Hearing the Voices of Asian American Christians

By Joshua Wu

I

f Asian American voices matter in and to the Church, why are they so hard to find?

It is hard to find biblically-grounded books, commentaries, articles, or blogs written by Asian American Christians specifically for Asian American audiences. Even in Asian American church spaces, the resources I used were almost always written by non-Asian Americans, requiring additional work of contextualizing and translation to make it relevant to our lived experiences, perspectives, and identities.

This is also reflected in the invisibility of Asian American voices in Christian media. There are few Asian American contributors or editors in leading Christian publications. This May, during Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month where many media outlets featured Asian American voices and perspectives, not one major Christian publication featured content about Asian American Christians, reflections on the state of Asian American Christianity, or explainers about the relevance of this month to the Asian American community. And only 3% of articles (2 of 74 articles published in May) on a prominent ministry site featured Asian authors.

I work for a public relations and communication marketing analytics firm. One way we help clients is to identify white space, a domain, issue area, or audience currently underserved primed for innovation and disruption. The invisibility of Asian American Christian voices is a glaring white space. We lack spaces where Asian American Christians can learn from, share, and provide culturally-relevant encouragement to live out our Imago Dei. 

To that end, I am excited for the opportunity to serve as Reclaim’s Editorial Director and lead efforts to develop media that equip, empower, and encourage Asian American Christians to reflect Christ in and through our unique cultural perspectives.

I have three priorities over the next few months.

First, we are changing the submission process to encourage more voices and perspectives to be heard. In the past, we mainly considered fully drafted submissions. Starting in June, we are transitioning to a pitch submission process where interested contributors submit short 150-300 word summaries of their submission. For more details about how to write for us, check out https://www.asianamericanchristiancollaborative.com/submit.

Second, we are reorganizing and introducing new content verticals in addition to our current sections. The new sections will review books, movies, and other cultural media from Asian American Christian perspectives, highlight current event civic and political news Asian American Christians need to know about, and welcome theological reflections from Asian American theologians, seminaries, pastors, and philosophers.

Third, we will innovate the type of content we share. Reclaim will continue to feature single-authored essays and written media articles you are already familiar with. But we will be introducing other content formats such as multi-authored roundtables, shareable infographics, and multi-format multimedia articles to provide new creative opportunities for engagement and interaction.

I want to personally invite you to join us in this new phase of Reclaim. There are at least four ways you can join us. First, continue reading, commenting, recommending, and sharing Reclaim articles. Second, consider submitting a pitch for a story. Third, consider joining our team of editors, media specialists, and content creatives. And fourth, feel free to reach out to me with how Reclaim content has encouraged you, ideas on how we can make Reclaim more relevant to Asian American Christians, or to learn more about how you can volunteer with us; I can be reached at josh@aachristcollab.com.

I believe that Asian Asian voices matter in and to the Church. And I hope that you will join us as we seek to amplify Asian American voices, equip Asian American Christians looking for culturally relevant and contextualized Christian content, and encourage the flourishing of Christians in Asian American and non Asian American church spaces. 

Photo by Alvin Ng from Pexels

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Joshua Wu is a husband, father, pastor's kid, and social scientist seeking to faithfully reflect Christ in all aspects of his life. He has a doctorate in Political Science from The Ohio State University, works in data analytics for a global communications firm, and currently lives in Rochester New York with his family. You can follow him on Twitter @joshswu.