In this paper I will be working in my current church planting project. The challenge will be to go beyond the influences of modernity and truly emulate the Kingdom of God.
The church I am part of, Amazing Grace Church in Long Beach have begun a church planting project in which I will be the pastor. The new church, called Walnut Amazing Grace Church was planted in the city of Walnut. It has been two months since we started and we are currently praying for the vision of the church. The target audience is 1.5 generation (Korean speaking) young adults. The challenge for the new church begins with the language. Since it is a Korean speaking group it is very hard for us to connect with the neighborhood and with people of other ethnicity. That, plus the exclusive tendency of Korean Churches (we have had not much success in the area social justice) would be a great challenge in forming a Kingdom like community where inclusiveness is a big characteristic.
If Jesus were to be part of the founding members, He would challenge us to rethink the purpose and the mission of the church. He would begin by shifting our inward focus to an outwardly form; our individual focus life to a communal form. The question he would ask would not be: “how can we bring new people to church” but “how can we be the church in this place, in our community and in the specific context of being a Korean American Church.” This does not mean that he would encourage us to be only Korean American church but to think beyond our race and ethnicity. Jesus would really push us to connect with the American church we are renting the facility from and to connect with people in the neighborhood, instead of trying to create a commuting church composed only by Korean.
The first idea we need to work on is that the church is a community. Not just community in the sense that there is more than one person but a community which shares in the vision and the mission of God. We would begin by learning that God has a plan for the community before he has plans for each individual. It is only then, when we recognize and value the idea of community, how we will be able to go beyond our ethnicity, our tradition and our comfort zone in the church. The first barrier we must break is the individualism of the people. We will begin to see a new way of doing church and a new way of communicating with other ethnicity only when we realize that the Kingdom of God calls for an egalitarian form of community.
The new church, which will be mainly composed by Korean speaking congregation must work in reaching and cooperating with other ethnicity. Only then we will be able to see creation and church in a new light; in the light of the Kingdom of God.
