland Burmese Missionary Baptist church, down near Broadway and West
Grand, would have seen a group of the newcomers huddled in the long pews,
dressed in brightly embroidered traditional clothing that was designed more for
the hot and humid jungle climes of the Burmese border than a fall day in the Bay
Area. It was a high-ceilinged room splintered through with darkness, sunlight and
un-stained wood. The tired group of newcomers were as close as Oakland gets to
time travelers; they had come from a world of subsistence farming, where the
roads are unpaved and water comes from wells and rivers, not taps. They clasped
2
Huping Ling. editor. Emerging voices: experiences of underrepresented Asian Americans.
(Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008) 199–217.
3
Ranard, Donald A. and Sandy Barron, editors, Refugees From Burma: Their Backgrounds and
Refugee Experiences (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 2007), 1.
4
Viji Sundaram, "Burmese Refugees in Oakland Living in Extreme Poverty" New America
Media, http://www.newamericamedia.org/2011/12 (accessed February 5, 2012).
2
their babies close, watching a service conducted in a language that they didn’t
understand.5
Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church (OBMBC) was established in the city of
Oakland, California, in 2006, with the vision of reaching out to local communities,
especially to Burmese immigrant families. The church started with a few faithful
Burmese immigrant Christian families, but in later years, the church was overwhelmed
with the arrival of refugees. In 2007, there were about 200 to 250 attendees in weekly
church services, filled with newly arrived refugee families. Seventy percent of the
congregations were refugees. However, in 2008, some people from the Karen ethnic
group desired to separate from the church to have their own language worship service,
leaving the church. In addition, a few families departed for other states in search of
employment opportunities. Today, about 150 members remain in the researcher’s
ministry.
Most of the refugees who came to the United States had little to no education. The
refugees faced extreme challenges to survive in Oakland, California. Reporter
Christopher Coen made this analysis, based on Dr. Russell Jeung’s need assessment
study:
Oakland’s refugee population from Burma:

63 percent are unemployed. Those that are employed have sporadic, low-wage
jobs.
5
Becky Palmstrom, "New Refugees from Rural Burma, Grappling with Modern California, Find
An Ally in Oakland" Oakland North, http://www.oaklandnorth.net/2009/10/19, (accessed February 5,
2012).
3

57 percent live below the federal threshold for extreme poverty, earning less than
$1,000 per month for an average household size of five. Most of the remainder
live below the federal poverty line.

38 percent speak no English at all. Another 28 percent speak English poorly.

74 percent report that lack of English is their biggest barrier to accessing health
care.

47 percent report that English classes are the most-needed service in their
community6
This researcher strongly believed that OBMBC must come up with a viable strategy to
serve their special needs. It had to reach out to Burmese immigrant families as well as
local communities with the Gospel of Christ. In keeping with Malphurs' guidelines, the
church needed to determine its identity, direction, and strategy. OBMBC must understand
its direction, strategy to reach its goal, and uphold its identity in a culturally and
linguistically diverse community. This project sought to devise a strategic plan, one that
would serve as a foundation for establishing an effective Burmese immigrant church.
A typical Burmese immigrant church consists of two types: 1. “first generation”
or a newly arrived Burmese immigrant with limited or no English language skill and 2.
the younger, “Burmese-American” generation who are more fluent in English than the
“first generation” Burmese. The congregation may also sometimes include minority
ethnic groups, whose primary language is not Burmese. The challenge was to meet the
needs of all these different linguistic groups while retaining their cultures and traditional
values in the context of a Burmese immigrant church.
6
Christopher Coen, "Almost 60% of Oakland's Myanmar Refugees Living in Extreme Poverty"
Friends of Refugees, http://www.forefugees.com, (accessed February 6, 2012).
4
The Context of the Project
The context of this project was based on three challenges: a Burmese language
ministry, an English language ministry, and the ethnic ministry in the researcher's church.
It has prompted research work in two Burmese immigrant churches and two other Asian
immigrant churches. The significance of the selection of these four case-study churches is
stated in Chapter III. The two selected Burmese churches were Myanmar Christian
Assembly of Bangkok, Thailand, and Judson Baptist Church of Singapore. The
challenges of these churches were related directly to the researcher's ministry needs. They
had similar ministry such as culture, language, and people. They seemed to have the same
characteristic of multiethnic and multigenerational congregants. They were decade-old
Burmese speaking churches in a cross-cultural setting, in Thailand and Singapore. These
churches conveyed information on how their ministries were structured and provided
strategic approaches to meet the culture, tradition, and language needs of their
congregations. The two vital criteria for the selection of these two Burmese churches
were a Burmese language ministry in a cross-culture setting and the unification of ethnic
groups in the ministry. The researcher limited the number of case-study churches due to
relevancy, time issue, and priority in his ministry’s needs.
The study of two Asian immigrant churches, Korean and Chinese, were
conducted to gain an understanding of their strategic plans in an English language
ministry. The researcher was aware of the cultural differences between Burmese and
Chinese/ Korean communities, but selected them for study as all Asian immigrant
5
churches face the same challenge of meeting the needs of a newer generation English
language ministry.
Project Rationale
This researcher proposed a church model that met the needs of Burmese
immigrant generations, drawing from his 6 years experience as Senior Pastor of the
Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church. That was a multilingual ministry paradigm,
keeping in mind that the problems facing emerging Burmese immigrant churches in the
United States were generational as well as linguistic in nature. The launch of this project
came from the three challenges the researcher's ministry faced. First, the Burmese
immigrant generation, which sought to build Burmese language speaking churches in the
United States, desired to maintain their culture, language, and worship systems familiar
to them in the homeland. The second group was the Burmese-American generation,
children of Burmese immigrant families, born and educated in the United States, no
longer proficient in the Burmese language and required an English-speaking ministry. A
strategic plan to minister to this particular generation was needed in Burmese immigrant
churches. Thirdly, other ethnic language groups, such as the Kachin, Karen, and Chin,
who preferred to have their own language speaking church, seeking to separate from the
existing Burmese immigrant churches. It was an urgent need for researcher's church to
understand their aspirations and finding a way to resolve disunity among ethnic groups.
6
Hypothesis
The hypothesis of this project was that a church thrives and grows amidst the
challenges of bringing together diverse ethnic groups and generations within a
multilingual ministry. A multilingual ministry model was the solution to OBMBC's
needs. Through this project, this researcher also hoped to achieve long-term effectiveness
in ministry, improvement in pastoral leadership skills, while building an effective church.
Research Problem
The Burmese Immigrant Generation (BIG), were those born in Burma who
immigrated to the United States, seeking to plant Burmese language churches. They
modeled their church after their former homeland churches. The BIG were the pioneers
and builders of Burmese Christian churches, upholding Burmese traditions and customs
in their form of worship. Their aim was to have an exclusive Burmese language worship
service and ministry. However, this notion limited the potential of Burmese churches
when reaching out to people of other cultures in their communities. The Burmesespeaking church limited its ministry potential by its single-language usage. Nevertheless,
this researcher believed that the need to have a Burmese language speaking church would
prevail so long as Burmese immigrants continued to arrive to the United States. Recent
trends had shown that with the increase in immigrant arrival from Burma, the need for
Burmese language ministry was growing. The problem with the BIG was impairing
nature of how Burmese immigrant church could reach out to culturally diverse
7
communities, while maintaining their own traditions, cultures, and language. It excluded
other non-Burmese by way of language usage and culture selectiveness. A solution was
needed at the researcher's church to reach a diverse cultural community.
From the Burmese Immigrant Generation came the Burmese-American
Generation (BAG), offspring of the BIG who were typically more familiar with the
English language than their parents’ native tongues. They were important, as they were
the youth of the church, the future of the church. The problem was that they were not
inclusive for the Burmese language worship service because of their lack of
understanding the Burmese language. They needed an English speaking worship service,
fellowship, and ministry. The new generation slowly faded away from Burmese churches
due to the language, cultural, and social barriers. Either the BAG departed their parents'
Burmese churches or they would attend other English speaking churches. Arguably, this
issue was a very prevalent problem for immigrant churches in the United States. This
researcher believed that Burmese immigrant churches had to restructure their ministry in
order to meet this new generation's needs. The consequences of ignoring this need would
eventually destroy the family values and the very purpose of the church itself. The
question then was how to accommodate BAG in a Burmese church, while simultaneously
fulfilling their spiritual needs, fostering a sense of belonging, and providing them with a
place to serve.
Burma is a multiethnic country with over a hundred ethnic tribes, each with its
own language and tradition. What loosely ties them together is the Burmese language, the
lingua franca and official language of the country. Many of the hills tribe minority ethnic
8
groups are Christians in a predominantly Buddhist country. The researcher's church is
made up of many of these ethnic groups such as the Karen, Kayar, Kachin, Chin, Bamar,
and Sino-Burmese, who come together to worship weekly. The researcher himself
belongs to the Kachin ethnic group. Burmese is the language used in the main worship
service on Sunday.
However, the unity of the church was in jeopardy by the needs of the ethnic
groups to have separate gatherings and worship services in their own languages. The
church constantly struggled to overcome these tribal/language divisions in the
congregation. The researcher's church had suffered loss of members due to ethnic
divisions in the past years. The researcher sought to understand how each ethic group
needed identity and tradition; could he bring them together within the larger ‘Burmese’
umbrella? How could one church unify ethnic groups with their individual identity,
culture values, and language needs?
Research Question
After analyzing the needs in the OBMBC ministry, this researcher summed up the
issue in one research question, what kind of ministry paradigm can resolve the needs of
the Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church?
9
Subsidiary Research Questions
1. How can OBMBC prepare culturally relevant Burmese language ministry within a
cross culture setting?
2. Is there a strategy to provide a ministry for Burmese-American Generations in a
Burmese immigrant church?
3. How can a church integrate the ethnic groups into one body, while endorsing their
ethnic language services, providing identity, and fellowship?
Significance of the Project
The purpose of this research project was to develop an effective ministry
paradigm at the Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church as it assimilated into the North
American culture. This project increased the researcher’s knowledge in the area of local
church ministry and helped to understand his congregation better. As this project worked
to resolve the three existing challenges in the researcher's ministry, it was expected that it
would provide a better perspective and a sharper focus on the vision of the ministry.
Professional Goals
1. To develop effective leadership skills in pastoral ministry
2. To acquire sound research skills through this project
10
3. To become an effective leader for the multilingual ministry
4. To gain invaluable knowledge of local church ministry and its growth
within a cultural context
Ministry Goals
1. To develop an effective church-model that portrays a multilingual
ministry.
2. To devise a strategy for ministry growth through an understanding of
current needs
3. To advance the Gospel of Christ by expanding the ministry beyond the
Burmese context
4. To build a church that values its multiethnic background
5. To influence other churches with an effective Burmese Immigrant Church
model
Conclusion to the Introduction
This chapter introduced the researcher's church background as well as the
background of the people of Burma. The recent migration of Burmese people to the
United States and the establishment of Burmese churches among diverse communities
11
were the beginning of a new chapter in the Burmese Christian church history. This
researcher believed that it was critical to lay a proper foundation for the Burmese
immigrant churches here in the United States.
The term "Burmese Immigrant Church" referred to local church ministry that had
the leadership of Burmese language speaking pastors/ministers for a Burmese-speaking
congregation. The church usually was located outside of Burma and surrounded by
diverse-cultural communities. In the case of the researcher's church, the location is in the
city of Oakland in Northern California. The purpose of the church was for worship,
fellowship, evangelism, and other ministry activities.
The term "New Generation" or "Burmese-American Generation" referred to the
generation that was born from the Burmese immigrant families in the United States, or
the younger Burmese immigrant generation that have abandoned the Burmese language.
This generation usually segregated themselves from the larger Burmese-speaking
congregation due to language and culture barriers.
The term "Ethnic Language Groups" or "Ethnic Groups" referred to tribal groups
with different languages and cultural variation. They were the Kachin, Karen, Karenni,
Shan, Chin, Mon, and Rakain, distinguished from the majority Bamar ethnic group.
The establishment of Burmese immigrant churches came with many known and
unknown challenges. The researcher's church, the Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist
Church, faced three major challenges. The first one being the challenge of nurturing a
Burmese language congregation while maintaining Burmese culture, tradition, and
12
values. The second challenge was to meet the need of the Burmese-American generation,
to retain them within the church family, and overcome language/culture barriers. The
third challenge was uniting diverse ethnic language groups into one body and overcoming
ethnic divisions. This researcher was optimistic about finding a solution to these
challenges. This project was about learning from experts on local church ministry,
discovering if there was a unique church model for Burmese immigrant churches. It was
an attempt to find a church model and implement the findings in the researcher's Burmese
immigrant church, OBMBC.
Potential Beneficiaries of the Project
This researcher desired to contribute to the ministry of his own church with the
help of academic disciplines and a case-study approach. It would enable other Christian
ministers to have a better understanding of the functional needs of a Burmese immigrant
church. It would guide church leaders on matters related to cultural relevancy, defining
self-identity in the midst of diverse cultures, and adapting the paradigm shift of new
generational needs. This project would also further develop leadership skills of this
researcher in order to be a better minister at a Burmese immigrant church.
There are more groups, who will benefit from this study.
1. Senior pastors who struggle to understand the function of the Burmese immigrant
church in a cross-cultural setting. They would profit from a clearer understanding
of the challenges that prevail in setting up a Burmese church in the midst of a
foreign culture. It would help them sharpen the image of Christ's church to the
13
community as they minister to diverse people. It would help them bear more fruits
in the mission field when they saw how culturally advantaged they were in
reaching out to their own people. Above all, it would help them minister more
effectively to a multi-generational congregation.
2. Christian Lay Leaders were the second most important people in Burmese
immigrant churches. They form the core of the ministry, directly connected to the
leadership of the senior pastor. They were in a position to direct and lead the
functions of the church. They would benefit, when they have a better understand
of the identity, direction, and strategy of the Burmese immigrant church. Their
leadership would help envision future generational needs as well as the need of
current ethnic groups. They would be able to create unity among diverse cultural
group through a clearer grasp of the concept of this project.
3. New generation Burmese immigrants would benefit most from this project. The
language barrier problem that caused them to separate from their parents and the
older Burmese generation in the local church would be resolved. If Burmese
immigrant churches could provide or broaden an English-language ministry, not
only would the younger generation be able to worship under the same roof with
their families, it would also provide them a sense of belonging among their own
people.
4. Different ethnic groups have a better chance of finding harmony among people of
Burma through this project. They would understand the need for a give and take
in cross-linguistic and cultural situations. These groups would benefit from this
14
study when they understand their call to be one church among their fellow
compatriots. In addition, these ethnic groups were bound to face the same
challenges, when they reach the stage, when their offspring refuse to attend
worship services conducted in a language that they do not understand. The
findings of this project would help them plan proactively to prevent such a
situation occurring with the future generation.
5. Finally, this project shared the challenges that the Oakland Burmese Mission
Baptist Church faced, as well as other Burmese immigrant churches in their
current situations. It would raise awareness of the cultural, language, and ethnicity
problems that hinder the growth of an immigrant church. In general, this
researcher hoped that every Burmese immigrant church would benefit from this
study as they come to understand the philosophy and strategy of ministry
underlining this project. The practical implications of this study would enable
other Burmese immigrant churches to act proactively for future ministry. This
study would yield useful information and provide strategies for church growth.
Chapter Previews
Chapter I contained the introduction of this project, conveyed a brief history of
recent Burmese immigration to the United States, specifically Oakland, California, where
the researcher's church is located. The researcher stated the significance of the project,
including ministry goals as well as professional goals. The potential beneficiaries of this
study were also indicated.
15
Chapter II presented the literature review of books, journals, magazines,
newspapers, and other online resources that dealt with the topics of church model, ethnic
ministry, theological influences, and theoretical foundation. The Burmese church culture
and history were also reviewed. Causative factors were discussed in the context of
literature review.
Chapter III contained the research procedure and strategic plan of this project. In
this chapter, the method of approach in conducting the case studies was provided.
Interview questions for senior pastors and survey questionnaires for the congregation
were discussed. Each case studied church was documented under proper categories in
order to understand causative factors that surround the issues.
Chapter IV provided actual results of the case study and data analysis. This
chapter determined the outcome of the project. This researcher was optimistic to resolve
the challenges of his church.
Chapter V introduced the actual plan for implementation of the principles and
strategies in the researcher's ministry. A process of implementation of a new church
model was articulated. Whether, structural analysis of the result of this project met the
goals of researcher was determined.
Chapter VI brought forth the researcher's recommendation for further study upon
existing issues. He indicated further potential issues for Burmese immigrant churches and
their future.
16
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEWS
Not only are vast numbers of people unchurched, but a number of Christians are
dropping out of church. And many of these are spiritually vibrant people who feel
that their church experience is doing them and their families more harm than
good. I believe that new-model churches could offer a viable answer to this
dilemma.7
The realities of the 21st Century life dictated the need for churches to consider
new ways of revitalizing the church of Jesus Christ. Malphurs' observation should prompt
church leaders to think outside of the box, to find newer church models that would better
suit the needs of the modern day churchgoers. This chapter focused primarily on
literatures that related to different types of church models. This researcher explored in
depth, different types of church models published in the field. The intention was not to
identify or offer comments on which model was better. Rather, the focus was on specific
types of church models that integrate the unique needs of Oakland Burmese Mission
Baptist Church (OBMBC). Malphurs described seven new-paradigm church models: the
Doing Church, the Changing Church, the Connecting Church, the Defining Church, the
Serving Church, the Thinking Church, and the Strategizing Church.8 His concepts of the
church models were based on the function of the church, how a particular church
prioritized certain aspects of its ministry. This researcher focused on the four types of
7
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st
Century (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007) 10.
8
Ibid., 13.
17
church models that emphasize generation, church function, ethnic ministry, and emergent
or missional culture, as they related to the needs or interest of the researcher's church.
The researcher reviewed the biblical concept of local church through Scriptures.
In this section, the biblical perspective of church, the function, growth, and purpose of
church was discussed. There were some causative factors such as people, leadership, and
tribal cultures, which could directly affect the understanding of a church model.
Therefore, in this chapter, causative factors such as culture, language, tradition, and other
relevant factors concerning current Burmese churches were examined through literature
reviews. The researcher studied how the churches have changed in their methods and
concepts in order to understand the cross-cultural setting that surrounded Burmese
immigrant churches.
Four-Focused Study of Church Models
There were numerous types of church models available for study. Malphurs
stated, "Every church is a model, whether it likes it or not. Church models are all about
how we do church, and every church does church some way."9 Indeed, the array of
church models that existed underlined the difficulty of identifying a unique church model
that reflected the researcher's ministry needs. Thus, this study of church models was
characterized into function, structure, and ministry emphasis. On the other hand, the
researcher determined how well they met specific needs of his church.
9
Ibid., 10.
18
Generational Classification Model
McIntosh’s One Church Four Generations purported to show how to reach four
typical generations in a church categorized as Builder, Boomer, Buster, and Bridger. He
addressed it to pastors, church leaders, and laypersons, and confronted them with the
challenges of meeting generational needs in their ministries. His aim was to help them
understand the difficulties of synthesizing all generations under one ministry. The
author’s intention was also for them to gain better perspectives of each generation in
order to develop specific strategies to effectively minister to generations. He stated, “it is
essential to understand each generational wave and how it affects the other waves to
effectively serve God's purpose today."10
Each model functioned according to the particular needs of the church. The
format of worship between tradition and contemporary divided sharply in this
postmodern era. The churches were divided over this issue. However, the most common
model was the blending of both traditional and contemporary elements into the worship
format. The researcher agreed with that opinion of McIntosh's generational classification
approach for a church model. It would be a good fit for the generational needs of his
church. Thus, the researcher intended to focus on the Bridger generation; the reason
being that the English-speaking younger generation was the future leaders at his church.
10
Gary L. McIntosh, One Church Four Generations: Understanding And Reaching All Ages In
Your Church. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 24.
19
The Bridger generation, typically born between 1984 and 2002, was a transitional
generation of the 20th and 21st Centuries. They represented nearly 74.7 million people of
the U.S. population. Mostly, their beliefs were in line with the generation of
postmodernism. They were of the internet and computer generation, for whom
information and technology was an integral part of their lifestyles. A consequence of the
Bridger generation’s dependence on technology was the diverse array of choices,
sources, and information available, made the lines between truth and error more complex.
The Bridger sought absolute and authentic truth. The church should have offered
standards of truth or absolute truth and assisted them to discover that truth. Since, the
Bridgers were a consumer generation, the church needed to develop practical programs
that offered Bridgers immediate take-home value. The Bridgers expected to see tolerance
and proven faith through practical implications of personal experiences gained from the
church. The church improved its program or structure based on relevant technological
implications. Bridgers were open to diverging views and willing to discuss dissimilar
religious views. They were by nature, willing to accept any truth that was related to their
needs to use as a guide and model for their lives. The church engaged in dialogue with
them and became aware of their sensitivities in conveying the gospel truth, unlike
postmodern churches that emphasized personal feelings above the truth. Thomas and Sam
Rainer encouraged pastors to be more focused on God's words in their preaching and
teachings. He said, "The people want to hear from God and His Word. They expect the
pastor to open the Bible and teach them what God says."11 That was a fundamental
principle for a church to emphasize.
11
Rainer, Thom S. & Sam S. Rainer III. Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts
20
Postmodern church leaders emphasize in their programs, experiences, feelings,
and methodology but not God's Word. They focus on worshipers but not God. Dan
Kimball, an emergent church leader said, "Preaching in modern contemporary worship
service is clearly the centerpiece. Experiencing God, whether we say it outright or not,
primarily comes through the preaching. . . . But people with a post-Christian mindset
don't share these modern values."12 Regarding postmodernism, D. A. Carson dealt
extensively on Pluralism and Postmodernism in Gagging of God. His major concern was
to help Christians understand the impact of philosophical pluralism, which was the
influence of postmodernity in the culture. He claimed, "Philosophical pluralism is the
most dangerous threat to the gospel since the rise of the Gnostic heresy in the second
century."13 Carson attempted to unravel the package of confusion that was associated
with pluralism and assail the philosophical pluralism from the platform of the systematic
Christian doctrine. Once again, Carson in his expertise brought about the postmodernism
and the culture that he sought to redefine.14 Thus, generational challenges for postmodern
churches were in imminent danger. A true church model must reconsider generational
issues of the contemporary time.
(Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2008),192.
12
Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2003), 122.
13
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1996), 10.
14
D.A. Carson, Christ & Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans, 2008.), 67.
21
Multiethnic Church Model
Another church model to study was the multiethnic church model. This researcher
intended to lead his church into a multiethnic model. However, he must understand the
definition of multi-ethnicity and its function. Ortiz Manuel described the act of
embracing cultural diversity as a struggle. The struggle was real and it was not just
happening in the Christendom but also true with the secular world. He said, "It is a
struggle to live out truth and justice and compassion as fellow members of the body of
Christ."15 Why struggle? Ortiz indicated two great biblical principles that create tension
behind that struggle; first, the call to live out the unity in Christ, and second, the
celebration of that cultural diversity constantly leavened by the gospel. Ortiz
acknowledged that multiculturalism in the church was not a quick fix matter. Its struggles
would not go away just because the church practiced a simple tolerance policy for one
another's differences or by some idealistic retreat into politically correct language.16
The definition for Multiethnic Church (MEC) provided by the author gave some
essential elements that outline what MEC was. MEC must have both quantitative and
qualitative dimensions. With regard to quantitative dimensions, Ortiz opined, "There
must be sufficient representation of any particular ethnic group in order to claim that a
church is multiethnic."17 With regard to qualitative dimension, he said, ". . . the church
has biblically contextualized its ministry to the multiethnic context in which it finds itself
15
Manuel Ortiz, One New People: Models for Developing a Multiethnic Church (Downers Grove,
Il: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 11.
16
Ibid, 10.
17
Ibid, 88.
22
demographically."18 If either one of the dimensions that were described above was
missing from the function and organization of a church, that church was not qualified to
be called MEC. Ortiz further said, "It is my opinion that both quantitative and qualitative
dimensions are necessary for an MEC to be effective in reaching out to a community that
is ethnically diverse and growing in this diversity."19 The multiethnic context of a church
referred to the diverse community that existed at the location of the church and to whom
the mission was targeted.
A multicongregational church model can be considered a multiethnic church.
Ortiz said, "The different language groups of the multicongregational churches worked
together on various levels. The English-speaking congregations of many
multicongregational churches are MECs in their own right."20 The author's consideration
of a multicongregational church as a multiethnic church was appropriate, as such, a
model included both qualitative and quantitative of multiethnic elements. This researcher
found that language factors were overlooked in the multiethnic churches. The language
issue could be a divisible factor in multiethnic congregations. If a multiethnic
congregation did not have a common language such as English, then, it would be
impossible to come together in one multiethnic congregation for worship, and fellowship
activities. The language barrier could appear to be insurmountable. In such a case, the
multicongregational model may work through accommodating the multiethnic
community by organizing different language sections of worship in the same church
18
Ibid, 89.
19
Ibid, 90.
20
Ibid, 94.
23
building. The congregation would be united in one single worship service or one activity,
if a multiethnic community could all utilize one common language.
The true multiethnic church model was actually difficult to define. Many authors
have provided several models regarding the multiethnic church in different writings. This
researcher's church could be considered a multiethnic church due to the presence of
people from diverse cultures, languages, and backgrounds. The church has a diversity of
races and languages. The uniqueness of the church was that these races and languages
were a collection of immigrant people from Burma and they spoke Burmese as a common
language. The researcher's church did not use English language as the primary language
in worship service and other activities. Therefore, the church was exclusively serving a
Burmese language-speaking congregation. Although, the church served only Burmese
immigrants in its mission, it functioned as a multiethnic church among the Burmese
ethnic groups. Therefore, there was more purpose and meaning when one spoke about a
multiethnic church and its functions.
There were some obstacles to overcome in order to achieve a cohesive multiethnic
church. Obstacles such as tradition, family clans, and difficulties in discipleship were
some of the more prominent ones. Above all, the effectiveness of a multiethnic church
depended on the leadership of the organization. Leaders lacked awareness of the context
of their missions. The pluralistic society and their needs were the keys in addressing the
complexities of the mission. How one defined the context and the needs of people in
ministry would affect the mission and structure of the organization. Bredfeldt provided
the model of the first century church, "The priority-focused church" as the biblical model
24
to achieve for churches. When leading and teaching were combined, it sparked a new
kind of leadership that was the biblical model. Bredfeldt described such kind of
leadership in his book. Bredfeldt said, "I am convinced that the most powerful leaders
among us are the teachers among us.21 " He brought teaching emphasis that focuses on
teaching God's truth. One could lead but without teaching, his leadership would surely
fall. People looked up to leaders to learn something from them. Leadership was influence,
which came with teaching of doctrines. Bredfeldt said, "Teachers influence through the
power of ideas and the process of modeling."22 Biblical leadership has dual roles: teacher,
and leader. Ortiz said, "The reason we have ignored leadership issues, continuing to
frame things in the order of the past, is that we have not taken time to read the new signs
of the present."23 Due to the ever-changing diversity of communities, church leaders must
study and adapt their mission perspectives accordingly in serving multiethnic
congregations. Indeed, the emergence multiethnic churches were gaining prominence
while homogeneous churches were dying out slowly in this postmodern era. Leith
Anderson identified immigrant churches like the Burmese church as "ethic churches that
are identified by race, language, and country of origin more than by denominational
doctrines or affiliations."24 Ethnic churches could be faster growing than denominational
churches. The argument for a multiethnic church was not just in terms of the society
21
Gary Bredfeldt, Great Leader Great Teacher: Recovering The Biblical Vision For Leadership
(Chicago: Moody Publisher, 2006.), 9.
22
Ibid., 19.
23
Ortiz, One New People, 117.
24
Leith Anderson, Leadership that Works: Hope and Direction for Church and Parachurch
Leaders in Today's Complex World (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1999), 97.
25
perspective but also in the biblical view of the church, the kind of church Jesus Christ
purposed from the very beginning. Indeed, Jesus Christ has commissioned all to preach
the gospel to all nations and make disciples from every tribe and tongue.
Functionalized Classification Models
Every church has a unique function in its mission and vision. Church function
drove the model and structure of the church. A church must have certain features or
characteristics that reflected the likeness of the true biblical church. Mark Dever
attempted to list some, if not all, essential elements that were needed in a local church.
Although, there were different models involved according to a church's functions, the
author was only focusing on the elements that specify a true biblical church. It was
worthy to note a healthy church with four key areas.
Key One: The preaching and teaching of God's word faithfully.
A church that was functionally not emphasizing the preaching of God's word
would result in compromising the truth. Paul said to Timothy, "Preach the word!"
(2Timothy 4:2). The word of God must be used as the authority for our faith and
practices in life, especially in the church. Believers needed to rightly discern the word of
God (2Timothy 2:15). A true biblical church model has the elements of preaching and
teaching God's word faithfully.
26
Key Two: Biblical theology and presence of sound doctrine
Biblical theology was the framework for Christian faith and practices. If one has
an incorrect view of God, it would lead to errors in practical aspects of life. Acts 2:42
stated that the word "doctrine" indicated the theology, the understanding about God, and
His words, in the light of the teachings of the apostles wherein believers abided by in the
early church. The strong foundations of a church in fact, can be seen in the strong
theology of that church (Ephesians 2:20).
Key Three: Evangelism emphasis with the power of the Holy Spirit
A church must have an evangelism emphasis in its ministry, in order to display
the obedience of believers to their Lord. Jesus Christ commanded all believers to carry
out the Great commission (Matthews 28:19-20). Any church that lacked evangelism
would disable its purpose and ability to influence the world with its gospel. The
conversion of a soul truly relied on the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the church must
rely on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to carry out evangelism. The work of the
Holy Spirit must be explicitly seen in the local church, for Jesus Christ has rendered to
them the Comforter, the Holy Spirit to be their guide and teacher (John 14:26; Acts 1:18).
Understanding the gospel, conversion, and works of evangelism would enable a church to
grow. The church was built on the purpose of reaching out to the world through its
message, the gospel.
27
Key Four: Biblical leadership and disciple making
Church leadership drove the course of the church. There should be strong spiritual
leaders who have a fear of God and desire to serve others in the local churches. Spiritual
leadership determined the growth of the church as well as advancing the great course, the
mission. Malphurs suggested, "Recruit the primary spiritual and ministry leaders in your
church to be on the strategic leadership team with the responsibility to lead the model
development process."25 Disciple making should be a consistent pattern in the life of
believers. Jesus demanded Christians to be His followers, and the principal purpose of
their lives (Matthew 16:24). Christians were not to live for themselves but for others
(1Thessalonians 5:11). Indeed, church spiritual leaders were Disciples of Christ whose
mission in life was to make more disciples of Jesus Christ in the local church ministry.
The leadership role drove the administrative function of the church as well. The
administration of the church and discipleship fell under the authority of God through the
leadership of the church. The biblical church model displayed these elements in its
structure. This researcher found that these four areas indicated the unique characteristics
and functional model of a church.
Dever classified three basic models of modern churches as liberal, seekersensitive, and traditional.26 One of the functional churches, also known as a Seekersensitive church model was the Saddleback Church. Rick Warren wrote The Purpose
25
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 166.
26
Mark Dever, Nine Marks of A Healthy Church (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2004), 26.
28
Driven Church to help Christians to understand church function and for leaders to
discover what drives their churches. At one point, Warren emphasized the principles of a
biblical church, but not merely the growth of the church. He said, “The issue is church
health, not church growth!”27 Warren introduced five biblical principles that the church
should possess: 1) warmer through fellowship, 2) deeper through discipleship, 3).
Stronger through worship, 4) broader through ministry, and 5) larger through evangelism.
Warren’s strategy was focused on people rather than the program or method for church
growth. His emphasis was on how to build people up in the church, rather than how to
grow the church with people. It was all about a people-building process. Warren said, “If
you will concentrate on building people, God will build the church.”28 He also told
leaders, "Don't focus on growing a church with programs, focus on growing people with
a process."29 The main idea behind growth was concerned with the context of the
individual church. Churches may have different background settings that include people,
surrounding circumstances, and purposes. Whoever was able to define the church’s
purpose well would find a sense of direction for the ministry. Warren provided systematic
methodology for defining a church purpose for his readers. He emphasized
communicating the purpose of the church with various levels of leaderships in the church.
Leaders built leaders for advancing the purpose and ministry of the church. Warren
strategized how to reach unchurched people by conducting a survey of the community
27
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message &
Mission (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 17.
28
Ibid., 108.
29
Ibid.
29
that surrounds his church. He used his findings from the community survey and
developed a strategy by utilizing the survey information. Warren’s strategy included
learning about the nature of unchurched people, the way they act, or think. He offered a
strategy for meeting the needs of these people through the church upon their terms.
Warren built a seeker sensitive church and grew it based on functional needs. In his case,
the purpose drove the church.
Emergence Church Model
Christians struggled to keep their faith vibrant in this contemporary/ postmodern
world. Unlike the First Century Christians, they were not struggling from religious
persecution but from entrenched traditions or culture. Was tradition bad? Was there any
value in tradition for the contemporary Christian? To the emergent churches, the word
"tradition" was like a dirty word. Postmodern churches were marching toward a cultural
revolution with the notion of transforming Christian churches, rebelling against set
traditions and promoting contemporary ideas that they thought would fit better with
modern needs. This researcher understood that the culture shift in society affected the
thoughts and priorities of people. Thus, a church out of touch with the realities in the
outside world became irrelevant. Studying the culturally revolutionary church model was
relevant and the researcher must evaluate what emergent leaders have to say.
This researcher studied the Emergent Church model to analyze the pros and cons
of their cultural relevancy in the church. This model involved the youth, a generation
30
influenced by contemporary culture, how they responded to a contemporary church, and
the doctrinal challenges of a postmodern world. Eddie Gibbs commented,
The church must recognize that we are in the midst of a cultural revolution and
that nineteenth-century (or older) forms of church do not communicate clearly to
twenty-first-century cultures. A major transformation in the way the church
understands culture must occur for the church to negotiate the changed ministry
environment of the twenty-first century. . . . The church must embody the gospel
within the culture of postmodernity for the Western church to survive the twentyfirst century."30
Although, there was some truth in Gibbs' comment, a cultural revolution may have blind
spots when its leaders have tunnel vision in viewing future churches of Christendom.
Emergent leaders might only see the need of Change in the traditional church. They
should also look into biblical truth with regard to church culture. The researcher’s
opinion was that the traditional church might hold certain relevant truths and values in its
traditions. Likewise, the emergent church movement was also on to something as it
proposed something most people can accept, that there was a need for change in the
church culture in response to the contemporary world. The researcher agreed with D. A.
Carson's assessment, "This shows that the emerging movement is on to something. It
means that more and more of the church sense a need for change in response to the
culture, even if it isn't of one mind as to what that change should look like."31 However,
the researcher found problematic, the nature of Emergent Churches and their leaders
concerning their culturally revolutionary doctrines. For example, William D. Henard
30
Gibbs, Eddie & Ryan K. Bolger. Emerging Church: Creating Christian Community in
Postmodern Culture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 17.
31
D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement
and Its Implications (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 56.
31
examined the view of Rob Bells, an eminent leader of the emergent church, on biblical
truth. One of the alarming factors of emergent church preachers was their approach to
Scriptures. They lacked firm foundational truth. For them, the truth was changeable and
relative. They believed in an open-ended view of any doctrine that reflected their belief.
There was no definitive answer to that of absolute truth. Henard commented on Bells’
responses,
The difficulty arises in the fact that he seems to think that the Christian faith does
not find its foundation in those biblical truths. He rightly leads his church to ask
the tough questions. The problem arises, however, in the fact that he does not
seem to believe that any definitive answers exist.32
This open-ended doctrinal view had been problematic in emergent leaders' teachings. The
researcher further examined the contents of emergent church model.
Historical Background of Emergent Churches
One must define the usage of the words "Emergent Church" or "Emergence." The
words "emergent" or "emergence" were used interchangeably, suggesting continuous
growth or evolution. Some understand it as a monumental phenomenon or a new vital
form of Christianity. Phyllis Tickle said, "First, a new, more vital form of Christianity
does indeed emerge."33 However, Mark Driscoll saw it differently. He said, "Rather, the
emergent church is the latest version of liberalism. The only difference is that the old
32
Henard, William D. & Adam W. Greenway. eds. Evangelical Engaging Emergent: A Discussion
of A Emergent Church Movement. (Nashville, TN: B& H Publishing Group, 2009.), 2
33
Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (Grand Rapids:
Baker Books, 2008), 17.
32
liberalism accommodates modernity and the new liberalism accommodates
postmodernity."34 So, what was the Emergent Church? This researcher found it a
challenge to come up with an authentic meaning of emergent church and identify an
authoritative theology for it. It was a frustrating effort to identify such a phenomenon as
this. Kevin DeYoung agreed, "Defining the emerging church is like nailing Jell-O to the
wall. The ‘what’ and ‘who’ of the movement are almost impossible to define."35 He then
identified the Emergent church as a "movement" and named it "Conversation."36 One
must examine the emergent church’s characteristics in order to capture its unique
movement in this postmodern era. By definition, emergent or emergence introduced a
new idea with a contemporary format. A movement swept across cultures in order to
influence Christianity-a-like to the postmodern world. Among emergent members, there
were different understandings of its movement. Some think of it as a positive reception of
postmodernism but others viewed it as a return of the early church movement. Eddie
Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger commented on the best identification of Emergent church,
The term emergent church has been applied to high-profile, youth-oriented
congregations that have gained attention on account of their rapid numerical
growth; their ability to attract (or retain) twentysomethings; their contemporary
worship, which draws from popular music styles; and their ability to promote
themselves to the Christian subculture through websites and by word of mouth.37
34
Mark Diriscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional
Church (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2006), 21.
35
DeYoung, Kevin and Ted Kluck, Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be
(Chicago: Moody Publisher, 2008), 17.
36
Ibid, 16, 17.
37
Gibbs, Eddie and Ryan K. Bolger, Emerging Churches, 41.
33
In view of these characteristics, one can safely say that emergent or emergence defined a
movement of the younger generation, which influenced across cultures and traditions
with their Christian subculture approach to the postmodern world. Christian leaders paid
attention to the movement by writing, speaking about it, and practicing their ways in their
local churches. Thus, emergent churches gained prominence.
Every emergent church had one common shared history origin, sometimes
fundamentalism, even evangelicalism, D. A. Carson observed.38 He explained that the
common factor in emergent churches was that they began as one thing and emerged as
something else. Indeed, the historical nature of the emergent church was more likely a
newer version of the so-called traditional church. However, that did not mean the
emergent was an exact replica of the traditional church. Rather, it embodied the reformed
nature of the methods, rules, leadership, worship format, and other traditional aspects of
the modern church. Carson echoed, "Characterized as it is by protest, the emerging
church movement obviously finds itself cutting links with many practices of more
traditional churches."39 On the other hand, Phyllis Tickle viewed the emergent's history
as the Great Emergence in comparison to the Great Reformation. She predicted that the
emergent movement would change how the world viewed Christianity and influence
most of the world's religions as well. She said, "The Great Emergence, like the Great
Reformation, the Great Schism, the time of the Great Gregory or the Great
38
D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant, 14
39
Ibid., 54.
34
Transformation, is a generalized social/ political/ economic/ intellectual/ cultural shift."40
The researcher viewed the emergent movement as not just a culture change agent rather
an agent for creating another version of church culture in the postmodern world. This
movement would surely make an impact on the Christian church and its history for a long
period. Then, another new movement would arise from the emergence itself in the future.
Millard J. Erickson described newer "ism" in terms of Postpostmodernism. He said,
"Because social and intellectual change took place much more rapidly in the late
twentieth century than it had previously, postmodernism may have a shorter life span
than modernism had."41 It was incomparable, although intriguingly some similarities
existed, between the Emergent movement and the Great Reformation. The latter one was
about the change of the doctrinal belief system, which was dogmatic in nature, while the
former one was that of culture revolution, which was subjective in its contents. Cultures
varied from one to another based on geography, race, language, literature, tradition, and
historical background. Thus, one's concept of culture revolution might not be applicable
to others who were different in culture.
In summary, the Emergent church movement emerged from individuals
dissatisfied with traditional/ evangelical churches. They came from different
denominations, and had different views of governance, methods, mission, and ministry.
Carson described Spencer Burke as a restive and dissatisfied individual who left the
40
Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence, 120.
41
Millard J. Erickson, Truth or Consequences (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001),
319-320.
35
traditional church to start an emergent church.42 Carson's description corresponded with
the history of the movement given by Jim Belcher.
In the late 1990s some young evangelicals (now called the emerging church),
unhappy with the reality and direction of the church, began to protest. In their
writing and speaking they found fault with many elements of evangelicalism.
They organized conferences, wrote books and started new churches to make their
voice and opinions heard. It has become a movement with great momentum,
energy and resources. It has, however, elicited a strong pushback from the
traditionalists in the evangelical church.43
Prominent emergent leaders like Mike Yaconelli, Brian McLaren, Spencer Burke,
Leonard Sweet, Rob Bell, and Doug Pagitt represented the emergent church movement in
one way or another. There were others, who did not want to identify themselves with the
emergent church movement, although their ways coincided with the movement.
Contemporary Nature
The emergent church recognized the changes of time and culture in the
postmodern society. The researcher observed that knowing the time and culture was the
strength of the emergent movement. Carson encouraged Christians to know the change of
time and culture. He said,
Christian leaders must therefore adapt to this emerging church. Those who fail to
do so are blind to the cultural accretions that hide the gospel behind forms of
42
D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant, 15-17
43
Jim Belcher. Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional (Downer Grove,
Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 9.
36
thought and modes of expression that no longer communicate with the new
generation, the emerging generation.44
Emergent leaders recognized the time and culture shift, and the factors that enabled them
to bring precise articulation of the needs of the current generation, especially the spiritual
need. Many traditional churches lacked the ability to bridge the needs of the newer
generation with their methodology. Dan Kimball expressed his concern,
More and more emerging generations who were raised in the church are saying
that there must be something more to "church" than what they have experienced.
The systems we use to teach them how to be disciples of Jesus are not connecting
with them like they did for generation past. Emerging generations say it just
doesn't "feel right" or "fit right" anymore. They want to be disciples of Jesus, but
how we approach disciple-making needs to shift alongside their shifting values.45
The emergent movement was leaning more towards the contemporary setting in their
worship, music, organization, and activities. The core issue of the emergent generation
was to have a new approach or protocol to suit their needs. The word "contemporary"
was used in a different meaning from the previous generation. They used it in a praiseand-worship context, but the emergent church had different implications for it. For them
it meant "self-referencing-focused on human perceptions, needs, feelings, and desires."46
An emergent worship leader Sally Morgenthaler's response to Joe Horness, she said,
"Contemporary worship paints a picture of God that new generations can understand, an
image of God they can grasp-one that inspires them to give back to God all that they
44
D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant, 12.
45
Dan Kimball, Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gathering for New Generations (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), xii.
46
Engle, Paul E. & Paul A. Basden, eds., Exploring The Worship Spectrum: 6 Views (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 223.
37
are."47 Definitely, the emergent movement sought to touch the lives of the postmodern
generation with a philosophy of self-worth and self-referencing in the Christian context.
Ecclesiological View of Emergent Churches
The emergent leaders rarely expressed ecclesiastical view of the emergent
churches. Rebekah Zorgdrager, echoing this difficulty said, "However, it is very difficult
to define an emerging church ecclesiology because those writing about it are generally
preoccupied with other questions and concerns; ecclesiology is not in the forefront of
anyone’s mind or conversations."48 Nonetheless, the researcher made an effort to address
this topic by looking at some conversations and writings of prominent emergent leaders.
As far as ecclesiological concerns, the emergent leaders believed that their
doctrine of church was reformed. They were revolutionists, distinguishing themselves
from the mainstream ecclesiology. They endorsed postmodernism, diminishing
individualism and prioritizing or valuing community value over it. Kimball was one who
held the view that not all truth was absolute, that community was valued over
individualism.49 Although they did not teach postmodernism explicitly, the emergent
leaders' mindset was to reach those who believed the postmodern worldview.50 Likewise,
McLaren stood for the postmodern worldview, which was the foundation of the emergent
47
Ibid., 135.
48
Rebekah Zorgdrager, "Ecclesiology" http://www.gocn.org ( accessed Dec.13, 2011)
49
Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity, 45-50.
50
Ibid., 27, 36.
38
movement.51 The main purpose of emergent churches were to reach out to the people of
the postmodern world, where they were, with both good and bad ideology or philosophy,
which could be challenged or affirmed as they stumbled along to find a newer version of
ecclesiology. Kimball52 and Burke53 both affirmed this observation. In the emergent
leaders' opinion, the postmodern world was not compatible with a church culture that has
existed throughout the century. The secular world today was no longer in touch or in tune
with Christianity and its values. They were not raised to accept the Bible as the authority
nor worshipped God and served Him on Sunday. Therefore, the church found ways to
adapt to the culture change in order to reach the postmodern world.54
The one thing emergent leaders accused the traditional church of was they run
churches like businesses. Many traditional churches offered services like, worship
services, prayers, programs, and counseling sessions for those who seek these services.
They accused these practices as being “religious.” The emergent churches tried to
distinguish themselves from the “religious” activities of the so-called Christians.55 They
claimed to be better Christian churches than the traditional ones in term of their
spirituality.56 The global church, in the mindset of emergent leaders, were churches
51
Brian D. McLaren, The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 8, 24.
52
Kimball, Emergent Church, 63.
53
Burke, Spencer and Colleen Pepper, Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging
Conversations about God, Community, and Culture (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 63.
54
Kimball, Emergent Church, 68.
55
Ibid.,105, 115.; Burke, Making Sense, 39.
56
Burke, Making Sense, 64-65.
39
worldwide, different entities but were joined in the work of the Holy Spirit. McLaren
claimed that churches should concern themselves with “More Christians, Better
Christians, Authentic missional community, for the good of the world.”57 The emergent
churches also considered themselves as a church that had no buildings, no walls or
particular place but just a group of believers.58 Emergent leaders contended that theirs
was a church that was true in the spiritual sense, made up of a body of believers without
reference to a local congregation with a specific location and facility. The authenticity of
the local church was diminished by this ideology.
The emerging church focused on four factors: mission, community, worship, and
mystery.59 The researcher examined these four factors.
Mission: Emergent churches believed in having a strong emphasis on mission.60 By that,
they meant the church was a mission community, with a group of believers living out the
mission to which God had called to them according to His purpose. They were to serve
together as a community of God in churches.61
Community: Emergent churches hoped that by living out the teachings of Jesus in their
lives, they naturally drew non-believers to Christianity. They focused on genuine
57
McLaren, The Church on Other Side, 28.
58
Kimball, Emergent Church, 91,94-95.
59
Doug Pagitt, Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 17.
60
Kimball, Emergent Church, 15, 17.; Burke, Making Sense, 119.
61
McLaren, The Church on Other Side, 36; Pagitt, Reimaging, 17.
40
fellowship and being together as a church.62 They believed in reaching out to the
community around them with a postmodern mindset, practicing certain methods that
compromised biblical truth. For example, in an article on the emergent church movement,
the author calling them Hipster Christians, gave this description: "Hipster Christianity
also expresses itself theologically, through preaching that often emphasizes covenantal
and "new creation" ideas and attempts to construct a more ecclesiological or communitycentric view of salvation."63 Their messages have been distorted, not giving clear-cut
truths in order to achieve their agendas.
Worship: Emergent churches redefined worship in a new way. They emphasized
individuals personally getting in touch with God in services. Music played a vital role to
help people worship God emotionally. They claimed to give honor to God, humbled
themselves before Him, and glorified Jesus in their words and songs. Kimball said that it
was a way of life that brought honor and glory to God.64
Mystery: Emergent leaders allowed the mystical nature of religion to slip into Christianity
in order to impress the postmodern mindset people. It was a touchy subject as well as
mind boggling in nature. Kimball believed that it was a good thing.65 Emergent churches
did not want to emphasize biblical doctrine such as trinity, creation, and the meaning of
62
Kimball, Emergent Church, 204-205.
63
Brett McCracken, "Hipster Faith, "Christianity Today," (September 2010), 28.
64
Ibid., 114, 115.
65
Kimball, Emergent Church, 49.
41
life; rather they focused on the developing of faith for those things that were not
understandable, the so-called mystery.66
In summary, the ecclesiological view of the emergent church was to redefine the
church as a place where people gathered in the community to worship God and
fellowship in a missional pattern, while joining the global community through the work
of the Holy Spirit to spread the kingdom of God on earth. For the emergent group, the
church was nothing but a body of believers who lived according to each person’s calling
from God to influence the world. The doctrinal practices that were associated with
emergent churches were highly influenced by postmodernism. One must seek out to
differentiate between methodology of developing church and accepting doctrinal
practices of emergent leaders.
Theological Foundation
Aubrey Malphurs defined a local church as, "A local church is an indispensable
gathering of professing believers in Christ who, under leadership, are organized to pursue
its mission through its functions to accomplish its purpose."67 In this definition, Malphurs
indicated that a local church included seven critical elements: an indispensable gathering
of believers, leadership, organization, mission, function, and purpose. He took liberty to
explain the seven elements of which a local church should be modeled after. A local
church was indispensable because of its essentiality to Christians. Christ has built the
66
McLaren, The Church on the Other Sides, 78-79.
67
Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 116-117.
42
church, thus, it should be a part of believers' lives one way or the other. A local church
was also a place where believers gathered for worship and for other functions. Believers
were the body of the church. It had a leadership structure. Leaders were appointed to
serve in its various functions. In reality, a local church was called an organization, which
had a mission and purpose. The church's mission was the Great Commission of Christ.
Malphurs emphasized the five-fold functions in a local church as teaching, fellowship,
worship, evangelism, and service or ministry.68 These functions of a local church were
imprinted in Acts 2:42-47.
Theological Influences
This researcher stood on the following biblical principles regarding a biblical model of a
local church.
1. The church is the body of Christ universal and local (Matthew 16:16-19; Acts
9:31; Ephessians1:22-23; Colossians 1:18, 24).
2. The church is to meet together regularly (Hebrews 10:25)
3. The church is to celebrate the ordinances (Matthew 26:26-29; 28:19; Acts 2:38; 1
Corinthians 11:23-26)
4. The church's mission is to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16; 15)
5. The church's beliefs are based on Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
68
Ibid, 123.
43
6. The church is to evangelize the lost (Matthew 28:19-20; Colossians 4:3-6)
Recently, the researcher surveyed his church members about the meaning of
'Church.' Most members defined it as a place where believers came and worshiped. Some
of them had little advanced knowledge of what church was. They explained that the
church should be the body of Christ; the congregation as the body and Christ was the
head. Many of them saw the local church as a primary location for worship. Beyond that,
they did not mention fellowship, serving one another, discipleship, evangelism, mission,
and ministry. In regards to the church Paul W. Powell said, "Jesus intended it to be the
primary way of evangelizing the world, edifying believers, and ministering to the needs
of humanity."69 In other words, the church was a living organism that bore witness of
Jesus Christ to the lost world. It was organized, instituted, established, and functioning
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit until Jesus Christ's return.
The word 'church', in Greek 'ekklesia', means "the assembly" or "the called out
ones." This signified that a group of people had been called out or set apart from the rest
of the world. This word referred to the children of Israel who came out of Egyptian
bondage in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the word 'church' was found in two
places for the first time, in Matthew 16:18 and Matthew 18:17. The church has a two-fold
authority. One was that the church itself has given authority over believers. For example,
if there was a dispute between two Christian brothers, the church took final arbitration on
that matter. (Matthew18:17). Second, it has authority of Jesus Christ who built the
church. Jesus spoke, "...upon this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). Powell
69
Paul W. Powell. The Church Today (Dallas, TX.: Annuity Board, 1997), 9.
44
divided church into five categories; "The idea of a bride suggests our relationship to
Christ; the idea of a body suggests our work for Christ; the idea of a family suggests our
fellowship in Christ; the idea of an army suggests our mission from Christ; the idea of a
building suggests our unity with Christ."70 In short, the believers' relationship, service,
fellowship, mission, and unity were painting the picture of a church.
Foundation of the Church
The church began with the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:18, "...upon this rock..."
Some people assumed that the rock referred to the apostle Peter, since the Greek word
was similar to Peter's name.71 However, “Peter” in Greek was "petros" which meant a
small stone, a nugget. Jesus was not referring to Peter because the subsequent sentences
did not reflect upon the qualification of Peter. Jesus Christ himself was the rock, the
foundation of the church, whereby instituted from that point onward. It was also
understood in Jesus' statement, "I will build my church..." as a future reference to that
moment. To be specific in time, the church began officially on the day of Pentecost, when
the Holy Spirit descended upon a group of believers (Acts 2:1-12). Roy B. Zuck agreed.
He said, "The descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, made possible by Jesus'
70
Ibid.
71
Dwight A. Honeycutt. Doctrines of Catholicism: An Historical Perspective of Developments
from the Reformation through the Second Vatican Council until the Present (El Paso, TX.: Carib Baptist
Publications, 1995), 28.
45
resurrection-ascension, marks the arrival of the "already" period of promise."72 Thus, the
arrival of the Holy Spirit heralded the beginning of the church.
The church was founded on Christ's redemptive work. The Scripture stated,
"Other foundations can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians
3:11). The church has been sanctified by the atonement of Christ. The value of the church
was the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. The church was also founded on the truth of God.
The Scripture said the church, "...is built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone." (Ephesians 2:20). The word
of God that was written through the prophets (Old Testament) and apostles (New
Testament) was the foundation on which the church was built upon. Through the truth of
the Word of God, the church testified the living Savior and proclaimed His truth. Thus,
the church was the change agent of this world. Jesus said with concerns of his church,
"The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) The church has the
authority and power of Jesus Christ. No one could destroy it. Throughout church history,
the church went through many persecutions. Yet not one has succeeded in the attempt to
destroy the church. In China, many underground churches were persecuted. Church
pastors were restricted their freedom of preaching and teaching God's word. "Christianity
Today" reported on what happened to one pastor who prayed for political prisoners,
"Government officials raided the church and physically removed the pastor from the
pulpit. Constant government surveillance of church services cannot help having a chilling
72
Roy B. Zuck, ed., A Biblical Theology of the New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994),
162.
46
effect on church teaching."73 In reality, churches were growing in number in spite of the
persecution in China. Fox news reported there were over 60 million worshipers attending
independent churches in China.74 In addition, Jesus gave the keys to the church to set free
the captives here on earth. With reference to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the key to heaven
was signified as the function of the church. Jesus commanded the church to go and
preach the gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19-20), that through the message of the
gospel, sinners may turn to Jesus and be set free from their bondage of sin.
Jesus Christ built the church through four significant steps in his ministry. The
disciples were the key agents in the establishment of the early church. The principles of
the early church growth applied to present day churches. There were twelve disciples
following Jesus during his earthly ministry. Christ had called them to follow and learn
about him each day. Through his teaching, preaching, mentoring, and ministering to their
needs, they learned the life of Christ first hand. They received training from Christ and
became useful in their later years of ministry. The disciples of Jesus, starting from Peter
began to spread the gospel throughout Jerusalem and Judea. God used apostles like Paul
and his partner in ministry, Barnabas, to spread the gospel and establish many churches.
Paul and other missionaries were the people that drove the church into further growth.
After the apostles, the church began to grow through the efforts of believers in Christ.
73
David Neff, "Where We Stand: See No Evil," Christianity Today (October 2008): 22.
74
Linfen, "Fast-Growing Christian Churches Crushed in China," World News (December 10,
2009). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579979,00.html (accessed March 9, 2012).
47
Paul laid down the principles of the church and its functions in letters to Corinth,
Ephesus, Thessalonica, Timothy, and Titus. These principles outlined the structure of
Christian local churches. One of them was the disciple-making principle. Jesus
commanded the church to go out in the world to preach, teach, baptize, and make
disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Creating disciples for Jesus was the key element for
church growth. Bill Hull made this observation, "How the church has missed this obvious
mandate can only be attributed to a diabolical scheme. The crisis at the heart of the
church is that we give disciple making lip service, but do not practice it. We have lost the
integrity of our mission."75 Jesus has four simple methods in the disciple-making process.
First, he invited individuals to know him. Second, he called them to follow him for the
greater cause. Third, he trained them and sent them to do what he has prepared for them.
Fourth, he appointed them to become leaders of the great commission before he walked
the way of the cross and resurrection. These four principles of disciple-making strategy
were still relevant to the modern church. Therefore, it was good to give further effort to
study and clarify those principles.
Invitation
Jesus has a unique way of opening doors to curious spectators. He invited them to
come, see, and learn about him. The five men were invited by Jesus to know him (John
1:35-4:46). He opened a door for relationship. He invited them to get to know him. These
75
Bill Hull. The Disciple-Making Pastor: Leading Others on the Journey of Faith (Grand Rapids:
Baker Books, 2008), 21.
48
five men stayed with him from that time. Jesus exposed them to God's truth and the
urgent message of the coming of the kingdom. In considering the role of the disciples, the
question was raised, "Why did they stick with Christ?" Bill Hull explained the situation,
"Why did these men follow Jesus? Well, why indeed did you decide to follow Jesus?
Hunger? Certainly curiosity is part of the motivation, but the hunger of the heart is the
compelling force."76 Although, Jesus' intent was to recruit a group of disciples for his
earthly ministry, he never pushed this agenda without first going through the important
step of getting to know him first.
Peter Scazzero commented that most Christians in churches suffer from a lack of
emotions and concern about the people around them. He said, "Something is desperately
wrong with most churches today. We have many people who are passionate for God and
his work, yet who are unconnected to their own emotions or those around them."77 He
was accurate that people in churches were too occupied with their own agendas. They
were not connected to one another on a deeper emotional level. This could only be
overcome by becoming true disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus' principle of 'invitation'
guided the modern church to overcome its weakness of lack of discipleship. First, the
church could introduce others to the Savior. The Psalmist said "O taste and see that the
LORD is good." (Psalms 34:8a). The believers were to initiate non-believers to have a
relationship with Christ. It was important to note that the responsibility of saving souls
76
Bill Hull. Jesus Christ Disciplemaker (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 30.
77
Peter Scazzero. The Emotionally Healthy Church: A Strategy for Discipleship that Actually
Changes Lives (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,2003), 37.
49
solemnly belongs to God. The believers were to influence others to know Christ through
their testimonies and sharing.
Calling
Jesus said to his disciples, Peter and Andrew, "Follow me, I will make you fishers
of men." (Matthew 4:19). Jesus called them one after another to follow him. They both
followed Jesus right away. It may be difficult to imagine at first glance, that they both
dropped their fishing nets and followed him immediately. However, in reality they might
have known Jesus well before they heard his calling. It underlined that Jesus invited
people to learn of him and have a relationship with him first. After the initial stage of
getting to know him, it was time for them to decide to follow him all the way. Hull
agreed on this assumption. He said,
Why did they immediately drop their nets and follow Christ? Some think
Jesus, being God, had a special power over them, that he cast a spell or
hypnotized his followers and, therefore, they were not free moral agents.
Intriguing as this may sound, I think the motive for following Jesus in this
case was far more simple. These men followed Jesus at his bidding
because they had already been with him.78
At this point, Jesus had already called the disciples for training. The disciples had enlisted
themselves to a greater cause. That cause was a future leadership in establishing the
church. Jesus initiated, modeled, and practiced ministry opportunities with them. This
period of serious engagement served as an intense training for the disciples. He
78
Bill Hull. Jesus Christ, 81.
50
performed miracles and taught them the truth about God. He preached publicly to crowds
and he answered the disciples’ questions privately. In Jesus' seminar, the disciples were
equipped with only what they needed to know. Jesus' teaching technique showed that the
disciples were not informed of everything. Jesus withheld from them his impending
crucifixion until the eve of the event (John 16:12). Yet, they were sufficient in their
commitment and loyalty to the Master's cause until death.
In application, Christians were to establish relationships with people as they invite
them to have an acquaintance with Christ. Then, they must seek them out to make their
commitment to Christ. They must lead people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
This method of evangelism was in step with Jesus' teaching. People who have become
familiar with Christ found it easier to follow him. When writing about the early church
and the believers' response to mission outreach, Hull said, "Part of church outreach is
what the church is before the watching world. People desire to be loved, to be cared for
and to belong. When they see a loving, caring community, they feel a natural
attraction."79 Indeed, people who saw true disciples of Christ in their community began to
wonder, and develop a desire to follow Jesus. Effective evangelism in church ministry
was to bring about people through the discipleship of believers. A Christian leader must
follow the same model of Jesus. Jesus taught through example. Hull said,
They knew how to teach, because they saw Him teach. They knew how to
cast out demons, pray for the sick, care for the weak, because He modeled
it. They understood the importance of working though others, because He
demonstrated it through them. Because it had been done to them, they
79
Bill Hull. The Disciple-Making Church (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1990), 74.
51
could do it to others. The disciple's golden rule is "you will do unto others
as it has been done unto you.80
The local church was instituted with two ordinances based on Christ's
commandments. They were Baptism and Communion. Jesus commanded the church to
baptize believers (Matthew 28:19-20) and come to the communion table as often as they
could in remembrance of Him (Matthew 26:26-29; 1Cor.11:23-26). Hemphill said
regarding those saved through evangelism, "...it must ensure that those won are baptized
in to the life of the local church...it involves incorporation and assimilation into the life of
the local church."81 Water baptism was an outward symbol of the inward commitment to
follow Christ. Thereafter the new believers needed to be bonded in fellowship, worship,
and communion in the local church. Jesus' system of making discipleship at this level was
fitting and enriched in a practical aspect.
Sending
Jesus sent the twelve disciples, two by two, to present the good news to the people
of Israel (Matthew 10:1-28). Jesus sent them with authority and power to toil in the
mission field. They were sent with specific instructions that they should go only to the
lost Israelite’s homes. They were forbidden to carry materials that were unnecessary.
They were warned against persecutions. They were given a clear message, "the kingdom
of Heaven is near" (v.7). Jesus gave them a clear picture of what they were going to do.
80
Bill Hull, The Disciple-making Pastor, 254.
81
Ken Hemphill. The Antioch Effect: 8 Characteristics of Highly Effective Churches (Nashville:
Broadman & Holman, 1994), 149.
52
He said, "I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as
serpents, and harmless as doves." (v.16). These instructions of Jesus have become the
fundamental principles for the church’s mission field. When Jesus delegated his disciples
to work in the mission, they took on the task faithfully in keeping with what they have
learned from their Master.
The leader's task in the delegation of ministry duties was far more important in
church ministry. Hans Finzel pointed out that it could be a fatal mistake for a leader, if he
lacked delegation skills in his ministry. He said that delegation enabled personal
ownership in the ministry. Jesus sent the disciples, with the trust that one day they would
be building his church and starting a worldwide moment.
I think the twelve disciples knew that they were it, and that Jesus believed
in them so completely that he had no other plan. Thus, they gave
themselves to the Great Commission with reckless abandon and devotion,
even to the point of death. It is amazing what followers will do for the
leader who shows this level of faith in them.82
The church must find a ministry responsibility for its members. The disciple making
process was all about delegating the right responsibility to the right person in the
ministry. Jesus had proven that the proper delegation of a ministry responsibility resulted
in the growth of church ministry (1Corinthians 12:6).
Appointing
82
Hans Finzel. The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make (Colorado Springs, CO.: David C. Cook,
2007), 120.
53
The final stage in Jesus' ministry was appointing his disciples for leadership.
Leadership that enabled them to carry on the mission even after their Master had left.
Hull provided a situation of the disciples at the time of Jesus' departure. He said,
For thirty-four months Jesus had perfectly orchestrated the training of his
twelve men. The training had reached a critical stage as they neared the
time for their release into leadership. The disciples were struggling with
the uncertainty of the future and the anticipated absence of their leader.83
Jesus did not say that it was time for them to take all of his burdens on their shoulders.
Rather, he ensured them with his presence at all times. Although, Jesus was not
physically present with them He was there with them as the divine Savior, until the end
of world. Jesus left two promises before his ascension. First, it was His presence. He said,
"...lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."(Matthew 28:20). Second,
He promised to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). Every believer was
equipped with those two promises of Jesus Christ. His presence and the power of the
Holy the Spirit were the promises that Christians can rely on in carrying out the Great
Commission of Jesus Christ. When Jesus appointed disciples to leadership, he simply
commanded that they should abide in him. Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you." (John
15: 4-7). The key idea of abiding in Christ was to bear much fruits. The fruits were the
labor of love for their Master, Jesus Christ. Being with Christ, enabled, and empowered
Christians to accomplish their given tasks here on earth. The disciples of Christ were to
remain in constant relationship with Him. Their relationship with Christ required some
mutual accountability. They were to obey Christ. Jesus said, "As the Father has loved me,
so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain
83
Bill Hull. Jesus Christ, 221.
54
in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love." (John
15: 9-10). The leadership essentials were character, knowledge, and skill. Jesus taught the
disciples in the Upper Room about being a leader (John 14: 1-31). He showed them
humility, love, prayer, obedience, righteousness, and knowing the Holy Spirit, who
taught all these things to them. Jesus then appointed the disciples as leaders. In the
modern church, God was still raising up spiritual leaders. Faithful servants of God relied
on the relationship with Christ.
The church has become a foundation for human society since the beginning of its
establishment. The church stood as God's witness in the lost world. Jesus gave two
charges for the church. First, the Great Commission that was the church engaged in the
disciple-making task (Matthew 28:19-20). Second, the greatest commandment of all was
that believers were to love God with all their heart, might, and strength, as they loved one
another in Christ (Luke 10:27). In a church, God appointed spiritual leaders to move
people on to His agenda. Hull said,
Beginning with Jesus himself, the apostles, the elders, Timothy, and Titus,
the church has required leadership. Not only that, but each local assembly
requires that one person emerge as the key leader. In contemporary
culture, as in the first century, that person has been called the pastor.84
The pastor of the local church has two areas of calling. He was called as a shepherd to
serve God's people, where he provided, protected, cared for all with the love of Christ.
Jesus asked Peter whether he loved him or not three times. Peter's answer confirmed that
if he loved Christ, he would have loved His sheepfold. Jesus told Peter to feed his
sheepfold, making Peter a shepherd. The pastor was also called to the servanthood. The
84
Bill Hull. Disciple-making Pastor, 103.
55
most effective leadership style was that of the servant leadership. Jesus provided a good
model for this leadership exemplified by his washing of the disciples’ feet. The pastor’s
role in the local church was leading God's people with love as a shepherd and serving
them like a servant-leader.
Theoretical Foundation
Study of Burmese Church Culture
Burma is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. Within the
eight main ethnic groups inhabiting the country, anthropologists have counted
more than 130 distinctive subgroups. Burma's extraordinarily rich range of
ethnicities and cultures—exemplified in the gala of color and design manifested in
its various forms of ethnic dress—presents new students of the country with a
picture that can seem dizzyingly complex. Of the estimated population of 55
million, the largest ethnic group, the Burmans, or Bamar, from about 68%.
Occupying mainly territories in the various border regions are other ethnic groups,
such as the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Mon, Rakhine, Shan, and Wa.85
Burma is enriched with the history of tribal people, politics, natural resources, and
even wars. New arrivals of Burmese refugees in the United States of America drew the
attention of the world. The majority of Burmese Christians are Baptists due to the Baptist
foreign mission of the American Baptists in the early 1800. The history of the Burmese
Church can be traced back to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions through their first missionaries to Asia, Adoniram Judson and his wife,
Ann Judson.86 The missionary couple arrived in Burma where their mission work began.
85
Ranard, Donald A. and Sandy Barron, editors, Refugees From Burma: Their Backgrounds and
Refugees Experiences (Washington DC: the Center for Applied Linguistics, 2007), 2.
86
H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press, 1987), 345.
56
One of the remarks Judson made as he arrived on the shores of Burma indicated an
unpleasant beginning of missionary life. He wrote, "We felt very gloomy and dejected the
first night we arrived . . . but we were enabled to lean on God, and to feel that he was able
to support us under the most discouraging circumstances."87 However, through many
years of endurance, Judson was able to establish the Baptist mission in the land of
Burma. Today, the fruits of his labors reach from Burma to the Golden shores of the
United States, his country of origin. Russell Yee said in his research work on Asian
churches, "Adoniram Judson would have surely smiled to be there. But he would have
also had much to wonder about."88 He analyzed this researcher's Sunday worship service
as he reflected upon the history of the Burmese church through the mission work of
Adoniram Judson in Burma. In his published book, "Worship on the Way", he made these
remarks on the current situation of Burmese Christians,
Judson had traveled to Burma, on the opposite side of the globe, to serve as the
first documented Christian witness among some of the peoples there, most
notably the Karen. Two centuries later, descendents of those first believers in
Burma have come to North America and started their own churches here.
Meanwhile, the congregation at First Baptist Oakland itself experienced a long
post-World War II decline, to the point where its remaining members finally left
the building in 2010 and are transferring the property to the Burmese
congregation. Surely Judson would have been heartbroken at the decline of such a
major church in his own denomination, and yet amazed and heartened by the
persistence and eventual growth of Burmese Baptist, who are now in transplanted
communities, including these believers to the east of the Golden Gate.89
87
Rosalie Hall Hunt, Bless God and Take Courage: The Judson History and Legacy (Valley
Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2005), 51.
88
Russell Yee, Worship On The Way: Exploring Asian North American Christian Experience
(Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2012), 175.
89
Ibid., 186.
57
This research work contained valuable information about the current Burmese churches
in United States, including the researcher's church ministry.
Burmese churches began to take root in the early 1970s with a few immigrant
families arriving in the United States. The oldest Burmese immigrant church is the First
Burmese Baptist Church, in San Francisco. The church was officially recognized as an
American Baptist church in 1987.90 From that ministry, daughter churches like the
Burmese Christian Community Church of Silicon Valley, East Bay Myanmar Christian
Fellowship, and the Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church were born. Today, more
than a dozen established Burmese-speaking churches were affiliated with larger
organizations like the American Baptist in North America. Other fellowships and ethnic
groups were in different stages of establishing churches of their own.
Burma, made up of a myriad of ethnic minorities, faced many inherent problems
that went with the intertwining situation of race and religion. The majority race is the
Bamar, predominantly Buddhist. Minority tribes like Kachin, Chin, Karen, make up the
Christian population. The Bamar sees Christianity as a western religion as well as the
religion of minority tribes.91 Race and religion have a profound effect on the purpose of
church in North America. This researcher's church faced the ethnical or racial issue that
overwhelms one's Christian faith. Most of the ethnic groups such as Kachin and Karen
did not want to associate with Burmese churches regardless of their Christian faith. There
were two possible reasons for this: (1) ethnic groups abhor the Bamar race due to the
90
First Burmese Baptist Church. http://www.fbbcsf.org/history.htm (accessed February 8, 2012)
91
Maung Maung, "The Church in Burma: Twenty-Five Years of Isolation" Touchstone,
http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=03-03-029-f (accessed January 21, 2012).
58
oppression they had suffered under the Burmese military government; (2) ethnic groups
had tribal pride and wanted to promote and maintain their culture even in the religious
context. They were seeking their own identity. Ethnic groups such as the Kachin, Karen,
Chin, would not likely be disposed to becoming part of a Burmese-language Church.
Rather they desired to be recognized by their tribal identity church. However, when one
removes political factors, racial divisions, and personal feelings, it is possible to unite
anyone under Christ's church. Grouping and gathering of ethnic tribes and tongues can be
averted if, as Glazer and Moynihan observed, “Some group identities may be lost by
assimilation, the process of erasing the boundary between one group and another…Two
or more groups may unite to form a new group, larger and different from any of the
component parts. This we refer to as amalgamation.”92
Causative Factors
Some causative factors involved in Burmese immigrant churches in North
America fell under the categories of leadership, people factors, culture-context of
ministry, and the language and tradition. This researcher explored such causative factors
that reflected the existence of Burmese immigrant churches in North America.
Leadership
92
Glazer, Nathan and Daniel P. Moynihan, editors. Ethnicity: Theory and Experience (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1975), 115.
59
One of the causative factors was leadership in the church. Leadership defined the
model, purpose, mission, vision, and strategy of the church. Henry and Richard Blackaby
indicated that the leadership in church was a spiritual one. They say, "Holding a
leadership position in a Christian organization does not automatically come with God's
anointing. Many a misguided minister started out with the mistaken assumption that
people would follow his leadership merely because he was their pastor."93 Biblical
leadership requires total dependency upon the Holy Spirit, loyalty and commitment to
God's truth, the Bible. Commitment to God's word involves mental strength, emotional
adjustment, and spiritual empowerment in the life of leaders.
Burmese church pastors and lay leaders were mostly conservative in nature and
traditional in practice. Most of the leaders had some leadership experiences in local
church ministry, previously. They brought with them their way of doing church ministry
from Burma. Burmese churches found difficulty in adapting to multiculturalism in their
ministries. Unintentionally, they excluded outsiders (people of different languages) with
their Burmese or ethnic language services. Using only Burmese in worship services
eventually discouraged non- Burmese speakers from attending the church. The leadership
in Burmese immigrant churches must broader their vision beyond the Burmese context.
George Barna comments, "The vision is limited by personal abilities and capabilities. It is
filtered through societal and cultural boundaries and expectations. It is hindered by
93
Blackaby, Henry and Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God's
Agenda (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing House, 2001), 89.
60
organizational restrictions and obstacles."94 The way of immigrant church growth will
alter when generational changes occur in the ministry. Leaders must capture the vision of
God for their churches. Barna encourages, "God retains a call on everyone's life and
ministry. While we have the ability to accept or reject that calling, He makes an
understanding of the vision for our future available if we diligently seek it."95
Leaders are also engaged in a battle for truth against waves of pluralism
throughout church history. The churches are facing today the doctrinal heresy of
postmodernity. Postmodernism one way or another influence Burmese churches as they
encounter the western world. Burmese people accustomed to pluralism are exposed to
multiple religions in the country. Burmese church leaders and pastors are challenged with
pluralism of faith and culture. What kind of leadership model will be great for the
Burmese immigrant churches? Gary Bredfeldt suggests that "servanthood" is the model
for the biblical leadership.96 On the other hand, Borek, Lovett, and Towns suggest that
"Strategic Leadership" is essential to pastors and church leaders. He commends,
"Strategic leaders also include pastors who develop church growth campaigns to reach
new people for Christ and stewardship campaigns to help Christians grow into a deeper
94
George Barna, The Power of Vision: Discover and Apply God's Plan for Your Life and Ministry
(Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009), 63.
95
Ibid., 64.
96
Gary Bredfeldt, Great Leader Great Teacher, 89.
61
commitment to God."97 Burmese immigrant church leaders must take on the form of
servant-hood and strategic leadership.
Culture-Context of Ministry
Lovett H. Weems, Jr. underlines the importance of culture in the church. He said,
One reason culture is so important is that people never make judgments about
organizations, including churches, on the basis of an objective assessment of
reality. People do not have enough information to make objective judgments.
They make judgments based on perceptions that bear some resemblance to reality.
Those perceptions are most powerfully communicated through the images and
symbols of the culture.98
Today, the Burmese immigrant church must also be aware of the content and context of
the message they are hearing every Sunday from the pulpit. Since the church is in a
culturally diverse environment in the context of the western world, the message must be
relevant and targeted to specific needs of immigrant people. This researcher observed in
his church that when Burmese speakers from Burma visited the church, their messages
lack relevancy to the congregation’s current culture context. Malphurs agreed with
culture relevancy, "The church that exegetes its culture as well as the Scriptures should
remain relevant to that culture."99 Preachers must learn and develop their strategic
preaching in the context of relevancy through application of the principles of Scriptures.
Bill Hull said, "Strategic preaching is a call to be pulled forward by God's unfinished
97
Borek, John, Danny Lovett, and Elmer Towns, The Good Book on Leadership (Nashville, TN:
B&H Publishing Group, 2005), 59.
98
Lovett H. Weems, Jr. Church Leadership: Vision, Team, Culture, and Integrity (Nashville: TN:
Abingdon Press,1993), 102.
99
Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 111.
62
agenda in this world. It invites us to live out the vision of Jesus called the kingdom of
God, indeed to claim the life of the "new age" here and now "on earth as it is in heaven"
(Mt.6:10)."100 This statement alone is sufficient to tell us that strategic preaching is the
way to motivate listeners to begin living God's heavenly lifestyle on earth. In other
words, it is a specific homiletic approach to provide practical implications of God's truth
in the lives of listeners. Leaders are strategic preachers according to Hull. One can lead
by preaching. Hull has created a pathway to revive the true purpose of preaching in
church. He carefully classified the intent of preaching as an essential tool or vehicle to
lead the congregation for future goals. One can safely explain strategic preaching as
purpose driven preaching. Burmese preachers and pastors need to develop their homiletic
skills. It involves tremendous preparation such as visioning, understanding of ministry
strategy, mission mindset, and the analysis of people needs. Before laying out a strategic
preaching plan, one must consider every aspect of ministry in its totality. The actual
implementation of strategic preaching is progressive in nature. Preachers must learn to
strategize each step of the plan, in the preach-lead genre. They must perform reevaluation
or recalculation along the way to ensure its direction and effectiveness.
Regarding culture relevancy church, Stetzer Ed. explained,
Missional is the posture- the way in church we approach people in culture- but
incarnational describes what’s actually happening. Just as Christ came to live
among us, we dwell with the people around us. In many ways, we are like them.
However, we are changed, transformed; and because of that, we seek to change
and transform. The concept of being incarnational as it relates to church planting
emphasizes the importance of relationships in effective church planting. It’s not
100
William E. Hull, Strategic Preaching: The Role of The Pulpit in Pastoral Leadership (St.
Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press, 2006), 2.
63
about establishing a location for worship; it’s about establishing a basis for
coming together in the first place. Good church planting depends on good
relationships.101
Culture relevancy is much debated in the postmodern world. Stan Toler was concerned
that preachers gave away biblical truth in order to fit into the culture. He said, "Culture
relevance is not the same as biblical compromise."102 It is very true that culture should
not be dictated over biblical truth; instead, it should be the other way around. On the
other hand, Maxwell opened up a great perspective for culture relevancy in preaching. He
said that effective leaders and communicators have the ability to adapt with culture
changes. With regard to preaching styles, he opined ". . . the style of preaching is
determined by the culture as far as effectiveness."103 It meant variety in the style of
preaching was the art of adaptability the preacher displayed in keeping with the culture he
was in.
People Factors
Due to unfavorable economic conditions in Burma, Burmese people were
naturally laidback and relaxed in their life style being influenced by the slow pace in their
job and responsibility. Joblessness and unemployment were common factors. Most
Burmese people found it difficult to adapt the busy nature of the American lifestyle.
101
Ed. Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishers, 2006), 2.
102
Stan Toler, "Leading from the Pulpit"
(http://www.preaching.com/resources/articles/11607934/) (accessed January 4, 2012).
103
Ibid.
64
Thus, the challenge for people in the church was the commitment issue. Many considered
themselves volunteers and less committed to the ministry. To them, volunteering meant
doing what they could, when they could, and how they could. This mindset must be
changed if they want to be accountable and take responsibility in the ministry.
Membership issue in Burmese churches can also hinder the growth of the church. A
person intentionally stayed away from church for fear of commitment if he or she is
asked to join the church. Many Burmese immigrant churches lacked strong church
membership. People tended to jump from church to church without making a
commitment to one single church. If someone attended a church for a certain period, that
person was considered a member of that church without proper documentation. This
researcher observed that the nature of immigrant people likely made them averse to settle
for anything quickly. What made people stay in groups for long periods with a high level
of commitment? Cartwright answered that question,
Thus, the members of a highly cohesive group, in contrast to one with a low level
of cohesiveness, are more concerned with their membership and are therefore
more strongly motivated to contribute to the group’s welfare, to advance its
objectives, and to participate in its activities.104
Indeed, a sense of belonging drove a sense of responsibility, thus, producing
commitment. Burmese people must learn to commit and be accountable in the local
church ministry.
Languages and Traditions
104
Cartwright, Dorwin and Alvin Zander. Group Dynamics: Research and Theory. 3rd edition
(New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1968), 91.
65
Lovett H. Weems stated, "Language is a crucial element of the culture of any
organization."105 Indeed, language defined the uniqueness of the Burmese church in a
cross culture setting. Weems understood it as, "People become attached to the elements
of culture as the foundation of individual and collective meaning."106 Since, immigrants
from Burma arrived with various languages and traditions into the foreign land, the first
thing they did was to gather with their own kind. What caused the people to group with
their kind? Cartwright classified four factors in human grouping. He said, “A person’s
attraction to a group is due to the facts that (a) his motive base for attraction … (b) the
incentive properties of the group …(c) his expectancy…and (d) comparison level...”107
This researcher observed tribal or ethnic groups easily congregated into groups of their
own kind. They formed groups that drove their agendas out of unity and compatibility
with the same kind of people. Languages and traditions of people also served as dividers
of church and social grouping among Burmese immigrants. When churches and language
groups gathered for worship service, that gathering automatically defined them as a local
church in their own context. What is the true understanding of the function of the local
church with language groups? This researcher also observed the language or ethnic
groups, after they formed local bodies of worship, which included purposes of social,
political, economical, activities as part of the religious activities in the church. Coleman
had strong views on the theological implications of the church and its social involvement.
He said, “The function of the church is not to Christianize social structures but to nourish
105
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Church Leadership, 105.
106
Ibid.
107
Ibid., 96.
66
the members of Christ’s body with God’s Word and the sacraments. In both cases priority
was given to man’s spiritual needs, because a man must be changed spiritually before he
is changed at all (John 3:1-15).”108 The church has an important role to play in society
and God’s kingdom. Coleman said explicitly,
The role of the church as a corporate body must not be confused with that of its
Christian laymen. The individual, because he has only himself to answer for, is
free to participate in morally ambiguous political decisions in a way that the
church as a whole is not.109
This researcher agreed with Coleman's doctrinal stand that a local church’s role was to
represent it as a whole, and not just individual members. The ethnic groups were
promoting their traditions and cultures in the midst of spiritual genre. Practice of tribal
tradition was prioritized over spiritual genre of local church. Many tribal or ethnic
individuals were torn between personal duties to their own race and responsibility to their
local church ministry as Christians. Burmese churches must uphold and practice the right
ecclesiastical stand in the local church.
Significance of the Problem
After reviewing literatures on church models, types of ministry paradigm,
Burmese church culture, and causative factors that surrounded Burmese people, this
researcher was convinced that the Burmese immigrant church problems were significant.
108
Richard J. Coleman, Issues of Theological Conflict (Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans, 1980),
109
Ibid, 226.
218.
67
The complexity of the problems indicated the need of careful analysis and providing
proper solution. Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist church was facing imminent danger of
disunity among ethnic groups and an immobilized ministry of English-speaking
Burmese-American generation. Not many literatures emphasized the needs of Burmese
immigrant churches. The researcher was confident that this project would raise the
awareness of the problems that surrounded Burmese immigrant churches. Ultimately, the
researcher would implement the research findings upon his ministry. This project was
expected to show practical solution to Burmese immigrant churches with effective
ministry paradigm.
Direction for Solution
Was there a way to resolve OBMBC's three existing problems? The first problem
was how the Burmese immigrant church continues to do Burmese language ministry in
the context of American culture. The researcher believed that being a Burmese church
provided uniqueness among a multi-cultural society. However, the church should not
limit its ministry to a certain group of people. The problem was that the church was
implicated as a monolingual church. The second problem referred to the BurmeseAmerican generation, who are the younger generation of Burmese immigrant families.
The problem was that the church was inadequate to minister this English-speaking
generation in the Burmese language ministry. Once again, the church needed more than
just a monolingual ministry. The third problem was related to ethnic groups that wanted
to separate from the main congregation to establish their own language churches. The
problem was the division among ethnic groups was caused by their mono-racial and
68
monolingual preferences. Although, many ethnic minorities and the majority Bamar race
came from the same country, Burma, division was caused by their tribal prides and
identity demand. The church must overcome such division among Burmese immigrants.
The researcher found that all these three existing problems in his church had one
thing in common, the language. What if the church adapted a multilingual ministry
paradigm instead of monolingual ministry, will it be a solution? The hypothesis to this
project would provide a multilingual ministry in the researcher's church and resolve those
problems. The church would have cultural relevancy to American culture by enabling the
English language ministry, meanwhile, providing multicultural ministry to ethnic groups
with the use of diverse languages. However, first, the researcher must learn from those
well-established and successful churches within multicultural society and performing
bilingual or multilingual ministry in cross culture settings.
Conclusion to the Literature Review
This chapter included a discussion of four focused church models; Generational,
Functional, Multiethnic, and Emergent, which were relevant to the researcher's ministry.
They were potential models, if not in its entirety, that influenced the researcher's quest for
an effective church model. There was a growing need to study Burmese immigrant
churches, especially in North America. This literature review supported the hypothesis of
the project that there could be an effective Burmese immigrant church model, a church
that thrives and grows amidst the challenges of bringing together diverse ethnic groups
69
and generations with different language needs and cultural values. A biblical foundation
provided the identification of a true church model. Scripture references supported a
ministry, which linguistically enriched and reached across cultures. This project was
guided by the theological foundation that led to a case study of churches and people. An
in depth study of Burmese church culture contributed to the contextual knowledge of the
problems of this project. Burmese immigrant churches in North America were emerging
as multi-generational or multi-linguistic nature. An important question for the Burmese
immigrant churches was, were they strategically planning or preparing for that emergent?
The very purpose of this project was to respond positively to that question.
This chapter discussed theoretical responses to the problems. The causative
factors escalated to the problems and exposed them in discussions. This literature review
provided the foundation for case-study interviews and survey questionnaires. In fact, the
literature review affirmed the methodology of this project, which was a case study of
carefully selected four local churches. The next chapter discussed in detail the research
procedure and the execution of strategic plans.
70
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH PROCEDURE AND STRATEGIC PLAN
Methodology
This researcher sought an effective church model for the Oakland Burmese
Mission Baptist Church by studying Asian and Burmese immigrant churches in specific
regions of the world, employing the Case-Study method. Researcher Robert K. Yin
defined the case study research method as "An empirical inquiry that investigates a
contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, when the boundaries between
phenomenon and context are not evident, and in which multiple sources of evidence are
used.”110 Mark Hudgins utilized the same methodology, the case study, while he was
researching the effectiveness of deacons' ministry for his dissertation. His reasoning was
the need to gather quantitative data for case determination to support his hypothesis. He
stated, "To conduct this level of qualitative analysis, the case-study methodology was
chosen. Case-study research allows an outside researcher the opportunity to immerse
himself in the culture of the church and more fully comprehend the components of the
explored ministry.”111 This researcher followed the same method. He immersed himself
in the cultural context of the churches in order to gain extensive knowledge of how the
churches operate. The researcher conducted field studies by travelling to the locations of
110
Robert K. Yin, Case study research: Design and methods (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1984),
23.
111
Mark S. Hudgins, "Selected Case Studies of Effective Deacon Ministries in Large Southern
Baptist Churches" (DMin diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 2009), 102.
71
the four selected case-study churches, Fremont, San Francisco, Thailand, and Singapore.
He conducted interviews, collected data, attended worship services, and involved himself
in ministry programs. The researcher interviewed senior pastors and some lay leaders to
gain insight of their ministries. He handed out survey questionnaires during church
gatherings and collected them back at the end of the sessions. He collected church
documents such as training materials, financial information, website data, photos, and
other relevant research items from those case study churches. He determined the ministry
outcome of each church, by testing its strengths and weaknesses through data analysis.
When a case study was launched in search of uncertain theory, in this case ministry
paradigm, multiple case studies were conducted in order to make use of pattern-matching
techniques and replication logic. Sharan B. Merriam suggested the same, "Two levels of
sampling are usually necessary in qualitative case studies."112 Therefore, the researcher
selected two Burmese immigrant churches and two Asian churches to do comparative
case studies. He examined two Burmese immigrant churches using the three dimensional
aspects and five-focus function assessment. He compared and analyzed data from two
Asian churches. Likewise, he compared them side-by-side, the programs and functions of
the two Burmese immigrant churches. The results of the data analyses were displayed in
tables and figures. These results helped him draw a conclusion on principles to
implement in his church.
112
Sharan B. Merriam, Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education, Revised
and Expanded (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998), 64, 65.
72
Instruments and Data Analysis
The first instrument was Interview practice. The researcher engaged senior pastors
and appointed leaders with interview questionnaires. Likewise, he conducted interviews
with certain focus groups such as the core group, youth group, ethnic groups, and mission
team. He provided questionnaires at one-on-one interviews and group-interviews. These
interview questions included objective open-ended questionnaires. Seven categories of
interview questionnaires were designed to provide answers for the project’s objective.
These seven categories were established based on the needs of the researcher's church
that underlines quantitative research. The large amount of raw data: audio, video,
documents, script notes, website data, and personal information were considered
quantitative data collection. After careful analysis and objective observation of
quantitative data, credibility and transferability of the data was established by performing
qualitative research. Qualitative research could be an in-depth case study to discover and
organize concepts into an explanatory structure. Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin
explained qualitative analysis as mainly discovering concepts and relationship between
raw data, which is quantitative data, organizing them into a theoretical explanatory
scheme.
In speaking about qualitative analysis, we are referring not to the quantifying of
qualitative data but rather to a nonmathmatical process of interpretation, carried
out for the purpose of discovering concepts and relationships in raw data and then
organizing these into a theoretical explanatory scheme.113
113
Strauss, Anselm and Juliet Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and
Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications,
1998), 11.
73
The second instrument was the Survey Question approach, which constructed the
premises for three areas; (1) personal view of church and spirituality, (2) ethnic ministry
and personal feelings towards it and (3) priority of church and ministry goals. The
researcher distributed these surveys during or after worship service to the attendees.
The third instrument was the Data Collection process; personal notes on field
study, interview tapes, records, videotaping, survey questionnaire returns, church official
documents, articles, writings, bulletins, meeting minutes, and phone conversation that
were collected and studied.
This researcher used the triangulation research method when conducting research
and gathering data. Rudestam and Newton described the triangulation research procedure
thus, "Soliciting data from multiple and different sources as a means of cross-checking
and corroborating evidence and illuminating a theme or theory"114. The triangulation
research method preceded a combination of objective open-ended questionnaires with
subjective survey responses. It also involved using multiple sources such as interview
transcripts, surveys, group discussions scripts, observations notes, church documents,
church's weekly reports, publications, testimonies, mission field reports, website reports,
and community feedbacks. The massive data from the case study churches and ministries
yielded personal value in forming the researcher's project hypothesis. The next step was
to examine the statistical data from each church, and conducted a compare and contrast
analysis. It helped the researcher to understand the distinction between subjective
114
Rudestam, Kjell and Rae Newton, Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to
Content and Process (Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2007), 114.
74
opinions as opposed to objective facts about each ministry. The interview process helped
bring a clearer understanding of not only the different perspectives of interviewees but
also the motives behind certain values held by each ministry.
Credibility of case-study churches and this project was established through
prolonged history of ministry and its consistent growth, persistent projection of unique
ministry paradigm, firsthand experience of the researcher upon ministry growth
comparing with established data resources, and member-checking.115 Yvonna S. Lincoln
and Egon G. Guba indicated that through audit trail: raw data (electronic, script notes,
surveys, documents, and records), data analysis products, data reconstruction and
synthesis products, and material related to project findings dependability and
conformability should prevail. In reference to Halpern's audit trail, they said,
The inquirers who engaged Halpern to audit their studies were uniform in
reporting that the discipline imposed on them by the need to provide an audit trail
had innumerable payoffs in helping to systematize, relate, cross reference, and
attach priorities to data that might otherwise have remained undifferentiated until
the writing task was undertaken.116
Dependability and conformability were established in the process of qualitative research
and triangulation in careful analysis of multiple sources through testing and retesting of
the subjects.
115
"Member Checks" Qualitative Research Guideline Project, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
http://www.qualres.org/HomeMemb-3696.html (accessed Aug 4, 2012)
116
Lincoln, Yvonna S. and Egon G. Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry (Newbury Park, CA: SAGE
Publications, 1985), 319.
75
Case-Study Churches and Criteria for Selection
For the case study, the researcher selected two Burmese churches, Myanmar
Christian Assembly (MCA) in Bangkok, Thailand, and Judson Baptist Church of
Singapore (JBCS). These Burmese churches which have been in existence for decades,
are currently located outside Burma. These churches’ positions are similar to the
researcher's church, OBMBC. These were the criteria for selecting MCA and JBCS
Burmese churches for case study.
1. The church must be located outside of Burma with a cross-cultural setting.
2. The church must be Burmese people oriented (Mainly Burmese language used).
3. The church should have multiethnicity participation (more than one language group).
4. The church must do Burmese ministry (Burmese people and leadership involved).
5. The church must successfully accommodate and integrate people of different ethnicity
(multiethnic background present).
Two Asian immigrant churches in the Bay Area were selected for the case study
on the subject of how they addressed the new generation (English speaking generation)
issues. These churches were successful and the most resourceful in meeting the needs of
the new generation. It was critical for the researcher's church to understand their strategic
plans. Those two churches were the New Life Church of Fremont (NLC) and the First
Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco (FCBC). They were well-established immigrant
churches, which had the same new generation challenge like the researcher’s church.
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They were Korean and Chinese churches in origin, built upon their tradition and cultural
values in a cross culture environment. Their extensive experiences in ministry had
enabled them to come up with effective strategic plans for the new generation, who no
longer spoke the language of their parents. The main reason for studying these churches
was how they managed to serve this generation while continuously meeting the needs of
the older immigrant generation in their own native language.
Criteria for selection of these Asian churches were:
1. The church must be located in a similar location as the researcher's church, Bay Area
of Northern California.
2. The church must have at least one foreign language service besides English.
3. The church must have an English speaking generation amidst a foreign languagespeaking congregation.
4. The church must have a successfully established new generation ministry (Englishspeaking ministry).
5. The church must envision a diverse culture ministry while maintaining the original
culture status.
Development of Interview Questions and Observation of Senior Pastor Role
Senior pastors play a vital role in establishing the church model. They are
responsible for casting the vision and mission of the church they lead. They are the key to
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ministry development. John Maxwell said, "Almost everything rises and falls on
leadership"117 Thus, one must study the leadership of the church and understand their
impact on the ministry. The interview questionnaires designed to answer these project
questions.

First, the immigrant churches must have a certain model in a cross culture
environment. What is that ministry paradigm?

Second, can senior pastors provide and lead an innovative ministry for the
Burmese immigrants? Can their leadership influence the future immigrant
generation? What are the plans and strategies for their needs? Is there any strategy
implanted at the present ministry?

Third, what is the ethnic groups' mindset about the church? Why are they urging
for mono-ethnic grouping? Is there any strategy to integrate these ethnic groups
into one body? Will senior pastors and ethnic leaders be able to come together for
a multiethnic ministry?
Each senior pastor and appointed leaders were interviewed through questionnaires
that were relevant to their current ministry. In addition, some questions unique to a
particular ministry were given to certain senior pastors. For example, there were more
than eight ethnic language groups united as one church under the leadership of the senior
pastors at the MCA church in Bangkok. They were asked questions regarding their strong
117
John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1993),
x.
78
multiethnic ministry. What makes it work? How did the senior pastors and leadership
team make it work?
Seven categories of interview questions were designed to comprehend the
ministry aspects of the senior pastors. The first category deals with the background of the
church. The researcher requested documents such as church policy, procedure manual,
financial information, documentation on specific ministries, and other information on the
background of the church in addition to a verbal interview with senior pastor. The second
area of interview questions dealt with the church's vision and mission. Here, the
researcher sought answers to the uniqueness of the ministry and its direction. He
examined the church's core value and philosophy of ministry practices. The third area of
interview was the church's theological aspect. The church's theological viewpoint as
observed as theological orientation drove the church in providing spiritual growth
processes. Fourth, the general atmosphere of the ministry was discussed with the senior
pastors. The researcher explored the atmosphere of the worship services, whether formal,
casual, or expectant. Non-expressive small groups, Bible studies, and special events were
integrated within the questionnaires. How the church conducts business meetings, the
style of the governing board, how members discuss critical issues, and how they solve
problems, were queried. Fifth, questions about progress of change in church ministry
were addressed. Some hypothetical questions were designed to answer the future plan
and the past situation of the church. How church members adapt, process, or resist
change were determined through these questions. Sixth, the researcher designed
questionnaires related to membership growth area in evaluating past and present growth
condition. The seventh area of inquiry was about leadership in the ministry. Senior
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pastors shared their personal views on leadership in the church. Questions regarding their
co-workers, co-pastors, leaders in regards to their support. Are they willing to follow the
senior pastor's leadership? On the other hand, are they obstacles to the pastoral
leadership?
Designation of Case-Study Interview/Survey Questions
These survey questions portrayed personal information, the spiritual life of
believers, and the leadership quality of the ministry. The strategy for data analysis was to
gather quantitative data and determine strength and strategy through five-focused
functions assessment: Teaching, Fellowship, Worship, Evangelism, and Service. The
validity of these questionnaires came from a short survey of other senior pastors of
Burmese immigrant churches in the United States. Statistics showed that they all desired
to ask the same questionnaires in their position and ministry.118 The least percentage of
the selection of "ignore the question" (Selection #1= Do not want to know) in this survey
indicated that Burmese senior pastors were in accordance with this researcher. They had a
strong desire to know and wanted to understand case-studied churches. That indicated
they were in agreement with researcher's inquiries. The survey form that was given to
these Burmese immigrant churches senior pastors was carefully designed to reflect the
research questionnaires. It indicated the validity of inquiries and established the
commonality of interest in the ministry survey of this project.
118
35% somewhat desire to know, 53% strong desire to know, 12% extremely wanted to know,
and 0% do not want to know.
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Burmese Churches Senior Pastors' Inquiry: How are other Burmese Churches structured
and function?
(Please circle one number on each role for your selection. The number 1
represents that you have ignored the question. Number 2 indicates that somehow you
desire to know. Number 3 shows your strong desire to know the response. Then, number
4 means that you must ask and know the individual's answer. Selections of number 3 and
4 indicate that your desires to inquiry on these areas are strong.)
(1= do not want to know, 2= somewhat need to know, 3= very much need to know, 4=
must know)
You are interesting to know regarding individual, church members, attendees, church
function, and ministry paradigm in their responses to these inquiry areas.
1
Attendant status of individual at church service (member, visitor,
core, regular attendee, leader, etc.)
1 2 3 4
2
Duration of individual attendance at services (week, month, year)
1 2 3 4
3
Reason/s of attendance (teaching, preaching, fellowship, etc.)
1 2 3 4
4
Relationship with others church attendees (enjoy, disappointed, care,
love)
1 2 3 4
5
Their inputs and suggestions upon ministry
1 2 3 4
6
Their spiritual responses toward church ministry
1 2 3 4
7
Their responses to pastor's weekly messages
1 2 3 4
8
Church's ministry impact upon their spiritual lives
1 2 3 4
9
Their involvement in church ministry and fellowship groups
1 2 3 4
10
Their opinion on church leadership (strong, weak, moderate)
1 2 3 4
11
Their role in church ministry (leader, supporter, follower, bystander)
1 2 3 4
12
Their ethnicity and participation of ethnic groups (Kachin, Karen,
Chin, Bamar, Kayar, and Chinese.)
1 2 3 4
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13
Their preference of ethnic group or language group
1 2 3 4
14
Their opinion on diverse community
1 2 3 4
15
Their church's leadership in ethnic ministry
1 2 3 4
16
Their church's structure of ethnic groups ministry
1 2 3 4
17
Their church's relationship with ethnic groups
1 2 3 4
18
Their church's priority in preaching, teaching, evangelism, Bible
study, etc.
1 2 3 4
19
Their church's emphasis on mission, giving, community, etc.
1 2 3 4
20
Their church's attention on leadership, cooperation, networking, etc.
1 2 3 4
21
Their church's effort in training, delegation, discipleship, etc.
1 2 3 4
22
Their church's dedication on worship, prayer, spiritual enrichment,
etc.
1 2 3 4
23
Their church's involvement on community events and social needs
1 2 3 4
24
Their church's vision, mission, and value
1 2 3 4
25
Their church's adaptation to culture diversity
1 2 3 4
Survey Questions 1: Targeted Areas: Individual opinion on the nature of ministry and
personal responses or benefit to one’s spirituality
1. Are you a member of this church? Yes.-_____ or NO ____:
2. What do you consider yourself in relation to this church? Visitor, regular attendee,
devoted friend, etc. ____________
3. How long have you been attending this church? ___________
4. What brings you back each week to this church? ____________
5. Do you enjoy the church services and the people? YES____ or NO ____:
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Why? _________
6. What things do you find enjoyable in this church? (Program, Teaching, or
People?)
7. What would you like to change if you have one thing to change in this church?
______
8. Do you feel like you have encountered God during worship services in this
church? ______
9. How do you feel about the pastor’s messages? Are they spiritual, educational, or
meeting your needs? ________
10. Do you think you are growing in your spiritual life? YES ____ or NO _____:
Why? ____________
11. Is the church helping you grow in your spiritual life? _________
12. Do you also attend other activities such as Bible study, fellowships, mission trip,
etc., other than weekly worship services? ________
13. How would you describe the leadership of this church? Are they strong, weak, or
moderate? _________
14. Do you consider yourself a leader of this church or a follower? ________
15. Have you experience serving in any leadership role or have you attended any
leadership training before? ________.
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Survey Question 2: Targeted Area: Ethnic group and individual’s feeling toward diversity
in ministry
Statistical analysis of these questionnaires is based on three levels of
measurement. The scores are classified as “high,” “middle,” and “low” respectively. The
high score indicates a strong result in this area of measurement. Middle score indicates to
a neutral outcome. The Low reveals weak or lesser value. In some questions, "Yes" and
"No" answers directly convey strength or weakness. The question "Why" is to observe
intention of a person who answers either "Yes" or "No."
1. What ethnic background do you have? Kachin, Karen, Kayar, Chin, Bamar, mix,
.______.
2. Are you involved in any ethnic fellowship group?
YES ____ NO ____: Why? _______________________
3. How would you describe the ethnic groups in the church?
(1) Divisive (2) United (3) Valuable.
4. Would you prefer the church to be mainly Burmese speaking and call it a
Burmese Church?
(1) Dislike (2) Acceptable (3) Important
5. If you have a chance to start a new ethnic church (Kachin church, Karen church,
etc.) would you like to start it separately from the main Burmese church?
YES ___ NO ___: Why? __________________________
6. In your opinion, how should an ethnic church function in a diverse community?
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(1)It should function as that of a particular ethnic group. (2) It will welcome
everyone to that church. (3) It will utilize every language to meet the people’s
needs.
7. How is your church serving ethnic fellowships?
(1) Regularly contact and participating in their activities (2). Give less effort to
unite and build trust (3). No relationship and no leadership
8. How would you scale your church’s relationship with ethnic fellowships?
(1) Strong (2) moderate (3) weak
9. Is your church leadership involved in building ethnic fellowships?
(1) Leaders involved (2) leaders give less attention (3) Leaders ignore totally.
10. In your opinion, what makes ethnic groups feel part of the church?
(1) Leadership, fellowship, vision, mission, people, circumstances (2), program,
events, tolerance (3), or none of those
Survey Questions 3: Target Area: Church Priorities & Ministry Emphasis
(The first four highest scores (3&4) are the priorities of the church and its ministry
emphasis)
(1=not prioritize, 2= somewhat prioritize, 3= priority, 4= most prioritize)
1
Preaching & teaching Scripture: God's Word prioritized in church
1 2 3 4
2
Fellowship: Activities as family in the church
1 2 3 4
3
Bible Knowledge: people know the Truth of Scripture
1 2 3 4
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4
Mission work: Doing sacrificial work for needy
1 2 3 4
5
Community sense: people feel they belong to church
1 2 3 4
6
Giving: People support the church financially
1 2 3 4
7
Leadership: decisive, powerful, spiritual, and caring in leadership
1 2 3 4
8
Cultural relevance: value culture and apply it through the truth
1 2 3 4
9
Prayer: personal relationship with God
1 2 3 4
10 Evangelism: Spreading the gospel of Christ
1 2 3 4
11 Team ministry: working together in ministry
1 2 3 4
12 Worship: attending services for spiritual purpose
1 2 3 4
13 Cooperation: working together with others in harmony
1 2 3 4
14 Reaching Unchurch: visiting, caring, evangelizing none believers
1 2 3 4
15 Delegation of Laity: Using Lay people in the ministry
1 2 3 4
16 Training: preparing for ministry
1 2 3 4
17 Discipleship: Making disciples for Christ
1 2 3 4
18 Discipline: Righteous living
1 2 3 4
19 Fund raising: actively raising money for church
1 2 3 4
20 Networking: connecting with other churches or organizations
1 2 3 4
Interview Questions 4: For Senior Pastors and Appointed Leaders based on Seven
Categories
Background of Church
1. When the church was established? Were you there when it began?
2. How many members were there to in the beginning?
3. How were you in terms of motivation and feelings at that time?
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4. Is there any changes then and now in term of purpose and structure? What are
they?
5. Do you see the church growing? How would you measure its growth?
Church's Vision and Mission
1. What is your church vision and mission?
2. What are your church's core values?
3. Do you believe that the church is pursuing the vision today?
4. Is the church fulfilling its mission?
5. Where will your church be 5 years from now?
Church's Theological Aspect
1. Is the church building a strong theological foundation?
2. How many Bible study classes do you conduct during a week?
3. What percentages of members attend Bible study classes?
4. Is there doctrinal uniqueness, in term of practice, in this church? If so, what is it?
5. Does the church believe and practice essential Christian doctrines?
General Atmosphere of the Church
1. Are people friendly in the church?
2. Are people responsive in worship service?
3. What is the church meeting atmosphere like? Are people heartily in spirit? Or
halfhearted?
4. Are people enthusiastic about learning God's word and evangelism?
5. How do you solve people problems? What percentage of the congregation has
conflict problems?
Progress of Change
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1. Has your church undergone any changes? If so, is the progress in waves of
changes?
2. How did your congregation cope with change?
3. How do you strategize or implement change?
4. Are your ministry team leaders helpful in the change process?
5. Was the changing process helpful or harmful to the church?
Membership Growth
1. What is the percentage of membership increase since the beginning of ministry?
2. What kind of strategy do you use to grow members?
3. What works in this ministry as far as growth is concerned?
4. What is your vision of growth for the next five years?
5. How would you plan to achieve it?
Leadership in Church
1. In your opinion, is leadership in the church united and strong?
2. What type of leadership genre is practiced in this church?
3. Is there a continuous leadership-training program in place for ministry leaders?
4. How did you build this leadership team for your church?
5. Are they willing to sacrifice to a certain extent to follow the senior pastor's
leadership?
Method of Measurement
Two case-studied Burmese immigrant churches were looked through a threedimensional scope: the growth aspect of ministry then and now, leadership that it is
88
involved in, and the responses of people. This three-dimensional scope revealed the
uniqueness of the ministry and its paradigm. Financial and membership growth can be
measured by looking into church's confirmed records and data as well as the present trend
of church growth in contrasted view to previous years of developing ministry growth.
The leadership aspect was measured in their consistency and sustainability of ministry
and their leadership of the organization. All four case-studied churches had established
prolong leadership in the ministry. Credibility of their leadership had been undoubted.
People were subjected to test against the hypothesis of this project through surveyed
questions, group discussion, and personal interviews. People responded in various aspects
of ministry according to their unbiased opinion. The researcher used that information to
examine against church reports, documents, and senior pastors' interview results.
The researcher compared two Burmese immigrant churches to understand the
strength and weaknesses of each ministry. He identified their ministry structures. These
two Burmese immigrant churches in field-study, survey/interview responses, and
collected data were examined through the five-focus function: teaching, fellowship,
worship, evangelism, and service. Aubrey Malphurs defined five-focus function of a local
church as, "I argue that the church has five functions: teaching, fellowship, worship,
evangelism, and service or ministry as based on Acts 2:42-47. . ."119 This was a
categorized testing ground to determine the healthy status of a ministry. Ed Stetzer and
Mike Dodson had made a similar assessment in his six criteria for the biblical church.120
119
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 123.
120
Stetzer, Ed and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and
Yours Can Too (Nashville, TN: B& H Publishing House, 2007), 2, 3.
89
Two Burmese immigrant churches were studied specifically upon those five-focus
functions with the qualitative research approach. The findings of church information
drew from those five functions and every available collected data were analyzed and
reported.
However, two Asian immigrant churches in Northern California were not utilized
in the same method of measurement. Those two churches were not measured under the
three dimensional scope and five-focus function. The reason was the researcher did not
need to study the entire aspect of their ministries. Due to time constraints and the desire
to focus only on the English language ministry, the researcher opted out of the rest of
their foreign language ministries, such as Chinese and Korean. The New Life Church of
Fremont was founded on Korean language ministry. The First Chinese Baptist Church of
San Francisco was founded on the Cantonese (Chinese) language ministry. Nonetheless,
they were doing English language ministry for the younger generation. The researcher
conducted a case study on their English language ministry exclusively. These two Asian
churches were examined on their English language ministry structure. The service
attendees were surveyed on their opinion of the ministry in order to grasp its success.
Every opinion expressed through the survey was tested against the senior pastor and
English language pastors' interviewed opinion of their ministries. This was the "Member
checking" method utilized in this research. The main questions underlining the
researcher’s research of the two Asian churches were: How did they build English
language ministry along with their foreign language ministry? Are there any different
style of English language ministries in Asian churches? He was able to establish the
answers through this project.
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Three Dimensional Scopes
Growth Aspect
This researcher looked at the church growth factor in the areas of growth in
membership, service attendees, financial stability, members' spiritual maturity, mission
expansion, ministry outreach, and property expansion.
Leadership Quality
Leadership role is vital to ministry. Thus, this researcher will observe leadership
in terms of qualities in education, experience, effectiveness in ministry, unique spiritual
gifts, decision-making, problem solving, visioning, and pragmatism.
People Factors
People factors seem insignificant yet have a strong impact on ministry. This
researcher obtained people's opinions of the ministry, their participation, types, race,
generational constituent, background, language, culture, and belief systems.
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Five-Focused Function Assessment
This researcher utilized five-focus function assessment tool to observe each
ministry of two Burmese immigrant churches. It indicated the health status of a church.
Rick Warren indicated a similar strategy to bring people to maturity through five
experiences: worship, fellowship, Bible study, evangelism, and ministry.121 Malphurs
agreed with Warren on church functions, which he stated the same five functions of the
church.122 The researcher conducted field study on each targeted ministry. It provided a
hands-on knowledge of the ministry and function. The focus areas were:
Teaching: methods, system, biblical standard, curriculum, discipleship,
qualification
The researcher observed the church's teaching system, method, and collected their
curriculums to analyze. Their discipleship structure was studied. The leaders and teachers
were observed in their qualification and their biblical standard of teaching.
Fellowship: commitment, exaltation, unity, care, love, growth, connection
The researcher learned the bond between church members and analyzed their
fellowship structure. Whether, they were in tune to the biblical way of unity, exaltation,
care, love, connect, and growing in their fellowships or not. This study indicated the
effectiveness of ministry paradigm.
Worship: spiritual, inspirational, transcendence, life-changing, renewal, revival
121
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, 340.
122
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 84.
92
The researcher was involved in the church worship services and observed
worshipers. Was the worship service inspirational? Did people experience life changing,
renewal, or revival in those worship services?
Evangelism: boldness, enthusiasm, conversion, discipleship, leadership, joy
The researcher discovered church members' enthusiasm and boldness in
evangelism work. He observed in mission events to learn the actual leadership of the
church in evangelism and mission works. Are there conversion and discipleship
experiences that occurred in the church?
Service: servant-hood, sacrificial, willingness, joy, focused, committed
What was the motivation for serving in church ministry? The researcher explored
church members' inner motives to serve one another and others. Were they willing,
joyful, and committed in their services? Christian service model, whether was it servant
hood and sacrificial? What kind of model were they practicing? The researcher examined
these areas in those case-study churches.
Conclusion to the Methodology
In this chapter, the researcher explained how case studies of two Burmese
immigrant churches and two Asian immigrant churches were conducted. The case-study
method was selected for this project to obtain multiple resources, and analyze them for
qualitative result. The qualitative data analysis process was challenging. Taylor and
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Bogdan said, “The reason why so many people find qualitative data analysis so difficult
is that it is not fundamentally a mechanical or technical process; it is a process of
inductive reasoning, thinking, and theorizing.”123 The research survey and interview
questionnaires were designed to answer research questions. Three instruments were
utilized in this project. These instruments were the interview questions, survey
questionnaires, and data collection from four case-study churches. The triangulation
method was employed along with cross-examining data analysis process in this project.
The researcher analyzed research data in compare and contrast methods. The researcher's
hypothesis was that a church that thrives and grows amidst the challenges of bringing
together diverse ethnic groups and generations with different language needs and cultural
values. The results of qualitative research in specific ministry aspect were tested against
the researcher's hypothesis.
A brief description of the four case study churches was noted along with their
criteria for selection of study. These four churches conveyed vital information needed in
the researcher's ministry. Their context and content of ministry enforced the criteria for
selection. The development of interview questions is based on seven categories, which
served as a layout for designing research questions. Survey questionnaires were designed
to understand the content and context of ministry with three-dimensional scopes of
measurement. The five-focus function assessment method was utilized in determining the
massive data and its result.
123
Taylor, Steven J. and Robert Bogdan, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: A
Guidebook and Resource, 3rd ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998), 140.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS OF CASE-STUDY RESULTS
Burmese Immigrant Churches Case Study
This project employed two Burmese immigrant churches, the Myanmar Christian
Assembly (MCA), Bangkok, and the Judson Baptist Church of Singapore (JBCS) for the
case study. The mission strategy, tradition, growth, and model of the two churches were
scrutinized and evaluated. The churches displayed certain similarities and as well as
differences in their church paradigm and ministry philosophy. One should see these
differences in both the normality and the specialty sense. In the normality sense, God
calls each church for unique purpose and so no two churches should look alike. Every
church has a specific task or call for the community where it is located. Thom and Sam
Rainer said, "The church in a farming community in Indiana should relate differently
from the church in a suburb of Vancouver, which should relate differently from the
church in the heart of New York City."124 That was true in the case of MCA and JBCS.
They were structured differently and their ministry contexts and values were different.
However, these two churches provided essential principles of Burmese immigrant church
structure and growth. This researcher found helpful resources in both churches.
The data collected through interviews (senior pastors, leaders, members, and
associates), survey questionnaires, statistic analyses, and on-site observations provided
enough evidence to be convinced that there was a ministry paradigm for the Burmese
124
Rainer, Thom S. and Sam S. Rainer III, Essential Church, 17.
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immigrant churches. Of the instruments used in this study, interviews with senior pastors
and survey questionnaires for church members were found to be the most effective
agents. The former instrument provided detailed information of the history of each
church as well as its vision, mission, values, and strategy. The latter provided a vast scale
of ministry paradigm and members' feedback on the ministry. The survey questionnaires,
designed to answer project questions, supported this project hypothesis. The hypothesis
of this project was a church thrives and grows amidst the challenges of bringing together
diverse ethnic groups and generations with multilingual ministry. These research findings
provided the evidence to support the hypothesis of this project in process. The interview
questions and survey questionnaires were field tested and approved by other senior
pastors of Burmese immigrant churches in the Bay Area and around the United States.
These four senior pastors indicated that they all would ask the same survey questions to
case-studied Burmese immigrant churches. The following statistic result shows the
authenticity of these questionnaires.
100
80
Rev. Laphai
60
Rev. Latt
40
Rev. Labya
Rev. KD
20
0
Do not want to
know
Somewhat to
know
Much to know
Must know
Figure 4.1. Burmese Immigrant Churches Senior Pastors' Inquiry
96
The two Burmese immigrant churches, MCA and JBCS, shared common challenges with
the researcher's church. Maintaining Burmese ethnic values, worshipping in a inhabitant
language, and balancing cultural relevancy, these needs were the challenges. In addition,
each church engaged with a typical Burmese congregation125 and their social issues.126
Burmese immigrants faced similar culture challenges127 and have common needs.128 The
majority of them have suffered from political injustices and poverty129.
This researcher visited MCA and JBCS churches on-site in the month of May
2012, to get firsthand knowledge of their ministries. During this time, he engaged ingroup discussions, interviewed senior pastors and individuals, surveyed, and visited
ministry outposts. He engaged himself with church attendees in preaching and teaching.
They responded with eagerness toward the researcher's teaching. This researcher learned
to appreciate their enthusiasm for God and ministry. The quests in studying these two
Burmese immigrant churches were to observe the Burmese language ministry paradigm
and to learn how ethnic ministries congregate.
125
Typical Burmese churches like to worship with their monolingual group. They are comfortable
with their own kind. Their nature of church is exclusive.
126
Social issues like employment, foreign language, educations, immigrations, housing, and legal.
127
Cultural challenges exist when adapting to foreign cultures and customs. Culture-shock is more
common with the younger immigrant generation. Immigrants are likely to experience identity crisis in a
foreign land.
128
Common needs of Burmese immigrants are language skill, job security, cultural adaptation,
raising family, staying connected with families back in the motherland. They must learn to speak, think,
and act according to the culture of the foreign land that they have settled in.
129
Burmese people have suffered political instability and injustice under a military regime for over
fifty years. The majority of the citizens are poverty stricken.
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Case Study of Myanmar Christian Assembly, Bangkok, Thailand
The researcher visited Thailand in May 2012, to conduct an on-site study of the
MCA ministry. The first impression of the church was clean and spacious. The building
compound was in a square shaped structure. It had two stories with a courtyard. The
building was surrounded by a large wall, which divided the property line from neighbor
homes. The first level had a kitchen, pastors' office, multimedia office, Bible study hall,
and about six classrooms with see-through glass doors. A large staircase led to the second
level of the sanctuary, which could accommodate over five hundred worshippers. When
the sanctuary was filled to capacity, a video live-feed worship was extended to the first
level hall. The building structure portrayed a part of the MCA ministry paradigm, which
was its multiethnic ministry where MCA disciples integrated ethnic groups into a local
church. Multiple classrooms in the first floor were used for ethnic ministry each Sunday.
It indicated that the church had a multiethnic ministry structure. Ortiz commented for that
same notion.
Presence of the multiethnic community in the local church is a given if mission is
applied, but presence without incorporation limits the process of true biblical
discipleship. The qualitative dimension occurs as participants are discipled and
become responsible members of the local ministry.130
Training and disciple-making activities were evident in MCA ministry. The leaders and
pastors of the church rendered great hospitality to this researcher for his research work.
130
Manuel Ortiz, One New People, 90-91.
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History of MCA
In 1989, there was an exodus of Burmese citizens to Bangkok after the military
regime's ruthless crackdown of the popular uprising of 1988.131 Some were political
exiles while others were economic refugees. They were either pursuing quick-rich
schemes or other ways of survival in a foreign environment. Some of them were engaged
in illegal and criminal activities.132 Burmese Christians saw the need to form a prayer
group amidst this deplorable situation for the Burmese in Bangkok. U Zaw Min, U Tu Ja,
Dominic, and Rev. James Sing Za Khai were the four original founders of the prayer
group at that time. Rev. James Sing Za Khai, who had been a pastor at Mandalay, Burma,
previously, started this group. They gathered at his home almost every night, and prayed
and shared God's word. More and more people attended the prayer meeting, and soon the
house was overflowing. Thus, they planned to rent a place for worship. On Mach, 9, 1990
they began a fellowship service at a rented location, the Bangkok Christian Guest House.
They named it "Myanmar Christian Fellowship International" (MCFI). The first service
was held on a Friday and twenty-eight people attended. Rev. James led as pastor and the
rest supported him.
In six months time, the house was overflowing again. They stayed there for a year
and a half before finding another location for worship. This time, they rented a worship
center at Swige 2, Ackamai 16 (quarter 16). They started a church there, and stayed for 18
years. At that time, about 80 people regularly attended the church for the first four
131
"8888 Uprising," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8888_Uprising (accessed July 2, 2012).
132
U Zaw Min "Interview by Author," (Bangkok, Thailand: 13 May, 2012).
99
months. In 1993, they began baptizing people. People were transformed by the
evangelistic efforts of the church members. In 1996, the church increased by 200
members. After 1996, Rev. James left for the United States of America. In 1998, Pastor
Dominic also left for Australia. During that time, Pastor Mahn Tun Mya and Pastor Sai
Aye joined the leadership team. After Rev. James’ departure, Rev. U Zaw Min and Rev.
Tu Ja became senior pastors of the church. Rev. Mahn serves as music pastor and Rev.
Sai serves as the multimedia ministry pastor. After eighteen years, the church moved to
the current location, a new building with a multipurpose structure. The church's name
changed from MCFI to Myanmar Christian Assembly (MCA). Today, there are about 500
attendees at every Sunday worship service. There were two Burmese services conducted
on Sunday, morning and evening, at MCA.
The congregation was made up of believers, eighty percent of whom became
Christians, converting from other religions. MCA’s church growths, as well as its church
planting activities, were evident after ten years of ministry. In 2000, the first new church
was planted in Maha ChaNgai. Today, there are more than ten new churches planted by
the MCA leadership team around a 300-kilometer radius from the mother church.
Senior Pastors Interview
The senior pastor interview formed an important part of this project, which was to
gain in-depth knowledge regarding ministry and leadership. Interview questions were
designed base upon the seven categories, such as (1) history of church, (2) church's vision
100
and mission, (3) its theological aspect, (4) atmosphere of the church, (5) progress of
change, (6) membership growth, and (7) leadership. Personal insight obviously varied
from one person to another. Thus, understandings of a senior pastor's thought and his
relationship with other leaders were important. This section was exclusively derived from
a personal interview with Rev. Dr. U Zaw Min and Rev. Dr. Tu Ja, senior pastors of
Myanmar Christian Assembly, Bangkok.133 Rev. U Zaw Min and Rev. Tu Ja had known
each other since the beginning of MCA ministry back in 1989. They both came together
for the single purpose of starting a fellowship out of a desire to lead Burmese people into
God's righteousness. Back then, U Zaw Min was a pastor's son and U Tu Ja was an active
participant of the Campus Crusade ministry. They both had no previous seminary
training, yet are now filled with ministry experience gained in their lifetime. To establish
the ministry, they offered tithes from their salaries to the young ministry along with the
other two pastors, Rev. James, and Pastor Dominic. In later years, U Zaw Min and U Tu
Ja became senior pastors of MCA and they still maintain a dual senior pastoral leadership
to this day. Since, they were both founding pastors, this kind of leadership structure
worked particularly well in MCA. Rev. Tu Ja mentioned that he took more responsibility
of the theological and doctrinal issues of the church. Meanwhile, Rev. U Zaw Min was
gifted with administrative leadership of the church. They both understood their particular
role in ministry as senior pastors. Today, there are four pastors supporting the MCA
ministry, with two assistant pastors, Rev. Mahn Tun Mya and Rev. Sai Aye.
This researcher observed that MCA was pursuing its vision and striking at the
heart of its mission. When Rev. U Zaw Min was asked the purpose of establishing MCA,
133
U Zaw Min and U Tu Ja, "Interview by Author," (Bangkok, Thailand: May 13, 2012).
101
he said, "Our purpose was first, to have Burmese language worship. Second, we want to
reach out to everyone with the Gospel of Christ. The third purpose was to nurture
Burmese Christians for God's glory so that they may multiply all over the world." Truly,
the leaders have achieved these goals. They established a Burmese language church in the
heart of Bangkok, Thailand, a country with an estimated population of three million
Burmese. Bryant Yuan Fu Yang estimated it even more, saying, "Many more Burmese
enter Thailand illegally and do not register with the government; estimates range from
two to six million" 134 The MCA evangelization efforts had been widely successfully,
with over eighty percent of coverts from other religions as church members. Today,
MCA is producing many church leaders, church planters, and sending missionaries back
to their own lands. The church had a mission emphasis in their ministry paradigm. This
researcher attended the church service on May 13, 2012, a report of mission work in the
rural areas of Thailand and Burma was presented with pictures and testimonies.
The leadership structure was well established in MCA. The two senior pastors
played a vital role in the church paradigm. One with administration duty, and the other in
charged with pastoral responsibly. The four pastors are involved in all ministry agendas
and decision-making process. They were like the four pillars of the church, supporting
the ministry at each column. Rev. Tu Ja mentioned that there was always time for prayer
and fellowship among the four pastors. This was a team building process according to
Lovett H. Weems, Jr. He stated,
134
Bryant Yuan Fu Yang, "Life and Death Away from the Golden Land: The Plight of Burmese
Migrant Workers in Thailand," 8 Asian-Pac. L. & Pol’y J. 485 (2007), published in Thailand Journal of
Law and Policy, Issue 1, Vol. 12, (Springs 2009). http://www.thailawforum.com/articles/BurmeseMigrants-in-Thailand-2.html#FN16 (accessed August 13, 2012).
102
Closely related to involving people is fostering collaboration. Collaboration
acknowledges in a dramatic way our mutual need for an appreciation of one
another. Here the leader constantly seeks to create interaction among the people
involved so that they may find interactive and integrative solutions to problems
and possibilities.135
When problems and disagreement arose among these four pastors, they would get back
together on shared aims. They set aside differences and work harmoniously in their
relationship. Then they made sound decisions and judgments upon the issue at hand. John
C. Maxwell explained,
Why did the achievers overcome problems, while thousands are overwhelmed by
theirs? They refused to hold on to the common excuses for failure. They turned
their stumbling blocks into stepping-stones. They realized they could not
determine every circumstance in life, but they could determine their choice of
attitude toward every circumstance.136
Therefore, these four pastors relied on each other for comfort, support, and mentorship.
This researcher found MCA's leadership structure unique and understood its vital
strength.
Another area of research was the multiethnic ministry. There were more than
eight language groups functioning under the MCA main congregation. The ethnic
fellowships had begun with the intention of supporting culture and tradition. However,
these language groups never separated from the MCA's main Burmese congregant. There
were ethnic problems present at the beginning of the ministry. In time, the problems
diminished. Rev. U Zaw Min explained that ethnic problems and personal tensions could
be overcome through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In other words, God can give
135
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., Church Leadership: Vision, Team, 78.
136
John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader, 91.
103
liberation from personal conflicts. He also added that the ethnic groups play only a
limited role in their ministry. Since, ethnic groups such as the Kachin or Karen were
minorities in their mission field, as their population was small in Thailand. This
researcher met with a Kachin ethnic group to observe their mindset on the ethnic agenda
of MCA. From the group discussion, it was clear that they did not desire to have a
separate entity or an exclusive church for their ethnic group. Rather, they wanted to
remain as a fellowship group under the care of the MCA ministry. The member survey
showed 80% expressing the same desire. This researcher observed that there were ethnic
group gatherings at each room on the first level of the building, right after the morning
worship service. MCA had integrated ethnic groups as part of its ministry with fellowship
groupings. Aubrey Malphurs said, "The church that exegetes its culture as well as the
Scriptures should remain relevant to that culture. . . . Exegeting our culture helps us to
understand it, to discern what is good and bad about it and how to minister well to those
who are a part of it."137 The leaders of MCA appeared to have a firm grasp of the
strengths and drawbacks of cultural affiliations in their particular ministry.
Three Dimensional Scopes
The growth aspect, leadership quality, and people factor were the three
dimensional scopes focused in this case study. Each dimension is essential in determining
the status of a healthy church. John MacArthur listed twelve marks of a healthy church,
137
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 111.
104
of which the first is godly leaders (leadership quality), active church members (people
factor), and functional goals and objectives (growth aspect).138 This researcher uses these
three dimensional scopes in the study of the MCA and JBCS ministries.
Growth Aspect
MCA had a record of congregation growth and multiplication of new churches.
Not only was there growth in church membership, but there was also growth in every
aspect of the ministry. Church members were growing spiritually, through an
understanding of believers’ testimonies and lifestyles. The statistics in Figure 4.2 shows
an aggressive increase in church membership because of personal evangelism of church
members and leaders. The church began with 28 attendees in 1990 and grew into 80
within six months. After six years, the membership grew to over 150. In 1998 and later
years, church attendance at each worship service was over two hundred. Today attendees
at each service for the two services conducted at MCA number well over five hundred.
138
John MacArthur, Marks of a Healthy Church (Chicago: Moody, 1990), 23.
105
700
0
55
600
500
0
35
400
42
60
0
0
300
15
200
100
0
28
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2012
Figure 4.2. Growth of Attendance in MCA
The MCA ministry was planting new churches. After ten years of ministry, the
first church planted was at Maha ChaNgai. Today eleven churches have been planted, in
the rate of one new church established per year of the MCA ministry after ten years of
growth history. As membership increased, there was also financial growth, displayed in
figure 4.3.
7,510,000.00
7,010,000.00
6,510,000.00
6,010,000.00
5,510,000.00
5,010,000.00
4,510,000.00
4,010,000.00
3,510,000.00
3,010,000.00
2,510,000.00
2,010,000.00
1,510,000.00
1,010,000.00
510,000.00
10,000.00
6741987
2488995
1652000
550000
1 year
825000
5 years
10 years 15 years 22 years
Figure 4.3. Financial Growth of MCA
106
Leadership Quality
Leadership quality was measured in specific areas of ministry experience,
education, training, delegation, decision-making, problem solving, visioning, and
pragmatism. MCA pastors were enriched with the ministry experience of over twenty
years. Both senior pastors had earned honorary doctoral degrees for achievements in
ministry. They were engaged in self-study and training other leaders continuously. They
had delegated many pastors and church leaders in their church-planting ministry. There
were eleven churches equipped with pastors in the MCA ministry. They discipled and
transformed many new converts into lay leaders, evangelists, and pastors. MCA ministry
was that it offered seminars and training courses all year round to its congregation. Of
these, a three-month leadership seminar conducted at the end of each calendar year
provided intensive discipleship and leadership training. People who graduated from these
seminars became effective leaders, missionaries, and church planters. According to Rev.
U Zaw Min, this seminar was not just for intellectual training but spiritual awakening. He
had witnessed many people transformed through this seminar. One of the results of this
kind of training was that church members were actively engaged in personal evangelism.
Through their testimonies, many became Christians.
The MCA ministry was dedicated to mission work. While this researcher was
participating in a Sunday morning service, a mission team presented its trip report. After
service, this researcher interviewed the mission team leader. He said that he had received
the call of God in his life and was preparing to serve full time in ministry. He gave up his
day job and fully emerged in mission work. The MCA pastoral leadership team trained,
107
mentored, and delegated him for the mission work. This particular mission was
successful in harvesting souls as four new converts were baptized on this single trip.
This researcher observed that the four pastors showed strong leadership in their
unity and relationship with the congregation. The church leadership team, the Executive
Council worked closely with these four pastors. Their main responsibility was to carry
out the decisions that these four pastors made. Although the council's suggestions were
welcomed, the four pastors rendered the final decision. Rev. U Zaw Min took
administrative leadership, being in charge of solving people's problems and managing
human resources. He took care of legal and social issues. Rev. Tu Ja provided pastoral
leadership. He was of ethnic Kachin background, which indicated a strong presence of
ethnic leadership. It emphasized the fact of an ethnic pastor promoting a multiethnic
ministry instead of a mono-ethnic church. Rev. Mahn Tun Mya belonged to the Karen
tribe and served as the music pastor. His role was significant due to his ethnic
background as well. Karen ethnic group took pride in his leadership at MCA. Thus,
Karen members did not feel the need to distinguish themselves from other groups.
Neither promoted independence from other non-Karen members. He led the congregation
in worshipping with music at each worship service. Praise and worship was evident as
one of the strengths of the MCA ministry. Rev. Sai Aye, who is of Shan ethnic, led the
multimedia ministry of MCA. He performed his pastoral responsibilities doing innovative
108
work through the church’s website.139 In summary, the four pastors with four different
backgrounds and ethnicities brought together a multiethnic ministry that made sense.
People Factors
Henry and Richard Blackaby said,
People are the driving force behind organizations. Therefore, while leaders are
constantly delegating tasks to their people, they are also regularly monitoring the
attitudes, effectiveness, and concerns of their people to ensure that the
organization is functioning at its optimum potential.140
In general, MCA members were made up of multiethnic groups from Burma, who were
mostly migrant workers, struggling to survive in the midst of social hardship and
economic downside in Thailand. It was a case of people of diverse cultures and traditions
coming together under common values and struggles. Even though their belief systems
varied, the commonality that united them was the fact that they were all migrant workers
facing social injustice and criminal ill treatment.141 These people came to church for
spiritual nourishment. They were there to receive the comfort of God's word. This
researcher observed during the praise and worship of the service that people poured out
their emotions with tears, crying out to God as their Helper and Comforter. They
139
MCA church website is famous among the Burmese community worldwide. The website has
more than half a million hits each month. The web address is (www.mcathailand.com)
140
Blackaby, Spiritual Leaders, 254.
141
Somwong, Pranom, Jackie Pollock, and Stephen Campbell, "Migrants Illegally Restrained,"
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Migrants-illegally-restrained-30185495.html (accessed on July
13, 2012).
109
hungered and thirst for righteousness. On average, each worship service took more than
three hours and the Sunday message was nearly an hour long. However, it seemed that
people did not mind at all. A fully packed worship hall with a three to four hour long
service was a sign of spiritual enthusiasm or revival among Burmese worshippers.
The age of the congregation was categorized into four generations: children,
young adults, older adults, and seniors. The largest crowd were the young adult group,
ages 20 and 40. They were in Thailand for economic reasons. They earned as little as ten
U.S. dollars per day. Their lifestyle consisted of hard labor and long demanding work
hours. Sunday was their day off from work, which was a rare occasion. Nevertheless,
when they did get a Sunday off, they came running to church for worship and fellowship.
Some Burmese women were working in Bangkok as housekeepers for Thai citizens.
They only received one day off per week, which was Sunday. For these women, they
spent their entire day off at church. They attended two to three services and Bible study
classes on Sunday. They stayed around the church premises until late evening before
going back to their jobs. Some people using public transportation came from far away for
Sunday worship. In one of the testimonies, a man said that he came from quite a distance
to church because he wanted to worship God and hear God's word, if possible, even the
whole day. People were not satisfied with short sermons and short services. Indeed, the
services and sermons were designed for long lengths in MCA.
110
Five Focused Function Assessments
The church ministry has five core functions such as teaching, fellowship, worship,
evangelism, and service. MCA ministry was analyzed in these core functions. These core
functions portray an in depth ministry structure of MCA.
Evangelism
20%
Service
20%
Worship
18%
Teaching
23%
Fellowship
19%
Figure 4.4. Five Focused Functions of MCA
Teaching
The MCA ministry was strong in teaching God's word to its members since the
pastors put much emphasis on biblical teachings. According to survey results, the MCA
put priority towards the teaching ministry; therefore, church members were satisfied with
the church in this area. There were three levels of learning system in place at MCA. The
first level was to teach "School of Workers" (SOW) for every church member. Most
111
MCA members had gone through SOW training. The author of SOW described it as,
"The SOW for the Harvest is a systematic training program that addresses the need for
Harvest Teams to understand the Vision of the Lord of the Harvest and effectively work
with Him by being trained with foundational teachings that are readily applicable."142 The
SOW training had three modules with specific tasks to accomplish for the trainees. They
must win souls in order to pass to the next module. Pastor Ben Baluyot, prefaced by
Joseph, International Director of Tribes and Nations Outreach (TNO) organization, wrote
the training text.143 This teaching manual was the most effective training manual of the
MCA ministry according to Pastor Rev. Tu Ja.
The second level was "Discipleship" training. Here, trainees were expected to
memorize eighty scripture texts and learn a deeper level of systematic theology. The
group called Navigator144 taught this course. In this training, trainees learned to disciple
new converts into a cell group system. MCA had many cell groups gathered around the
week. Senior pastors led some groups. Most of the lay leaders led the MCA ministry cell
groups.
The third level of training was known as "Rhema" (Word). This course was the
highest level of leadership training. The word "Rhema" is a Greek word for "Word" or
142
SOW for the Harvest Manual 2010, Produced by Ethnos ASIA Ministries.(lecture, MCA,
Thailand, April 13, 2012). p1.
143
Ben Baluyot, Reaching The Nation: A Strategy, 2nd ed. (Manila, Philippines: All-Nations
Publishing Co., Inc., 1992).
144
"The Navigators is an international, interdenominational Christian ministry established in 1933.
Navigators are people who love Jesus Christ and desire to help others know and grow in Him as they
"navigate" through life." http://www.Navigators.org (accessed on July 16, 2012)
112
"Utterance."145 MCA leaders believed that God entrusted spiritual leaders with special
spiritual gift for the edification of others. This spiritual gift of utterance or word can be
received with much dedication and through the higher calling of God. People who
graduated from the three levels of training became effective leaders of ministry and
mission. Every year, this three-month training was available for members to attend. This
three-month training was also known as the "School of Christ" (SOC). MCA ministry
prioritized teaching, unity, and prayer according to the members survey result in figure
4.5.
3.93
4
3.5
3.33
3.13
3.6
3.57
3.27
3.07
2.79
3
2.47
2.53
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Mission
Fellowship
Giving
Teaching
Prayer
Worship
Leadership
Finance
Networking
Unity
Figure 4.5. Priority of MCA Ministry
Fellowship
The general atmosphere of the congregation was one of warmth and their
enthusiasm and zeal for God's word was evident. They had a strong desire to worship
145
Verlyn D. Verbrugge, editor, The NIV Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 1128.
113
God and had fellowship with each other.146 The members were spiritually mature, as
manifested in their attitudes and conducts. Almost everyone answered "Yes" to the
survey question, "Do you enjoy the church services and the people?" There was definitely
enjoyment of each other’s company in the church. There were multiethnic group
gatherings after the Burmese morning service. Each ethnic group gathered for sharing of
each other’s burdens, as well as for exaltation, prayer, and worship. This researcher
joined a discussion session with a Kachin fellowship group. There were about fifteen
people gathered for the Kachin worship, but not all Kachin joined this group. Although
some were willing to have ethnic fellowship groups under the ministry of MCA, others
did not wish to identify themselves as part of a separate entity. This scenario definitely
confirmed the survey response that about seventy-five percent disapproved of having a
separate ethnic church apart from the MCA ministry.
Figure 4.6 indicated how individuals, the church as a whole, and the leadership
team were involved in the Burmese language and Ethnic ministry at MCA. This ethnic
ministry survey was based on a scale of 1 to 3. The number "1" indicated negative or
unwillingness to form an ethnic or mono-linguistic approach to ministry. Number "2"
represented mutual respect for ethnic yet passively agreed with the ethnic ministry.
Selecting number "3" meant strongly engaged in multilingual ministry. People selected
one number out of three answering in the line of these four categories: (1) participating in
ethnic groups, (2) desire to have separate ethnic church, (3) exclusively Burmese
language usage, and (4) desire to have multilingual structure. In general, as the whole
146
Survey result indicates MCA ministry emphasis on" Fellowship" as 3.13 and "Worship" as 3.07
on scale of 1 to 4.
114
church, MCA encouraged and promoted ethnic groups in ministry. Members participated
personally in ethnic ministry. As leaders in the church, they were rarely involved in
ethnic ministry. However, leadership of MCA indicated higher level of desire to have
multilingual church in this survey.
7
5
3
1
Leadership
Church
Individual
Participate in other
language groups
Separate ethnic group
Burmese language use
Multilingual structure
1.125
1
1.25
2.063
3
1.125
1.125
1.125
2.375
2
2.14
2.25
Figure 4.6. MCA Burmese & Ethnic Ministry
Worship
Worship was highly prioritized and valued next to evangelism and fellowship in
the lives of MCA's members. Worship brought unity and spiritual refreshment for the
worshippers. It was structured into long periods of praise and worship, a few testimonies,
mass prayer, short announcements, and a lengthy message. This researcher observed that
worshippers hungered for the teaching of God's word in worship. They paid full attention
to the hour-long message. They poured out their burdens and pains before God during
praise and worship time. They learned to accept their hardships and struggle for survival
through worship. They found the source of encouragement and understanding in worship
alone. All pastors attending the morning Burmese service were sitting in the front pew.
115
The rest of the congregation sat on the lower level where there were chairs and pews. A
strong praise team led various energizing songs with non-stop songs of praise
accompanied by actions. The music pastor Mahn led with praise and prayer between
intervals of worship songs, most of which were composed by the music pastor. Most of
the songs were in Burmese while a few were in English. People sang while standing and
occasionally raising their hands in the air while singing. It was noteworthy that the praise
songs stirred up emotions and prepared people's hearts to listen to the message. Music
played a vital role in worship at MCA. Pastors were sensitive to the needs of nonChristian visitors and addressed them with a warm welcome during the worship service.
Dan Kimball of the emergent church movement understood that the nature of
church culture had changed. He pointed out the need to understand cultures and people in
church ministry. He said, "Time passes, new generations are born, cultures change, so the
church must change."147 The MCA ministry leaders understood their congregation and
their cultures. The Burmese people in Thailand needed a strong spiritual presence in life
filled with hopelessness and broken dreams. The MCA ministry targeted that particular
need and provided it through spiritual elements such as worship, Bible study, spiritual
messages, counseling, and prayer. MCA was a seeker-sensitive church fulfilling the
needs of these people. Dan Kimball had this to say,
Being seeker-sensitive as a lifestyle means that we are sensitive to spiritual
seekers in all that we do. This can apply to our conversations with those seeking;
it can apply to how we design any style of worship service. In this sense, it is not
147
Kimball, The Emerging Church, 27.
116
a style or methodology of worship; it is a lifestyle approach to how we live as
Christians in relation to being sensitive to seekers of faith.148
Thus, the pastors' messages were designed to meet the same need. William E. Hull said,
"This meant that the identity of those assembled should profoundly influence the way in
which they are addressed. The nature of the church determined the nature of preaching
because the purpose of preaching was to transform the world through the witness of the
church."149 Spiritual enlightenment and sensitive gestures often attract worshippers. The
MCA congregation learned to express their spiritual needs in worship service. They were
assured of their salvation, confident in their Christian life, and powerful in their faith in
Christ.
Evangelism
According to the MCA manual, also known as the School of Worker (SOW)
textbook, the heart of evangelism for believers was, "Jesus selected us to become
Christians and to do the works He mentioned. A Christian was not merely given some
works to do. He was appointed to do three specific works."150 These three works are to,
bear fruit, and the fruit should last, according to John 15:16. MCA's emphasis was to
disciple members to become evangelists in day-to-day life. They were encouraged to
reach out to many by way of recognizing their evangelism effort. Believers were
148
Ibid., 25.
149
William E. Hull, Strategic Preaching, 15.
150
Ben Baluyot, Reaching The Nation, x.
117
recognized in quantity of their Christian life in soul winnings. In fact, it was a way to
measure the maturity in Christ for the members. This researcher had observed how
believers often boast of the number of souls they have led to Christ. On the positive side,
believers compete among themselves to save souls for Christ, which helping the church
to grow in number. MCA members in general were ready at any time to share their faith
by way of testimony and thanksgiving. Senior pastors testified that their members were
80% pure converts from other religions as the result of the prolonged emphasis on
evangelism in their ministry. Bill Hull said, "I contend that the church's purpose is to
glorify God by making healthy, reproducing disciples. Therefore, the believers become
fully engaged in His mandates, they worship God with more vigor than anyone."151 The
MCA ministry was doing just that. They trained people to become leaders as well as
making sure they were healthy believers in God's words. Thus, MCA's evangelism
expressed an inside-out transformation ministry.
Service
MCA members and leaders were surveyed on their participation in ministry
activities. Activities such as attending Bible study classes, teaching classes, training
others, mission trips, and cell group leading were the inquiry areas of members for their
support and participation. Dedicated leaders and volunteers were well organized and
functioning in the MCA ministry. This researcher observed at a Sunday worship service
151
Bill Hull, The Disciple-Making Church, 73
118
that the praise team, video and sound system team, ushers, worship leaders, greeters, all
seem to know their responsibility and were doing their jobs with minimal supervision.
This was a good sign according to Bill Hull, who said, "In the body of Christ, living and
playing together smooth the way for moments when people must go along with the
tougher tasks required of the church."152 Indeed, MCA was a ministry, which started out
of people struggling to survive amidst a harsh environment, people seeking refuge in the
sanctuary of a church. These people had learned to trust God and serve His people in
harmony and love, believing that they can overcome any challenge in life and ministry by
staying together.
The MCA church model can be defined as "The Satellite Model" according to
Gary L. McIntosh. He said, "Churches using the satellite model are those that have one or
more worship services in different geographical locations. 153 Today, MCA has eleven
different branches of worship places around the Bangkok area reaching different ethnics
and generations.
Case Study of the Judson Baptist Church, Singapore
The researcher visited the Judson Baptist Church of Singapore (JBCS) on May 6
of 2012. He was informed that the JBCS congregation has been in the same location for
over twenty years. The church building had recently been renovated. The worship
sanctuary, seating about five hundred attendees, was on the second level of the church
152
Ibid. 68.
153
Gary L. McIntosh, One Church Four Generations, 212.
119
building. This researcher attended the Sunday afternoon service, attended by more than
five hundred worshippers. The researcher observed that seats spilled into the corridor and
stairways, in addition to extended seats in the sanctuary. The worshippers seemed to be in
good spirits, looking happy and relaxed.
The service began with the church leaders and ministers in prayer. There were six
ministers, supporting the senior pastor in public prayer. The worship service was
conducted in the traditional format, with choir, hymns, and piano music. The choir
members were seated at the right hand corner of the sanctuary, facing the congregation.
The youth group presented a song during the service. The topic for the senior pastor’s
message was on missions and concluded with the communion, as it was communion
Sunday, being the first Sunday of the month. JBCS Sunday service started with a youth
service and Women’s Fellowship in the morning, followed by the main service.
Afternoon sessions included Bible study classes and children’s activities.
History of JBCS
The Judson Baptist Church of Singapore started with seven friends who came to
study gospel music in Singapore in early 1989. The current senior pastor Rev. Saw
Augustus was one of them. However, they did not succeed in pursuing a music education,
but instead began to get involved in local church ministries among Chinese and Indian
congregations in Singapore. In late 1989, three families became interested in starting a
Burmese church. The founding pastors were Saya Shwe Dong and Bishop Moreya, who
120
no longer are part of the JBCS ministry. On the first Sunday of January 1990, JBCS was
established at Thomas Road, Singapore. Thirty-two worshippers attended the first
service.
In the beginning, the church was called the Singapore Burmese Christian
Fellowship (SBCF). In later years, the church was renamed the Judson Baptist Church of
Singapore (JBCS), in honor of Adoniram Judson, the first American Baptist missionary
to Burma.154 Meanwhile, the seven friends began to spread out to different locations.
Some went on to study at Bible colleges and some moved out of the country. After the
two founding pastors left the church, over a span of twenty-two years, the JBCS
continued to grow under the leadership of Pastor Augustus, dedicated members and
supporters. There were four full time pastors leading the JBCS ministry currently. They
were, Rev. Augustus (senior pastor), pastor Myo Thu (associate pastor), pastor Ye Win
Latt (youth pastor), and pastor Zin Ma Thwin (Christian Education). At present, there
were four hundred regular attendees every Sunday. The first Sunday of the month,
usually reach up to six hundred attendees due to the communion Sunday. There were also
six prayer cell groups about twenty people each, supporting the JBCS ministry, with each
cell group connecting members and new visitors from nearby locations.
Senior Pastor Interview
154
Rosalie Hall Hunt, Bless God and Take Courage, VIII.
121
The senior pastor, Rev. Augustus was interviewed on May 6, before the Sunday
church service. The interview, which lasted an hour and half, was based on the
questionnaire regarding church ministry. As Rev. Augustus had been involved in the
founding of JBCS, he had an in-depth knowledge of JBCS and its growth process. The
church, born of multiethnicity and cultural diversity needs, naturally had a congregation
of mixed racial backgrounds from Burma, such as Karen, Kachin, Shan, Bamar, and
Chinese. The social status and educational backgrounds were also widely diverse. Some
of them who had come to Singapore to work in the technology sector were highly
educated, while others were seamen from the cargo ships at the port of Singapore. The
congregation included a variety of age groups. Children, youth, young adult, and seniors
form the JBCS church members of today. JBCS faced many challenges in trying to meet
the needs of a racially and culturally diverse congregation.
Church leaders were also engaged in meeting the social needs of the Burmese in
Singapore, such as immigration issues, workers’ rights, mental health, and social welfare,
in addition to providing spiritual needs. To prove its ministry, a church must define its
purpose of existence in the context of its community. Rev. Augustus, in defining the
purpose of his church, said that JBCS must do the work of saving souls and be mission
minded. That is the first and most important purpose of a church according to his belief.
Consequently, in the early days of establishing the church, Rev. Augustus led a
movement called "Mission Among Non-Christians" (MAN). This movement was to share
gospel to all none Christian Burmese migrant workers in Singapore. Evangelism was
their primary goal according to Pastor Augustus.
122
Pastors and leaders of JBCS were mission-minded individuals. They led the
congregation on annual mission trips and seasonally mission work among the needy.
Church records showed that a JBCS mission group went to aid Tsunami victims in
Thailand in 2006. The members named this mission the "Tsunami Mission" and had
made follow up visits to the mission site. Likewise, when Nargis hurricane ravaged the
coast of lower Burma, a JBCS mission team went to aid hurricane victims. The Nargis
Mission continues annually to this day. The JBCS mission team also reached out to
Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. They made annual visits to give aid and
evangelized them with the help of local churches. When this researcher was attending the
service at JBCS on May 6, 2012, the Senior Pastor Rev. Augustus was challenging the
congregation for an upcoming mission trip to Burma. The detailed mission trip plan
indicated that this mission team of twenty members would go to churches, villagers,
animists, Buddhists, and orphanages. Presently, JBCS holds seven mission fields in
Burma, such as the Shwe Li Shan, DaNu, Shwepyi Myanmar, Rahkai, Pagun/ Nyung Oo,
Wha, and Phapun. The mission spirit is alive and well in the heart of the JBCS ministry.
JBCS members regularly gathered at church on Wednesdays for weekly Bible
study. This gathering was for all members as a midweek church activity. Members
delighted in studying God's word and midweek prayer meeting. In addition, the JBCS
ministry had cell groups, with leaders appointed for each group, leading the cell groups in
fellowship, Bible study, and prayer. Sometimes, guest speakers came to minister at the
cell group meetings. Cell groups were named after specific locations such as, Bedok,
Bukit Panjang, Woodlands, Taman Jurong, Hougang, and Boon Lay.
123
The senior pastor was inquired about the leadership structure of JBCS. He said
that there were older leaders and younger leaders involved in the JBCS ministry. He was
not in favor of older leaders (older generation) as he found that they had difficulty
adapting to innovative changes in ministry. For instance, in the beginning they could not
appreciate contemporary music and the nature of contemporary worship. He found that it
was hard to negotiate with senior or older leaders to introduce an innovative approach to
ministry. Thus, he preferred younger leaders, who had a more positive attitude toward the
contemporary approach in ministry. He focused on the younger generation to take on
leadership of the church. This researcher observed that the associate pastor Myo Thu,
youth pastor Ye Win Latt, and Christian Education pastor Zin Ma Thwin were part of the
younger generation, already invested with the leadership roles. However, the senior
pastor was trying to minimize the generation gap between older and younger members as
much as possible. He was trying to integrate older members and younger ones into
leadership positions. The church’s attempt to ease the generation gap was evident in their
choice of music in worship service and leadership delegation. The leaders were working
together harmoniously as a ministry leadership team.
The children at JBCS were in a bi-lingual situation, speaking both English and
Burmese. However, some only spoke English and some still spoke Burmese. Ethnic
children still spoke their ethnic languages but they spoke more English. Therefore, Rev.
Augustus said that he was aware of the need for an English language ministry in
Singapore. However, he felt that this need was not immediate. He estimated that in the
next five years JBCS would need to have an English service for the new generation.
Meanwhile, he strongly encouraged children to learn Burmese and Burmese traditions in
124
order to ensure that they knew their cultural roots. Rev. Augustus speculated that
Burmese-speaking immigrants would continue arriving in Singapore for many years to
come. Thus, he thought the Burmese language and ministry would continue to be more
relevant than an English-speaking ministry. He said that the situation of other Burmese
immigrant churches like the researcher's church in the U.S. was different from JBCS in
Singapore. The geographical implication was different. Singapore was closer to Burma,
where Burmese immigrants come and go as they wish. Since the country is closer to
Singapore, there was potential for people to come there. JBCS had more opportunity to
grow in the near future as Burmese immigrants poured into Singapore. On the other hand,
United States is geographically further away from the country Burma, thus, the same
expectation cannot be met. A church ministry like JBCS, that has a strong bond with the
Burmese community, will continue to grow in Singapore. The JBCS ministry emphases
bonds with the motherland, and doing mission work back home in Burma. This is the key
to motivate the JBCS congregation, to prioritize their mission field.
JBCS is made up of a variety of ethnic groups from Burma such as Kachin,
Kayar, Asho Chin, Mezo Chin, Zakaw Karen, Poe Karen, Shan, Lisu, Mon, Ahka, and
Bamar. Expressing his opinion on ethnic ministry during the interview, the senior Pastor
said that he wanted to encourage ethnic groups to gather weekly or bi-weekly for
fellowship and worship in their own mother tongues. When ethnic groups desired to
become independent, he would encourage them to have a separate church with his
blessing. He did not intend to pull back the ethnic groups to stay in his church. The
reason behind this was to plant more churches for God's glory. He testified that his
church had nurtured some ethnic leaders for ethnic ministry. He was preparing them for
125
effective ministry in their own ethnic groups. Currently, the Kachin, Asho Chin, Shan,
and Karen groups have left JBCS to form their own ethnic churches in Singapore. Rev.
Augustus boldly claimed that regardless of the separation of ethnic groups, church
members and attendance have never fallen off to this day. He explained that openmindedness was the key to overcome separation anxiety for church leaders. Regarding
the ethnic issue, the researcher asked him how to deal with tribal pride. Rev. Augustus
believed that in Christ alone one could overcome tribal pride and racial divisions among
ethnic people. He himself is Karen and married to a Kachin woman. He declared himself
free from tribal pride and racial prejudices.
Three Dimensional Scopes
It is obvious that the JBCS ministry had grown, as its congregation had increased
from thirty-two to about six hundred within a matter of twenty-two years. The challenge
was how one measured JBCS's growth scientifically. Hence, the three-dimensional
scopes were used to measure JBCS growth in terms of its growth aspect, its leadership
quality, and its people factors.
Growth Aspect
The researcher could see that the JBCS ministry grew rapidly after the initial ten
years of ministry. The reason may lie in the fact that Burmese immigrants entered
Singapore in larger numbers during that time. After visa restrictions were eased,
126
approximately in the year 2000, many Burmese citizens entered Singapore. Singapore has
a population of five million, more than 35% of which are foreign workers. Among them,
a hundred thousand were estimated to be from Burmese citizens.155 This indicated that
the growth of the Burmese immigrant church depended on the increase of Burmese
immigrants in Singapore. These Burmese immigrants came with a variety of ethnic and
culture backgrounds. The hypothesis of this project, which was that a church thrives and
grows amidst the challenge of bringing together diverse ethnic groups, and generations
within a multilingual ministry, was a practical concept to this situation in Singapore. A
multilingual ministry reflected a church ministry that met the needs of people in their
own language groupings and the language of the land. The senior pastor of JBCS was
concerned about the English speaking generation of Burmese immigrant families, and
had plans to start an English worship service within the Burmese congregation in the next
five years. This showed that inevitably at some point, Burmese immigrant churches
would need to provide worship services in English for the English speaking Burmese
immigrant generation, as English is an official language of Singapore.156 Most Singapore
churches were bilingual in nature, as they used English and Chinese in their worship
services. As the JBCS ministry is located in a multicultural community, it must prepare to
reach out to its congregants beyond the Burmese language context.
155
Sandar Lwin, "Singapore Tightens Worker Policy" Myanmar Times (May 17-23, 2010)
http://www.mmtimes.com. (accessed August 12, 2012).
156
"The four official languages of Singapore are Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English. English is
the most common language used and is the language which unites the different ethnic groups. Children are
taught in English at school but also learn their mother tongue to make sure they don't lose contact with their
traditions." http://www.singaporeexpats.com/about-singapore/culture-and-language (accessed August 12,
2012).
127
700
60
600
52
500
35
400
0
40
0
0
0
300
200
100
12
0
32
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2012
Figure 4.7. Growth of Attendance in JBCS
JBCS has grown in members as well as financially in the past years. The personal
evangelism of church members had contributed to the membership increase in addition to
the natural growth of members through an immigrant boost. It had grown from the thirtytwo attendees of the first service to six hundred in twenty-two years. There are more than
a hundred thousand Burmese workers residing in Singapore, thus, the potential for
growth was great for JBCS. The Burmese mission field alone is right in the heart of
Singapore. Six hundred church members is only 0.6% of the Burmese immigrant
population in Singapore.
128
$500,000.00
$450,000.00
$400,000.00
$350,000.00
$300,000.00
$250,000.00
$200,000.00
$150,000.00
$100,000.00
$50,000.00
$0.00
485000
256000
135000
52000
1st year
75000
5th year
10th year 15th year 20th year
Figure 4.8. Financial Growth of JBCS
Leadership Quality
The leadership quality of the JBCS ministry was defined by the way the church
delegated younger leaders in the ministry. Thomas Rainer and Sam Rainer had this to say
about the Christian generation in church, "Each generation that passes loses more than
the previous generation. Shock does not begin to describe how we felt after reading the
research results. The church is losing the generation battle."157 The senior pastor and
leadership team of JBCS understood the battle for reclaiming generation dropouts. They
emphasized on investing in younger generation leaders for their future ministry. This
researcher found that the JBCS pastoral leadership team included three younger
individuals in their 20s and 40s. The senior Pastor, Rev. Augustus appointed as associate
157
Rainer, Thom S. and Sam S. Rainer III, Essential Church, 14.
129
Pastor Myo Thu, who was forty, was preparing for ordination. He would be acting on
behalf of the senior pastor whenever Rev. Augustus is away for mission work. The youth
pastor and educational pastor are in their twenties. Clearly, JBCS was taking a futuristic
approach in their leadership. Rev. Augustus and Pastor Myo Thu have received seminary
degrees in theology and pastoring. The Youth and Educational pastors were still pursuing
seminary study while serving at JBCS. The church leaders indicated that the church was
supporting their seminary education. Investing in the leaders' quality and delegating them
in ministry leadership was essential for church growth. Blackaby stated, "Leaders lead
followers. Great leaders lead leaders."158
The moderator, deacons, executive committee members, and fellowship chairs
formed the JBCS ministry leadership team. At appointed times, they came together to
discuss and strategize ministry agendas. The senior pastor plays a neutral authority role
while remaining influential at the meetings. He leads the direction the ministry takes but
delegates the authority for making decisions and carrying out tasks to the church leaders.
The difference between the MCA and JBCS leadership structure was that the four pastors
form a strong MCA leadership team, and the pastoral team took on the role of Executive
Committee in the leadership structure. The senior pastor of JBCS on the other hand,
delegated ministry tasks to associate pastors and lay leaders of the executive committee.
The JBCS administrative leadership structure was similar to the American church culture
in general. Everyone in the leadership team had an important role to play with a majority
ruling system. The senior pastor was more like a church employee than the church’s chief
158
Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, 134.
130
executive officer was. The church council or Executive Committee played the managing
role in church business.159
JBCS had invested much on its mission work all year round. The senior pastor
was actively leading all mission trips and mission work in various locations. By leading
mission trips, he also trained young leaders to carry on the mission work. Rev. Augustus
wished that his church would be able to do continuous mission work back in the home
country, Burma. He believed that God had placed JBCS in Singapore, to utilize the
resources available there to evangelize Burmese people not only in Singapore but also in
Burma. The JBCS mission team had carried out many mission trips to Burma, Thailand,
and Malaysia. Mission was in the veins of the JBCS ministry.
Senior Pastor Rev. Augustus had clearly mapped out the responsibilities and roles
for each associate pastor in the JBCS ministry. Pastor Myo Thu shared the pulpit for
preaching and teaching with Rev. Augustus. He had a supportive role in pastoral
ministry. Pastor Yi Win Latt took charge of the youth group. He was responsible in
maintaining youth attendance and uplifting the spirituality of the younger generation. His
main task was to connect youth with the main congregation and carry on a supportive
ministry. Pastor Zin Ma Thwin led the Sunday school department as a Christian educator.
She had her own Sunday school teaching staff to manage in the Christian Education
department. She was responsible for running the Sunday school ministry smoothly. Staff
taught children not only the Scriptures but also Burmese language and traditions. This
159
http://church-ministry.tripod.com (accessed August 12, 2012)
131
was to preserve Burmese culture and literature among the younger generation. Therefore,
each of the four pastors had unique call and the pastoral team was well organized.
People Factors
JBCS church members were in a situation that was different from the Thailand
MCA church members. The Burmese in Singapore were in a better situation than
Thailand. They had proper documentation for immigrant visa, travel, and jobs, whereas
the majority of Burmese in Thailand were refugees and migrant workers, who had no
status, no decent job, less educated, and no future. Singapore offered a safe and fair
lifestyle for Burmese people. They did not have to undergo much injustice and hardship
compared to migrant workers in Thailand.160 Burmese Christians in Singapore
contributed their job skills, talents, profession, and resources to JBCS ministry. The
majority of Burmese people in Singapore were Buddhists, offering the JBCS a Burmese
mission field in Singapore.
JBCS stood for true Christian values and proclaimed the gospel weekly. Many
came to know Christ through this ministry in Singapore. However, Burmese people in
general, saw religion as a personal preference and choice. They normally thought that all
religions were good for they all teach good things. It was a personal choice for
160
The Economist News reported regarding Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, "They sew
bras, peel shrimps, build blocks of flats and haul fishing-nets. In return, migrant workers in Thailand are
paid poorly, if at all, and face exploitation and abuse at the hands of employers and the security forces. Up
to 3m migrants, many undocumented and mostly from Myanmar, fall into this category." The Economist,
"Migrant Workers in Thailand: Inhospitality," http://www.economist.com/node/15580824, (Accessed
August 11, 2012).
132
individuals. Anthony C. Thiselton commented, "Different ethnic groups, different
genders and different class and professional interests all seem to operate with different
criteria of truth. But this leads to the collapse of any dialogue that crosses community
boundaries."161 Thiselton had it right in the case of the Burmese, who needed to realize
that Christianity holds the exclusive truth compared to other religions of the world.162
When it comes to evangelism, Burmese Christians needed to communicate the
truth in its proper context. Millard J. Erickson suggested two ways of seeing truth. He
said,
One alternative is a coherence view of truth, the idea that the test of truth is to be
found by taking our ideas as a whole, not atomistically, and checking the
coherence of the set of propositions. The other option is the use of a pragmatic
view of truth, namely, the idea that truth is that which works, or enables us to
make progress toward mutually agreed-on goals.163
Of these two paths, Burmese Christians should choose sharing their faith through the
coherence view of truth, which was presenting the whole truth. The pragmatic view of
truth will lead to an indistinct view between Christianity and Buddhism, which already
was the perception of Burmese Buddhists. Christians must prove the distinctiveness and
exclusiveness of their faith for the gospel to be effective among Burmese people.
Evangelism among Burmese immigrants was a difficult task. Burmese society
transformed into a different and new culture in Singapore, when compared with Burma.
161
Anthony C. Thiselton, "From Existentialism to Post-Modernism," in Eerdmans' Handbook to
The World's Religions (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1982), 398.
162
Ronald H. Nash, Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1994), 144-
163
Millard J. Erickson, Truth or Consequences, 232.
148.
133
When Singapore culture, which was more westernized than Burma, collided with
Burmese culture, it formed a new kind of culture for the people of Burma. A culture that
was different from Burma. For example, Burmese people dressed differently in
Singapore. They socialized with each other in a special way. Their character changed
from idleness to hard working. Their attitude transformed from "Can't do" to "Yes, I can."
Why did that transformation happen? D.A. Carson suggested it might be the reason that
two or more different cultures push apart to form another new culture. He said, "Since all
of us face different mixes of pressures (i.e., of "actions"), all of us emerge with different
"cultures."164 Economically, the Burmese people in Singapore are doing well, and able to
support themselves as well as their families back in Burma. Some Burmese families have
become permanent residents in Singapore. Their lifestyle was in accordance with
Singapore’s multicultural community. The JBCS ministry direction may shift to a
multicultural ministry in the near future. That was to say that an exclusive Burmese
ministry could limit and narrow mission work in a multicultural community like
Singapore.
The four generational categories of JBCS members are, children, youth, young
adults, and seniors. Youth and young adults form the majority of the congregation.
Children in hundreds and a few seniors participate in the JBCS ministry. This researcher
observed that the JBCS ministry placed a major emphasis on children, youth, and young
adults, less so on seniors. The generation gap between these four generations posed a
challenge for the JBCS ministry. Change was necessary for a church to grow. Change
164
D. A. Carson, Christ & Culture, 68.
134
must come at the proper time and within the context of ministry. However, change was a
painful process for some. George Barna saw resistance to change as vision killer in the
ministry. He said,
One of the most popular and devastating barriers to true vision is the notion that
God would never cause you to change what you have always done before. This
usually is expressed through such exclamations as "But we've never done it that
way before."165
This researcher found it to be the case among Burmese immigrant churches with the
generation gap issue. Older generation could not accept a newer format in worship
service, for they fear of change might be happen in church. However, the JBCS ministry
was amending and helping the generational change in church. They had annual church
camp and other church programs that brought all four generations together as one family.
This was a good way to unite all members and all generations as one body. Another
factor was the convenience that the Singapore city infrastructure offered. As a small citystate, it had great public transportation services. Every church event and activity could be
held at all hours. As a result, there were more working class members attending the
weekly services in JBCS. That was an advantage for the JBCS ministry for outreach to
non-Christians and new members.
165
George Barna, The Power of Vision: Discover and Apply God's Plan for Your Life and Ministry
(Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009), 115.
135
Five-Focused Function Assessment
In this section, JBCS is assessed on the five points of ministry functions such as
teaching, fellowship, worship, evangelism, and service. The researcher studied and
determined each area for ministry effectiveness.
Service
18%
Evangelism
19%
Teaching
23%
Worship
21%
Fellowship
19%
Figure 4.9 Five Focused Function of JBCS
Teaching
JBCS structured its teaching ministry a little different from MCA in Thailand.
MCA had their curriculum and level of learning process via classes all year round. JBCS
had neither curriculum nor regular classes. On the other hand, JBCS produced magazines
every fourth year which was filled with articles and history of the church ministry. Most
articles were teachings by the senior pastor and pastors. People learned biblical doctrines
from these articles. Weekly doctrinal and spiritual short articles were also published
136
along with Sunday bulletins. It was one way of effective teaching in JBCS. Occasionally,
JBCS leaders gathered for annual church camp and retreat to take time for teaching and
learning among members. However, JBCS had no particular curriculum or textbook to
depend on in training others. In contrast, MCA had set apart, time and place for certain
curriculum and training materials to teach members. One similar strategy of both
churches was that they had visiting professors and famous preachers from Burma and
other part of the world visit from time to time. Because Singapore and Bangkok cities are
centrally located in Southeast Asia, many biblical teachers, pastors, missionaries, and
preachers passed through those cities, offering many opportunities for churches to have
access for training and fellowship. JBCS occasionally conducted Bible studies and
leadership training with visiting professors, biblical teachers, and preachers. The
congregation was enriched with biblical knowledge and they were learning from the best.
It was a valuable opportunity for the JBCS ministry. However, the down side to this was
that some visiting teacher introduced heresy, error mixed with truth in their teachings.
Sometimes, a few visiting preachers preached against biblical truth. Recently, MCA
faced this issue. They denounced a preacher for falsehood, after he had preached one
Sunday from the MCA pulpit. The senior pastor found that the preacher was not being
truthful in his claims in his message.166
Another way of teaching in JBCS ministry was through the small group (Cell
Group). Cell groups were the most effective way of ministering and teaching on a one-toone basis. JBCS leaders were effectively involved in cell groups each week, and
166
MCA, "Statement of S Gum Aung by U Zaw Min, MCA Thailand" Youtube Media Player
video file, 3:49, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-tqYsfqvcA (accessed August 15, 2012).
137
members were growing spiritually. The cell group ministry helped strengthen the bond
among believers. The result of the survey on members regarding JBCS's ministry
emphasis is shown in figure 4.10.
3.93
4
3.5 3.33
3.2
3.67
3.53
3.47
3.27
3.13
3
2.73
2.67
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Mission
Fellowship
Giving
Teaching
Prayer
Worship
Leadership
Finance
Networking
Unity
Figure 4.10. Priority of JBCS Ministry
JBCS prioritized its ministry to the teaching of God's word. According to church
members, learning God's word was their top priority in attending church. The JBCS
emphasis was also on prayer, worship, unity, and mission respectively.
Fellowship
The JBCS ministry was blessed with multiethnic groups. Therefore, different
cultures and languages were valuable assets that the JBCS congregation had. Church
fellowship was enriched with a celebration of diversity and unity. Every ethnic group
stayed together with the main congregation to form the larger body of JBCS. Thus, most
people participated in ethnic activities, either in worship or in celebration. This was a
picture of unity in diversity.
138
7
5
3
1
Participate in other
language groups
Desire to separate ethnic
group
Burmese language use
Multilingual structure
Leadership
2.07
1.13
1.53
1.27
Church
1.93
1.66
1.27
1.13
Individual
1.27
1.13
2.47
2.2
Figure 4.11. JBCS Burmese & Ethnic Ministry
Figure 4.11 showed how JBCS members were involved ethnic ministry. Three categories:
individual, church, and leadership involvements were shown separately. Each category of
the surveyed members indicated that having a separate ethnic church apart from the
already existing mother church (Burmese speaking congregant) was undesirable. This
survey result was consistent with the researcher's proposition that different ethnic groups
can be integrated in the larger body of the church as one without separating them out of
church body. It was not supposed to be an ethnic church separated from a Burmese
congregation. The church can be a collection of ethnic groups and multicultural people
under the umbrella of a multilingual ministry. The JBCS congregation vindicated the
researcher's hypothesis that a church can thrive and grow amidst the challenges of
bringing together diverse ethnic groups and generations within a multilingual ministry.
The Burmese language usage in JBCS ministry was widely accepted as necessary and
important when Burmese Christians came together to worship. On the other hand, most
of congregation responded that they favored having a multilingual ministry.
139
However, a few ethnic people of JBCS, especially larger ethnic groups such as the
Kachin, Karen, and Chin desired to have a separate ethnic church besides a Burmese
speaking church. Every ethnic group wanted to have their own identity separate from the
Bamar people, who were the majority ethnic group of Burma, closely associated with the
military dictatorship of Burma. Most ethnic groups such as Kachin, Karen, and Chin
abhor the Bamar due to the political oppression they suffered under the Bamar
military.167 In their view, the Burmese language was a part of Bamar culture. Thus, they
would rather promote their culture and language instead of Bamar. Sai Wansai
commented that the Burmese people were suffering a national identity crisis:
The views of successive Burmese governments, including the present regime,
SPDC, concerning national identity has never been clear. They have been at a loss
even as to what sort of name they should adopt; that is the reason why they are
still using "Bamar" and "Myanmar" interchangeably for what they would like to
be termed a common collective identity, in other words, national identity. The
reality is that when one mentions "Myanmar", "Bamar", "Burmese" or "Burman",
such words are usually identified with the low and majority "Bamar" and have
never been accepted or understood by the non-Bamar ethnic nationals as a
common collective identity to which they also belong.168
Indeed, the national identity crisis was a wide spread phenomenon, as ethnic groups
yearned to be recognized for their own racial identity. Today, ethnic groups in Burmese
immigrant churches are facing an identity crisis, leading to divisions among fellow
compatriots. For example, the researcher's church had a group of ethnic people, who did
not want to be associated with the Bamar, and separated themselves from the researchers'
167
Saw Yan Naing, "When Multi-Ethnic Nation Ignores Ethnic Rights," The Irrawaddy,
http://www2.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22282&page=1 (accessed August 15, 2012).
168
Sai Wansai, "Ethnic Conflict in Burma: Historical Formation, Cause of Conflict and
Contemporary Politics," https://sites.google.com/site/shanstatenews02/ethnic-conflict-in-burma (accessed
August 15, 2012).
140
church. The reason was the researcher's church used Bamar language in worship services
and named "Burmese." Senior pastor, Rev. Augustus said that the Kachin and Karen
groups had established separate ethnic churches in Singapore. The Karen ethnic group
was the latest group to separate from the JBCS congregation. In the spiritual sense, the
senior pastor saw this as a good sign. He was willing to support and establish ethnic
churches for the sake of increasing churches around the communities. This researcher
foresees Burmese immigrant churches facing ethnic issues such as racial division,
identity, cultural relevancy, literature, and language will continue among their
congregations for a long time. In spite of ethnic divisions, JBCS continued to recognize
and promote ethnic groups by accepting their identity and traditions in the ministry. Once
a year, Judson Sunday is the occasion for all ethnic groups to participate in a special
JBCS worship service with their traditional dances and songs. This was a great
opportunity for fellowship among ethnic groups with the congregation. Ethnic groups
contributed to church fellowship with their unique customs and culture by way of food,
music, literature, and traditional dresses. Over all, this looks like an idealistic multiethnic
church.
Worship
Worship activity was the third priority of the JBCS ministry according to
congregational survey results. Worship attendees looked for spiritual enrichments from
the weekly pastoral sermons and their participation in the church choir, and through
songs, the offertory, and sharing of testimonies. Singapore was a place of peace and
141
prosperity, thus people enjoy life. Sometime, fast pace lifestyle demanded busy schedules
from people. However, job schedules and personal activities could not pull the church
members away from attending church services. This was a sign of a healthy church in the
midst of a busy lifestyle. In general, people stay connected with the church, and JBCS
members were committed to their church. In contrast, in a place like California, Burmese
Christians on Sundays, tend to spend time to relax, rather than attend church services.
The reason may be disadvantages of public transportation and high cost of living. A
typical church story like the one Mark Dever relates below, shows the reality of North
American churches:
My own fellowship of churches is a prime example. According to one recent
Southern Baptist Convention study, the typical Southern Baptist church has 233
members, only 70 of whom are present at the typical Sunday morning worship
service. So where are the other 163 members? Are they all at home sick, in a rest
home, at college or on vacation, or in the military? Maybe some are, but all 163 of
them?169
JBCS members understood the reasons for becoming church members and were
committed to its ministry. Worship service was the central activity of local Burmese
Christians to get spiritual benefits and fellowship with one another. One of the
interviewees explained that her reason to attend church regularly was to meet her friends.
This researcher found that churchgoers liked to come to worship services with the
intention of meeting friends. Therefore, the church was not only a place of worship but
also a place of bonding friendship and family ties. The fact was that Burmese immigrant
churches needed to know what made their church attendees enjoy church. The researcher
learned that Burmese immigrant churches in a foreign land also provided members with
169
Mark Dever, Nine Marks, 148.
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identity, a sense of belonging, a sense of community and family, besides spiritual
enrichments. In addition, the church imparted temporary satisfaction as a "home sweet
home" moment for those who missed their homeland. A Burmese immigrant church like
the one JBCS focused on fulfilled the holistic needs of people from Burma in its worship
services.
The Sunday morning church service, attended by over 50 people, began with
prayers. The senior pastor and program chairperson led the service. The choir introduced
worship songs, followed by an invocation. The JBCS worship program was designed in
the tradition of church in Burma. The message was delivered at the end of the service
program in between offertory, pastoral prayer, testimonies, and special songs. The service
program also integrated participation from the younger generation in a way of music and
praise songs. Heavy musical instrument sets such as drums, electric guitars, and
keyboards filled the stage. They were evidence of the church's strong support for the
needs of the younger generation.
Evangelism
JBCS ministry was located at the heart of Singapore, a metropolitan city. Daily,
Christians easily encountered non-Christians on trains, buses, or on the street. JBCS
pastors encouraged members to get out and reach everyone with the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Gospel tracts were supplied for members' use in personal evangelism. The JBCS
ministry’s main target for evangelism was Burmese immigrants. According to the senior
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pastor, there are more than one hundred thousand Burmese people working and residing
in Singapore. It was a large audience to reach for JBCS members. An effective way to
reach Burmese non-Christians in the JBCS ministry was also through cell groups. Each
week, cell group members brought someone to the group for fellowship and evangelism
purposes. Members were aware of new comers in their cell groups. On Sundays, they
invited the newcomers to church service. The pastors met up with newcomers to build
further friendship. Friendship evangelism was an effective method in the Burmese
community, but it was a prolonged process of evangelizing individual. A Christian must
earn non-Christian friends' trust first, before mentioning the gospel to them. Paul Little
shared his experience with his neighbor. He said, "And all those hours talking about
flowers were very worthwhile because the process built a trust between us. And without
that trust there can be no real relationships and very little effective witnessing."170 Indeed,
personal evangelism needed much patience and persuasion on the part of Christians.
JBCS conducted evangelism in Burma through annual mission trips. The senior
pastor himself actively led the mission team to reach unchurched and non-believers in
remote areas of Burma. The JBCS mission team collaborated with local churches and
Christian organizations in Burma, Thailand, and Malaysia for evangelism work. These
mission fields were active and mission team served the holistic needs of the Burmese
people. People's lives were transformed and new believers in Christ added to the local
congregations. The JBCS ministry was conveying the gospel of Jesus Christ by way of
170
Paul Little, How to Give Away Your Faith, rev. ed. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press,
1988), 55.
144
members' testimonies not just as individuals but also as a Church. Mark Dever claimed
that the testimony of Christians as a whole church could evangelize the world. He said,
Live a life of committed love to the other members of your local church, as a
fundamental part of your own sanctification and of your evangelistic ministry.
Our individual lives alone are not a sufficient witness. Our lives together as
church communities are the confirming echo of our witness.171
JBCS understood this notion and lived it out as a church.
Service
JBCS members were prompt at serving one another, and meeting each other’s
needs. The church functions well when everyone took responsibility in the ministry.
Pastors and leaders alone cannot accomplish everything by themselves. JBCS members
were gifted with various professions and talents. Members gifted with music led a strong
musical team. Others were gifted with multimedia, such as church website, video, audio,
and networking, making the JBCS church website popular among Burmese in the whole
world. It provided both Burmese and English format sermons, news, videos, literature,
and photographs.172 These successes came because of church members who volunteered
and dedicated themselves to serve God in the JBCS ministry. JBCS members served
diligently in the mission field as organized mission teams, serving people with their
talents. JBCS mission teams were also armed with talented individuals, like Burmese
cultural dance performers. The team used culture dances to reach Burmese Buddhist
171
Mark Dever, Nine Marks, 130.
172
JBCS website is on http://www.jbcs.org.sg/main/index.php
145
people with the gospel of Christ. Groups of women, who specialized in cooking Burmese
traditional foods, organized church activities such as anniversary celebration, Christmas,
Thanksgiving, Easter, and New Year celebrations and used their culinary talents to
support the ministry. It can clearly be seen that serving was at the heart of JBCS
members. The joy of serving in the JBCS ministry was evident.
Structure Analysis of MCA and JBCS (Burmese and Ethnic Ministry)
Just as each organization has a structure uniquely its own, the MCA and the JBCS
ministries have their own distinctive structural patterns. The uniqueness of each church
structure can be attributed to a variety of factors such as people, leaders, environment,
community, and location. These factors must be understood first before assessing the
organization and its people. A Burmese immigrant church naturally deals with a set of
Burmese contextual cause factors, previously discussed in this paper under the heading
"Causative Factors." The ministry structure of these two Burmese immigrant churches
needed to be studied in order to understand their principles, to determine whether they are
applicable to any Burmese immigrant church. A church’s program and activities define
its identity. Comparing the following programs and activities common to both MCA and
JBCS ministries helped understand their ministry emphases and infrastructures.
Program & Activity
MCA JBCS
Ethnic Fellowship grouping
Yes
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No
Special Ethnic Combined Service
Yes
Yes
Cell Group ministry
Yes
Yes
Leadership delegation
Yes
Yes
Praise & Worship
Yes
Yes
2 or more Burmese worship services per Sunday
Yes
No
Local Foreign Language service (English/Thai)
No
No
Training Curriculum
Yes
No
Discipleship Program
Yes
Yes
Mission Field & Trip
Yes
Yes
Evangelism Activities (Personal/Group)
Yes
Yes
Burmese Mission in Burma
No
Yes
Burmese Mission in Foreign (Thailand, Malaysia,
Singapore)
Yes
Yes
New Convert/None Believer/ Salvation Classes
Yes
No
Bible Study Classes Weekly
Yes
Yes
Church camp/Special Event- Spiritual Nourishment
Yes
Yes
Leadership Enrichment/ Bonding Team
Yes
Yes
Multimedia Ministry (web, video, audio, articles, etc.)
Yes
Yes
Global Networking (affiliation, cooperation, collaboration)
Yes
Yes
Table 4.1. Programs and Activities of MCA and JBCS
MCA and JBCS Infrastructure and Ministry Paradigm
The MCA and JBCS ministry paradigms can be analyzed according to the three
categories: leadership/ministry team, church function, and ministry involvements.
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Leadership and Ministry Team
The central tenet of Christian churches that Jesus Christ is the head of the church,
that He himself connects and holds every part of church's body together,173 is
acknowledged and practiced by both churches. With Jesus Christ as the head, the pastors
and church elders served as leadership team. The MCA’s leadership was structured with
two senior pastors and two associate pastors as decision makers. The Executive
Committee (EC) mainly functioned as an administrative body overseeing church finances
and mission projects. Decisions were made by the four pastors and handed down to the
EC for execution. There were other delegated leaders involved in the ministry activities
as they were assigned.
The JBCS leadership was structured with the Executive Committee as a
cooperative decision maker. The senior pastor and associate pastors served in the EC as
spiritual leaders who influenced EC members in decision-making. They did not impose
their will on EC decisions. Rather, they functioned as one with the EC leadership. The
EC was composed of the Committee Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, Auditor,
Deacons, Pastors, and Fellowship Leaders. They were the decision makers as well as
administrative leaders.
The MCA leadership structure was strongly based on the four pastors. They
provided strong leadership in the direction the church took, and were vital to the MCA
ministry as they were keys to the success of the ministry. The church depended on their
unity and spirituality, and organizational skills. In such a situation, the church was too
173
Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:15-16; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.
148
dependent on the pastors maintaining their status and integrity. The weakness of this kind
of leadership, therefore, was that the pastors became the main source of success in
ministry. For a church to sustain itself, it needed to nurture lay leadership instead of being
overly dependent on any exclusive leaders. As in Acts 6:1-4, where the twelve apostles
saw the need for church to delegate leadership, thus were creating a Deaconate (servants)
leadership in the local church. On the other hand, the JBCS leadership structure appeared
closer to the biblical model, where a group of leaders in the Executive Committee came
together for governing, decision-making, and delegation of ministry agendas to various
responsible leaders. The pastors were there to advise and guide church agendas using
their spiritual authority. The following diagram portrays the ministry and leadership
infrastructure MCA and JBCS as the researcher perceived it:
Jesus Christ
Senior Pastors
Associate Pastors
Executive Committee
Delegated Leaders
Group Ministry
Sunday Worship
Services
Area Ministry
Youth Fellowship
Sister Churches
Children Ministry
Cell Groups
Family Ministry
Ethnic Groups
Ethnic Fellowship
Migrant
Workers/mission
Figure 4.12. MCA Leadership and Ministry Infrastructure
149
Jesus Christ
Executive Committee
Pastoral Staff
Sunday Worship
Services
Group Ministry
Area Ministry
Youth Fellowship
Cell Groups
Women Fellowship
Inter-Church Relation
Weekly Bible Study/
Prayer
Mission works in Burma,
Thailand, and Malaysia
Special Program:
Christmas, Easter,
Judson Sunday
None Religious Burmese
Society Relation
Figure 4.13. JBCS Leadership and Ministry Infrastructure
Church Function
Both MCA and JBCS had the correct perspective regarding the functions of a
church. Their ministry included the basic functions of a church such as weekly worship,
communion, baptism, fellowship, Bible study, evangelism, and mission. They were
fellowshipping, encouraging, and being accountable to one another in weekly meetings.
That was the biblical pattern seen in Hebrews 3:13, 10:24-25; 2 Timothy 4:2. Both
churches had a strong emphasis on biblical teaching and discipleship, as taught in
Matthew 28:19-20, Romans 10:14-15, as they had this process in their church paradigms.
150
The two churches were constantly looking out for potential leaders and believers in
Christ for delegation of ministry leadership. Equipping, encouraging, and mentoring were
the primary task for MCA and JBCS leadership teams. That was also according to
Scripture as in Matthew 28:20; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; John 14:26.
Both churches had mission emphasis and were active in fields with their church
members. The pastors were the active leaders of these mission trips. They were engaging
their members in mission and making disciples for Christ according to Matthew 28:19; 2
Corinthians 5:20, Mark 16:15. This researcher believed that both ministries relied on
God's guidance and providence. They acted according to the belief that God was the
source of their ministry. Thus, praise, worship, and prayer formed the spiritual lives of
members, in line with biblical teachings given in Ephesians 5:19-20, 6:18, Psalms 33:1.
One notable point for both MCA and JBCS churches was they were not involved in
engaging the local community besides Burmese immigrants. There was no Thai language
ministry in place in the MCA ministry; there was no evidence that JBCS was involved in
local Singaporean ministry. The question then raised, was God calling these churches for
exclusive Burmese ministry in the midst of multicultural people? The presupposition of a
church in its meaning was that it functions as a group of believers from the community of
the location where the church was, who were called out to bear testimony for Christ,
actively engaging in the great commission of Christ as they worship and fellowship
together weekly. A church is not limited to race, cultures, language, and country of
origin, but open to all believers in Christ. Will MCA and JBCS see their ministry
boundary beyond their Burmese context?
151
Group and Area Ministry
The church function included ministry to specific needs. MCA and JBCS were
carrying out two categories of ministry: (1) Group ministry and (2) Area ministry. Group
ministry was connected within specific groups of the church. Groups were organized
based on common characteristics or interest, divided by age or agenda. For example,
MCA had ethnic groups, a youth group, and a family group. JBCS had a youth group, a
women’s group, and a Bible study group. This group ministry was concerned with
ministry inside the church. In other words, it was designed to enrich and build up
members. It was an important ministry for both churches.
Area ministry was concerned with activities outside the church, a community
ministry. MCA ministers to eleven sister churches through delegated leaders and pastors.
These sister churches were located across the city of Bangkok. By reaching out to these
churches, MCA increased its ministry area rather than limiting it to just on single
location. MCA pastors were also doing ethnic ministry by supporting and participating in
ethnic fellowships. By this, they integrated them with the MCA ministry. Thus, ethnic
fellowships were a part of the body, MCA, yet fellowshipping in various locations. JBCS
and MCA do the same area ministry through cell groups. Cell groups were located at
different areas to reach more people for Christ. Church leaders and elders in the
communities represented MCA through cell groups. In addition, MCA had a migrant
workers’ ministry and carried out mission work in remote areas of the Thailand, Burma
border. This ministry was an important part of MCA.
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JBCS used a slightly different approach in area ministry. The church built interrelationships with other churches, including ethnic churches like Kachin, Karen, and
Chin, for fellowship and worship, in an effort for unity and friendship with these groups.
JBCS was also involved in non-religious, social activities with the Burmese community
in Singapore. They took part in events like musical shows, Burmese traditional drama,
and dance for community events, and other cultural and traditional representations. These
events were a part of JBCS’s outreach ministry. In addition, JBCS was dedicated to
reaching Burmese people back in Burma and beyond, conducting annual mission trips to
Burma, Thailand, and Malaysia.
The researcher observed that the group ministry (inside church) and area ministry
(outside church) approach was crucial to a ministry paradigm. The church must
determine whom they minister to and whom they were trying to reach. That was directly
related to community and congregation of a church. MCA and JBCS must reach the nonBurmese in the community that they were located. Language barrier could be the reason
why these churches have not reached out to local Thai and Singaporeans. Thus, a
multilingual ministry paradigm was a key to reaching out beyond the Burmese context.
Case Study of Asian Immigrant Churches
Two Asian immigrant churches, the New Life Church (NLC), a Korean church in
Fremont, California, and the First Chinese Baptist Church (FCBC) of San Francisco,
California, were studied for their English language ministry. The researcher explored
their ministry emphasis and paradigm for the English speaking Asian generation in the
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United States of America. California is the State with a large number of Asian
immigrants, who have been raising families for generations. It is the largest multicultural
society on the west coast, a melting pot of Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, and Asian people.
In this setting of diverse cultures and customs, Californians coexist in an atmosphere of
relative harmony, due to common interests and values. Christian churches also learn to
live and work together, in spite of distinctions with regard to race, origin, and
denomination. Asian immigrant churches use their mother tongues in their worship
services, while Hispanic churches use Hispanic. Likewise, Black and Caucasian churches
generally have separate churches either dictated by race or personal preferences. Among
Asians, Korean, Chinese, Burmese, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnam churches have
their own separate churches.
Both NLC and FCBC were pioneer Asian immigrant churches in the Bay Area, 174
which had already become aware of the needs of the English speaking generation within
their own groups. They had introduced an English language worship service in their
ministry. Interestingly, the names of these churches reflected their ministry. For example,
the Korean church of Fremont does not bear the name Korean in it but uses a common
name “New Life” a term familiar to American Christians. With this American sounding
name, many people may not even realize that the church is Korean in origin. On the other
hand, FCBC was also named to emphasize the focus of its ministry, the "Chinese" of
China Town in San Francisco. Part of its name, "First Baptist Church", is common in
American Baptist culture, and together with “Chinese”, makes clear that it is a church for
174
Peninsular of San Francisco and East Bay of Northern California is known as Bay Area.
154
Chinese with American Baptist heritage. Thus, after more than hundred years of FCBC
ministry, the congregation was still purely Chinese. There were no Caucasian or black
persons among worshippers on the particular Sunday that the researcher attended. It was
surprising to see that the Chinese church still had a Chinese congregation after all these
years but the only change was language.
The researcher studied the NLC and FCBC English language ministry for their
strategy and paradigm. Each church portrayed very significant values. This study, it is
hoped, will give an indication of the future outcome of an English language ministry
among Burmese immigrant churches.
Case Study of New Life Church, Fremont, California
The Korean ministry established the New Life Church (NLC) in Fremont. A
single family started it in 1989. The majority of the congregation was Korean
immigrants. After twenty-three years, there were seven hundred members enrolled, with
about six hundred attending the weekly Korean language service. The senior pastor, Rev.
Dr. Sungkyu Wee was a visionary Korean pastor who founded New Life Church. He
testified that God alone built this church utilizing him for the ministry. Pastor Wee had
been leading morning prayers every day, including Sunday, in his church for over twenty
years. Through these prayer meetings, the congregation and church grew together. The
English service started a few years ago, when it became evident that Korean immigrant
children were growing up without speaking Korean, and there was a need for an English
155
worship service for the youth. A full time English Ministry pastor had been appointed,
and today, the English service has sixty attendees at its weekly services.
Senior Pastor Interview
Rev. Dr. Sungkyu Wee of New Life Church was interviewed on April 24, 2012 at
his church office. The senior pastor explained the ministry in detail. He shared the
philosophy of his ministry and his personal view of how God blessed his church in terms
of growth. Rev. Wee's primary focus in his church ministry was preaching. He took
seriously, the preparation of all the sermons that he preached. He said, "God blessed my
preaching. So I preach the word of God sincerely with prayer."
The Korean congregation has increased rapidly in the past few years. According
to the 2010 census, it showed that 1.8% out of a 50.6% Asian population in Fremont city
is Korean. Fremont is the closest city to the Silicon Valley, and has a total population of
214,085.175 The number of Korean immigrants working in the Silicon Valley increased as
the economy boomed in early 2000. This factor contributed to the growth of the Korean
congregation.
Rev. Wee and the leadership team have implemented seven steps of discipleship
training for their congregation. Each step took two weeks of study. The seven steps
included, (1) Nourishing people, (2) Disciple, (3) Cell Leader, (4) Army of God, (5)
Productive Leader, (6) Reproductive Leader, (7) Delegating Leader. The New Life
175
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont,_California (accessed August 16, 2012).
156
church had increased in membership as well as in finances. Every week, an average
collection for each worship service was $25,000. The total annual budget in 2011 was
over one million dollars. The church has forty cell groups around the Bay Area. A leader
operates each cell group. An innovative approach was taken in reaching out to the
younger generation through the cell group system. Rev. Wee remains close to his
leadership team by meeting once a month with food and vision sharing. He strongly
believed that having a strong leadership in a church ministry was the key to success. The
English language service was implemented mainly to reach younger Koreans and the
non-Korean generation in Fremont, the heart of the Bay Area in California.
New Life English
Service
Fellowship
Teaching
Spiritual
What brings you
40%
7%
What enjoys you
53%
The message
Activities
Leadership
33%
13%
7%
20%
13%
13%
13%
53%
20%
14%
13%
40%
47%
5%
10%
20%
13%
53%
33%
14%
The leadership
Involve activity
45%
7%
Getting training
Discipleship
Table 4.2. New Life Church English Service Survey
157
Fellowship
60%
50%
40%
Teaching
30%
20%
10%
0%
Leadership
Spiritual
Activities
Discipleship
What Brings You
What Enjoys You
The Message
The Leadership
Involve Activity
Getting Training
Figure 4.14. New Life Church English Service Survey Response
The NLC English service survey showed the members' opinion of the English
language ministry. The overriding reason attendees came back to church each week was
fellowship, as given by 40% of those who responded to the survey. The other reasons
were spiritual (33%) and their involvement in leadership responsibilities (7%). The
survey showed that what the congregation enjoyed most about New Life was once again,
fellowship among members (53%). Some enjoyed listening to the teachings of the church
and others enjoyed church activities. The pastor's messages were rated as 53% spiritual
fulfillment and 13% educational. About 47% believed leadership of the church was
strong and effective. Twenty percent of the English Language Ministry members were
involved in other church related activities besides weekly worship service. Most of the
members enjoyed fellowship (45%) activities especially Friday night gathering. Some of
them were involved in discipleship (10%) and leadership activities (13%) weekly. All of
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them, 53% had attended at least once the seminars and training for discipleship and
leadership.
English Language Ministry Philosophy and Structure at New Life
The senior pastor of Fremont New Life Church, Rev. Wee, believed that the
English language ministry ensured that the English speaking younger Korean generation
stayed under the same roof as their Korean speaking parents’ generation. Rev. Wee said
that since American Korean youths no longer spoke Korean, they would go somewhere
else if New Life Church did not provide them with an English language service. Rev.
Wee's strategy to provide an English language ministry was to hire an English speaking
Korean minister, who was fluent in English and educated in America. In the interview,
Rev. Wee mentioned that NLC was planning to expand its ministry to the Afghanistan
community in Fremont, and intended to hire an Afghanistan minister to establish an
Afghanistan Christian fellowship. This was an indication of Rev. Wee’s far-reaching
vision of establishing a multiethnic or multilingual ministry under the umbrella of New
Life Church.
The English Ministry (EM) was structured as part of the larger Korean
congregation at New Life Church. The two language groups had two separate worship
services that provided people with their particular spiritual needs in a single ministry.
Integrating EM into the larger Korean congregation made sense for the local church
ministry. This researcher was at an English service of New Life Church, on April 24,
159
2012. There were more than fifty worshipers in attendance, with a few Chinese, Filipino,
Caucasian, and Koreans mixed in. Every Sunday this group met at 1:00 PM for worship
followed by a Bible study class. Friday evenings were gathering time for fun and biblical
topic discussions. Pastor Jason So, the English Ministry (EM) pastor, shared the strategy
he used in dealing with his congregation of young Korean Americans. He said, "They are
completely Americanized, and so you have to reason with them, ask for their opinions,
and respect their choices." The EM pastor used a curriculum for teaching and training
EM members. In addition, he promoted a cell group structure among EM members. An
important agenda for EM was always to stay connected with the larger Korean
congregation. The EM members occasionally joined the bilingual service with the main
Korean congregation. Combined activities took place during such church celebrations as
Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. Ministry Philosophy of NLC was built on Korean
Language ministry. It built English and other language ministries upon the foundation of
Korean Language ministry. The Figure 4.15 showed it.
.
Other Language
Ministry
English Language Ministry
Korean Language Ministry
Figure 4.15. Philosophy of NLC Ministry Paradigm
160
Case Study of First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco, California
The First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco (FCBC) was established in
1880 in the heart of China Town, San Francisco. At present, the church is known to be a
multigenerational, bilingual, bicultural church. The FCBC official website gives the
history of its ministry thus:
This church was organized in 1880 by Dr. Jesse B. Hartwell, meeting in a store
front on Washington Street across from Portsmouth Square. The congregation
moved to the present location on Waverly Place in 1888. The first church building
was destroyed by a fire after the 1906 earthquake. With the help of American
Baptists across the country, a new building was erected in 1908, with the ground
floor housing a sanctuary and a reading room, and the second floor classrooms.
The third floor, added in 1930, included a fellowship hall and offices for the
pastors of the church. The present sanctuary, designed in the “round” is the result
of extensive renovations connected with the Centennial celebrations of the church
in 1980.176
The church went on to plant a new sister church in the Sunset District within the city of
San Francisco in 1998. The purpose was to reach out and minister to a predominately
English- speaking Asian congregation. Currently, there are about five hundred members
attending both English and Cantonese language services at FCBC. Senior pastor Rev.
Don Ng has been serving since 1998, and works with three associate pastors: Rev. Dr.
Peter Lee who heads the Cantonese section, Pastor Jane Lam, who is in charge of
community outreach, and Pastor Visal Sok, who ministers to English speaking youth and
the young adults.
176
http://www.fcbc-sf.org/aboutus.htm (accessed August 16, 2012).
161
Senior Pastor Interview
The Senior Pastor Rev. Don Ng was interviewed on April 19, 2012. Rev. Ng
stated that being mission minded is the key to church growth and sustenance. It is
apparent that the mission mindset was alive and well in his congregation. The reason the
First Chinese Baptist Church was established in China Town was to present the gospel of
Christ as an American Baptist witness in that location. In 2000, the FCBC building
underwent major renovations. The church spent 1.3 million dollars to retrofit the building
while facing the need to relocate due to space limitations for a growing ministry. FCBC
made the deliberate choice of not only retrofitting the building but extending a new
church in the Sunset District at the same time. Rev. Ng testified that God had honored the
congregation's decision, as he continued to seek God's would to serve in a bilingual and
bicultural ministry.
Rev. Ng delegated his leadership responsibility to other leaders, sharing the
ministry load with them. He and the FCBC leadership hired a new generation English
language ministry pastor to minister to the young generation, which are the third and
fourth generations of the FCBC Chinese congregation. This generation needed an English
language service with a contemporary approach. Thus, this group needed a new pastor
who would be sensitive to their needs. Rev. Ng, although he himself was able to teach
and preach in English, understood that the younger generation needed an innovative
young leader. Likewise, he did the same for the Cantonese-speaking congregation, when
he appointed a down-to-earth Cantonese language-speaking pastor to take charge of the
newly arrived Chinese immigrant generation. Rev. Ng leads the older English-speaking
162
congregation today. The FCBC has clearly distinguished its congregation into three
categories such as Cantonese speaking, English speaking older generation, and English
speaking younger generation.
Both the younger and older generations of the English worship service took the
survey about their participation in an English language ministry. They had expressed
similar responses upon the reason of attending the church. That was understood as
dominantly fellowshipping among the members. Table 4.3 and figure 4.16 were the
survey responses of FCBC English language service attendees.
First Chinese
Baptist Church
English Service
Fellowship
Teaching
Spiritual
Discipleship
What brings you
41.7%
25.0%
16.7%
8.3%
8.3%
What enjoys you
75.0%
8.3%
8.3%
8.3%
The message
8.3%
33.3%
33.3%
8.3%
16.7%
The leadership
33.3%
8.3%
8.3%
16.7%
33.3%
33.3%
41.7%
Involve activity
Getting training
8.3%
25.0%
Activities
8.3%
Table 4.3. FCBC English Language Ministry Survey
163
Leadership
25.0%
25.0%
33.3%
Fellowship
80%
60%
Leadership
40%
Teaching
20%
0%
Activities
Spiritual
What Brings You
Discipleship
What Enjoys You
The Message
The Leadership
Invlove Activities
Getting Training
Figure 4.16. FCBC English Services Survey Response
English Language Ministry Philosophy and Structure at FCBC
This researcher participated in an FCBC English service on July 15, 2012. He
observed that the English language ministry had been in existence for many years in
FCBC. There were two sections of the English language service at FCBC. The Youth and
Young Adult service was at 9:00 am, and used a contemporary worship style. The other
service older Chinese Americans, started at 10:20 am, and the worship was in traditional
format. Today, the older generation, averaging in ages between the 50s and 70s, were the
main attendees of the second English worship service. Rev. Ng pointed out that this
group consisted of second-generation Chinese American Christians. This second
generation was still a bilingual group, speaking both English and Cantonese. They also
attended the Cantonese service in the afternoon. Their children and grandchildren, who
164
were young adults, form the third and fourth English speaking generations of the
congregation.
Rev. Ng realized that the role of the younger generation was crucial in the
church’s vision for vitality and growth. The church was able to strike new goals in
ministry because of their participation. Without them, the church would slowly become
extinct. He said, "There is a cliché that the extinction of a church is just one generation
away." Therefore, caring and nurturing the younger generation is essential and a must in
local church ministry.” He believed that cooperation between older laity and younger
laity was good for ministry growth, but separation between the younger and older
generations was sometimes necessary, as it facilitated each generation to function better.
This ministry philosophy of Rev. Ng was reflected in the structure of the English
language ministry, where two separate worship services were instituted for the older and
younger generations, allowing them to worship separately while still integrated under the
FCBC ministry. Both generations of FCBC find themselves comfortable with this
ministry setting.
165
Traditional
English
Modern
English
Cantonese
Tradition
Figure 4.17. Philosophy of FCBC Ministry Paradigm
Structural Analysis of NLC and FCBC (English Language Ministry)
The researcher believed that most language-based churches faced limitations in
ministry. Language can be a powerful tool to unite people who speak the same language.
However, it also can be a negative factor in ministry if it sets limits for those who do not
understand the particular language used for worship. Therefore, a local church must
understand language usage in the church service, in order to define its strengths and
weaknesses. Although there were times when language could be used as a unifying
factor, language itself could become a kind of barrier if accommodations were not made
to include those who do not understand the language use. A monolingual church loses its
appeal for the younger generation growing up in a language other than their immigrant
166
parents. The challenge for the monolingual church is how to overcome this language
barrier, so that it becomes a true local church.
What is the lesson to be learned from the generational picture of FCBC? The
researcher believed that the current Burmese immigrant generation would have to be
bilingual in nature, using both Burmese and English languages as their children grow up
not speaking Burmese. The implication here is that both Burmese and English language
ministries are essential for long-term sustainability, so that third and fourth generation
youths, who may no longer be bilingual, will not feel estranged from the Burmese
speaking or bilingual congregation. The FCBC's Chinese immigrant generation is an
indication for Burmese immigrant churches to see how their future generation will look
like and what their linguistic needs will be in the church community.
Aubrey Malphurs defined the local church as, "A local church is an indispensable
gathering of professing believers in Christ who, under leadership, are organized to pursue
its mission through its functions to accomplish its purpose."177 According to this
definition, a language church like New Life Church was a truly biblical church,
functioning under the church leadership in pursuit of its mission. The congregation was a
group of professed believers in Christ, who happen to be Korean, grouped by their
common faith, heritage, and language, and thus are comfortable in each other’s company.
Is that all about church? Would that be more to that of multicultural church beside
monolingual church?
177
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 116, 117.
167
Dorwin Cartwright and Alvin Zander said,
“We propose, then, that a person’s attraction to a group is determined by four
interacting sets of variables: (a) his motive base for attraction, consisting of his
needs for affiliation, recognition, security, money, or other values that can be
mediated by groups; (b) the incentive properties of the group, consisting of its
goals, programs, characteristics of its members, style of operation, prestige, or
other properties of significance for his motive base; (c) his expectancy, the
subjective probability, that membership will actually have beneficial or
detrimental consequences for him; and (d) his comparison level-his conception of
the level of outcomes that group membership should provide.”178
Language was the key in accommodating and reaching out to others in local church
ministry. It also gave credence to the researcher's hypothesis that a church thrives and
grows when it faces the challenges of bringing together diverse ethnic groups and
generations through a multilingual ministry. A multilingual ministry accommodates and
reaches other language groups, uniting all in the single ministry of a local church. In
other words, providing common or multiple languages for worship and fellowship
eliminates the monolingual barrier in the context of a local church.
Chapter Conclusion
The study of two Burmese immigrant churches, MCA and JBCS, showed that the
Burmese language ministry had a unique structure, in relation to its location,
ethnic/linguistic group, and congregants' needs. This unique structure provided stability
and motive to establish a church suited to the needs of Burmese immigrant. Both
178
Cartwright, Dorwin and Alvin Zander. Group Dynamics: Research and Theory. 3rd edition.
(New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1968), 96.
168
congregations contributed as the key factor that drove the direction of a local church. The
structure of these two churches consisted of a Group ministry and Area ministry. The
Group Ministry included ministry to ethnics and other fellowships within the church
ministry. The Area ministry reached the church community and others via mission work,
cell groups, and evangelism. Their structures stressed God's word in teaching,
discipleship, and leadership, centralizing Christ in the lives of the congregation. The
Burmese ministry was essential for all Burmese immigrants, as it united and gave identity
to Burmese Christians in a foreign land. This study, which provided an extensive
knowledge of local church ministry in a unique context and time, addressed the needs of
the researcher's church, OBMBC, on how to conduct a Burmese immigrant church
ministry.
The two Asian immigrant churches, NLC and FCBC, studied for their English
language ministries, provided a blueprint for the researcher's English language ministry.
Both churches had a strong vision for the younger generation. They had invested
resources to meet the needs of each mono-linguistic Asian American generation group in
their ministries. The lessons learned in this study were that different generations need
each other. Language can be good if used to unite people with a common language, but it
can be an obstacle if it keeps away people who are not of the same language group.
English is the official language of the United States, where the researcher's church
locates. Therefore, he must utilize English to reach out to the community that surrounds
his church, beyond the Burmese context.
169
The common denominator in the study of these four churches was "Language."
How each church saw language was an important factor for ministry growth, which is
indicated in figure 4.18. All four churches, MCA, JBCS, FCBC, and NLC were involved
in language ministry. They were engaged in using two or more languages in their
ministries. For example, both MCA and JBCS had Burmese and other ethnic languages,
FCBC had Cantonese and English, and NLC had Korean and English.
40
20
0
MCA
JBC
New Life
FCBC
Senior P. Interview
30
10
40
40
group discussion
20
30
20
30
survey
30
20
30
30
Figure 4.18. Four Churches' View on Language Ministry
Figure 4.18 provided statistic of viewing language ministry in four case study
churches. The value number 10 indicated “a little interest” in language ministry. The
value number 20 suggested some interest in it. The value number 30 indicated that the
church emphasized language ministry. The value 40 meant the church had implemented a
language other than Burmese, or Korean, or Chinese ministry. Senior pastors who were
interviewed, were asked to rate the importance of language in their ministries. The
second source, a selected group, discussed the needs of language in ministry. The third
170
source of information came from survey questions. The important nature of language
ministry was innate in the hearts of church leaders, yet its priority and practicality may
vary from one person to another.
Aubrey Malphurs answered the dilemma of how someone can develop a new
church model, "The answer to the dilemma of how to develop new church models is to
develop biblically based models that are endemic or indigenous to one's own community
and leadership."179 Indeed, developing a new church model should start with the
biblically based model, after the "Early Church" model in the book of Acts (Acts 2:4047). In that Early Church, believers in Christ were in one accord breaking bread, praising
God, living in simplicity, learning the apostles' doctrine, and fellowshipping. The Lord
added to the church daily with those who had been saved. It was the growing church. The
church was connected to diverse community and upholding God's truth. Beside, the
leadership in the church was strong. Likewise, a local church must be unique to its call
and open its arms to all with God's truth. Although, the Burmese congregation was
unique in its community, reaching out to all diverse people was necessary also. How can
the Burmese church reach out to the diverse community? The biblical based church
model, the early church would provide a foundation. Therefore, one possible method
would be a multilingual ministry, which could provide and enable reaching out to all
kinds of people in a community. For the language was a focal consideration in that
hypothesis.
179
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 164,165
171
CHAPTER V
DEVELOPING A NEW CHURCH MODEL FOR OBMBC
Focusing on OBMBC Ministry Needs
The Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church (OBMBC) was one of three
Burmese congregations that came into being when a previously established Burmese
church, the First Burmese Baptist Church of San Francisco, fulfilled its vision and
expanded its outreach to Burmese immigrants on the East side of the San Francisco Bay.
The steady flow of Burmese ethnic refugees coming into the San Francisco Bay Area
from Refugee camps along the Thailand/ Burma border and Malaysia since early 2007
had increased the OBMBC congregation by the hundreds. It has been the pride and joy of
this researcher's OBMBC community that they have been able to minister the refugees in
a number of significant ways. As a result, the congregation’s concept of church had
changed, seeing the faces of need every Sunday in church. Church services, which
previously had meant pleasant social occasions to meet friends and families, have now
become tested grounds for practicing real Christian values of forbearance, openmindedness, and harmony. In the beginning, most of the founding members were not
familiar with the needs of the refugees and had to undergo a period of difficulty and
adjustment. The needs of the refugees have changed the mindset of church leaders,
challenging them to come up with a more innovative and efficient way of doing ministry.
The ministry emphasis was focused on promoting a caring ministry for newly arrived
refugee families.
172
The newcomers have also had to undergo many radical changes in thought and
behavior. Starting a new life in the United States was a major struggle, the culture shock,
the difficulties of adapting to the demands of a new way of life have been very daunting
for the new immigrants. Traditionally the passive way of accepting things without
questioning, made it difficult for them to change and adapt to the modern, more
demanding ways of their newly adopted country.
The Burmese people of the San Francisco Bay Area came from a mix of different
denominational and racial backgrounds, representative of the many ethnic groups, which
inhabit Burma. A rich variety of languages, customs, and cultures were reflected in the
way these churches were organized. This can be a blessing as well as a challenge, as at
times it can lead to confusion and difficulties when each group wants to run the church
like their hometown churches back in Burma, resisting new programs and new ways.
However, after five long years, people were slowly beginning to adapt to changes.
Leaders, the change agents in church ministry were becoming more responsible and
actively serving in their leadership roles. Congregations have become more caring and
sharing with one another in love. Burmese churches were also learning to work with
their denomination affiliation, and other local churches in the United States. Burmese
churches realized they could not stand alone in ministry, but must learn to work together
with other local churches. They needed synergy, as defined below:
Synergy is the energy or force that is generated through the working
together of various parts or processes. Synergism can be defined as the
interaction of elements that, when combined, produce an effect that is
greater than the sum of the individual parts. Synergy is a joint action that
increases the effectiveness of each member of a team. To function well, a
173
team must be committed to a common vision and purpose, and it must be
willing to work in unity for the improvement of the whole rather than the
advancement of any one member.180
Implications of Principles in OBMBC Ministry
A developing ministry plan must be truly based on biblical principles. A church
must found its ministry plans on God's truth. Aubrey Malphurs said, "Spiritual formation
connects God with the strategic planning process and then its ministry product or model,
and it must undergird the entire process . . . Any planning for the church must begin with
and be about the spiritual formation of the church."181 Teaching of Malphurs was that
believers must be transformed by the work of Holy Spirit in order to be more like Christ
in order to have a strong ministry. The ministry plan of a church was also to produce
Christ-like believers. Rainers called it deepening the faith of believers in a local church
ministry.182 A principle-based growth plan will be long term, for principle was
unchangeable. Strategic planning, according to Malphurs is the key to the long-term
survival of the church, where ministry circumstances are constantly changing.183
Pragmatic plans are flexible depending on the times, contexts of ministry, and the people
being ministered to, and pragmatic plans are those that a ministry needs.
180
Ken Boa, "Leadership Qualities: Team Building,"
http://www.kenboa.org/text_resources/free_articles/5396 (accessed August 14, 2012).
181
Aubrey Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning, 80.
182
Rainer, Essential Church, 6.
183
Malphurs, Advanced Strategic, 25.
174
The Plans that Build on Pragmatism
From time to time, a church must implement certain practical aspects of action
programs suitable to the immediate need of its ministry, with the clear understanding that
they are for short-term solutions. For example, in order to be proactive, the researcher's
church implemented a Refugee Settlement Committee to meet the immediate needs of
refugees. For the church attendees were mostly refugees. This committee was overloaded
with programs like visitation, welcoming, fund raising, workshops, mentoring, and
English language teaching. This became the effectual function of the church for the past
two years. The refugees and their needs were so overwhelmed the church that the
ministry of building up Christians was in danger of being overlooked. It would have been
more practical for the refugee settlement committee to collaborate with other
organizations. The church realized it must develop a refugee ministry that would provide
long-term solutions. In other words, the church needed a principle based ministry plan
that was a step up process from "Welcome" to "Making disciples" of Jesus Christ. Bill
Hall’s view of disciple making was that, ". . . the words make disciples refer to leading
people to faith in Christ, which is the commanded task of his church. "Discipling" is the
process of moving believers in their faith so that they began to mature and employ their
gifts in the body of Christ."184 Thus, the church must begin to adopt the disciple-making
step and implement it as part of the refugee ministry. Hull had a great model for
discipleship in local churches based on the four saying of Jesus Christ. He explained,
184
Bill Hull, Jesus Christ Disciplemaker, 236-237.
175
The calls of Christ were "Come and see," recorded only in the Gospel of John
1:39; "Come and follow Me," found in Mark 1:16-20; and "Come and be with
Me," in Mark 3:13-14. I have added a fourth phase that is shorter and less vital,
but still important, "You will remain in Me" (John 15:7-8).185
This was the principle-based ministry plan at OBMBC. It was impossible to implement a
principle-based ministry without using a pragmatic plan first to begin a ministry to
refugees. A church must transform into a principle-based ministry to achieve long-term
results. Hull focused the process of discipleship as;
"Come and see" 1. Tell them what. 2. Tell them why.
"Come and follow Me" 3. Show them how. 4. Do it with them.
"Come and be with Me" 5. Let them do it.
"You will remain in Me" 6. Deploy them.186
Each step was applicable and effective in making discipleship work in the researcher's
local church.
The Plans that Found on Biblical Principles
There are eight principles based on the practices and priorities of the Ephesian
church, as provided by Bill Hull. He said, "In the growth of the young church, we can see
185
Bill Hull, The Disciple Making Pastor, 271.
186
Ibid.
176
how eight principles Jesus had shown his disciples fueled the church's expansion. These
worked in the first century, and they can work today, too."187 The eight principles are:
1. Intentional strategy: If a church strategizes its ministry plan, people will move
forward with that intentional strategy. A church must have a strategy to drive
people and intentionally bring them into that ministry plan.
2. The great commission must be established at the heart of ministry. Christ has
commanded His followers to carry out His great commission throughout the
world. The very existence of the church is to advance the gospel of Christ. Thus,
the mission of the church is centralized in the core of the great commission.
3. Multiplication as a methodology: believers of Christ must produce more disciples.
Disciples, making disciples, is the motto of the early church.
4. Accountability as a catalyst to obedience: one cannot separate the roles of
leadership and accountability in the church. People in the early church submitted
to the authority of the apostles who were the leaders of the church. The church
must become both the authority in the lives of believers and be accountable to
them.
5. The small group as the primary discipling vehicle: the teaching method of Jesus,
which is a one-on-one method, will fit well into a small group setting in church
ministry. The church must mobilize this tactic in its discipling process.
187
Bill Hull, The Disciple-Making Church, 203.
177
6. Apprenticeship in developing leaders: it is the vital processes that a leader trains
and develops others for leadership. One can do so much but many can accomplish
even greater tasks in ministry.
7. Leadership selection by gifts and character: leadership is all about understanding
ministry. Henry and Richard Blackaby said, "If leaders do not clearly understand
where their organization is and where it should be going, they will be unable to
lead effectively."188 Also regarding spiritual leadership of a church, Blackaby
said, "But leaders cannot take their people into a relationship with Christ that goes
any deeper than they have gone themselves. Followers may grow deeper
spiritually in sprite of their spiritually immature leaders, but they will not grow
deeper because of such people."189 Therefore, having the right spiritual leader is
an important factor for church growth.
8. Decentralization of ministry: a church's ministry should centralize on the Great
Commission of Christ but not on any other factor. The early church was scattered
from Jerusalem to other parts of the region. Hull said, "Many churches see church
as a place of safety from the storms of life. They believe the primary purpose of
the church is care and feeding of the saints. If that were true, it would make the
church no more than a way station for the selfish."190 Indeed, if a church is to be a
188
Blackaby, Henry & Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, 120.
189
Ibid, 128.
190
Hull, The Disciple-Making Church, 218.
178
place of growth, then, it should scatter and grow around the world. Growth means
reproduction and expansion but it should not be choked.
The researcher intends to use these eight principles to foster growth in his church,
OBMBC. He believes that developing a principle based ministry plan will ensure the
spiritual growth of his church members.
Essential Elements in Ministry and Implications
This researcher believed that the three essential elements of leadership,
discipleship, and evangelism should be demonstrated in a local church. Leadership is the
key to ministry success, and God appoints leaders to lead God's people. Discipleship is
essential in local church, in keeping with Jesus’ commandment to make disciples of all
believers (Matthew 28:19). Likewise, evangelism is to be the primary occupation of a
local church, since Jesus commanded the spreading of the gospel (Mark.16:15).
Leadership
Christian leadership is a high calling of a person by God, one whom He has
redeemed in Christ and appointed to stand between God and man to influence others for
His purpose by His enablement. Leadership includes ability, performance, influence,
impact, ambition, drive, among other things. John R. Mott defined leader, as "A leader is
179
a man who knows the road, who can keep ahead, and who pulls others after him."191 God
has called leaders to have a positive impact, intervening on His behalf with the followers.
Thus, John Maxwell defined leadership as influence.192 On the other hand, Blackaby
distinguished clearly between secular leaders and spiritual leaders. He said that leadership
that leads God’s agenda is the uniqueness of Christian leadership.193 This researcher
wanted to go further to understand ‘Christian Leadership’ by asking questions about the
leader, such as who is he? What is his position? How can he be capable as a leader? In
addition, what is his agenda?
Who is he? Perhaps, this question can be paraphrased as ‘Who am I?’ This
question is the expression of a person who searches the answer in self-identity. For
example, Moses asked God who was he to lead the children of Israel from Egypt when
He told him to do so (Exodus 3:11). It was his expression of self-unworthiness and
incapability, but it could also be understood as asking for his identity. The prophet Isaiah
responded when God told him to stand in the gap, between God and His people, "Here
am I! Send me." (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah's positive response came only after his complaints
about how unclean and unworthy he was. Truly, it was a revelation of one's expression of
self-awareness and a realization of who God was. Therefore, a leader is one who feels
unworthy yet feels the need to be used as an instrument in God’s purpose. Thus, a leader
191
Elmer L. Towns, "Becoming A Leader: How to Disciple Leadership,"
http://www.elmertowns.com (accessed July 4, 2011), 57.
192
John C. Maxwell. Developing the Leader, 1.
193
Blackaby, Henry and Richard Blackaby. Spiritual Leadership, 20.
180
is humble, self-aware, knows the call of God, and responds when God uses him or her to
lead His people.
What is his position? Possibly, one can assume that a leader is the one holding a
leadership position. However, it was not so for Jesus Christ. Jesus' leadership motto is,
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a
ransom for many." (Mark 10:45). He showed compassion toward people and meets their
need (Matthew 9:36). The Borek, Lovett, and Towns called it the 'Servant Leadership
style’, which defined "Servant leaders are those who recognize that the real secret of
leadership is found in identifying the needs of others and ministering to them."194 Jesus
said that if we want to be great it means to be a leader, let him serve others, and be a
servant (Matthew 20:26). Therefore, it is of note that Christian leadership means servanthood of a person, dedicated to serve others for the sake of Christ. For Jesus' philosophy
of leadership is not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). Therefore, a Christian
leadership position is a position of servant hood.
How can he be capable? Leaders are skillful and competent. Scripture states, "For
it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians
2:13). Surely, God works in a leader to be equipped for ministry and enable him to serve
others beyond his own ability (Ephesians 4:11-12). A Christian leader must rely on God
for His grace and power in order to accomplish his given tasks in ministry. Borek, Lovett,
and Towns described this point as,
194
Borek, John, Danny Lovett, Elmer Towns. The Good Book on Leadership, 209.
181
One of the most important lessons all leaders need to incorporate into their
personal leadership kaleidoscope is how to walk with God. The
responsibilities of leadership are greater than any person can bear without
the assistance of God. Because followers rarely hold their leaders
accountable to the degree they ought, leaders need to be aware of their
own accountability to God. Walking humbly with God is a prerequisite for
being elevated to a higher level of leadership.195
A leader is able to perform his responsibility only by the enablement of God in him.
What is his agenda? Blackaby states that a spiritual leader is one who leads people
into God's agenda.196 Many leaders, including spiritual leaders go astray when they begin
to prioritize their own agendas. The vision of a leader shapes the outcome of the ministry.
God's agenda is also God's vision for the effective leader. Leaders must see God's vision.
Barna expressed his concern for leaders' vision in their ministries. He says, "Although
pastors and laity are more aware of the importance of vision for ministry, we are also in
more desperate need than ever for a clear understanding of His purpose for each
individual church."197 The leader's agenda is God's agenda.
In summary, leadership determines the success of a group. Its leadership measures
the maturity of a group.198 If a leader rises higher, then the people that he leads rise with
him. If the leader falls, the followers suffer consequences. Jesus stated that no servant is
greater than the master (John. 15:20). It means that the servant’s level is going to be what
the leader’s level is. Thus, leadership role in ministry is very important. A great leader of
195
Ibid. 175.
196
Blackaby, Henry and Richard Blackaby. Spiritual Leadership, 20.
197
George Barna. The Power of Vision: Discover and Apply God's Plan, 12.
198
Borek, Lovett, & Towns, The Good Book on Leadership, 5.
182
our time, Dr. Lee Roberson said, “Everything rises or falls on the leadership.”199 Every
leader, who knows what it takes to be a leader, agrees with this statement. When we
focus on leadership in the Christian perspective, it is profoundly understood that leaders
are the instruments of God. God raises human leaders to do His great work on earth.
Although God is able to do all the work on earth by Himself without needing help, He
chooses to work alongside human agents. Thus, God engages Himself in shaping leaders
for His use. No one can walk with God if he is not having a relationship with Him.
Relationship with God means everything in our leadership effectiveness. Above all God
is the one who calls and enables leaders, in order to use them in His glorious ministry.
This is true especially of pastors as they serve their congregation. He must have
continuous connection with the divine source. Ortiz saw the senior pastor of multiethnic
church as the key figure of success to bring both qualitative and quantitative dimensions
of the ministry. He said,
In every case the direction for the MEC process was instituted by the one who
acted as the senior pastor. The pastor was the visionary, the one who experienced
the initial conviction to move toward establishing a format that would bring
diverse people groups together. The pastor also solicited and engaged other
pastors to join this challenge.200
God calls pastors to lead His flock while He Himself is the Great Shepherd to all.
A pastor should be able to influence his flock by using God’s given spiritual gifts and
talents as he ministers to the congregation. Pastors are leaders by nature, and they must
equip themselves with God’s spiritual leadership to be effective in ministry. A pastor’s
199
Elmer Towns, “The 8 Laws of Leadership,” http: www.elmertowns.com (accessed July 23,
200
Ortiz, One New People, 108.
2011)
183
success is measured by his faithfulness to what he has been called to do. They are not
judged by the size of their congregations or by their accomplishments, which are merely
standards set by humans. All must seek to be the best leader they can be where God has
called them to serve. It is profoundly important to be an effective leader for a Christian
leadership in God’s entrusted ministry. Elmer Towns describes a pastor's job as,
The pastor must preach an exclusive way to heaven, that Jesus saves and all who
believe in Him will be saved, and those who have not taken Jesus as their personal
Savior will be lost in hell forever. He’s not sharing theological ideas, nor is he just
teaching how to solve life’s problems. He’s not just offering excellent Christian
music in a contemporary beat, nor is he providing better worship than other
churches.201
Discipleship
Bill Hull stated, "The discipling process seeks to deliver people, develop them,
and deploy them into the harvest field. . . Discipling leads to reproduction and finally
multiplication, which are God's design and method to reach the world."202 Indeed,
discipling people in the multiethnic church produced dual benefit in ministry. It provided
the way to maintain a solid ministry and ensured continuous growth of the church
through evangelism. Church members would be engaged in evangelism, as they
discipled. Without the discipling process in ministry, the church would die out slowly.
Hull warns, "Unless the church makes making disciples its main agenda, world
evangelism is a fantasy. There is no way to reproduce, multiply, and decentralize people
201
Elmer Towns, "What Core Values are Necessary to Build A One Million-Person Church?"
http://elmertowns.com/files/04 (accessed August 15, 2012).
202
Bill Hull, The Disciple-Making Church, 13.
184
and the Gospel without first diligently making disciples."203 Therefore, the researcher
emphasizes discipling in his church, which leads to evangelism. The researcher believes
that disciple making and evangelism are like a coin with two faces. They are inseparable
from each other. The discipleship training and methods adopted in the researcher's church
is described below. Some of those principles are already set in motion and others still
need to be implemented in due time.
Discipleship Agenda in OBMBC
Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church (OBMBC) is adopting a new protocol
for members to be equipped for evangelism and disciple making. OBMBC is in the
process of preparing training courses for church leaders and members. Courses like New
Membership class, Christian Life Essential for newly converts, Spiritual Formation class
for members, and Calling for Ministry class for leaders are in the implementation
process. This protocol is adapted from the MCA ministry. MCA has a discipleship
protocol, which requires every member to engage in the "School of Workers"(SOW)
course. This is good strategy for making members grow spiritually and bringing them to a
deeper level of personal commitment with Christ their Savior. Rick Warren has also
implemented four levels of classes for church members to engage in such as,
You get to first base by completing Class 101 and committing to Saddleback's
membership covenant. You arrive at second base after completing Class 201 and
committing to a spiritual growth covenant. You make it to third base by
completing Class 301 and committing to serve in a ministry of the church. And
203
Ibid., 11.
185
you finally get back to home plate by completing Class 401 and committing to
sharing your faith both at home and mission trips.204
Objective
To obey the Great commandment of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20), that
Christians are to make disciples for Christ, in all nations by way of preaching, teaching
and baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church anticipates all members to reach a
lifestyle that is committed to the gospel of Christ and engaged in disciple making in the
local church, and then continue to produce disciples throughout the community.
Model
This model is designed to equip the believers (Ephesians 4:11-14), so that they
grow spiritually, as seen in 1Timothy 3:1-8. This model includes these steps;
1. Being saved in Christ (Ephesians 2:5,8)
2. Having committed to Church through Baptism (1 Corinthians 14:12; Mark 10:39)
3. Spiritual Journey and Growth (Colossians 1:9; 3:16)
4. Become disciple making disciples (Matthew 28:19-20)
204
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven, 145.
186
This course will lead someone to understand what it means to be saved in Christ Jesus.
Each step will give Scriptural insights regarding sin, sinner, and Savior. The question and
answer section will help further gain biblical knowledge. In this section, one may also
learn to walk in the newness of life that is in Christ Jesus. A new believer in Christ will
face various trials and challenges in life. That is why Spiritual Growth is encouraged and
guided for maturity.
The OBMBC motto is, "To Know Him, To Love Him and To Serve Him." Every
OBMBC member will be connected to this motto throughout his or her life. Spiritual
growth begins with knowing God personally. One must know God through Scriptures.
God's Word is emphasized. In this fashion, knowing God leads one into loving God, and
developing a personal relationship with Him. Through it, one must also respond to God
with love. The love of God is perfected in a person who keeps His word (1 John 2:5). The
emphasis is to build a relationship with Christ. One loves God, because He loves him or
her first (1 John 4:19). The love of God also enables believers to serve Him. This section
will encourage people to commit to the body of Christ, the local church. Serving God is a
sign of maturity in Christ. Therefore, to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him is the
motto of OBMBC.
This model is equipping believers to be better testimonies for Christ in word and
indeed. The first step is to influence others by being models in discipleship. Modeling
means teaching through action. Therefore, believers are encouraged to have hands on
experience of serving in the relevant ministry. They are to practice and lead in certain
groups and activities. Ministry experiences bring encouragement to Christian leader as
187
well as learning to cope with challenges in ministry. Therefore, working closely with a
mentor is required in this training process. In addition, one will learn to co-partner with
someone in a team and be accountable to each other in the spiritual journey. Although,
God may not call everyone to be leaders, leadership quality is required in many places in
ministry. Every one influences someone, somehow, for leadership is influence.205
Discipleship Steps
1. Modeling (spiritual mentoring & training in ministry)
Discipleship is a process of becoming one with Christ. Jesus commanded us to
make disciples of others. In OBMBC, modeling and mentoring are some of the ways of
making disciples. Therefore, one must engage in the mentoring process in order to
become effective disciples of Jesus Christ.
a. Relationship establishment (Teamwork)
i. One must enlist himself or herself in a group.
ii. Have one-on-one accountability with appointed leader.
(Galatians 6:1-2)
In this step, one must engage with an appointed leader who is mentoring him or her to
become better leaders in ministry. One on one coaching is very important in this step.
Discipleship begins with "mentoring" as in Jesus' method of disciple making. Jesus lived
with His twelve disciples day and night. He was teaching them closely as a mentor. Thus,
true discipleship will emerge out of effective mentoring. Believers work with their
205
John Maxwell, Developing the Leader, 1.
188
mentors to accomplish weekly tasks together. A tremendous amount of commitment is
required of both mentor and protégé.
b. Counseling (Enrichment & Guidance) (Ephesians 4:11-14)
i. Weekly progress counseling
ii. Enrichment with counseling
Spiritual counseling enriches new disciples in their spiritual needs. Weekly
additional support comes through counseling. It is a time to update the status of new
disciples and their progress. If there is a need, the counselor will address the issue and
keep track of that person's spiritual growth.
2. Leadership Delegation (2 Tim. 2:1-2)
Jesus introduces the leadership delegation process to His disciples with seventy
other people (Luke 10:1-17). In this section, one must be able to learn and lead a small
group in a spiritual leadership role. Taking responsibility is a leader's strength. Also
fulfilling responsibilities is how a leader earns respect from followers.
a. Learn to lead in small groups (Leadership Training)
i. Becoming leader of a group
ii. Leaders are the servants (Phil. 2:1-4)
After the discipleship training, one must practically apply all that is learned in
tasks he or she has been delegated in ministry. In this progress, a new disciple will
engage himself with groups such as cell groups. Cell group formation is vital part of
189
church growth as the researcher discovered in four case-studied churches. Thus, cell
groupings are in the implementation process of OBMBC ministry. Cell group leaders
must learn to build relationship with other believers and earn their trust and respect. By
serving people's needs in servant form, one will emerge a leader of the group. At this
step, the mentor is standing by, supporting the new disciple. They both must evaluate and
retain certain recorded progress to use in their counseling section.
b. Taking responsibility (Leadership/Stewardship)
i. Prioritize the important agendas.
ii. Ownership in ministry to be engaged
Meanwhile, a new disciple must be transformed to be a responsible leader. A new leader
must learn to equip himself by prioritizing important agendas of the ministry.
"Ownership" is the agenda in this step. A leader must be responsible for his work.
Attaining responsibility and accountability in ministry is the aim for the new leader.
3. Experiment (Productive disciples)
a. Disciples making disciple
i. Reproductive lifestyle
ii. Application of methods
A reproductive cycle is expected in this process. A new believer comes into the
family of God; fellow believers must nourish him for his spiritual well-being. A new
believer may become active in discipleship as his or her spiritual journey continues. The
next step involves "Discipleship" and learning to be "Leader" in the church ministry.
After prolonged growth in knowledge and wisdom, as he or she serves the body of Christ,
190
the person will be able to contribute to the growth of ministry. Then, he or she may take
on the responsibility to train, lead, mentor, disciple, and edify another new believer in
Christ. Therefore, this reproductive cycle continues as we continue to make disciples of
Jesus Christ in the ministry. The next step will equip prospective leaders with future
leadership readiness as they are prepared to be entrusted with ministry leadership.
b. Future Leadership Readiness
i. Prospective leadership awareness
ii. Working together alongside current leader
Paul the apostle practiced "Future leadership readiness" in his ministry. He
appointed many future leaders in ministry. Among them, Barnabas, Timothy, and Titus
were the most dominant leaders in his missionary journeys. Through prayers, God will
open our eyes as we go through the process of choosing candidates for prospective
leaders in ministry. Every mentor and trainee will be equipped with looking out for the
prospective leaders through "Awareness Training."206The church must keep this
discipleship model as a top priority and practice it in ministry.
Evangelism
The Concept of Evangelism in a Multilingual/ Multicultural Church
206
A short training created to make aware of ministry surrounding. This training is particularly
designed to meet the needs of newcomers in the church.
191
Mark Edward Oh makes six assumptions regarding the foundation of a
multiethnic or multilingual church, rooted in evangelism.207 These assumptions are
essential to understand what makes a church successful in evangelism. The concept of
evangelism is a key factor that binds together the diversity of race, color, gender, and
ethnicity in the multiethnic church. That concept will direct and guide the leaders and
congregation. The very first assumption is founded on the Great Commission as given in
Matthew 28:19-20. Mark Edward Oh defined it as everyone reaching out to all ethnics;
Asian should reach African-Americans, and Hispanics should be sharing the gospel with
Asians. Not only reaching different races and ethnicities, Christians are to love one
another and work in unity for the kingdom’s sake. Every tribe, tongue, and color in Christ
are brothers and sisters.
This line of reasoning would find support in the Scriptural mandates such as
Matthew 28:18-20 to go and “make disciples of all nations.” And so if we were
truly about evangelism “period” to all the nations, and we genuinely reach out to
“whoever believes in him” (John 3:16, 18, 36; 7:38) in our community, then
wouldn’t the result “naturally” be a truly multicultural community? 208
Thus, true Christianity reflects the structure and essence of a multiethnic church.
The second assumption is based on Galatians 3:28, that there should be no
personal distinctions in the body of Christ. This assumption gives Christians unity as one
in Christ. Burmese ethnic Christians must overcome ethnic pride and racial intolerance
207
Mark Edward Oh, Cultural Pluralism and Multiethnic Congregation as a Ministry Model in an
Urban Society (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Dissertation Services, 1988), 138.
208
Peter Hong, "The Challenges of Doing Evangelism in A Post-modern Multicultural Context,"
http://www.billygrahamcenter.com (accessed August 2, 2011)
192
when they come together in community of believers in Christ. The ethnic mindset
promotes division and tribal pride. Those are oppositions to Christianity and its value.
The multiethnic church bears the mark of unity in the worship service, in which people of
different ethnicities gather in one language. The researcher's church has difficulty in
uniting all ethnic groups in one language. The reason is that many ethnic refugees, such
as Karen, Kayar, and Chin, who have arrived recently at the church, are not able to
understand either English or Burmese. The church provides an interpreter and or uses at
least two languages in the worship services. Although, the language is a barrier in uniting
ethnic groups, a church can achieve unity among diverse ethnicity. That is to have a
multilingual ministry. How can the church provide multilingual ministry? It is by way of
building language services of ethnic groups along with main English language service,
uniting them under one roof of ministry. Ortiz called it in general as multi-congregational
model. In specific term, he called it the integrative model.209 Among those language
groups, usually, there will be dominant language that gathers all other language groups.
In United States, the English language should be common language to all ethnic
congregations. Keith Watkins once studied such multi ethnic congregations. He found in
a single church in Los Angeles, it had eight languages worship services on each Sunday.
He called it "Multilanguage congregation" in order to define the multiethnic congregation
of its kind. He defined Multilingual or Multicongregational church,
The multicongregational church is a church that has taken on the challenge of
biblical justice and missions in the context of racial strife and increased pluralism.
It builds relationships between the different language groups, intent on bringing
biblical reconciliation between them. This display of the kingdom of God
209
Manuel Ortiz, One New People, 67-72.
193
motivates multilanguage congregations to come together and to restructure the
present monocultural formation of the church into one that is based on obedience
to the Word of God. The multicongregational church provides for both autonomy
and interdependency. 210
Keith Watkins' model is the closest model that portrays the hypothesis of this project.
The third assumption is based on Galatians 3:29 that different people came from
one source, as Abraham's offspring. It has the right motivation for multiethnic churches.
Jerry Appleby comments, "Any church organization where there is the existence of more
than one congregation, whether recognized as separately organized or not. This
distinction as a congregation is usually for language reason but can be for racial or ethnic
reasons."211 The source for division among the researcher's church members is their
ethnicity. Each group thinks that they are significant in terms of blessings, race,
education, and social achievements. The researcher sees this third assumption in
Galatians 3:29 as a strong argument to change their mindset. The ethnic people of Burma
have one commonality - they all are spiritual offspring in Christ. Based on that
commonality, they can all unite as one people.
The fourth assumption brings both spiritual and physical unity among ethnic
groups. Ephesians 2:14-15 states that Christ has brought reconciliation to sinners whom
He has also delivered from barriers and division of society. Many refugees in the
researcher's church, who are from ethnic minority groups, had experienced abuse, torture,
and displacement by the military government of Burma. They displaced Bamar, the
210
Keith Watkins, "Multi-language Congregations: A Field Study in Los Angeles 1993,"
Encounter 55 (Winter 1994): 129-53.
211
Appleby, Jerry and Glen Van Dyne, The Church Is in a Stew (Kansas City, Mo: Beacon Hill,
1990), 18.
194
majority group in the Burmese army and government, and consequently their traditions
and language. Therefore, when they came to the researcher's church which bears the
name "Burmese" and uses the Burmese language at worship services, they mistakenly
identified the church with their enemy group. A way to help them heal from this hatred is
through Ephesians 2:14-15, which says that as God has reconciled sinners to Himself,
Christians ought to reconcile with one another in love, forgiveness, and embrace each
other.
The fifth assumption is Paul's declaration that Christians are no longer living in
the old self but have put on the new self according to Colossians 3:9-11. True, the new
life in America has challenges for Burmese immigrants, but as a new life begins for them
in the US, they must also have a new life in Christ. They must forget the past, live in the
present, and entrust Christ with their future.
The final assumption is the biblical foundation that Christians are all God's
children, and they must love one another as described in 1John 4:7. This is directed more
towards Christian unity in Christ, as unity brings strength in achieving tasks such as
evangelism. The researcher believes that Christian unity must come first before
advancing the gospel of Christ to others. Therefore, the multiethnic church has the great
challenge of achieving unity in diversity in order to have effective evangelism in
ministry. The purpose of building multilingual ministry in OBMBC is not just for
integrating ethnic groups but utilizing multi-languages to reach multiethnic communities
with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate aim for the church.
195
How Does Evangelism Work in a Multiethnic Church?
The culture of evangelism - many languages and variety of ethnicities
representing the congregation - is already rooted in the multiethnic church. This is the
church culture of postmodernity. Thus, using culture as a tool to spread the Gospel
throughout local and global communities is essential. It will refuel the purpose and
validate the very existence of church among communities. Multiculturalism can be
utilized as a tool and as a by-product.
Multiculturalism as tool
On the concept of how multiethnic churches can use their diversity of ethnicities
to reach out to lost souls, Peter Hong stated, "Some have argued for the formation of
multiethnic congregations in order to be more effective and fruitful at evangelism. In
other words, the “multiethnicity” of the church culture serves as an intentional “tool” for
evangelism."212 His point of view is that people need the gospel first rather than a
multiethnic church. He stated,
The key word here is “intentionality.” This approach has connected well with
those who have argued that we need multicultural churches in order to reach those
who are intentionally looking for it. There are, especially in the emerging
generation those who, for one reason or another, prefer to be a part of a
multicultural church, rather than “ethnic” churches. And so they argue that
212
Ibid, 1.
196
multicultural churches will be more effective in reaching this growing segment of
our population.213
The researcher agrees that building a multiethnic church is not a priority, but the Gospel
must be preached in all Christian churches. The multiethnic church model will come
naturally, as the Gospel is preached.
Multiculturalism is a great tool to reach diverse communities especially in the
United States. Each ethnic group or race can reach their own kind, utilizing the cultural
tool214, which enables them to approach people easily. In addition, it will help them to
earn the trust of people of their own kind. The researcher’s church has the same
experience. When many Burmese refugees arrived, they experienced a warm welcome in
church from people of their own ethnic group. This helped refugees cope with the
changes that came with relocation in a new environment. Fred Bemak, Chung, and
Bornemann had this to say on culture empathy:
Historically, psychotherapy has focused on fostering mental health, utilizing
individual psychotherapy as a means to enhance optimal independent functioning,
coping abilities, and adaptation. This is in direct contrast to the cultural context
for refugees, who most often come from countries where family and community
social networks are essential aspects of their lives. As a result, the clinical
interventions are frequently in conflict with fundamental societal beliefs and value
systems that incorporate family and community interdependence. Understanding
and providing mental health interventions for problems within a culturally
relevant framework for refugees is thus a complicated process.215
213
Ibid.
214
Cultural tool: tradition, cultural festival, common interests, literature, language, culture food,
culture dresses, and culture celebrations.
215
Pedersen, Paul B., Juris G. Draguns, Walter J. Lonner, and Joseph E. Trimble, eds., Counseling
Across Cultures (Thousand Oaks, London: SAGE Publications, 1996), 245.
197
The very nature of cultural dependency among ethnic peoples makes it far more effective
to reach ethnic individuals by someone of their own ethnic community. Psychotherapist
or evangelists must understand this cultural empathy in a multicultural world.
On the other hand, people of different cultures can reach out to divergent people,
based on the concept that opposites attract each other. Some call it cross culture
evangelism. When people reach out to people of similar backgrounds, it creates an easy
path. However, when divergent people reach diverse people, it creates an extraordinary
path and spectacular unity. The world is much more exciting when people have diverse
rather than homogeneous backgrounds. Will Metzger recognized that people
communicate differently to people with respect to their differences in relations. He said,
"Usually we don't communicate in the same way to our parents as we do to a stranger. So
also in expressing the gospel to parents and strangers we will normally see a difference in
approach."216 The fact is that people will communicate the Gospel better when they know
whom they are communicating with. Thus, studying people and their cultures become
key factors in reaching across cultures. Cross-culture evangelism engages the Gospel
through culture empathy by people of other cultures. The researcher's church members
have experienced cross-culture evangelism in their lives. Previously, many foreign
missionaries such as Adoniram Judson and Ola Hanson came to Burma and evangelized
the Burmese. Most Christians in Burma today are the fruits of the labors of these foreign
missionaries. The researcher's church members recognized the value of overcoming
216
Will Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People
(Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 182.
198
cultural differences with the Gospel. Therefore, utilizing diverse cultures in the
researcher's church is an effective way of doing evangelism in its community.
Multiculturalism as "By-Product"
The best way to understand the multiethnic church and its evangelism is that the
latter magnifies the former as a direct result of fruitful ministry. Multiculturalism is a byproduct of a multiethnic ministry. Peter Hong explains,
The other approach goes something like this. If your church is in a diverse area
demographically, being a multiethnic church will naturally be the by-product of
doing effective evangelism in a given area. In other words, given the same
context, if a church, any church for that matter, was effective at reaching out to
the unchurched in the surrounding communities, whether they are Latino,
African-American, Asian, or Caucasian, then the result would be a multiethnic
church. It’s a by-product of effective evangelism.217
One must realize that building a multiethnic church is not a priority of ministry; rather it
should be the outcome of ministry. The early church in Jerusalem was enriched with
multiethnicity and different languages (Acts 2:5-47). Nevertheless, there were no plans to
build a multiethnic church. God has brought many people from nations in the region
under the care of the apostles of the early church. Thus, the church becomes a body
believer from various ethnicities. Paul, the apostle embraces the fact that all believers in
Christ are equal and should give respectable honor toward each other (Romans 12:10).
He adopted the multiethnic church model through the preaching of the Gospel. The
researcher's quest for a church model changed after this understanding. He made
217
Peter Hong, "The Challenges of Doing," 3.
199
evangelism the top priority of his ministry. Hong warns pro-multiethnic church people
with these words:
Losing sight of the goal, it will be easy to become short-sighted and see
multiethnicity as the end rather than the means to a much higher and greater good!
And so evangelism and outreach is left out of the picture and all of a sudden
people adopt a “politically correct” approach. All of a sudden it becomes an issue
about numbers, and faces, and generally the “appearance” of being a multicultural
church.218
Therefore, a church must focus primarily on evangelism rather than on the multiethnic
community. Jesus Christ never told anyone to go and build a multiethnic church, rather to
preach the gospel to every nation.
Ministry Structure Implication
Simplifying the Ministry for Effectiveness
What is the process in the researcher's church, the Oakland Burmese Mission
Baptist Church (OBMBC) for simplifying the ministry for effectiveness? The first
process was for members to be on the right direction in order to follow Christ. The pastor
had planned a simple strategy, “Members' Quest”, that members should be engaging in.
The Members’ Quest will enable them to understand clearly about their purpose in being
a member of a church and that they should follow it through. The church has expectations
from the members that they should be engaged in certain tasks in the ministry. Members’
218
Ibid., 6.
200
Quest was based on the biblical principle that taught what a church was and what their
members should look like.
OBMBC Members’ Quest
“Worship the True and Living God, unite with believers, become mature in Christian
living, and impact the world.”219
1. Worship the True and Living God
2. Unite with believers
3. Mature in Christian living
4. Impact the world
The first segment in the four segments, “Worship the true and living God,” is for
every member to come to worship the True and Living God in weekly services. They are
to give priority to worship each Sunday. All personal agenda should be set aside in order
to come to church for worship, fellowship, serving, Bible study, and spiritual growth.
The second segment, “unite with believers,” is designed for each member to get
involved in each other’s lives. Christian’s caring and sharing is a very important ministry
and needed in OBMBC. There are many refugees and needy people in the congregation.
The church is a place to care about and share one another’s burdens. Members are
expected to connect with each other and learn to serve one another.
219
Written and adopted by the researcher in the process of simplification and implementation for
the spiritual growth of members.
201
The third segment, “mature in Christian living” signifies the very reason for
believers to be involved in church. Christian living is a practical matter for members on a
day-to-day base. They must be mature in spirit and enriched in practical lifestyles that are
pleasing to God. Thus, the church plays a vital role in the spiritual growth of members. It
is essential that church must give priority to the preaching and teaching of God’s word.
Above all, the church must ensure that believers live out the truth.
The fourth segment “impact the world” brings a sense of ultimate goal for church
members, a goal that is sharing the gospel with neighbors, friends, family, and the world
at large as Jesus commanded the church to do in Matthew 28:19-20. How can church
members influence the world? It is by living as a Christian, being distinctive, testimonial,
and being witnesses for Christ in the world.
The church needs to simplify its agenda and focus on it. The church must focus on
one particular target at one given time for any of its agenda or programs to be effective in
the ministry. A church must simplify its targets and put all its resources to the meeting of
the targets. Otherwise, resources can be squandered by doing too many things at the same
time. The OBMBC ministry is in the process of refocusing its course and redefining its
purpose. The pastor reeducates and redirects the congregation with regard to their roles
and responsibilities in local church ministry. Thus, a church that has a clear map for its
members to follow is more likely to become effective.
202
Raising the Level of Expectation for Members
OBMBC members are expected to be in tune with “Members Quest” first, then
will the level of expectation be raised. There are different levels of expectation for the
congregation. All start with the new believers, newly converted through accepting Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Savior. This group is the first group, who will continue learning
God’s word through Bible studies in small groups. Each one is assigned into small groups
according to their age and spiritual needs. Weekly, they study God’s word, worshiping,
interacting with other believers for fellowship and spiritual encouragement. The second
group is made up of regular members who attend church weekly. The regular members
serve in the church ministry, caring for others, visiting the sick, participating in worship
programs, helping in the various needs of church function, etc… They are more like big
brothers/sisters. They must bear good testimony to fellow members and be great
witnesses for newly converts and non-Christians. The church has designed the
“Membership Covenant” to express its expectation for this group and their
responsibilities. Mark Dever stresses the importance of local church membership. He
said,
Membership in a local church is not an antiquated, outdated, unnecessary add-on
to true membership in the universal body of Christ; membership in a local church
is intended as a testimony to our membership in the universal church. Church
membership does not save, but it is a reflection of salvation. And if there is no
reflection of our salvation, how can we be sure that we are truly saved?220
Burmese Immigrant churches face difficulty in organizing church membership due to the
nature of Burmese people. They do not want to make the commitment as a church
220
Mark Dever, Nine Marks, 152.
203
member yet, but they do like attending church. Accountability is an issue for Burmese
Christians in local churches. Understanding of the words of Mark Dever will enlighten
the minds of people who are afraid to sign up for church membership. He said,
In becoming a member of the church, we are grasping hands with each other to
know and be known by each other. We are agreeing to help and encourage each
other when we need to be reminded of God's work in our lives or when we need
to be challenged about major discrepancies between our talk and our walk.221
OBMBC Membership Covenant
Membership Requirements
1. By confession of faith in Christ as personal Lord and Savior with Christian
testimony.
2. By Baptism as public confession of Christian faith in Christ.
3. By membership-transfer letter and recommendation from other Bible
based churches.
Membership Covenant
1. I will uphold the testimony of Jesus Christ and His church in my
conversation, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in purity. (1 Tim. 4:12)
a. I will honor the testimony of Jesus Christ and His church.
b. I will obey the faithful teaching of the Word of God and leadership
of this church.
c. I will prioritize Jesus Christ and His church in my life.
2. I will commit myself and my family to the ministry of Church
a. I will develop myself in the form of servant-hood of Jesus Christ
and serve His church. (Phil.2:3,4,7)
b. I will be equipped with God’s word by studying and attending
Bible study classes. (2 Tim. 2:15)
c. I will offer my time, talents, and spiritual gifts to edify the church
and serve in the ministry of it. (Eph. 4:11-12; 1Pet.4:10)
221
Ibid.
204
3. I will be faithful to the call of God in His local church.
a. I will be faithful in my attendance weekly in church worship
services.
b. I will be faithful in my giving to support the ministries of church.
c. I will be faithful in my given responsibilities and church
administrative duties.
4. I am responsible for these areas of church ministry.
a. Unity: I will protect the unity of church and serve with other
members in oneness. (Rom.15:19; 1 Pet. 1:22)
b. Church Growth:
i. By praying for its growth.
ii. By inviting the un-churched people to attend.
iii. By warmly welcoming the new attendees.
c. Evangelism: I will share Gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone in
obedience to Jesus Christ’s command. (Matt. 28: 19-20)222
The third group is the leadership group. Leadership responsibility is a necessary
course for OBMBC to train and equip the existing leaders and new emerging leaders. The
leaders group have a higher level of expectation from OBMBC. They are mature
spiritually and immersed in Christian living. They are to serve like servant-leaders in all
aspects of church ministry. The “Leadership Quest” expresses the expectations of the
church for the leaders group.
222
Actual implementation of OBMBC ministry document. Written and adopted by the researcher.
205
OBMBC Leadership Quest
"To support the vision of the Church, to lead the congregation with the
commission of Christ, co-operate with other leaders and to serve like Servant-Leader in
every aspect of the ministry."223
1. Support the vision of the Church
2. Lead congregation with the Great commission of Christ
3. Co-operate with other leaders
4. Serve like Servant-Leader
It is important that all leaders of a church be united and be single minded in
ministry. They must support the vision of the church with oneness. They are to lead the
congregation in every aspect with evangelistic fervor, as Christ's primary goal for the
church is to be a good witness to all people. Thus, ministry leaders have the responsibility
of carrying out Christ's commission. In addition, cooperation between church leaders is
vital for growth. Everyone is called by God to serve in ministry; hence, they are equipped
with spiritual gifts. Therefore, co-operation of leaders in the church ministry is the
strength of the congregation. All leaders of a church should follow in the model of Jesus
Christ, who came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). Hence, leaders are to
serve like servant-leaders in OBMBC ministry.
223
Written and adopted by the researcher in the process of simplification and implementation for
the leadership of OBMBC.
206
Constructing the Infrastructure
Church infrastructure is important in ministry. This researcher found the previous
setting of his church in terms of vision, mission, and activities to be incomplete. He
believed the church must have a clear vision to achieve its mission. The vision has now
been defined; the mission is clear, the value portrayed, and the strategy established.
Visioning the Church
Vision Statement
We envision to become a great multilingual church that provides Christian
fellowship, and to equip the saints for the discipleship of Jesus Christ in order to
fulfill His Great Commission throughout local and global community.
Tri-Vision Defined
The first dimension in vision is Evangelism. The church provides resources to
engage the local community with the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. The church
commits to mission work for the souls of many to come to know Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Savior.
The second dimension in vision is Discipleship. The church provides resources
and produces disciples for Christ to serve God faithfully in ministry. The church is the
center of training and learning of God’s word, which instills His word within each
member.
207
The third dimension in vision is Fellowship of believers in Christ. Members are to
affiliate, cooperate and fellowship with other local churches who share common values in
faith and practices. The church reaches out and shares ministry resources in networking
with others.
Reach out to others in
our community with the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Evangelism
Fellowship
Discipleship
Training in
God's word,
applying it in
our lives, and
becoming true
disciples of
Christ.
Fellowship
and affiliate
with other
churches, who
share common
value, faith,
and practices.
Figure 5.1. Tri-Vision of OBMBC
Defining the Core Values
There are four core values in OBMBC’s ministry.
208
1) We value life that centered in Jesus Christ. He is the center of focus in our
worship and practices.
2) We value practice of Christian love and unity among our multiethnic members.
The unity in diversity is the body of Christ.
3) We value serving together in a local church, according to our individual calling,
under the headship of Jesus Christ.
4) We value reaching our community with compassion, love, and truth.
Figure 5.2. Core Values of OBMBC
209
Mission statement
We, the ambassadors for Christ are to engage in the ministry of reconciliation locally
and globally by ways of preaching, teaching, fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism
with the word of reconciliation (Holy Bible).
This mission statement is based on 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, “We are the
ambassadors for Christ,” which is a powerful statement for being Christians in this
world. Members represent Christ in their speech, conduct, thoughts, and lifestyle.
Members will carry the message of reconciliation (the gospel) as they engage in
the community and beyond. They will use the following methods of spreading the gospel
and presenting the truth in the local community and global influence: preaching,
teaching, fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism. Their tool for doing all these activities
is the Word of God. That is the ultimate source, which Apostle Paul calls it, “The Word of
Reconciliation.”
Figure 5.3. Mission Statement of OBMBC
210
Strategy for Mission
OBMBC's strategy is based on the five areas of ministry that are centered in the
Holy Bible. Preaching ministry will proclaim God’s truth through the pulpit ministry in
weekly worship. Web ministry will provide messages in various formats such as video,
audio, CD, music/drama performance. The church may occasionally produce media items
to reach out to more people.
Teaching ministry includes weekly Bible Study classes and special seminars. The
church establishes courses that target specific groups and special needs in the ministry.
For example, courses such as “What does it means to be a member?” “Leadership Skills
& Methods,” “Baptism: To be baptized,” and need-oriented courses by various
fellowships of the church. We also will utilize cyber equipments for spreading teaching
materials to reach others through our web ministry.
Evangelism ministry will promote zeal and love for lost souls by the members
through church activities. Members will reach out to non-believers, including family
members, by way of visitation, communication, and friendship on a regular basis. In
addition, the church will motivate the younger generation to perform dramas, musical
concerts, and take part in sports and other youth activities in sharing the good news of
Jesus Christ in the midst of unbelievers. The church uses cell groups for not only Bible
study and prayer meetings but as a tool to reach out to the un-churched by creating a
comfortable environment of fellowship.
211
Fellowship ministry will focus on regular fellowship of church members on a
weekly basis. Fellowship ministry includes spiritual support, moral support, being
accountable to one another and providing a relationship that is family oriented. Through
fellowship ministry, hope to achieve a family of God in a local church body.
Discipleship ministry: primary focus is that all believers may become true
disciples of Jesus Christ. Being Disciples of Christ represent a deeper level of love and
commitment to Christ. The church equips the believers with the knowledge of the
Scripture, create opportunities to serve others in the given ministry and design church
activities to grow in spiritual life. Discipleship ministry contains spiritual growth, Bible
knowledge, and servant leadership in serving others in the local church ministry.
PREACHING
TEACHING
DISCIPLESHIP
FELLOWSHIP
EVANGELISM
Figure 5.4. Ministry Strategy of OBMBC
212
Method of Implementation
First, the researcher will try out these steps to initiate the implementation process
before actually implementation. These steps are to educate and persuade the church
leaders and congregation about evangelism as the most important agenda in ministry.
How the researcher approaches the church leaders and congregation is as follows.
The Small Group-first Approach
The researcher will select a few prominent leaders of a particular group and
approach them first. He will communicate his plan intensely and persuasively to them. If
they have questions, they may ask and discussions on any issue. That way, he can
effectively communicate with them. This process is based on the concept of "Building
Ministry Team" as proposed by Aubrey Malphurs. He says, "You must design a strategy
for developing your dream team. This answers the question, Who will disciple the people
who make up our community?"224
Diagram and Display Photographs
Visualizing the plan is much more effective than telling it, in keeping with the
saying, “A picture speaks a thousand words”. Blackaby says, "Good symbols can be
224
Aubrey Malphurs. Ministry Nuts and Bolts: What They Don't Teach Pastors in Seminary
(Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2009), 165.
213
powerful vehicles for communicating the values and the vision of organizations."225 The
writer will be using photos and diagrams for effective communication, as people seem to
understand much easier through diagrams and pictures.
Talking About It at Every Chance
The repetition method is a way to ingrain information in people’s mind. He will
take every opportunity to talk and preach about the evangelism agenda. By doing so,
people can understand and know what is expected and planned.226
Assign Leaders for Each Task
It is important to establish a structural plan. Thus, the church must have properly
assigned leadership for each task. Therefore, the writer will assign leaders to lead groups
for their respective projects. Anderson brings out the whole scenario regarding how the
right vision with the right leadership team brings about the reality. He says,
Effective leaders work hard and wisely to implement the vision.
Leadership is always work. The good news is that leaders of vision and
implementation discover something wonderful along the way. The
seemingly impossible happens. The vision grows and takes on life of its
own. Others join the vision, make it their own, and increase it. The idea is
225
Blackaby, Henry and Richard Blackaby. Spiritual Leadership, 77.
226
George Barna, The Power of Vision: Discover and Apply God's Plan, 135-137.
214
soon dwarfed by the reality. What once seemed impossible is history, and
a new vision starts to emerge.227
Special Events and Programs
It is also good to emphasize the vision by having special events and programs
related to that vision. It will help participants to feel like they are being a part of its
vision. Sometimes, the events can also lift the spirit of people in their sense of
accomplishment and service in the ministry. It is as if a little spark can burn the big fire
of enthusiasm and spiritual revival.
Training A Few Good Leaders
The researcher will seek a few good leaders among the congregation to lead cell
groups. The cell groups will be the first to launch programs of evangelism, reaching out
to the community with a few members of the church. The criteria for selecting the leaders
are they must be dependable, knowledgeable, spiritually mature, and full of integrity.
There are four criteria to identify leadership potential: (1) ability, (2) wisdom, (3)
integrity, (4) character.228 In application, the researcher will delegate cell group leaders in
the teaching and praying ministry weekly. He will be selected from those already serving
as Deacons of the church. He will assign them two by two, to take on each group. They
will be trained in lesson materials before each group gathering. The training is not only
227
Leith Anderson, Leadership that Works, 202.
228
Borek, John, Danny Lovett, & Elmer Towns, The Good Book on Leadership, 84.
215
on how to study the materials, but also on teaching methods of how to answer questions,
and meeting the needs of others. In the beginning there will be four groups based on
geographical divisions. There will be eight leaders with two each for these four groups.
As it will be their first experience in teaching and leading the groups, the researcher will
mentor them and encourage them to build their confidence. This way they will become
more responsible as they grow in confidence. Ken Boa comments,
Likewise, a great leader must know how to bring together diverse
elements and create a productive group. Few skills are more important in
leadership than the ability to build a team. A mark of a great leader is how
many great people will join his or her lineup. The greatest king of Israel,
David, had a team comprised of "mighty men"229
It is great to be a part of a team. Churches are trending more towards the teamwork
structure, and a leader who has a great team will always be a winner.
Equipping Members to Multiply and Reach New People
Each week, before the weekly worship service begins, the congregation will be
engaged in Bible Study courses. Every leader is required and members are encouraged to
attend this session. The pastor will be ministering this session to communicate vision,
mission, and other tasks for spiritual growth in the light of Scriptures. Members will
become engaged in ministry as they receive training in God’s word. In addition, they
become more effective as Christians who can influence the world. Equipping them with
229
Ken Boa, "Leadership Qualities: Team Building," http://www.kenboa.org (Accessed August 8,
2011).
216
the tools of Bible knowledge, practical tasks, and teaching them how to live Christian
lives are the first basic things that members will be engaged in. Annually, younger
members will take part in performing Easter and Christmas dramas in order to invite
people and share God's love as part of evangelism activities. Productions like gospel
songs on CD, and DVD for messages and lesson movies, and gospel tracts will be placed
in the hands of members to use as tools for reaching out to others.
Practical application of personal evangelism such as, "How to share one's faith to
a contemporary world?" will be taught to every member. Evangelism classes equip
members to reach out to others. Then, the church will send them out to their nonChristian families and to their neighborhoods to share the gospel. Thus, the congregation
becomes involved at a deeper level of Christ-like living to influence the world that
surrounds them. It is a time for reproduction and obeying Christ’s great commission
(Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus Christ sent seventy people two by two to share the good news
(Luke 10:1-2). Likewise, Christ sends them into the world to share the gospel.
The pastor is intentionally leading members to a deeper level of spiritual maturity
in various forms and formats. The different categories of the growth process will be
provided in church. Each member will take part in church activities that correspond with
the annual theme. Small cell groups will hold weekly Bible study and prayer activities.
Men, Women, Youth, and Young Adult Fellowships will provide bi-monthly gatherings
to meet the needs at personal and group levels. Special events and worship events will be
designed to enrich and enhance the focus of the church to grow and multiply.
217
Chapter Conclusion
This researcher has come to appreciate the multilingual church in structure,
principle, and function, which enables him to see a greater purpose for his church. There
is much possibility for growth and potential for advancing the Gospel in his church.
Structure wise, the multilingual church needs a strong and effective leadership. The
leaders are the beacons that shine as lights to guide many into a Christ-centered church.
Proper leadership must be in place before the ministry begins. Leaders will carry on the
vision, value, mission, and strategic plans of the ministry. They will strengthen unity in
diversity. They can ensure a godly influence over the community. Thus, good leadership
is all about the success of a multilingual church. The second important element in a
multilingual church is discipleship. The leaders must produce other leaders that follow
Christ. Thus, the disciple making process must be laid out and implemented in the lives
of believers. Every local church is to evangelize the world that surrounds them.
Therefore, a disciple-making church must initiate evangelism in the local church
ministry. It ensures obedience to the Lord and the growth of the church.
This researcher has learned to relate evangelism with the multiethnic church.
Ethnic groups must learn to work together in evangelism. How a multiethnic church has
advantages in enhancing the gospel through the diversity of its people, has been
actualized and implemented in the researcher's church. Systematically, implementing this
process has become a life-changing experience for the whole congregation. Evangelism is
the primary goal for all in the church. Differences can be both an advantage and an
obstacle in the multiethnic church. The researcher discovered that the MCA and JBCS
ministries have overcome some of those obstacles and they were able to take advantage
218
of the diversity in their ministries. The church members had to adjust their concept of
ministry when it came to ethnic groups and their needs. They opened their arms and
learned to embrace each other. Accepting each other's differences was a painful process.
Christianity is all about unity in diversity.
The researcher has implemented the strategic plan for evangelism, restructuring
the ministry paradigm, upholding the leadership and discipleship principles, and
enhancing the spirituality of members in his church. The purpose of building a
multilingual church is doing fruitful evangelism to the multicultural community that
surrounds the church.
219
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION AND FURTHER STUDY
Conclusion of the Project
The researcher’s stated hypothesis for this project was that a church thrives and
grows amidst the challenges of bringing together diverse ethnic groups and generations
within the multilingual ministry. Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church (OBMBC)
was looking for a multilingual ministry model as a solution to its needs. The key factor
undertaken in this study was the interconnected organism of the culture and location of a
church. As Aubrey Malphurs states,
What is the relationship between the gospel and culture? Is the gospel above or
part of the culture? How should the church relate to the gospel and culture? The
church in North America needs to answer these and other questions about the
gospel and culture to accomplish Christ's mission.230
The church must learn to respond to culture while upholding its spiritual value and
mission. Aubrey suggested three ways of responding to culture: isolation,
accommodation, and contextualization.231 A church can isolate itself from culture and
ignore it altogether. That would not be a favorable one, since culture is a part of the
people of the church. However, a church should not accommodate culture to the extent
that it overtakes gospel legitimacy. Rather, culture should only be an enhancer of the
gospel of Christ. The gospel of Christ in His church is above culture and culture is in its
230
Aubrey Malphurs, A New Kind of Church, 106.
231
Ibid.
220
interpretation and application. Malphurs recommended that the contextualization
approach is the best way to cope with culture. He commented,
The third possibility and the best response to culture is contextualization, which
attempts to plant or reestablish churches within people's cultural context and to
communicate the gospel in language and practices that are understandable so that
the biblical message is clear. Therefore, contextualization views culture as a mean
or vehicle that God, man, and Satan can use for their own purposes, whether good
or evil.232
Each ethnic culture has its own unique way of communicating, reflecting its values,
traditions, and fashions. For example, the Kachin, an ethnic group in OBMBC, has its
own language that is woven and mingled with cultural contexts and traditional meanings.
One must understand Kachin culture and tradition first before translating the Kachin
language into other languages. Any interpretation of the Kachin language will convey
accurate contextualized meaning, only if the interpreter is familiar with the concept of
Kachin tradition and culture. Therefore, the multilingual ministry needs to convey the
gospel truth to each culture and ethnic group through a proper cultural context. In support
of this theory, Malphurs says,
We must discover how to use our culture and that of others to clarify and promote
the gospel. When we put the gospel into other people's cultural forms, whether
North American or some other, we make it possible for them to understand it,
embrace it, and communicate it to others. Therefore, we should seek to express
the gospel in ways and forms that our target group-unchurched, lost North
Americans, lost Asians, lost Javanese, and others-can understand. 233
232
Ibid., 105.
233
Ibid., 107.
221
This researcher believes that the multilingual ministry reaches a multiethnic congregation
with the gospel of Christ in unique special ways. In keeping with the motto, "Every
tongue, every nation", a church that holds together people of all nations and tongues, is a
church in the multilingual ministry paradigm.
In the beginning of this project, the researcher launched a field analysis of two
Burmese immigrant churches regarding their Burmese ministry paradigm. He found that
the Myanmar Christian Assembly (MCA) and Judson Baptist Church of Singapore
(JBCS) ministries were uniquely established based on the locations and congregants that
they served. Bangkok and Singapore cities are geographically closer to Burma. Thus,
many immigrants and migrant workers flooded into these cities. A Burmese language
based ministry was much needed and effective in these locations. MCA characterized a
Multiethnic Ministry as many ethnic groups integrated into the Burmese language
ministry. This ministry paradigm held possibilities of adaptation in the OBMBC ministry.
Many ethnic groups in OBMBC could have their own language fellowship while
integrated in one body with the main congregation using a language common to all. In
this case, either Burmese or English was possible as a common language among the
OBMBC congregation. However, MCA is established in Bangkok, Thailand, yet it lacks
a local ministry such as the Thai language ministry in its paradigm. MCA is an
exclusively Burmese ministry in a foreign land. The researcher found that a local church
should have a ministry reaching out to the local community regardless of origin, race, or
language.
222
The other case study, the JBCS ministry paradigm portrayed a monolingual
ministry: specifically, a Burmese language ministry. JBCS was functioning as an
exclusive Burmese church that reached out to Burmese immigrants and migrant workers
in Singapore. Its mission field was people from Burma, Burmese people inside and
outside the country of Burma. JBCS is a church that is located in a foreign land. It does
mission work for people of Burma. Therefore, JBCS has not much to offer other
Singaporean Christians and denominational ministries. It is simply a Burmese ministry to
Burmese people within its geographical reach. The OBMBC ministry can learn from
JBCS to minister to people from Burma in its local Burmese community. OBMBC can
and should create diverse ethnic congregations in its ministry while maintaining unity
with the ethnic groups or language groups. Therefore, unity in diversity is the key in
OBMBC ministry.
One common need for Burmese immigrant churches in a country that has English
as its official language, like in the U.S., is an English language ministry. OBMBC needs
to have an English language ministry in order to minister to the English-speaking
Burmese generation and the community that surrounds the church. Burmese immigrant
families, whose children have lost the foreign language, struggle to remain together as a
family in the local church ministry. If Burmese Immigrant churches only minister to the
Burmese-speaking congregation, the younger generation will leave the church, and
church families will be torn apart. This researcher studied two Asian immigrant churches
New Life Church (NLC) of Fremont, California and First Chinese Baptist Church
(FCBC) of San Francisco, California. Both churches have very distinct types of English
language ministry. NLC closely ties the English-speaking Korean generation with native
223
Korean-speaking immigrant generation. Leadership structure indicated that the English
language pastor's position is subordinate to the Korean language Senior Pastor.
Therefore, Korean language ministry superseded the English language group. In this
structure, the Korean congregant runs an English-speaking Korean youth ministry as a
small branch of its ministry. It does not run as an independent entity or even as a
partnership. The NLC English ministry has no vision to become a native North American
church that is multicultural community in nature. NLC will be known as a Korean
Church regardless of the name of the church. For NLC is built on Korean culture,
language, and identity.
The researcher sees the English language as the most common language over
foreign languages used in North American local churches. It is important to utilize
common language in local church ministry in order to reach most people, if the church is
still willing to conform to a biblical based church. Acts 14:27 and 1 Thessalonians 1:1
indicate that a local church is a gathering or assembly of local professing believers in
Christ. Keith Watkins lists five principles that reflect biblical foundation of a local
church. The five principles are Community in Mission, Ministry to the Parish, Holistic
Ministry, Contextual and Incarnational, and Church is to be a Kingdom Resource.
Among them, the fourth principle, he stated
A fourth principle is that ministry is contextual and incarnational. The church no
longer is a[n outside] missionary [enterprise] to the city but it embraces the city, is
part of the city. It must always start where people are in their life settings. 234
234
Keith Watkins, "Multi-language Congregations: A Field Study," 137.
224
Thus, a local church should relate to the local community. If the community speaks
English as a primary language, the church in that location must promote English as its
primary language of the ministry to conduct effective local church ministry. The
multiethnic church must uphold the diverse ethnic ministry as well as uniquely reach out
to the local community with the common language of the land. The researcher perceived
the philosophy of OBMBC ministry paradigm as in figure 6.1. Every language group is
tied up in multiethnic congregation who speaks English. However, those language groups
voluntarily gather for fellowship and provide their ethnic language worship services. The
important reason to have ethnic language groups is to utilize ethnic cultures and
languages for advancing the gospel of Christ. Thus, contextualization of gospel is
displayed in figure 6.1 paradigm.
Burmese
Language
Ministry
Karen
Language
Ministry
Kachin
Language
Ministry
OBMBC
English
Language
Ministry
Other Ethnic
Language
Ministry
Chin
Language
Ministry
Figure 6.1. Philosophy of OBMBC Ministry Paradigm
225
FCBC has employed an English language ministry for decades. The first
generation of Chinese immigrants continues to participate in the English language
ministry to date. However, this generation upholds their original culture and tradition as
Chinese Americans. The second and third generations of Chinese immigrants, who are of
a younger age, are not incorporated into the existing English language ministry although
they speak English as their primary language. The reason is the generation gap between
the older and younger English-speaking Chinese generations. The researcher sees this
generational division as a further divisive factor for the church, making it difficult to keep
the whole congregation into one body. The church can disintegrate between the Englishspeaking younger generation and the rest of the congregation. Hence, the leadership
structure must be kept intact in order to manage this generational partition. FCBC is still
keeping the Cantonese (Chinese language) ministry, as there is a Cantonese-speaking
congregation made up of newly arrival immigrants from China and the older Cantonesespeaking generation. In this ministry paradigm, the researcher could see OBMBC
becoming just like FCBC after many years of ministry. Older Burmese will continue to
worship in both Burmese and English languages as the first Burmese immigrant
generation. Meanwhile, Burmese language ministry will continue for many years as long
as Burmese immigrants keep arriving in Oakland, California. Their children, the second
and third generations on the other hand, will grow up and have an exclusive English
language ministry in the near future. Whether they will combine their English services or
not, will depend on whether the generation gap will push them apart. The question is why
the English language ministry did not grow to be the foremost group of the ministry?
226
Why did the minority language groups like the "Cantonese" continue to be dominant over
the majority language group or common language of English? The answer lies in the
identity of the church as a Chinese immigrant church, without taking into consideration
the generation or language issue. Will ethnic churches be able to surrender ethnic identity
over a multicongregational church?
Lastly, through this project, the researcher has increased his knowledge of local
church ministry and gained firsthand knowledge of church growth from other Burmese
immigrant churches. Project questions such as the Burmese language ministry, the ethnic
issue, and the English speaking generation were answered to a certain degree. The
answers were convincing and it had realistic in nature. The Burmese language ministry
will continue as long as Burmese immigrants keep coming. A church should provide
ethnic ministry to support ethnic identity in a contextualized ministry. The English
language ministry should increase and become a part of an integrated ministry without
division of generations. In his search of a ministry paradigm, the researcher gained a
better perspective of ministry structure studying Burmese immigrant churches in their
weaknesses and strengths. The successful ministries of both MCA and JBCS reflect the
biblical principles of a local church. Such key elements as evangelism and mission-work
for the lost souls are their success. This project's conclusion is headed toward a biblical
principle, prioritizing evangelism and mission, rather than employing a single ministry
paradigm from the case-study churches.
227
Future Burmese Immigrant Churches
The future of Burmese immigrant churches in the United States would become
accustomed to the local community and culture that surround them. Their presence within
the community would influence the gospel of Christ to others. Likewise, the diverse
community culture would force the church to change its tradition in order for the church
to reach out to the community. In other words, either the community changes the church
culture or the church changes the community culture. The Burmese church might turn
into a multicultural congregational church by nature; it might bear the same Burmese
name, if the church grows in the community. The church will be no longer monolingual
but bilingual or even multilingual. It would not (or should not) prevent the incoming
mixture of race and ethnicity into the congregation. Ultimately, when interracial
marriages become common with future generations, Burmese immigrant churches might
be transformed into a majority English speaking congregation with minor or secondary
Burmese speaking groups in one same congregation. Churches would be forced to adapt
to the culture shift among emerging younger generations. Donald E. Miller describes the
emergence phenomenon of North America.
I believe that we are witnessing a new reformation that is transforming the way
Christianity will be experienced in the new millennium. This reformation, unlike
the one led by Martin Luther, is challenging not doctrine, but the medium through
which the message of Christianity is articulated . . . these "new paradigm"
churches have discarded many of the attributes of established religion.
Appropriating contemporary cultural forms, these churches are creating a new
genre of worship music, restructuring the organizational character of institutional
228
religion, and democratizing access to the sacred by radicalizing the Protestant
principle of the priesthood of all believers.235
Burmese immigrant churches will face that inevitable truth. The younger Burmese
immigrant generation has already encountered their English language need in Burmese
immigrant churches. They will no longer identify with the Burmese culture, as the
Burmese language becomes foreign to them. Russell Yee observed the same
phenomenon. He said,
So much of what these people groups from Burma are experiencing in their
churches is similar to the experiences of any number of immigrant groups in the
past and present. . . As the children and youth in these churches grow up as North
Americans, their changing musical tastes, bicultural values, and transition to
bilingual or English language preferences lead to evolving needs for adaptations
in worship and ministry.236
The researcher finds that Burmese immigrant churches, including Burmese ethnic
churches such as Kachin, Karen, and Chin, have begun to provide English language
sections for their younger generation. This would be just a small patch to the larger
wound. Providing an English language service alone is insufficient for the emerging new
generations of Burmese immigrants. Burmese immigrant churches need to prepare and
proactively design ministry paradigms to assimilate the incoming wave of change in the
near future. If Burmese churches fail to foresee the shifting of the church paradigm in the
near future, they will face the consequences of losing or breaking apart the younger
generation from their Burmese language churches. Whether the younger generation
continues to participate as an English-speaking congregation in Burmese immigrant
235
Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in New Millennium
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 1.
236
Russell Yee, Worship on the Way, 186-187.
229
churches or whether they leave the church, the potential for utilizing them for ministry
growth could be minimized.
For now, Burmese immigrants enjoy the booming pattern of local Burmese and
ethnic churches with monolingual or bilingual ministries. Soon, they will face new
challenges that relates to cultural, linguistic, and spiritual issues in their local churches.
Russell Yee predicted,
Now I can predict that things will get more complicated as their next generations
come along, gradually becoming less Karen-speaking, some marrying nonKarens, and so forth. But for now, it is a special season of long-forged unity and
identity experiencing new freedom in a new land.237
Indeed, Burmese immigrants are enjoying a special season of long-forged unity and
identity. How long will that last? Preparation time is now, to face a future paradigm shift
among Burmese immigrant churches, to meet the evolving needs for adaptation in
worship and ministry.
Further Study and Implication
For further research study regarding Burmese immigrant churches, this researcher
recommends the following area of ministry. First, Burmese immigrant churches in the
United States is a new phenomenon, which is worthwhile studying. Their transitional
nature of culture adaptation, preserving traditions, language assimilation, building
spirituality, incorporation ministry among Caucasian, other Asian and African American,
237
Ibid., 188.
230
and absorption of culture conflicts are important fields to analyze. Secondly, the need for
an English language ministry in Burmese immigrant churches in order to assimilate
younger generations in the church is also a fascinating area of study. The inquiry such as
how a Burmese immigrant church can improve its English language ministry concerning
worship format, infrastructure, and leadership genre, and how an English-speaking
congregation can grow in a Burmese-speaking church could be an important topic for
study.
The researcher recommends continuing studies to explore the MCA ministry in
depth. MCA can provide solutions to many unseen problems and effective methods for
the immigrant ministry. Likewise, JBCS needs to be studied further for their ministry
expertise with migrant workers and their Burma mission. Churches like NLC and FCBC
are the forerunners of immigrant churches in California. Their ministries portray what
future Burmese immigrant churches might look like after ten to twenty years. Many
similarities of needs and solutions between these churches and Burmese immigrant
churches have been discovered during the research study. Those similarities indicated
eminent shift of cultures and language needs in Burmese churches.
The researcher's church, OBMBC needs to reevaluate its ministry paradigm.
Ethnic groups' ministry and their identity need must be met via innovative approaches.
Systematically organized language ministry can be discovered through a study by
mapping the ethnicities of Burma. How one-congregation forms into another, either by
language or by ethnicity is an interesting phenomenon. Why do ethnic people desire to
build separate ethnic churches apart from Burmese speaking churches? What is the vision
231
of ethnic churches? How can they plan to grow an ethnic church among diverse culture
and language communities? Is it their adherence to Burmese tradition that drives
Burmese immigrant churches in the United States, if not, what drives them? Those are
questions to be answered when one continues to do further research on Burmese
immigrant churches.
232
APPENDIX-A
INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRES AND SENIOR PASTORS
Seven Categories Defined
Seven categories of interview questions are designed to comprehend ministry
aspects of the senior pastors.

Category 1 (Background of the church): The documents such as church policy,
procedure manual, financial information, and documentation on specific ministry,
and other information on background of the church.

Category 2 (Church's vision and mission): The uniqueness of the ministry and its
direction, church's core value, and philosophy of ministry practices.

Category 3 (Church's theological aspect): Theological orientation drives the
church in providing spiritual growth processes. Thus, he observed the church's
theological viewpoint.

Category 4 (General atmosphere of the ministry): The atmosphere of the worship
services, whether formal, casual, or expectant. Non-expressive small groups,
Bible studies, and special events were integrated within questionnaires. How the
church conducts business meetings, the style of the governing board, how
members discuss critical issues, and how they solve problems, were queried.

Category 5 (Progress of change): Some hypothetical questions were designed to
answer the future plan and the past situation of the church. How church members
adapt, process, or resist change was determined through these questions.
233

Category 6 (Membership growth): The area in evaluating past and present growth
condition of members. The stable or fluctuation of membership condition was
observed.

Category 7 (Leadership in the ministry): Senior pastors shared their personal
views on leadership in the church. Questions regarding their co-workers, copastors, leaders; are they supportive? Are they willing to follow the senior pastor's
leadership? On the other hand, are they obstacles to the pastoral leadership?
Interview Questions for Senior Pastors
Background of Church
6. When the church was established? Were you there when it began?
7. How many members were there to in the beginning?
8. How were you in terms of motivation and feelings at that time?
9. Is there any changes then and now in term of purpose and structure? What are
they?
10. Do you see the church growing? How would you measure its growth?
Church's Vision and Mission
6. What is your church vision and mission?
7. What are your church's core values?
8. Do you believe that the church is pursuing the vision today?
9. Is the church fulfilling its mission?
10. Where will your church be 5 years from now?
Church's Theological Aspect
6. Is the church building a strong theological foundation?
234
7. How many Bible study classes do you conduct during a week?
8. What percentages of members attend Bible study classes?
9. Is there doctrinal uniqueness, in term of practice, in this church? If so, what is it?
10. Does the church believe and practice essential Christian doctrines?
General Atmosphere of the Church
6. Are people friendly in the church?
7. Are people responsive in worship service?
8. What is the church meeting atmosphere like? Are people hearty in spirit? Or
halfhearted?
9. Are people enthusiastic about learning God's word and evangelism?
10. How do you solve people problems? What percentage of the congregation has
conflict problems?
Progress of Change
6. Has your church undergone any changes? If so, is the progress in waves of
changes?
7. How did your congregation cope with change?
8. How do you strategize or implement change?
9. Are your ministry team leaders helpful in the change process?
10. Was the changing process helpful or harmful to the church?
Membership Growth
6. What is the percentage of membership increase since the beginning of ministry?
7. What kind of strategy do you use to grow members?
8. What works in this ministry as far as growth is concerned?
9. What is your vision of growth for the next five years?
10. How would you plan to achieve it?
235
Leadership in Church
6. In your opinion, is leadership in the church united and strong?
7. What type of leadership genre is practiced in this church?
8. Is there a continuous leadership-training program in place for ministry leaders?
9. How did you build this leadership team for your church?
10. Are they willing to sacrifice to a certain extent to follow the senior pastor's
leadership?
Burmese Immigrant Churches Senior Pastors' Inquiry
This survey was conducted upon other Burmese immigrant churches senior
pastors, in search of their opinion and agreement in inquire of MCA and JBCS ministry
paradigm. By answering of all questions and showing their desires to know all these
inquire, they indicate that they are in agreement with researcher.
(Please circle one number on each role for your selection. The number 1
represents that you have ignored the question. Number 2 indicates that somehow you
desire to know. Number 3 shows your strong desire to know the response. Then, number
4 means that you must ask and know the individual's answer. Selections of number 3 and
4 indicate that your desires to inquiry on these areas are strong.)
(1= do not want to know, 2= somewhat need to know, 3= very much need to know, 4=
must know)
You are interesting to know regarding individual, church members, attendees, church
function, and ministry paradigm in their responses to these inquiry areas.
1
Attendant status of individual at church service (member, visitor, core, regular
attendee, leader, etc.)
236
1
2
3
4
2
Duration of individual attendance at services (week, month, year)
1
2
3
4
3
Reason/s of attendance (teaching, preaching, fellowship, etc.)
1
2
3
4
4
Relationship with others church attendees (enjoy, disappointed, care, love)
1
2
3
4
5
Their inputs and suggestions upon ministry
1
2
3
4
6
Their spiritual responses toward church ministry
1
2
3
4
7
Their responses to pastor's weekly messages
1
2
3
4
8
Church's ministry impact upon their spiritual lives
1
2
3
4
9
Their involvement in church ministry and fellowship groups
1
2
3
4
10
Their opinion on church leadership (strong, weak, moderate)
1
2
3
4
11
Their role in church ministry (leader, supporter, follower, bystander)
1
2
3
4
12
Their ethnicity and participation of ethnic groups (Kachin, Karen, Chin,
Bamar, Kayar, Chinese, etc.)
1
2
3
4
13
Their preference of ethnic group or language group
1
2
3
4
14
Their opinion on diverse community
1
2
3
4
15
Their church's leadership in ethnic ministry
1
2
3
4
16
Their church's structure of ethnic groups ministry
1
2
3
4
17
Their church's relationship with ethnic groups
1
2
3
4
18
Their church's priority in preaching, teaching, evangelism, Bible study, etc.
1
2
3
4
19
Their church's emphasis on mission, giving, community, etc.
1
2
3
4
20
Their church's attention on leadership, cooperation, networking, etc.
1
2
3
4
21
Their church's effort in training, delegation, discipleship, etc.
1
2
3
4
22
Their church's dedication on worship, prayer, spiritual enrichment,
1
2
3
4
23
Their church's involvement on community events and social needs
1
2
3
4
24
Their church's vision, mission, and value
1
2
3
4
25
Their church's adaptation to culture diversity
1
2
3
4
237
Participant Senior Pastors in Interviews and Surveys
Interviewed Senior Pastors
1. Rev. Dr. U Zaw Min (Senior Pastor), Myanmar Christian Assembly, Bangkok,
Thailand (www.mcathailand.com)
2. Rev. Dr. Tu Ja (Senior Pastor), Myanmar Christian Assembly, Bangkok, Thailand
3. Rev. Saw Augustus (Senior Pastor), Judson Baptist Church of Singapore,
Singapore (www.jbcs.org.sg)
4. Rev. Dr. Sungkyu Wee (Senior Pastor), New Life Church, Fremont, California
(www.gracepeople.com)
5. Pastor Jason So (English Ministry Pastor), New Life Church, Fremont, California
6. Rev. Don Ng (Senior Pastor), First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco,
California (http://www.fcbc-sf.org)
Surveyed Senior Pastors
1. Rev. Dr. Latt Yishey (Senior Pastor), First Burmese Baptist Church, San
Francisco (www.fbbcsf.org)
2. Rev. Zauya Lahpai (Senior Pastor), Burmese Christian Community Church, San
Jose (www.bcccsv.org)
238
3. Rev. Dr. KD Naw San Dee (Senior Pastor), San Francisco Kachin Baptist Church,
Oakland (www.sfkbc.org)
4. Rev. La Seng Labya (Senior Pastor), Dallas Fort Worth Kachin Baptist Church,
Dallas (www.poppyseeds.biz)
Four Burmese Immigrant Churches' Senior Pastors Survey Responses
Rev. Dr. Latt Yishey's Response
1
Attendant status of individual at church service (member, visitor, core,
regular attendee, leader, etc.)
1
2
3
4
2
Duration of individual attendance at services (week, month, year)
1
2
3
4
3
Reason/s of attendance (teaching, preaching, fellowship, etc.)
1
2
3
4
4
Relationship with others church attendees (enjoy, disappointed, care, love)
1
2
3
4
5
Their inputs and suggestions upon ministry
1
2
3
4
6
Their spiritual responses toward church ministry
1
2
3
4
7
Their responses to pastor's weekly messages
1
2
3
4
8
Church's ministry impact upon their spiritual lives
1
2
3
4
9
Their involvement in church ministry and fellowship groups
1
2
3
4
10
Their opinion on church leadership (strong, weak, moderate)
1
2
3
4
11
Their role in church ministry (leader, supporter, follower, bystander)
1
2
3
4
12
Their ethnicity and participation of ethnic groups (Kachin, Karen, Chin,
Bamar, Kayar, Chinese, etc.)
1
2
3
4
13
Their preference of ethnic group or language group
1
2
3
4
14
Their opinion on diverse community
1
2
3
4
15
Their church's leadership in ethnic ministry
1
2
3
4
239
16
Their church's structure of ethnic groups ministry
1
2
3
4
17
Their church's relationship with ethnic groups
1
2
3
4
18
Their church's priority in preaching, teaching, evangelism, Bible study, etc.
1
2
3
4
19
Their church's emphasis on mission, giving, community, etc.
1
2
3
4
20
Their church's attention on leadership, cooperation, networking, etc.
1
2
3
4
21
Their church's effort in training, delegation, discipleship, etc.
1
2
3
4
22
Their church's dedication on worship, prayer, spiritual enrichment, etc.
1
2
3
4
23
Their church's involvement on community events and social needs
1
2
3
4
24
Their church's vision, mission, and value
1
2
3
4
25
Their church's adaptation to culture diversity
1
2
3
4
Rev. Zauya Lahpai's Response
1
Attendant status of individual at church service (member, visitor, core,
regular attendee, leader, etc.)
1
2
3
4
2
Duration of individual attendance at services (week, month, year)
1
2
3
4
3
Reason/s of attendance (teaching, preaching, fellowship, etc.)
1
2
3
4
4
Relationship with others church attendees (enjoy, disappointed, care,
love)
1
2
3
4
5
Their inputs and suggestions upon ministry
1
2
3
4
6
Their spiritual responses toward church ministry
1
2
3
4
7
Their responses to pastor's weekly messages
1
2
3
4
8
Church's ministry impact upon their spiritual lives
1
2
3
4
9
Their involvement in church ministry and fellowship groups
1
2
3
4
10
Their opinion on church leadership (strong, weak, moderate)
1
2
3
4
11
Their role in church ministry (leader, supporter, follower, bystander)
1
2
3
4
12
Their ethnicity and participation of ethnic groups (Kachin, Karen, Chin,
1
2
3
4
240
Bamar, Kayar, Chinese, etc.)
13
Their preference of ethnic group or language group
1
2
3
4
14
Their opinion on diverse community
1
2
3
4
15
Their church's leadership in ethnic ministry
1
2
3
4
16
Their church's structure of ethnic groups ministry
1
2
3
4
17
Their church's relationship with ethnic groups
1
2
3
4
18
Their church's priority in preaching, teaching, evangelism, Bible study,
1
2
3
4
19
Their church's emphasis on mission, giving, community, etc.
1
2
3
4
20
Their church's attention on leadership, cooperation, networking, etc.
1
2
3
4
21
Their church's effort in training, delegation, discipleship, etc.
1
2
3
4
22
Their church's dedication on worship, prayer, spiritual enrichment, etc.
1
2
3
4
23
Their church's involvement on community events and social needs
1
2
3
4
24
Their church's vision, mission, and value
1
2
3
4
25
Their church's adaptation to culture diversity
1
2
3
4
Rev. Dr. KD Naw San Dee's response
1
Attendant status of individual at church service (member, visitor, core,
regular attendee, leader, etc.)
1
2
3
4
2
Duration of individual attendance at services (week, month, year)
1
2
3
4
3
Reason/s of attendance (teaching, preaching, fellowship, etc.)
1
2
3
4
4
Relationship with others church attendees (enjoy, disappointed, care, love)
1
2
3
4
5
Their inputs and suggestions upon ministry
1
2
3
4
6
Their spiritual responses toward church ministry
1
2
3
4
7
Their responses to pastor's weekly messages
1
2
3
4
241
8
Church's ministry impact upon their spiritual lives
1
2
3
4
9
Their involvement in church ministry and fellowship groups
1
2
3
4
10
Their opinion on church leadership (strong, weak, moderate)
1
2
3
4
11
Their role in church ministry (leader, supporter, follower, bystander)
1
2
3
4
12
Their ethnicity and participation of ethnic groups (Kachin, Karen, Chin,
Bamar, Kayar, Chinese, etc.)
1
2
3
4
13
Their preference of ethnic group or language group
1
2
3
4
14
Their opinion on diverse community
1
2
3
4
15
Their church's leadership in ethnic ministry
1
2
3
4
16
Their church's structure of ethnic groups ministry
1
2
3
4
17
Their church's relationship with ethnic groups
1
2
3
4
18
Their church's priority in preaching, teaching, evangelism, Bible study, etc.
1
2
3
4
19
Their church's emphasis on mission, giving, community, etc.
1
2
3
4
20
Their church's attention on leadership, cooperation, networking, etc.
1
2
3
4
21
Their church's effort in training, delegation, discipleship, etc.
1
2
3
4
22
Their church's dedication on worship, prayer, spiritual enrichment, etc.
1
2
3
4
23
Their church's involvement on community events and social needs
1
2
3
4
24
Their church's vision, mission, and value
1
2
3
4
25
Their church's adaptation to culture diversity
1
2
3
4
Rev. La Seng Labya's Response
1
Attendant status of individual at church service (member, visitor, core,
regular attendee, leader, etc.)
1
2
3
4
2
Duration of individual attendance at services (week, month, year)
1
2
3
4
3
Reason/s of attendance (teaching, preaching, fellowship, etc.)
1
2
3
4
4
Relationship with others church attendees (enjoy, disappointed, care, love)
1
2
3
4
242
5
Their inputs and suggestions upon ministry
1
2
3
4
6
Their spiritual responses toward church ministry
1
2
3
4
7
Their responses to pastor's weekly messages
1
2
3
4
8
Church's ministry impact upon their spiritual lives
1
2
3
4
9
Their involvement in church ministry and fellowship groups
1
2
3
4
10
Their opinion on church leadership (strong, weak, moderate)
1
2
3
4
11
Their role in church ministry (leader, supporter, follower, bystander)
1
2
3
4
12
Their ethnicity and participation of ethnic groups (Kachin, Karen, Chin,
Bamar, Kayar, Chinese, etc.)
1
2
3
4
13
Their preference of ethnic group or language group
1
2
3
4
14
Their opinion on diverse community
1
2
3
4
15
Their church's leadership in ethnic ministry
1
2
3
4
16
Their church's structure of ethnic groups ministry
1
2
3
4
17
Their church's relationship with ethnic groups
1
2
3
4
18
Their church's priority in preaching, teaching, evangelism, Bible study, etc.
1
2
3
4
19
Their church's emphasis on mission, giving, community, etc.
1
2
3
4
20
Their church's attention on leadership, cooperation, networking, etc.
1
2
3
4
21
Their church's effort in training, delegation, discipleship, etc.
1
2
3
4
22
Their church's dedication on worship, prayer, spiritual enrichment, etc.
1
2
3
4
23
Their church's involvement on community events and social needs
1
2
3
4
24
Their church's vision, mission, and value
1
2
3
4
25
Their church's adaptation to culture diversity
1
2
3
4
243
Four Burmese Senior Pastor's Responses
100
80
Rev. Laphai
60
Rev. Latt
40
Rev. Labya
Rev. KD
20
0
Do not want to Somewhat to Much to know
know
know
Must know
Burmese Immigrant Churches Senior Pastors' Inquiry
Four case-studied churches views on language ministry information are obtained by three
means: Senior Pastors' interview, Group discussion sections, and Survey results.
40
20
0
MCA
JBC
New Life
FCBC
Senior P. Interview
30
10
40
40
group discussion
20
30
20
30
survey
30
20
30
30
Four Churches View on Language Ministry
244
APPENDIX-B
CASE STUDY QUESTIONNAIRES AND SURVEYS
Survey Questions 1: Targeted Areas: Individual opinion on the nature of ministry and
personal responses or benefit to one’s spirituality
1. Are you a member of this church? Yes.-_____ or NO ____:
2. What do you consider yourself in relation to this church? Visitor, regular attendee,
devoted friend, etc. ____________
3. How long have you been attending this church? ___________
4. What brings you back each week to this church? ____________
5. Do you enjoy the church services and the people? YES____ or NO ____:
Why? _________
6. What things do you find enjoyable in this church? (Program, Teaching, or
People?)
7. What would you like to change if you have one thing to change in this church?
______
8. Do you feel like you have encountered God during worship services in this
church? ______
9. How do you feel about the pastor’s messages? Are they spiritual, educational, or
meeting your needs? ________
10. Do you think you are growing in your spiritual life? YES ____ or NO _____:
Why? ____________
245
11. Is the church helping you grow in your spiritual life? _________
12. Do you also attend other activities such as Bible study, fellowships, mission trip,
etc., other than weekly worship services? ________
13. How would you describe the leadership of this church? Are they strong, weak, or
moderate? _________
14. Do you consider yourself a leader of this church or a follower? ________
15. Have you experience serving in any leadership role or have you attended any
leadership training before? ________.
Survey Question 2: Targeted Area: Ethnic group and individual’s feeling toward diversity
in ministry
Statistical analysis of these questionnaires will be based on three levels of
measurement. The scores are classified as “high,” “middle,” and “low” respectively. The
high score indicates a strong result in this area of measurement. Middle score indicates to
a neutral outcome. Low reveals weak or lesser value. In some questions, "Yes" and "No"
answers directly convey strength or weakness. The question "Why" is to observe
intention of a person who answers either "Yes" or "No."
1. What ethnic background do you have? Kachin, Karen, Kayar, Chin, Bamar, mix,
etc.______.
2. Are you involved in any ethnic fellowship group?
YES ____ NO ____: Why? _______________________
3. How would you describe the ethnic groups in the church?
(1) Divisive (2) United (3) Valuable.
246
4. Would you prefer the church to be mainly Burmese speaking and call it a
Burmese Church?
(1) Dislike (2) Acceptable (3) Important
5. If you have a chance to start a new ethnic church (Kachin church, Karen church,
etc.) would you like to start it separately from the main Burmese church?
YES ___ NO ___: Why? __________________________
6. In your opinion, how should an ethnic church function in a diverse community?
(1)It should function as that of a particular ethnic group. (2) It will welcome
everyone to that church. (3) It will utilize every language to meet the people’s
needs.
7. How is your church serving ethnic fellowships?
(1) Regularly contact and participating in their activities (2). Give less effort to
unite and build trust (3). No relationship and no leadership
8. How would you scale your church’s relationship with ethnic fellowships?
(1) Strong (2) moderate (3) weak
9. Is your church leadership involved in building ethnic fellowships?
(1) Leaders involved (2) leaders give less attention (3) Leaders ignore totally.
10. In your opinion, what makes ethnic groups feel part of the church?
(1) Leadership, fellowship, vision, mission, people, circumstances (2), program,
events, tolerance (3), or none of those
247
Survey Questions 3: Target Area: Church Priorities & Ministry Emphasis
(The first four highest scores (3&4) are the priorities of the church and its ministry
emphasis)
(1=Not prioritize, 2= somewhat prioritize, 3= Priority, 4= most prioritize)
1
Preaching & teaching Scripture: God's Word prioritized in church
1 2 3 4
2
Fellowship: Activities as family in the church
1 2 3 4
3
Bible Knowledge: people know the Truth of Scripture
1 2 3 4
4
Mission work: Doing sacrificial work for needy
1 2 3 4
5
Community sense: people feel they belong to church
1 2 3 4
6
Giving: People support the church financially
1 2 3 4
7
Leadership: decisive, powerful, spiritual, and caring in leadership
1 2 3 4
8
Cultural relevance: value culture and apply it through the truth
1 2 3 4
9
Prayer: personal relationship with God
1 2 3 4
10
Evangelism: Spreading the gospel of Christ
1 2 3 4
11
Team ministry: working together in ministry
1 2 3 4
12
Worship: attending services for spiritual purpose
1 2 3 4
13
Cooperation: working together with others in harmony
1 2 3 4
14
Reaching Unchurch: visiting, caring, evangelizing none believers
1 2 3 4
15
Delegation of Laity: Using Lay people in the ministry
1 2 3 4
16
Training: preparing for ministry
1 2 3 4
17
Discipleship: Making disciples for Christ
1 2 3 4
18
Discipline: Righteous living
1 2 3 4
19
Fund raising: actively raising money for church
1 2 3 4
20
Networking: connecting with other churches or organizations
1 2 3 4
248
APPENDIX - C
MYANMAR CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY, BANGKOK
Myanmar Christian Assembly (MCA) membership growth, since 1990
establishment. The attendees are well over six hundreds in number. MCA financial
growth is in million Bahts.
700
0
55
600
500
0
35
400
42
60
0
0
300
15
200
100
0
28
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2012
Growth of Attendees in MCA
7,510,000.00
7,010,000.00
6,510,000.00
6,010,000.00
5,510,000.00
5,010,000.00
4,510,000.00
4,010,000.00
3,510,000.00
3,010,000.00
2,510,000.00
2,010,000.00
1,510,000.00
1,010,000.00
510,000.00
10,000.00
6741987
2488995
1652000
550000
1 year
825000
5 years
10 years 15 years 22 years
Financial Growth of MCA
249
Five Focus Function ratios according to survey result in MCA ministry.
Evangelism
20%
Service
20%
Worship
18%
Teaching
23%
Fellowship
19%
MCA Five Focus Function
MCA ministry priority shows in survey result.
3.93
4
3.5 3.33
3.13
3.6
3.57
3.27
3.07
2.79
3
2.53
2.47
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Mission
Fellowship
Giving
Teaching
Prayer
Worship
Leadership
Finance
Networking
Unity
Priority of MCA Ministry
MCA ethnic language ministry and Burmese language ministry, according to three
categories, such as leadership, church, and individual are involved.
250
7
5
3
1
Leadership
Church
Individual
Participate in other
language groups
Separate ethnic group
Burmese language use
Multilingual structure
1.125
1
1.25
2.063
3
1.125
1.125
1.125
2.375
2
2.14
2.25
MCA Burmese & Ethnic Ministry
The infrastructure of MCA ministry can be understood as in this Organizational Chart.
Jesus Christ
Senior Pastors &
Associate Pastors
Executive
Committee
Delegated Leaders
Group Ministry
Sunday Worship
Services
Area Ministry
Youth Fellowship
Sister Churches
Children Ministry
Cell Groups
Family Ministry
Ethnic Groups
Ethnic Fellowship
Migrant
Workers/mission
Infrastructure of MCA: Leadership and Ministry
251
APPENDIX - D
JUDSON BAPTIST CHURCH OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
JBCS membership grew gradually in the early years of ministry. After ten years,
it jumped aggressively. Today about six hundred worshiper are attending each worship
service on Sunday. Financially, JBCS holds about five hundred thousand annual budget.
700
60
600
5
500
35
400
0
40
0
20
0
300
200
100
12
0
32
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2012
JBCS Attendance Growth
$500,000.00
$450,000.00
$400,000.00
$350,000.00
$300,000.00
$250,000.00
$200,000.00
$150,000.00
$100,000.00
$50,000.00
$0.00
485000
256000
135000
52000
1st year
75000
5th year
10th year 15th year 20th year
Financial Growth of JBCS
252
Five-focused function of JBCS ministry also equally spread out in the minds of
surveyed members.
Service
18%
Evangelism
19%
Teaching
23%
Worship
21%
Fellowship
19%
JBCS Five Focused Function
Church members believe that JBCS ministry is prioritized strongly in teaching, prayer,
and worship. The survey results convey it.
4
3.5 3.33
3.93
3.2
3.67
3.53
3.13
3.47
3.27
3
2.73
2.67
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Mission
Fellowship
Giving
Teaching
Prayer
Worship
Leadership
Ministry Priority of JBCS
253
Finance
Networking
Unity
JBCS ministry shows a little or no participation of individuals in ethnic ministry (clearly
marked as ethnic ministry). Leaders' interest in ethnic ministry has shown stronger than
individuals.
7
5
3
1
Participate in other
language groups
Desire to separate ethnic
group
Burmese language use
Multilingual structure
Leadership
2.07
1.13
1.53
1.27
Church
1.93
1.66
1.27
1.13
Individual
1.27
1.13
2.47
2.2
Burmese & Ethnic Ministry of JBCS
JBCS ministry structure can be classified as the organizing chart shows.
Jesus Christ
Executive Committee
Pastoral Staff
Sunday Worship
Services
Group Ministry
Area Ministry
Youth Fellowship
Cell Groups
Women Fellowship
Inter-Church Relation
Weekly Bible Study/
Prayer
Mission works in
Burma, Thailand, and
Malaysia
Special Program:
Christmas, Easter,
Judson Sunday
None Religious
Burmese Society
Relation
Infrastructure of JBCS: Leadership and Ministry
254
The comparison between MCA and JBCS ministries upon their ministry programs
and activities makes clear function of each church.
Program & Activity
MCA JBCS
Ethnic Fellowship grouping
Yes
No
Special Ethnic Combine Services
Yes
Yes
Cell Group ministry
Yes
Yes
Leadership delegation
Yes
Yes
Praise & Worship
Yes
Yes
2 or more Burmese worship services per Sunday
Yes
No
Local Foreign Language service (English/Thai)
No
No
Training Curriculum
Yes
No
Discipleship Program
Yes
Yes
Mission Field & Trip
Yes
Yes
Evangelism Activities (Personal/Group)
Yes
Yes
Burmese Mission in Burma
No
Yes
Burmese Mission in Foreign (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore)
Yes
Yes
New Convert/None Believer/ Salvation Classes
Yes
No
Bible Study Classes Weekly
Yes
Yes
Church camp/Special Event- Spiritual Nourishment
Yes
Yes
Leadership Enrichment/ Bonding Team
Yes
Yes
Multimedia Ministry (web, video, audio, articles, etc.)
Yes
Yes
Global Networking (affiliation, cooperation, collaboration)
Yes
Yes
Programs and Activities of MCA and JBCS
255
APPENDIX - E
NEW LIFE CHURCH, FREMONT
New Life Church (NLC) in Fremont, California has ministry toward younger
generation Korean American Christians. The church has integrated English language
ministry out of Korean language congregation. Table 4.2 indicates the survey results of
English language congregation. They were given survey upon their English language
ministry. This researcher categorized it into six areas of interest: Fellowship, Teaching,
Spiritual, Discipleship, Activities, and Leadership.
New Life English
Service
Fellowship
Teaching
Spiritual
What brings you
40%
7%
What enjoys you
53%
The message
Activities
Leadership
33%
13%
7%
20%
13%
13%
13%
53%
20%
14%
13%
40%
47%
5%
10%
20%
13%
53%
33%
14%
The leadership
Involve activity
45%
7%
Getting training
Discipleship
New Life Church English Service Survey
The survey results are represented also in six questions: What brings you? What enjoys
you? How is the message of preacher? How is the leadership? Did you get training?
256
Fellowship
60%
50%
40%
Teaching
30%
20%
10%
0%
Leadership
Spiritual
Activities
Discipleship
What Brings You
What Enjoys You
The Message
The Leadership
Involve Activity
Getting Training
New Life Church English Service Survey Response
NLC conveys its philosophy of ministry paradigm in Pyramid structure (Figure 4.15).
Korean-speaking congregation is building other language ministries including English
language upon its foundation. Their intent is also becoming multiethnic church.
ll
Other Language
Ministry
English Language Ministry
Korean Language Ministry
Philosophy of NLC Ministry Paradigm
257
APPENDIX - F
FIRST CHINESE BAPTIST CHURCH, SAN FRANCISCO
First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco has two English language sections
each Sunday. One with traditional English setting and the other is just pure
contemporary. Both English-speaking congregations were given survey questions upon
their English language ministry. Table 4.3 is the result.
First Chinese
Baptist Church
English Service
Fellowship
Teaching
Spiritual
Discipleship
What brings you
41.7%
25.0%
16.7%
8.3%
8.3%
What enjoys you
75.0%
8.3%
8.3%
8.3%
The message
8.3%
33.3%
33.3%
8.3%
16.7%
The leadership
33.3%
8.3%
8.3%
16.7%
33.3%
33.3%
41.7%
Involve activity
Getting training
8.3%
25.0%
8.3%
Activities
Leadership
25.0%
25.0%
33.3%
FCBC English Language Ministry Survey
The relationship between six areas of ministry with six questions to the people
who were surveyed shows in figure 4.16.
258
Fellowship
80%
60%
Leadership
40%
Teaching
20%
0%
Activities
Spiritual
Discipleship
What Brings You
What Enjoys You
The Message
The Leadership
Invlove Activities
Getting Training
FCBC English Language Ministry Survey Response
The philosophy of FCBC ministry paradigm can be understood as in figure 4.17. Three
groups of language ministry are integrated as one church, yet distinctively function from
each other.
Traditional
English
Modern
English
Cantonese
Tradition
Philosophy of FCBC Ministry Paradigm
259
APPENDIX - G
OAKLAND BURMESE MISSION BAPTIST CHURCH, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
OBMBC has vision to become multiethnic church with multilingual ministry.
This vision has three elements in it. Evangelism is essential to grow the church and
Discipleship strategy makes sure of fruitful ministry. Multiethnic in nature of the
congregation, the Fellowship encourages believers bond strongly among diverse
members. Thus, it is Tri-Vision in nature.
Reach out to others in
our community with the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Evangelism
Fellowship
Discipleship
Training in
God's word,
applying it in
our lives, and
becoming true
disciples of
Christ.
Fellowship
and affiliate
with other
churches, who
share common
value, faith,
and practices.
Tri-Vision of OBMBC
260
Core value of OBMBC determines what the members do in term of ministry and
its priority. OBMBC ministry is based on four core values. In short, version,
1. We value Christ centered life.
2. We value practice of Christian love and unity.
3. We value serving together a local church ministry.
4. We value in reaching community with God's love and truth.
Core Values of OBMBC
261
OBMBC states its mission, to act as ambassadors for Christ in the ministry of
reconciliation with God's truth. In banner, "Encountering God and people in love and
truth"
Mission Statement of OBMBC
OBMBC ministry strategy is circulating in five focus functions: preaching,
teaching, fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism. Thus, these five-focused functions are
centered on the Holy Bible. They are also a part of mission statement. This influences
practical part of how to reach the vision.
262
PREACHING
TEACHING
DISCIPLESHIP
FELLOWSHIP
EVANGELISM
Ministry Strategy of OBMBC
OBMBC ministry paradigm can be portrayed as multi-grouping in one church.
The language of the land, English can be utilized as tool to reach multicultural
community with the gospel of Christ. Meanwhile, integrating all ethnic language groups
as a wholesome body of Christ as each ethnic group reaches its people. Therefore,
multilingual ministry of OBMBC reaches across cultures, traditions, and languages.
263
Burmese
Language
Ministry
Karen
Language
Ministry
Kachin
Language
Ministry
OBMBC
English
Language
Ministry
Other Ethnic
Language
Ministry
Chin
Language
Ministry
Philosophy of OBMBC Ministry Paradigm
264
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