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Ethnic Ministers Meet for Orientation

March 31, 2015
Participants in recent training for ethnic pastors

Participants in recent training for ethnic pastors

King Choi became a Christian more than 40 years ago in a Baptist church in Hong Kong.

After arriving in this country to attend college several years ago, he got involved in ministry in mostly non-denominational churches.

But through a series of circumstances, he was issued a call in 2013 to serve as senior pastor of Golden Gate Christian Reformed Church, which began as a Mandarin Chinese-speaking congregation in San Francisco, Calif. 50 years ago.

“Since my church background was mostly non-denominational, I did a lot of praying and research during that process before committing to come — this commitment includes fully embracing the belief and practice of CRC,” said Choi.

Choi has now started the process to become an ordained pastor in the CRC. And as part of that process, he took part in  a recent orientation, held in Anaheim, Calif., for ethnic CRC pastors.

“During the orientation, I was glad to meet participants of various ethnic groups — black, American Indians, Hispanics, Koreans, and Chinese,” he says.

“Being in such a culturally enriched group was an awesome experience in and of itself.”

Choi was one of 16 pastors who gathered for the orientation.

The gathering was planned by Rev. Robert Price, Rev. Stanley Jim, and Rev. Charles Kim, who serve as CRC Home Missions Ethnic Ministry leaders.

They were assisted by Rev. David Koll, Director of Candidacy for the Christian Reformed Church.

“The event served to offer basic information and review of the history, polity, perspective and ministry of our denomination,” said Koll. 

He went on to say, “lt also served to create and nourish relationships among these pastors.”

He said the gathering represented the ethnic diversity that is the present reality and future of the CRC.

There were four participants from the Navajo people of Classis Red Mesa; four participants from various African American CRC ministries in North America; three participants from Chinese CRC ministries; two participants of Korean heritage; two from Spanish-speaking ministries in North America, and one from Viet Nam.

Sophie Tong, of the Monterey Park Chinese CRC in southern California, said in  a form evaluating the gathering that she was grateful for the chance to participate. 

“It was great to learn from and network with other multi-cultural CRC pastors,” she said.

“There was lots of encouragement, where we could see God is at work as his people step out of their comfort zone to reach out to their neighbors,” said Dong Lee, who is considering a call to minister at the Little Saigon CRC in Westminster, Calif., in another of the evaluations.

Al Moss, who is serving as a chaplain at Grand Rapids Community College, says he also appreciated the experience.

"It was cool to be among a diverse group of people seeking pastoral candidacy within CRC. Two things I believe Lord spoke to me about was first that culture, upbringing, ethnic background are important to know and understand when reaching out to others that are different from you and that one culture is not top dog (dominate) than others.

"To experience cultural diversity in the body of Christ is just a chance to experience God all the more. The second thing was "contextualization." Having the ability to take the unchanging gospel and apply to whatever context you may find yourself in. I believe these are key things when doing ministry on a college campus."

Of the nearly 1100 congregations currently in the Christian Reformed Church, nearly 250 are from what are referred to as “ethnic minority groups,” said Koll.

And both within North America and within the CRC, these groups are where the church is growing most. 

“I look forward to seeing within my lifetime a Christian Reformed Church where the groups currently referred to as ethnic minority are actually the majority of the denomination,” said Koll.