[Introduction] This web page is filled with links to resources curated by DJ Chuang, who was featured in “O.C. exports Asian American churches to the world” (OC Register, January 2013) and “Asian American pastors minister across culture gap” (LA Times, September 2007).
Current Asian American Demographics
24.7 million is the estimated number of Asian Americans in 2022—Asian alone-or-in-combination residents; the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone-or-in-combination residents (1.8 million).
In 2022, the Chinese (except Taiwanese) population was the largest Asian group (5.5 million), followed by Asian Indian (4.9 million), Filipino (4.5 million), Vietnamese (2.3 million), Korean (2.1 million) and Japanese (1.6 million). These estimates represent individuals who reported a specific detailed Asian group alone as well as those who reported that detailed Asian group in combination with one or more other detailed Asian groups or other race(s).
[Source: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month: May 2024, Census @ March 2024]
editor’s choice
- my latest articles + blog posts @ djchuang.com in the Asian American category
- Directory of Next Generation Multi-Asian Churches
- Multiasian.Church: A Future For Asian American Churches – DJ Chuang’s book about next-generation multi-Asian churches
- a Big List of Asian American Christian Books (includes non-fiction and fiction books as well as Christian life and church leadership)
- Multi-Asian Podcast Series – a conversation with Ed Choy and DJ Chuang, in 6 episodes
- #presentations Asian Americans: The Next Generation (October 2013) + Future for the Asian American Church– slides from Exponential West 2014 workshop, with Ray Chang & DJ Chuang, cf. 2013 edition
- Asian American Young Influencers List
- women Asian American Christian ministry leaders
- Innovative ethnic Asian churches in America
- Leading voices among Asian American preachers
- Asian American worship leaders and Christian musicians
- Asian American Pastors on Megachurch Staff
- How many Chinese churches are in the USA?
- Number of Korean Churches in the USA and Canada
- honorshame.com – valuable insights and resources about honor/shame cultures; “Asian cultures demystified”
- djchuang.com’s directory of churches + ministries (older)
books
- Asian American Youth Ministry (published by L2 Foundation)
- CONVERSATIONS: Asian American Evangelical Theologies in Formation (published by L2 Foundation)
Quick start to Asian American ministry
- Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths (Pew Research Center, July 2012)
- The Rise of Asian Americans (Pew Research Center, June 2012, with April 2013 update)
- Multiasian.Church: A Future For Asian American Churches ~ DJ Chuang’s book about next-generation multi-Asian churches
- Asian American Christianity: A Reader ~ edited by Timothy Tseng and Viji Nakka-Cammauf – interdisciplinary collection of scholarly and religious articles about Asian American Christianity with 4 sections: contexts, sites, identity, and voices [preview via Google Books]
- Christianity Today’s cover story & articles about Asian Americans (October 2014)
- Growing Healthy Asian American Churches ~ edited by Peter Cha, Steve Kang, Helen Lee (cf. publisher’s description, book introduction, bonus chapter “Preparing for Asian American Church Leadership” (500Kb PDF) — not in book; also see my blog series about this book, Mark Noll’s brief book review).
- Invitation to Lead: Guidance for Emerging Asian American Leaders by Paul Tokunaga (March 2003; IVP Preview)
- Pursuing the Pearl : A Comprehensive Resource for Multi-Asian Ministry by Kenneth Uyeda Fong (November 1999; Judson Press)
- Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents by Jeanette Yep, coordinator, with Peter Cha, Susan Cho Van Riesen, Greg Jao, and Paul Tokunaga (March 1998; IVP preview)
more books
- More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership And Faith by Nikki Toyama, Tracey Gee, Kathy Khang, Christie Heller de Leon, Asifa Dean; cf. blog
- Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians by Jane Hyun of Crossroads Careers
- Honoring the Generations: Learning with Asian North American Congregations – Contributors include Peter Cha, John Chung, Mitchell Kim, Sam Kim, David Lee, Grace May, Nancy Sugikawa, Gideon Tsang, Tim Tseng, Jonathan Wu, Greg Yee, and Peter Yi
- Faithful Generations: Race and New Asian American Churches by Russell Jeung – great exploration of how and why Asian American churches are formed (November 2004)
- Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life by Elaine Howard Ecklund
- God’s New Whiz Kids?: Korean American Evangelicals on Campus by Rebecca Kim
- Asian American Religions: The Making and Remaking of Borders and Boundaries, edited by Tony Carnes and Fenggang Yang (May 2004)
- Chinese Christians in America : Conversion, Assimilation, and Adhesive Identities by Fenggang Yang
- my big list of Asian American books »
ministries
- Asian American Ministry Track, Doctor of Ministry program – Talbot School of Theology at Biola University
- Asian American Center at Fuller Theological Seminary
- Asian American Ministry Program – Seattle Pacific Seminary
- Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity
- Advance Initiative – to empower, equip, and encourage Indian Americans to give their lives to advancing Jesus’ Church
- Pastoral and Laity Ministries – aka PaLM (Fresh Meadows, NY)
- Iwa (Glendale CA) – Christian resources for Japanese, Japanese Americans, and Asian Americans
- Korean American Leadership Initiative in the PCA
- Logos Evangelical Seminary 正道福音神學院 (El Monte, CA)
- Asian American Ministry Center at Union-PSCE
- Asian American CPM – network of pastors, church planters, and lay leaders for church planting movements to emerge among every Asian ethnic people group in the USA & Canada
Catalyst Leadership CenterCouncil on Asian-American Reformed Leadership
culture
- Asian-Nation: historical, demographic, political, and cultural resources for today’s diverse Asian American community
- Giant Robot is touted as the magazine for Asian American pop culture
- Hyphen Magazine: Asian America Unabridged
KoreAm Journal- Census: Mix of success, struggle [cache] — Asian-Americans’ incomes fall at ends of the spectrum, more like an hourglass on its side, with many rich and many poor
resources
- Asian American Religious Leadership Today: A Preliminary Inquiry (Durham, NC: Duke Divinity School, 2005)
- All Seasons – Counseling & Spirituality Center (Seattle)
- ChristianMentalHealth.com – Christian Counseling and Psychology, Psychological Services (San Francisco area)
- Asian American Christian Counseling Service (AACCS) (Los Angeles area)
articles
- More recent articles being listed at multiasian.church/data/articles/
- CAC Forum – Chinese American Christians discussions and resources – archived from 1995-2002
- About FACE – download archive of 1979-2003 newsletters by Fellowship of American Chinese Evangelicals; also compiled into a book, “Completing the FACE of the Chinese Church in America: the ABC Handbook: Promoting Effective Ministries to American-Born Chinese” by William L. Eng, Joseph C. Wong, Wayland Wong, David K. Woo and Peter Yuen
- Developing Asian American Leaders in IVCF, Third Edition (2001) ~ 152 page handbook
- Great ExpectAsians, cf. article in Miami Herald, “New Line of Greeting Cards Aims to Showcase Images of Asian Americans“
- Asian American Christian Groups Flock to Gibson’s “Passion” — Asian American Christians are among those caught up in the emotional roller coaster of this controversial movie. [streaming Real audio, 2/26/04 on KQED’s Pacific Time]
- Asian-American Children Are Members of a Diverse and Urban Population
- Hyphen Magazine Bridges the Gap: The Next Generation of Asian American Media — an all-volunteer non-profit effort
- Asian American Covenanters Contribute to New Book (Covenant News, 2/13/06)
- Asian American Experts Share How to Grow a ‘Healthy Church’ (Gospel Herald, January 2006)
- “Asian evangelicals blend faith, culture” [cache] and “Young evangelicals flock to Sunnyvale, rocking out for faith” [cache] (Mercury News, March 2005)
- Stark Contrasts Found Among Asian Americans (LA Times, 12/16/04)
- UMass study details Asian-American diversity: Challenges facing community defy simple fixes [05/27/04]
- Asian population surging across America (Associated Press article, also at detnews.com, wjla.com, ncvaonline.org, hollandsentinel.com) [04/30/04]
- For Asian-American Churches, Integration Proves Complicated by Michael Luo (New York Times, 01/2001)
- Silent No More – article on Asian American Christians in New Man magazine [05/1997]
- Silent Exodus: Can the East Asian church in America reverse the flight of its next generation? by Helen Lee, with additional reporting by Ted Olsen [8/1996; cache]
KAC Media – Korean American Christian media- Where are My People? – my commentary on Asian Americans [published in phuture magazine, 2003]
archive of everything I found re: Asian Americans between 2004-2007
racial insensitivity
A Class Discussion on Race and Ethnicity in American Evangelicalism (November 2013)
Lifeway President makes apology for Rickshaw Rally VBS (November 2013)
An Open Letter from the Asian American Community to the Evangelical Church (NextGenerAsianChurch.com, October 2013)
Karate Kid parody video – Exponential West addressed concerns (October 2013)
Easter Ninja online conference (ProfRah.com, January 2013)
How a conflict played out in social media— Deadly Viper book, published by Zondervan (2009)
What we’ve learned from Skits that Teach— The Skit Guys curriculum, published by Zondervan (2007) [amazon review]
Reconsidering Rickshaw Rally — the saga about a new VBS curriculum published by Lifeway that may be unintentionally stereotyping Asian Americans (and official clip art downloads)… and in November/December 2003, SBC decides to not modify the material, to the chagrin of offending many — buzz spread to: LifeWay Consults Culture Experts to Quash Critics’ Quarrels with VBS Curriculum (Apr 5, 2004); BGCT (Baptist General Convention of Texas) ends relationship with Lifeway (Mar 4, 2004); Christianity Today, “Vacation Bible School Wars” (Feb 27, 2004); NPR affiliate KQED’s Pacific Time picks up on this (Principles for Vacation Bible School)