wfn.org | North American Pacific Asian Disciples look to the future

["Office of Communications"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

Date: August 2, 2000
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
E-mail: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

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	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- North American Pacific Asian Disciples are at the 
crossroad of hope and challenge. They're hopeful because they achieved 
what they set out to do 10 years ago. They're challenged, because they 
have new goals to guide their maturing community over the next 10 years. 

	Ten years ago, North American Pacific Asian Disciples (NAPAD), then known 
as American Asian Disciples, set out to number at least 50 congregations 
by the year 2000, to have an executive pastor and to do extensive work in 
the Korean Disciples community. 

	In his opening address to the 11th NAPAD Convocation at Christian 
Theological Seminary here, Executive Pastor Geunhee Yu declared that Asian 
Disciples had reached those goals and were ready, with God's help, to 
pursue new calls to faithfulness to God and growth in numbers. "Let us 
work hard to start five new churches every year for the next 10 years! Can 
we do that?" he exhorted. He heard a resounding "yes!" in return. The 
biennial gathering attracted 185 participants.

	Establishing new and strengthening some 60 existing NAPAD congregations 
is one of five emphases identified in a NAPAD covenant created at a March 
2000 visioning conference. Yu also rallied his flock around four other 
challenges in the covenant: development of leadership among youth and 
young adults; cultivation of the leadership of women in ministry; 
re-visioning theological education; and strengthening structural and 
funding relationships with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). 

	In January, the Korean Disciples Convocation raised the eyebrows of some 
when it declared its intention to establish an independent Korean 
seminary. At the NAPAD convocation, neither Yu nor other leaders dwelled 
on that issue. Yu mentioned it, and said, "I don't know how soon" such an 
institution could be formed. Instead, he and others referred to language 
in the covenant, developed after the Korean Disciples announced the 
independent seminary move. The covenant commits NAPAD and its partners to 
"ensuring to establish a Disciple-degree granting Korean language 
ministerial program at a Disciple seminary or equivalent institution, and 
to establish a similar program for other North American Pacific Asians as 
needed." 

	"We are urging the church to take seriously the special needs for 
leadership development in the Asian Disciple community," Yu said. Asian 
Disciples leaders, he added, will discuss the issue further in an Oct. 18 
consultation of Disciples seminary administrators and racial ethnic 
leaders in Chicago.

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	The Rev. Syngman Rhee, moderator, Presbyterian Church (USA), set a 
theological framework for the convocation in his keynote sermon. Many 
Asian cultures with different languages are part of Christ's church in 
North America. Nonethless, "we are one in Jesus Christ," he assured. He 
counseled that self-evaluation and personal spiritual discipline go hand 
in hand with evangelism and the growth of congregations. "If we are to 
make disciples of all nations, we must first learn to be disciples," Rhee 
said. 

	North American Asian Ministries has been part of Homeland Ministries 
since 1992. In July, the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples 
of Christ) approved a task force that will explore how NAPAD can move from 
under the wing of a general unit of the church into a place of 
self-determination and self-sustenance. Realizing the next two years will 
be a time of change, NAPAD altered its method of self-governance, 
replacing its executive council with a "transition team" of leaders. 

	It named five transition team groups. For the next two years, each group 
will discuss one of the areas of concentration named in NAPAD's new 
visioning document. It called the Rev. Tim Lee, visiting assistant 
professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, 
University of Chicago, as moderator of the transition team. Lee will also 
chair the group dealing with the theological education needs of American 
Asians. 

	"We're at a time of moving forward," said Jeri Sias, El Paso, Texas, 
outgoing NAPAD moderator. "I invite you to grow and learn. I am optimistic 
about our future." 

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