Registration is closed for this event.
2024 Mental Health Conference
Intergenerational Wholeness for Asian Americans
Integrative Approaches to Christian Spiritual and Mental Health Formation
January 12–13, 2024 • Hybrid Conference
Intergenerational Wholeness for Asian Americans
Integrative Approaches to Christian Spiritual and Mental Health Formation
Is migration a form of trauma? How does the migration experience of the first generation continue to affect the second and third generation family members? How do these formative social conditions challenge our Christian practices of spiritual formation, discipleship, and leadership for the Asian American faith community?
This two-day, hybrid mental health conference, organized by the Center for Asian American Christianity, takes our intergenerational family stories as a point of departure for understanding the pressure points of Asian American life. Asian American church life and Asian American family life often reflect each other: the joys and pains of one are found in the other. Migration helps explain why church life and family life for Asians in the US have much in common.
This conference will examine how migration and loss impact the mental health needs of the Asian American community across different generations. The first day of the conference will host plenary presentations on the joys and pains often associated with migration and how this sets up issues of relational conflict, intergenerational misunderstanding, contested normative values, and different mental health and spiritual needs between generations.
On the second day of the conference, we will probe more deeply how these intergenerational family histories shape our Christian formation. In particular, we will host three distinct tracks in (A) spiritual formation, (B) race and Christian discipleship, and (C) leadership development for the Asian American faith community. Each track will have several workshops that provide practical strategies and skills. The target audiences for these tracks are Asian American soul care providers, discipleship leaders, lay leaders, pastors, and ministry leaders.
We are doing something new this year.
On Saturday, we will host three simultaneous workshop tracks. Feedback for the 2023 mental health conference expressed desire for more topics to be discussed. In response, we have organized three tracks: spiritual formation, race and discipleship, and leadership development. Each track has three workshops for a total of nine workshops on Saturday. All of these tracks occur at the same time, so it is up to the attendee to decide which track to pursue and which workshops to attend.
Whether attending in person or online, attendees can mix and match workshops as it suits their interest. All registered attendees will have access to video recordings after the conference is concluded.
Plenary Speakers
Jessica ChenFeng, PhD, LMFT, is an associate professor of marriage and family therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary. With her years of clinical MFT experience, she consults with academic, healthcare and church organizations to improve the well-being of people within their communities. Her research and clinical work center around social contextual intersections of race, gender, generation, trauma, and spirituality. Jessica has been shaped by multi-denominational faith contexts (Presbyterian, United Methodist, American Baptist, Adventist, Jesuit) and is grateful for the ways these traditions have shaped the contours and depths of her Christian faith. She resides in Upland, California with her spouse, and two young children. Whenever she gets the chance, she loves reconnecting with her love for analogue: paper planners and stationery, baking, and sewing.
Jeney Park-Hearn is an assistant professor of practical theology and formation at Portland Seminary and is an ordained clergy in the United Methodist Church. Her ministry experiences include congregational care, hospital chaplaincy, English language ministries in Korean American immigrant churches, and pastoral counseling and psychotherapy. Informed and shaped by these ministry contexts, she is interested in widening the scope of spiritual formation through ongoing dialogue with psychology and voices on the periphery of our attention and awareness. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her daughter, husband, 3-year-old mini-Aussiedoodle, and enjoys hiking, being outdoors, vegging out with Korean dramas, and indulging at different Asian dessert spots.
Sharon Wada is co-director of Sustainable Faith, a non-profit dedicated to fostering a culture of healthy spirituality among leaders and their communities. She is actively involved in training spiritual directors, providing resources for new expressions of Christian community, and creating spaces for leaders to develop regular practices of well-being. Sharon has a masters degree in intercultural studies from Fuller Seminary. She has a particular concern for the complexities and needed contextualization inherent to the journey of leaders of color.
Dr. David C. Chao is director of the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. He teaches courses on Asian American theology, organizes academic programs in Asian American theology and ministry, and mentors Asian and Asian American students. His research and writing focus on Asian American theology, the uses of Christian doctrine for liberation, the convergence and divergence of Protestant and Catholic dogmatics, and the theology of Karl Barth. His first book, titled Concursus and Concept Use in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Providence, is under contract with Routledge. He is grant co-author and project editor for the $300,000 translation grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar. He is also developing a multi-volume project on Asian American theology. Chao is a graduate of Yale University (BA), Regent College (MDiv), and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Association for Asian American Studies. Chao has a wide range of pastoral experience with Chinese American, Korean American, and Pan-Asian churches and ministries and is an active member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Workshop Leaders
Carrie is a pastor and spiritual director at Vineyard One NYC, a small, diverse church in New York City. She is co-founder of The Stillness Collective, an organization that creates spaces for busy people to find rest and renewal through contemplative practices and retreats. She holds certificates in Spiritual Direction and Ignatian Exercises Accompaniment from Sustainable Faith, where she is currently in training as a supervisor and instructor of spiritual directors. She also holds a PhD in English and American Literature from NYU. She has taught at NYU, Barnard, and Hunter College and is a former faculty member and Writing Center Director at City Seminary of New York. Carrie and her husband Ryan have three children, ages 12, 18, and 21, two very fluffy bunnies, and a fish.
Dr. Gregory Lee is Associate Professor of Theology and Urban Studies at Wheaton College, where he also serves as Senior Fellow for The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies, Theme Coordinator of the Aequitas Fellows Program in Urban Leadership, and Co-Director of the Center for Urban Engagement. His research concentrates on the theology of Augustine and its relevance today. A resident of the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, he is especially interested in urban questions of race and class. He has a developing interest in Asian American theology and ethics.
Dr. Lee’s current book project, Christians among the Corrupt: Augustine, Race, and the Challenge of Immoral Communities, retrieves Augustine’s understanding of church and society to address contemporary issues of Christianity and race. He is also producing an abbreviated and annotated edition of Augustine’s City of God (under contract with Baker Academic).
Outside Wheaton, Dr. Lee is Theologian in Residence at Lawndale Christian Community Church. He served for several years as board chair of Manna Christian Fellowship, a campus ministry at Princeton University.
Dave serves as the lead pastor of Harvest Community Church, a majority Asian-American congregation in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has served at Harvest since its founding in 1995. In 2012 Dave co-founded Thrive, a small network of churches committed to church health through deeper community and support among pastors and church leaders. In 2017 Dave co-founded Pastors Academics & Counselors Together (PACT), a safe space for professionals from these three sectors to form trusting relationships and learn from one another. Dave is married to Jeannie and they have four adult children. In his spare time Dave is passionate about urban sketching and pickleball.
Jennifer Chou Blue lives and ministers in South Los Angeles with Servant Partners, currently serving as the Associate US National Field Director. She and her husband Kevin are grateful to minister together in Servant Partners and at home with their three children. As a Chinese American woman who grew up in the deep South and who now lives in a mostly Latin American and African American community, she has spent most of her life in a cross-cultural setting. Jennifer is grateful to be part of the multi-racial and multi-cultural family of God. She started her work as a minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, serving on staff for twelve years at various campuses in California and with the Los Angeles Urban Project. She and her husband helped to plant Church of the Redeemer in South Los Angeles in 2003 and transitioned out of their pastoral roles in 2021. She has been on staff with Servant Partners since 2010.
Rev. Alex Chang is Lead Pastor of Princeton Alliance Church, a multi-ethnic church with over eighty-five ethnicities represented. Although he grew up as a pastor’s kid in a Korean immigrant church, ministry was never part of his vocational plans originally. He earned a BA in Economics from Boston College and worked as a banker for several financial institutions in New York City before moving to Princeton to earn his MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is an ordained minister in the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) denomination and also serves as Vice-Chairman on the Metropolitan District Executive Committee of the C&MA. He is currently pursuing a DMin at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Ming (MSW, Boston College 2008) has been a licensed independent clinical social worker and therapist for over a decade. Prior to that, she worked in community-based mental health and family stabilization. Ming enjoys gardening and helped launch a community garden in the neighborhood in 2005. She served in campus ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship from 1992 – 2000.
Ming, her husband Mako, and their two children (ages 23 and 21) have lived among friends in a Christian intentional community house in Dorchester, MA since 2000. They worship at Neighborhood Church of Dorchester where Mako serves on the Elder Team. They have been foster parents for almost seven years.
Mako (MTS, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary 2019) is the Director of The Anástasis Center for Christian Education and Ministry, which proclaims the restorative justice of God and the healing atonement of Jesus. Mako did campus ministry from 2001 – 2014 with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and worked at Intel Corporation before that. He is the author of Christmas with Irenaeus: How Jesus’ Incarnation Honors Creation, the Human Body, and the Human Story (2023) and Abortion Policy and Christian Social Ethics in the United States (2021). He contributed chapters to Reparations and the Theological Disciplines: Prophetic Voices for Remembrance, Reckoning, and Repair (2023), Honor, Shame, and the Gospel: Reframing Our Message and Ministry (2019), and the NIV God’s Justice Bible (2016).
Mako, his wife Ming, and their two children (ages 23 and 21) have lived among friends in a Christian intentional community house in Dorchester, MA since 2000. They worship at Neighborhood Church of Dorchester where Mako serves on the Elder Team. They have been foster parents for almost seven years.
Pastor Enoch currently serves at Boston Chinese Evangelical Church. He is married to Karen and they have 3 sons at home and 1 daughter who has passed on. Enoch received his education from UCLA and Talbot School of Theology. Enoch is also currently enrolled in the PhD program at Western Seminary. He is the chair and a founding board member for the Boston Center for Biblical Counseling. He is the author of In Reverence And Awe, a practical worship leading resource. Enoch enjoys spending time with his family, running, martial arts, and playing the occasional video game.
Workshop Hosts
Bo Karen Lee, ThM ’99, PhD ’07, is associate professor of spiritual theology and Christian formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She earned her BA in religious studies from Yale University, her MDiv from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, and her ThM and PhD from Princeton Seminary. She furthered her studies in the returning scholars program at the University of Chicago, received training as a spiritual director from Oasis Ministries, and was a Mullin fellow with the Institute of Advanced Catholic Studies. Her book, Sacrifice and Delight in the Mystical Theologies of Anna Maria van Schurman and Madame Jeanne Guyon, argues that surrender of self to God can lead to the deepest joy in God. She has recently completed a volume, The Soul of Higher Education, which explores contemplative pedagogies and research strategies. A recipient of the John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, she gave a series of international lectures that included the topic, “The Face of the Other: An Ethic of Delight.”
Professor Lee serves as President of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, and is on the editorial board of the journal, Spiritus. She also serves on the steering committee of the Christian Theology and Bible Group of the Society of Biblical Literature. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, and the American Academy of Religion. Before joining Princeton faculty, Bo taught in the Theology Department at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, where she developed courses with a vibrant service-learning component for students to work at shelters for women recovering from drug addiction and sex trafficking. She now enjoys teaching classes on prayer for the Spirituality and Mission Program at Princeton Seminary, in addition to taking students on retreats and hosting meditative walks along nature trails. In December 2022, Professor Lee launched the Center for Contemplative Leadership at Princeton Seminary, which she serves as its Founder and Director (and recent conference organizer exploring “Prayer as Resistance”).
Ki Joo “KC” Choi previously served as chair of the Department of Religion at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, and as coordinator for the second-year university core program Christianity and Culture in Dialogue and the newly formed medical humanities minor there. His teaching and research areas encompass Protestant and Catholic (ecumenical) moral theology, theological aesthetics, peace studies, race and identity, and Asian American theology. Choi is the author of Disciplined by Race: Theological Ethics and the Problem of Asian American Identity, the first sustained account of the racialized contours of Asian American life by a theologian, published in 2019. He currently is finishing a book, tentatively titled Aesthetics and Theological Ethics Reexamined: Deliberation, Community, and Discord, that brings to bear an Edwardsean account of the affections on questions of art and moral change. He also was recently appointed co-editor of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.
A native of Queens, New York, he belongs to the Korean Holiness Church, one of the largest denominations within the Wesleyan tradition.
Nina is pursuing an MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary with a concentration in Theology, Ecology, and Faith Formation. Nina’s varied career path as a structural
engineer, meditation teacher, and community leader informs her vocation. She studied contemplative dialogue with a Benedictine oblate for four years and her coursework and ministry focus on the interface of the inner, contemplative, journey of our faith lives with the outward, public mediation of religious experience, culture, and practice. Attending Seminary widens and deepens her interests in homiletics in a changing Church, interfaith and ecumenical experience, and faith formation so she can compassionately respond and faithfully serve God and others in complex times such as this. Nina is pursuing clinical chaplaincy certification, and continues to advocate for diverse leadership and voices in the Catholic Church.
Her home soils are New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, including Swarthmore College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives with her husband and two teenage children at The Lawrenceville School, a boarding high school in central New Jersey.
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Schedule
All times are Eastern Time
Friday, January 12, 2024 · Plenaries
Time (ET)
Session
Presenter(s)
10:30AM ET
Registration & Check-In
11:00AM ET
Opening Remarks
David C. Chao
11:30AM ET
Plenary 1: Honoring, Owning, and Integrating our Asian American Identities
When we are part of families with a recent legacy of migration, we understand the desire to “forget what is behind” and “press toward the future.” In our desire to focus on the hopeful things ahead, we can often reject anything bad (past trauma, pain, grief, loss, shame, etc). In this plenary talk, we open-heartedly explore what it might look like to take an honest look at the “both-and”: the narratives of resilience, strength, and success alongside our family narratives of trauma, grief, and loss. How can we, in community, honor and own the fullness of our Asian American identities and legacies? Is it possible that in moving in the direction of courageously sitting with uncomfortable and dishonored histories that we can find freedom together to live life to the full?
Jessica ChenFeng, PhD, LMFT, is an associate professor of marriage and family therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary. With her years of clinical MFT experience, she consults with academic, healthcare and church organizations to improve the well-being of people within their communities. Her research and clinical work center around social contextual intersections of race, gender, generation, trauma, and spirituality. Jessica has been shaped by multi-denominational faith contexts (Presbyterian, United Methodist, American Baptist, Adventist, Jesuit) and is grateful for the ways these traditions have shaped the contours and depths of her Christian faith. She resides in Upland, California with her spouse, and two young children. Whenever she gets the chance, she loves reconnecting with her love for analogue: paper planners and stationery, baking, and sewing.
1:00PM ET
Plenary 2: From Crucible to Chalice: Reimagining Loss on the Pathway to Wholeness
To tell the story of being Asian in America is difficult to imagine without mentioning loss. From the all-too-familiar accounts of immigration to our spirit’s yearning for belonging amidst alienation, our stories are laced with loss and manifold attempts to flee from the pain of grief. The good news of our living faith, however, comes with an invitation to lean into the strain of loss and to reimagine it as a beckoning towards a lifelong, communal, and redemptive process that attunes and pivots our whole being towards an experiential and more holistic “knowledge” of God.
Jeney Park-Hearn is an assistant professor of practical theology and formation at Portland Seminary and is an ordained clergy in the United Methodist Church. Her ministry experiences include congregational care, hospital chaplaincy, English language ministries in Korean American immigrant churches, and pastoral counseling and psychotherapy. Informed and shaped by these ministry contexts, she is interested in widening the scope of spiritual formation through ongoing dialogue with psychology and voices on the periphery of our attention and awareness. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her daughter, husband, 3-year-old mini-Aussiedoodle, and enjoys hiking, being outdoors, vegging out with Korean dramas, and indulging at different Asian dessert spots.
2:30PM ET
Plenary 3: A Framework for Asian American Spiritual Formation
After the new-found excitement of coming to faith, we eventually encounter the limits of what we can achieve on our own in our spiritual journeys. We encounter a spiritual wall. This spiritual wall is a sign for a renewed encounter with God’s grace in forms that perhaps we have not yet received. As Asian American Christians, our intergenerational family history along with our social history as Asians in the US and in God’s divine economy factor into our experience of both spiritual walls and God’s grace. Come to this plenary talk that introduces a framework for Asian American spiritual formation that emphasizes how God longs to meet us in all our spheres of life.
Sharon Wada is co-director of Sustainable Faith, a non-profit dedicated to fostering a culture of healthy spirituality among leaders and their communities. She is actively involved in training spiritual directors, providing resources for new expressions of Christian community, and creating spaces for leaders to develop regular practices of well-being. Sharon has a masters degree in intercultural studies from Fuller Seminary. She has a particular concern for the complexities and needed contextualization inherent to the journey of leaders of color.
Dr. David C. Chao is director of the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. He teaches courses on Asian American theology, organizes academic programs in Asian American theology and ministry, and mentors Asian and Asian American students. His research and writing focus on Asian American theology, the uses of Christian doctrine for liberation, the convergence and divergence of Protestant and Catholic dogmatics, and the theology of Karl Barth. His first book, titled Concursus and Concept Use in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Providence, is under contract with Routledge. He is grant co-author and project editor for the $300,000 translation grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar. He is also developing a multi-volume project on Asian American theology. Chao is a graduate of Yale University (BA), Regent College (MDiv), and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Association for Asian American Studies. Chao has a wide range of pastoral experience with Chinese American, Korean American, and Pan-Asian churches and ministries and is an active member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
4:00PM ET
Panel Discussion
Jessica ChenFeng
Jeney Park Hearn
Sharon Wada
David C. Chao
4:45PM ET
Closing Comments and Announcements
David C. Chao
Saturday, January 13, 2024 · Workshops
Time (ET)
Session
Presenter(s)
10:30AM ET
Registration & Check-In
11:00AM ET
Opening Remarks
David C. Chao
Workshop Tracks
Select one of three workshops per session. You do not need to stick to one track.
View the promo video here.
These workshops are designed with soul care providers, that is, spiritual directors, campus ministers, spiritual formation pastors and leaders, in mind. Explore perspectives and practices that will deepen your own formation while giving you tools for fostering wholistic spiritual health of others.
Opening Remarks
11:15AM ET
Bo Karen Lee, ThM ’99, PhD ’07, is associate professor of spiritual theology and Christian formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She earned her BA in religious studies from Yale University, her MDiv from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, and her ThM and PhD from Princeton Seminary. She furthered her studies in the returning scholars program at the University of Chicago, received training as a spiritual director from Oasis Ministries, and was a Mullin fellow with the Institute of Advanced Catholic Studies. Her book, Sacrifice and Delight in the Mystical Theologies of Anna Maria van Schurman and Madame Jeanne Guyon, argues that surrender of self to God can lead to the deepest joy in God. She has recently completed a volume, The Soul of Higher Education, which explores contemplative pedagogies and research strategies. A recipient of the John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, she gave a series of international lectures that included the topic, “The Face of the Other: An Ethic of Delight.”
Professor Lee serves as President of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, and is on the editorial board of the journal, Spiritus. She also serves on the steering committee of the Christian Theology and Bible Group of the Society of Biblical Literature. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women, and the American Academy of Religion. Before joining Princeton faculty, Bo taught in the Theology Department at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, where she developed courses with a vibrant service-learning component for students to work at shelters for women recovering from drug addiction and sex trafficking. She now enjoys teaching classes on prayer for the Spirituality and Mission Program at Princeton Seminary, in addition to taking students on retreats and hosting meditative walks along nature trails. In December 2022, Professor Lee launched the Center for Contemplative Leadership at Princeton Seminary, which she serves as its Founder and Director (and recent conference organizer exploring “Prayer as Resistance”).
Ki Joo “KC” Choi previously served as chair of the Department of Religion at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, and as coordinator for the second-year university core program Christianity and Culture in Dialogue and the newly formed medical humanities minor there. His teaching and research areas encompass Protestant and Catholic (ecumenical) moral theology, theological aesthetics, peace studies, race and identity, and Asian American theology. Choi is the author of Disciplined by Race: Theological Ethics and the Problem of Asian American Identity, the first sustained account of the racialized contours of Asian American life by a theologian, published in 2019. He currently is finishing a book, tentatively titled Aesthetics and Theological Ethics Reexamined: Deliberation, Community, and Discord, that brings to bear an Edwardsean account of the affections on questions of art and moral change. He also was recently appointed co-editor of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.
A native of Queens, New York, he belongs to the Korean Holiness Church, one of the largest denominations within the Wesleyan tradition.
Dr. David C. Chao is director of the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. He teaches courses on Asian American theology, organizes academic programs in Asian American theology and ministry, and mentors Asian and Asian American students. His research and writing focus on Asian American theology, the uses of Christian doctrine for liberation, the convergence and divergence of Protestant and Catholic dogmatics, and the theology of Karl Barth. His first book, titled Concursus and Concept Use in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Providence, is under contract with Routledge. He is grant co-author and project editor for the $300,000 translation grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar. He is also developing a multi-volume project on Asian American theology. Chao is a graduate of Yale University (BA), Regent College (MDiv), and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Association for Asian American Studies. Chao has a wide range of pastoral experience with Chinese American, Korean American, and Pan-Asian churches and ministries and is an active member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Workshop 1
11:30AM ET
View the promo video here.
Wholistic spiritual formation is grounded in knowing your personality particularities and your communal contexts. Using a tri-focal lens to explore context, this workshop will consider the AAPI experience in family, society and God’s economy. This workshop offers a framework for increasing one’s awareness of God’s movements and guidance in all spheres of life and fosters mindful listening and reflective question asking in the AAPI context.
View the promo video here.
Many Asian Americans immigrated to the United States for educational and professional opportunities, whether for themselves or their children. Many have achieved success in these areas. This workshop questions the compatibility of Christian faith with these material pursuits, concentrating on four areas Asian American Christians have not generally treated as matters for discipleship: academic achievement, wealth and poverty, residential location, and race. Each of these areas raises potential tensions between Christian discipleship and the desire to honor family sacrifices. By investigating these areas, this workshop encourages Asian American Christians to expand their conception of discipleship from individual faithfulness to faithful engagement with their social and political contexts.
View the promo video here.
This interactive workshop will guide participants through empathetic reflection on pressures faced by the previous generation that produced leadership anxiety. Participants will consider how the previous generation’s responses to their anxiety impacted leadership development in the next generation. By considering the pressures that shaped the previous generation’s response to leadership anxiety and exploring what would have constituted the most effective responses, participants will begin formulating strategies to better cope with their own leadership anxiety.
Workshop 2
1:00PM ET
View the promo video here.
Given the complexities and competing demands of AAPI life and ministry, spiritual health requires intention and planning. This workshop will explore the challenges of cultivating a culture of regular soul care and offer considerations for structuring daily life to make space for healthy spiritual practices.
View the promo video here.
In my experience and from what I’ve seen in others, learning how to personally follow Jesus in tangible and real ways is often the first phase of discipleship. Learning how to live in Christian community, whether that be through marriage or intentional community, is a common second phase of discipleship. And for those of us called to be parents, whether of our own biological children or through foster care or adoption, parenting is the fertile field of opportunity for discipleship 3.0. In other words, it is really hard!! Nothing has driven me to the need for deeper personal healing than becoming a parent. I’d love to share my story with you of how my husband and I have tried to cooperate with the Lord and the ways he has used parenting and specifically, decisions about where to send our kids for school in South Los Angeles, to push us to go deeper and further in our faith. It’s one thing to have chosen for ourselves that the call of Jesus and the upside kingdom are the path to life and abundant joy. It’s another thing to make that choice again for our children. One additional note: my husband is African American, so inherent in my story are race and the blessings and challenges of cross-cultural dynamics. I’ll weave those themes into my workshop as well.
View the promo video here.
This workshop will provide leaders with practical tools in order to elevate the importance of mental health for church staff. It will also weave in personal stories of how a young-ish Asian-American pastor learned to prioritize mental health for a staff that includes both ethnic and age diversity. Some of those stories will discuss seeing mental health professionals (both for personal and marital reasons), leading from the second chair, utilizing one’s own Asian-American background to connect with others, and sharing a template for best practices.
Workshop 3
2:30PM ET
View the promo video here.
Wise decision making in the life of the disciple builds on becoming a discerning person who is sensitive to God’s ongoing guidance. Explore what discernment and decision-making look like for those who pursue a deepening Christian spirituality and hold AAPI cultural values.
View the promo video here.
What is good about Asian parenting styles? What needs redeeming by Christ? If Asian parents are too demanding, are White families too permissive? What are some important Scriptures to consider? We will talk about telling stories and giving verbal affirmation vs. silence; educating kids as missionaries vs. as capitalist competitors; and motivating kids through persevering joy and intrinsic virtues vs. needing to be better or best. We will also share stories of how our children, raised in Christian community and with a love for creation and justice, challenged their non-Christian grandparents about “success”: personal success is inseparable from community and global flourishing, because climate change makes clear that separating them was a mistake. We will also address how we as parents have handled disappointment as our kids go through faith and character struggles.
View the promo video here.
As servant leaders in a local Christian church, we already encounter a range of challenges and opportunities when it comes to a ministry of counseling. In many Asian churches in America, we not only have the typical challenges that most American churches face, but also have challenges presented by the compounding factors of multiple cultures, languages, and generations.
In this workshop, a local church pastor in a Chinese heritage church shares some of the struggles he has observed in both his church and other churches. Come to hear stories and learn practices for pursuing intergenerational wholeness through cultivating a culture of biblical care and counseling in the local church.
Panel Discussions
4:00PM ET
Panel discussion for workshop track A "Asian American Spiritual Formation: Perspectives and Practices for Soul Care Providers." Featuring Sharon Wada and Carrie Myers.
Carrie Myers
Carrie Myers
Panel discussion for workshop track B "Race and Asian American Discipleship." Featuring Greg Lee, Jen Blue, and Ming & Mako Nagasawa.
Panel discussion for workshop track C "Wholeness and Asian American Leadership Development." Featuring Dave Lee, Alex Chang, and Enoch Liao.
4:45PM ET
Closing Comments and Announcements
David C. Chao
Video Previews
Plenaries
Asian American Spiritual Formation Workshops
Race and Asian American Discipleship
Wholeness and Asian American Leadership Development
About
Organizers
Dr. David C. Chao is director of the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. He teaches courses on Asian American theology, organizes academic programs in Asian American theology and ministry, and mentors Asian and Asian American students. His research and writing focus on Asian American theology, the uses of Christian doctrine for liberation, the convergence and divergence of Protestant and Catholic dogmatics, and the theology of Karl Barth. His first book, titled Concursus and Concept Use in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Providence, is under contract with Routledge. He is grant co-author and project editor for the $300,000 translation grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar. He is also developing a multi-volume project on Asian American theology. Chao is a graduate of Yale University (BA), Regent College (MDiv), and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Association for Asian American Studies. Chao has a wide range of pastoral experience with Chinese American, Korean American, and Pan-Asian churches and ministries and is an active member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Team
Born and raised in the Philippines, Yanan is currently pursuing an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary. There, he is concentrating his research on the theologies of Karl Barth and James Cone, environmental regeneration/eco-theology, and American religious history. As a writer, Yanan’s research has been published in Christianity Today, Sojourners Magazine, Ideos Institute, Inheritance Magazine, the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture, and more. Moreover, Yanan is a musician and poet who composes neoclassical meditations and theological poetry under the name Yanan & Siegfried. Through his creativity, Yanan seeks to bridge the gap between theological reflection and artistic curiosity.
Shreya Ramachandran is a writer, poet, and speaker. She has a BA in Linguistics and is currently pursuing her MA in Theological Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary at the intersection of race, postcolonialism, and Asian diaspora studies.
Center for Asian American Christianity
The newly expanded Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary comes at a critical time in the life of Asian America. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial-ethnic demographic in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the persistence of anti-Asian racism. Moreover, minority and immigrant churches are poised to transform the face of Christianity in the United States in the next few decades. The Center for Asian American Christianity seeks to equip and empower the next generation of Asian American leaders for service in church, society, and academy.
Princeton Theological Seminary has been a leading voice in Asian American theology and ministry through the work of Professor Emeritus Sang Hyun Lee, the Center for Asian American Christianity, and the establishment of the Kyung-Chik Han Chair of Asian American Theology.
