Soong-Chan Rah

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Soong-Chan Rah is on the Board of Directors at Sojourners.[1] "Author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity."

Letter to Trump about 'Religious Liberty'

Soong-Chan Rah signed a letter to President Donald Trump[2] dated April 4, 2019 requesting affirmation that religions other than Christianity and Judaism "make outstanding contributions to the United States". The letter was initiated by "three chairmen of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops":[3]

Activism

Soong-Chan Rah is the Milton B. Engebretson associate professor of church growth and evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago. He is also the author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (IVP Books, 2009), and Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church (Moody, 2010). You can read more about him at his website, www.profrah.com.

Soong-Chan is formerly the founding senior pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC)—a multiethnic, urban ministry-focused church committed to living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in the urban context. Soong-Chan has previously been part of a church planting team in the Washington, D.C. area, worked for a number of years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Boston (specifically at MIT), and mobilized CCFC to plant two additional churches. He currently serves on the boards of World Vision, Sojourners, the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), and the Catalyst Leadership Center.

He has extensive experience in cross-cultural preaching, especially on numerous college campuses. Soong-Chan was a plenary speaker at several conferences and gatherings, including: the 2003 Urbana Student Missions Conference, 2005 Summer Institute for Asian American Ministry and Theology, 2006 Congress on Urban Ministry, the 2007 Evangelical Covenant Church Midwinter Conference, 2007 Urban Youth Workers Institute Conference, 2008 CCDA National Conference, 2009 Cornerstone Festival, 2010 Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS) National Preaching Conference, and 2011 Disciples of Christ General Assembly.

Soong-Chan received his bachelor’s in political science and history/sociology from Columbia University; his Master of Divinity degree from GCTS; his Master of Theology degree from Harvard University; and his Doctor of Ministry degree from GCTS. He’s currently in the doctor of theology program at Duke University.

Soong-Chan and his wife Sue, who teaches special education, live in Chicago.[4]

Asian Christians and BLM

On Sunday, June 28, 2020, from 3:30-6:30 p.m., between one to two thousand Asian American Christians and friends of our community, representing over 100 churches throughout Chicagoland, joined together in Chinatown to march for Black lives and dignity. The march was designed to be a spiritually formative practice that took us from lament to hope and celebration in order to help us stand in God honoring solidarity with African Americans now, and into the future.

The prayer march started in Ping Tom Park where David Wu, executive director of the Pui Tak Center, opened with a prayer. Raymond Chang then shared a word on the problem of insufficient progress around racial justice. Afterwards, we kneeled in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time that Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck. It was a way to remember and to viscerally understand how much weight was put on the neck of someone who bore God’s image and how long 8:46 really is.

Then, we marched silently until we arrived at the Wells/Cullerton Parking lot where a Black man allegedly murdered two Chinese men during a robbery. Grace Chan (executive director of Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community) and Ally Henny of The Witness BCC offered prayers for healing around the tensions and divisions between the Asian American and African American communities - giving special attention to the local tensions between Chinese residents in Chinatown.

Afterwards, we marched to Chinese Christian Union Church, a historic 105-year-old Asian American church in old Chinatown. As we marched to CCUC down Wentworth Avenue, we passed through the historic Chinatown Gate. As we did, a deep joy emerged in my heart. We were marching through the most distinctly Asian American neighborhood in Chicago, and we were doing it to stand with and for African Americans. I felt like we were standing against the powers and principalities that keep us insular and separated in a racialized society.

CCUC senior pastor Andrew Lee offered a prayer of confession and repentance over our silence and complicity around racial injustice. Francis Li, priest of St. Therese Chinese Catholic Church, read scripture passages from Galatians and Revelation, and Jamal Johnson, Progressive Baptist Church’s executive pastor, prayed for restoration over our community. A worship band from CCUC led us in a beautiful rendition of “I Give Myself Away,” by William McDowell.

I had a unique vantage point of the #AACMarch, as I stood atop a truck bed at every stop along the way and saw the crowds prayerfully marching behind us. It was quite the picture. Even though about 70-80 percent (estimating) of those participating were ethnically Asian (approximately 60% of the world’s population is Asian), we walked with friends from the Latin@, Black, and white communities. Jane Hong, professor of Asian American history at Occidental, shared that this was a historical event as at no time in history, has a march of this scale and diversity of attendance (along with the historic stature of churches) been led by Asian Americans - let alone Asian American Christians. She texted me saying that as far as she could tell, she didn’t think that Asian Americans had helmed many events like this before - especially in support of Black lives.

From CCUC, we headed down Wentworth toward Progressive Baptist Church, a 101-year-old African American church. Along the way, we stopped three times. Jay Catanus and Lynn Catanus, prayed that Asian Americans would take up the mantle of justice and righteousness. Other children from the Asian American and African American communities prayed for the emerging generations. Afterwards, professor Greg Lee of Wheaton College and Diana Collymore of InterVarsity USA prayed that bridges would be built between the Asian American and African American communities. It is worth mentioning that as we marched, chants erupted from the center of the crowd where younger participants (possibly high school or college students) were leading chants like, “No Justice, No Peace,” “Say his/her name!” and “Whose life matters?”

After we entered the parking lot of Progressive Baptist Church, professor Soong Chan Rah of North Park Theological Seminary shared how Asian Americans can move forward, standing in solidarity with African Americans and recognizing the ways that white supremacy pits our communities against one another. Jay Catanus, AACC director of ecclesial advocacy and pastor of Garden City Church, read the AACC Commitments for Asian American Christians to actively stand in solidarity with the African American community.

Then, Watson Jones III, pastor of the 140-year-old Compassion Baptist Church called us to reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous question: “Where do we go from here?” Watson Jones III urged us not to put our signs back in our closets, or take off our Black Lives Matter shirts and act like we weren’t at the march. Instead, we should commit by pulling virtues from a kingdom that isn’t fully here and standing with Jesus in the gutter.

The final word, from pastor Charlie Dates of Progressive Baptist Church, confronted an anemic American Christianity that cares about white Americans first. He took us through 400 years of African Americans asking, “How long?” The response, because of the promises of God, was the reverberating chant of “Not long!”

We closed with a prayer of blessing over the African American community by the Lausanne Movement’s Sam George and a prayer of blessing over the Asian American community by Watson Jones III. Grammy-nominated gospel artist Tiff Joy concluded the march by singing “We’ve Come This Far by Faith,” by Donnie McClurkin. Charlie Dates then spoke a benediction over us all.

When the event was over, many of the Asian Americans did what we often do: we remained in the church parking lot for nearly an hour, chatting and connecting with others.

Reflecting on this extraordinary experience, I can’t help but feel deep gratitude for the many Asian Americans who showed up to pray, march, and commit for the sake of Black lives and dignity. I have never been to an event where this many Asian Americans came to stand for a racial issue outside of our own communities.

Many Asian American pastors told me that this explicitly Asian American Christian march pushed them to have conversations with their elder boards and church members that might previously have been avoided. Some pastors found immediate support. Others had questions about what marching meant. Some experienced a fair amount of pushback, and still others felt a prayer march was too much for their congregations.

The Asian American Christians for Black Lives and Dignity March was just one small step on the pathway towards racial justice and discipling followers of Jesus to embrace the whole counsel of God in their lives.

I am grateful for the partnership of CCUC, Progressive Baptist Church, and Compassion Baptist Church, along with the partnerships of organizations like the AND Campaign, The Witness BCC, Truth’s Table, and InterVarsity USA.

I want to give special acknowledgement and thanks to David Wu, Andrew Lee, Chris Javier, Watson Jones III, Charlie Dates, Jamal Johnson, Soong Chan Rah, and the many pastors who invited and encouraged their congregants to stand in solidarity with the Black community. I also want to give a special thanks to our AACC team members in Chicago: Jay Catanus, Maila Kue, Given Tanri, and Sarah Lam for all their work in making this event possible. My hope is that the event will spark much needed conversations and dialogue, which will hopefully lead to firm action towards the shalom we are called into.[5]

To God be the glory.

Ray Chang AAC March Progressive.jpg

Photos courtesy of Sarah Lam, Jessica Chang, Isaiah Jeong, and Given Tanri

Still Evangelical?

Still Evangelical? Insiders Reconsider Political, Social, and Theological Meaning is a new book edited by Mark Labberton, the president of Fuller Seminary. He brings together a number of people to tackle the “evangelical identity crisis” head-on by discussing the meaning of the movement in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. The contributors are Lisa Sharon Harper, Karen Swallow Prior, Mark Young, Robert Chao Romero, Soong-Chan Rah, Allen Yeh, Sandra Maria Van Opstal, Mark Galli, Shane Claiborne, Jim Daly, and Tom Lin.

Mobilization to End Poverty

The Mobilization to End Poverty Conference was held in Washington, D.C. from April 26 - 29, 2009, and was hosted by Sojourners and sponsored by World Vision.

The following were training session leaders at the conference:[6]

Voice & Vocation: Discerning and Living Your Call:

Team

Freedom Road.us team, July 2018.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Staff
  2. ↑ (accessed July 9, 2022)
  3. ↑ Our faith calls us to uphold religious liberty (accessed July 9, 2022)
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ [2]
  6. ↑ Mobilization to End Poverty website: Training Session Leaders
  7. ↑ [3]
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