Recently Paula and I attended Chinese Southern Baptist Church (CSBC) in Seattle where we joined them in celebrating 35 years of ministry. Founded by returning missionaries to China in 1984, Pastor Andrew Ng has led the church for more than 30 years. The church was formed by reaching Cantonese speaking people, most coming from Hong Kong. On this day, they baptized six new believers and also had the blessing of recognizing the very first person baptized when the church was founded 35 years ago.
CSBC represents the best of missions in the Northwest. Not only do they continue to reach people for Christ, this church which was begun through the Cooperative Program (CP) giving of Northwest and SBC churches, is now a leader in CP mission giving themselves. They also participate in the Northwest Baptist Convention partnership with our international missionaries (IMB) in Asia.
Of particular interest is that Chinese Southern Baptist Church now has an English language ministry that is larger than its Cantonese ministry. Of the six baptized the Sunday we were there, four worship with the English language congregation and two with the Cantonese congregation. Pastor Matthew Zwitt has led the English language ministry for eight years. Under the wise leadership of Pastor Ng, the church came to understand that as it ages, and the children grow, English would become the preferred language of second and third generation immigrants. Also, an English language ministry has enabled them to reach people beyond the Chinese community. We met people from Vietnam, Japan, China, Taiwan, Macao and the United States, worshiping together in English. Pastor Zwitt speaks only English, with no Cantonese ability. Still, he has learned that culture is broader than language, and he has learned to thrive in a majority Chinese-culture church.
CSBC is successfully transitioning into an English language majority church, which is what most of our immigrant churches must do to remain vibrant and effective into the future. The experience of CSBC is not unique. The Northwest has Korean, Russian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Romanian, Burmese and Spanish majority churches that have strong English-language ministries. In one Vietnamese church, the pastor preaches in both languages, moving back and forth, seemingly without effort, from one language to the next. Most churches have separate worship services for English. One church worships in English, but has small groups in multiple Asian languages. They are taking various approaches, but in their own way, our immigrant churches are seeking to reach people, including their own children, with the message of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we wonder what our mission efforts accomplish. Missionary work is never easy, but assessment is aided by time, even a lifetime, and by remembering that God has been writing its story all along.