Asians at Redeemer

I thought it was so cool that Tim Keller was featured in New York Magazine. It’s a pretty interesting article, you can check it out here: http://nymag.com/news/features/62374/index2.html

One line that popped out to me was the following: Jonathan Tse, a 28-year-old investment analyst originally from Hong Kong, describes Redeemer’s emphasis on divine grace as a kind of liberation from the pressure that Manhattan, and the Asian community in particular (the Redeemer congregation has a disproportionately large Asian component), puts on its young people to perform. ‘Redeemer and the gospels themselves basically say, ‘You don’t earn your way into eternal life by working or by being good.’ 

Just reading that made me wonder if the reason for Redeemers’ “disproportionately large Asian component” was due to the lack of “divine grace” shown in the churches that these Asians grew up in? I know for myself growing up, even though “God’s grace” may have been preached, the families at church that compared each other’s children and college aspirations did not match that message. Just recently, my dad’s friend asked if I could bring his 11 year old daughter to church. When I asked why, (since he himself was not a Christian) he said that he knew sending his daughter to church would help her get into Harvard. This kind of thinking, seeing church as a means to earning our way to eternal life AND a successful worldly life, is part of the reason why I think many Asian Americans are leaving the churches they may have grown up in and flocking to mega-churches like Redeemer.

What do you think?

Read more: Why Are So Many New Yorkers Flocking to Evangelical Christian Preacher Tim Keller? — New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/features/62374/index2.html#ixzz0YPYZnfb4

3 Comments

• 
  EMT December 1, 2009 at 3:53 am

  I don’t claim to be a Marxist (at least not professionally), but I think class and educational background (which in some ways are indistinguishable) are the most prominent variables that explains attendance at Redeemer in general, and perhaps the disproportional amount of Asians.

  To be more specific, I would bet (but could not prove) that a majority of the attendees are within one standard deviation of the same income level, professionals, with above average education (compared to the general population- and particularly Christians).

  This profile blends in nicely with Tim Keller’s intellectual style of preaching that tends to challenge the minds of believers but is certainly not overly emotional. To state that Redeemer’s cohort would fit nicely into Max Weber’s idea of the “protestant work ethic” is likely the understatement of the year.

  Indeed, the most heated questions I heard at Redeemer when I went was not rollicking disputation regarding theological doctrine or existential questioning, but self-selection based on what type of school and job one possessed. I think it’s about being part of an established religious “culture” with certain established and comfortable norms rather than attributable to race per se.

  Reply
• steph cheng LIVE! – neat tim keller article – yes he’s brilliant! December 11, 2009 at 9:24 pm

  [...] (thanks glennis!) [...]

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• 
  Regina January 29, 2010 at 5:27 pm

  @Glennis and @EMT: I agree with both of you in some respects.

  Yes, Asian Americans sadly often grow up without an experiential understanding of grace – even in the church, as both Glennis and the article’s Jonathan Tse point out – which is why they flock to churches that not only preach grace but live lives characterized by grace.

  @EMT, I think the socioeconomic similarities you’re observing across ethnicities at Redeemer is the result of the drive for performance and worldly success that is all too common in many Asian American communities.

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