Christ and culture

I finished reading Philip Jenkins’ “The Next Christendom”. The chapter on “Coming to terms” really interested me. Jenkins outlines how Christian beliefs have been modified or combined with indigenous religions in the places where Christianity is growing the fastest, i.e., in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

On the one hand, theologians in the West question if the result is truly Christianity. But Jenkins also discusses how Christianity was changed when it moved out of Palestine and co-opted religious practices of the Northern Europeans and British Isles.

Last Sunday we had a bunch of students from InterVarsity’s Stanford chapter visit as part of their “church tour”. In the Q&A afterward someone asked what it was like for someone who was not Asian American to participate in Grace Community. The question made me think about my own experience of Christianity, how my theology, my devotional life, my public worship, and even my music echoes so much of a voice that is mostly northern European.

Yesterday I went to lunch with several families from Grace Community. We were of Chinese and Korean backgrounds eating in a Japanese restaurant. There was that Asian American rhythm to our fellowship that made it easy for us to relate to each other so that conversation could flow easily.

In some ways I’m still coming to terms with being an Asian American Christian. At the same time, I’m sure that Christ is big enough to meet all of us on whatever terms are needed so that we can experience his grace.