Urban Multi-Ethnic Campus Evangelism by Korean Missionaries in USA and 93 countries
Dr. Jose Paul Ahn
(Amissionary, Latin Coordinator of University Bible Fellowship)
INTRODUCTION
This paper will show a new paradigm in Urban Youth Evangelism. Many Evangelists are tackling important issues according to the various necessities that Urbanization brings. We recognize the necessity of youth evangelism among Urbanites. However, not many have dealt with multi-ethnic youth evangelism in urban areas by self-supporting lay workers rather than financially supported staff and seminarians. But this is a case study of Urban Multi-Ethnic Campus Evangelism in 93 countries especially in NEIU, Chicago by self-supporting lay Korean missionaries. It begins with the necessity and importance of urban college student evangelism. It explains the multi-ethnic aspects in urban mission. It shows when, how and why the Korean self-supporting lay missionaries went to 93 countries especially to the USA andraised NEIU multi-ethnic students to be campus Bible teachers. The studentsnow lead 7 campus group Bible studies weekly in one of 14 Chicago UBF campus ministries,113 North America UBF campus ministries, and 238 UBF branchesin 93 countries. This can be one of the very efficient methods to carry out the Great Commission of Jesus in today’s urbanizing, global and diverse generation.
1. The Importance and necessity of Urban Multi-Ethnic Campus Evangelism
Through most of history, the human population has lived a rural lifestyle, dependent on agriculture and hunting for survival. According to the UN statistics[i], in 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in urban areas. By 1900, almost 14 percent were urbanites. By 1950, 28% of world population had lived in the city. It reached 41% by 1980. By 2000 it became 51%. More than half of the whole world population became city residents.
Among them more than half are living in the cities over one million. At the beginning of the 20th century only 20 cities were over one million of population. In 2005 the number grew to 336 cities. In 1950, only two cities, London and New York were over 10 million. In 1980, 10 cities became over 10 million. Now we have more than 25 cities that are over 10 million and 5 of them are even more than 20 million of population.[ii]
According to the report of Catholic statistics, there is a tendency for young people to come to the cities. In 1976, 60% of the whole population in the cities of Africa was under 24 years old. 68% of city residents of Latin America are between 15 and 24 years old. In Mexico City the average age is 14.4 years old and the youth comprises 30% of the entire population. In USA 25-30% and in Chicago, 24.6% are young generations. The average age of city residents is 30’s. [iii]
Furthermore USA is known as a melting pot. There are Multi-Ethnic immigrants from around 200 nations. This raises another complicated issue to deal with in evangelizing young people. Urban Young People Evangelism must deal with the different languages, cultures, traditions and habits of these Multi-Ethnic Urban young people.
Here we see the strategic importance of evangelizing young people in the cities with Multi-Ethnic backgrounds, because young people are future leaders of the nations and the world.
However, what is the present situation for city evangelism? Let us see the case of Chicago:
The Chicago metropolitan area contains nearly ten million residents. (7/1/09, 9,580,567) 37% is African-American, 32% Anglo-American, 26% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 1% other races among 233 nations.[iv]
Who are helping urban people and how?
Good News Community Church operates a soup kitchen in Rogers Park. Homeless and low-income people receive meals and other services. Some groups help serve and clean up evening meals.[v]
Cornerstone Community Outreach (CCO) is a ministry located in Blood Alley of the Uptown neighborhood. The alley used to be very dark and was a haven for gang violence, prostitution, and drug dealing. CCO came into the alley and brought light both figuratively and literally.[vi]
Casa Central is the largest Hispanic social service agency in Illinois. They offer a myriad of programs for children and families.[vii]
Countless churches and organizations are fighting homelessness, hunger, and poverty in this city and there are many who work behind the scenes.
Then what is the present situation of Urban Multi Ethnic evangelism among the churches in the USA, especially for young urban people?
Among the white churches in the USA only 7.5% are multi-ethnic. The other 92.5% are homogenous.[viii] Most American ethnic churches are homogenous: Greek, Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Spanish, African-American, Pilipino, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, etc. Some churches have bilingual worship services. Some Churches include young college students such as young Korean-Americans who bring their Asian friends. But they are just in the beginning stage.
All these activities are good. Why then Campus Evangelism?
First of all, strategically, Campus Evangelism can be one of the efficient ways for Urban Multi Ethnic Young people Evangelism whose number reaches 1,000 millions, 25% of entire urban populations. Campus students are Elites among young people of Urban Multi-Ethnics. When we evangelize urban campuses, it means we evangelize Urban Multi-Ethnic Young Elites. If we can raise them as disciples of Jesus and even as disciple makers, i.e., the future Christian leaders, it would mean to carry out Jesus’ Great Commission in the 21st Century in an increasingly diverse and globalized world.
It is also biblical. Christ envisioned it. Though the Jews in Jesus’ time had so many problems such as economic, social, political, religious and physical illness and demon possessions, Jesus did many things: healing the sick, feeding the poor and preaching the gospel. Yet we can see that Jesus focused on two things. The first one was the ministry of the word of God. Once Peter said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”[ix] It meant they wanted Jesus to be a Physician to their sick. But Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”[x] The next thing Jesus focused on was raising 12 disciples among young and ordinary people. If young disciples could be raised, then there would be hope for the future of the nation and the world with these leaders.
Paul’s ministry was mostly urban ministry. He also labored for inland mission in minor Asia. But it was evident that the Holy Spirit sent him again and again into urban mission, such as when he was called to Macedonia.[xi] Since then Paul did Gentile ministry in many urban areas such as Corinth, Athens, Philippi, Thessalonica, Ephesus and Rome. God gave Paul a global vision to evangelize the whole world through Roman roads, the Roman Empire system. If the gospel could conquer Rome in the Italian peninsula, the gospel could spread to the ends of the earth (Ac 1:8; 2:5). Paul accepted God’s vision and he wanted to use Roman language, culture and roads that led to all nations to achieve the Great Commission.
The goals of urban campus evangelism are to raise young disciples of Jesus from cities and to establish leaders from different ethnicities till they could be disciple makers and missionaries at the campus and to their ethnicities through their entire lifetime.
If we can raise future Christian leaders who can reproduce disciples, the Impact of Urban Multi-Ethnic Campus Evangelism can be a very efficient method to carry out Jesus’ Great Commission in a multi-ethnic world. Then we can also experience on earth the heavenly vision of Rev 7:9 that says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands”(NIV)[xii]
2. A CASE STUDY OF NEIU, CHICAGO EVANGELIZATION
Here in my paper I want to show a case study of Urban Multi Ethnic Campus Evangelism by Korean missionaries in Chicago. What has been happening in North Eastern Illinois University (NEIU)?
It is Campus evangelism. It is to raise Young Christian leaders in the city. It is to deal with Multi-Ethnic Evangelism. Why Multi-Ethnic? Once Donald McGavran (1897-1990) advocated evangelizing the world one people group at a time, and establishing churches adapted to the culture of each particular group, because people feel uncomfortable among those of other cultures. His “homogeneous unit principle” met with strong resistance in today’s world such as in South Africa. While it may be said that McGavran’s principle had some missiological validity, trying to use it as the basis of ecclesiology was a disastrous mistake.”[xiii]
Multi-Ethnic campus evangelism has been done by unpaid Korean Self supporting Lay missionaries. That is the major difference between UBF campus ministry and other campus ministries, such as CCC[xiv], InterVarsity Christian Fellowship[xv] and Navigators[xvi].
Here is the NEIU school profile. (2009)
Total Enrollment: 12,814Race / Ethnicity (Source: IPEDS, 2007)
(for US citizens / permanent residents)
African American / 8%
Native American / 0%
Asian / 6%
White / 64%
Hispanic / 12%
Unknown / 5%
How did it begin? It began when some Korean self-supporting missionaries came to the USAin the 1970s.
The Korean peninsula received the gospel from western missionaries in the late 19th century.
In the 1960s, Korea began to have a campus mission institute, with UBF as one of them. UBF (University Bible Fellowship) was founded by a Korean pastor and an American missionary. Their Bible teaching to college students grew to many campuses in many cities of Korea.
In the 1970s, God sent UBF self-supporting lay missionaries to Germany, USA and Latin countries. Some medical nurse, student missionaries began campus ministries at UIC and Northwestern in Chicago. The UBF world mission Headquarters moved from Seoul, Korea to Chicago.
In the 1980s, an apartment was rented for small group student Bible studies in front of NEIU. A few Korean self-supporting missionaries constantly visited the campus and found ways to contact students and invite them to Bible study.
In the 1990s,Jose’s family also joined NEIU ministry after resigning from his diplomatic career. He became a self-supporting lay missionary to co-work in NEIU by getting a job in Chicago Public Schools as an elementary school teacher.
We had countless barriers and hardships to start campus mission for Americans. There was racial prejudice. We heard people saying behind us, “How dare you Koreans teach Americans?” There were huge Language barriers. Koreans used so-called Konglish, Korean English with a Korean accent that was not comprehensible for ordinary Americans. There were mountain-like Cultural barriers and philosophy differences. Above all these financially unpaid self-supporting lay missionaries had to survive to support their families by getting whatever jobs given to them. They worked hard during the daytime to earn money, but they worked harder during lunch time and evening time after work to reach out to campus students in so many ways. Some took night classes to approach students. Some got a campus low-paying job to get acquainted with students. Some became professors for the campus ministry. Some visited the campus during lunchtime and ate at the campus cafeteria to contact students. J Ahn resigned a high-paying honorable job as a diplomat, and studied all over again majoring in Urban Education master degree and bilingual ESL courses in NEIU.
In these ways, during the last two decades Korean missionaries raised some Multi-Ethnic leaders to work together. These days the number increased to 12 Self supporting Laymen: They are several Koreans, an Indian, a Japanese, a Mexican and a Caucasian. We are really Multi-Ethnic leaders for Multi-Ethnic Campus ministry. Each has a small group, called a fellowship.
The most distinguished yet hidden fact is their invisible one to one Bible studies with the students. Each leader teaches students the Bible through one-on-one Bible studies. We have 80 one on one Bible studies weekly. That means a lot. 80 students are growing quietly as self-supporting disciples and lay disciple makers as their Bible teachers have been doing so many years. It is not limited to one on one Bible studies. They usually meet at their house church having Bible studies and eating fellowship in small groups. These house church small groups are so comfortable and informal that new comers become familiar and make friends quickly. In their house church ministry, a self-supporting missionary and his wife and children so joyfully serve the guests and new comers that they get a small taste of the heavenly kingdom and want to come back to study the word of God. Not only do we do one on one Bible studies, but also we have small group meetings, weekly student leaders meetings, and retreats at Easter time, in thesummer, and in the Christmas season as well as regional conferences. Through such a long time of serving students, they became coworkers in multi-ethnic campus ministry. After they graduated, they remained in NEIU ministry to co-work together. These students became leaders who eventually felt called to serve campus ministry. In the power point presentation you can see;
1:1 DISCIPLE MAKING BIBLE STUDY.
M from India is teaching his one to one American Bible student Jwith D Y from Japan as he assists their Bible study. D (USA) who was raised by a Korean missionary for the last 12 years while attending NEIU, studies with J (NEIU senior) from the Philippines every Sunday morning before the Sunday worship service. G who was raised by a Korean missionary in Mexico (J Ahn) in the 1980s came to America as a missionary to co-work with J Ahn and is studying with P from Czech Republic and 2 other Mexicans. A who is G’s daughter, just graduated from NEIU and is teaching two NEIU students, E and M from Mexico and S, NEIU sophomore from Assyria. Missionary H who was raised by a Korean missionary in Venezuela married D and is teaching Mand V from Mexico. M, Jose’s wife, another Korean missionary is teaching S, J both from USA and I from Philippines, L from Cambodia, and P from Korea.
Sometimes a student does not come on time or does not appear. The Bible teacher waits for her student praying and preparing Bible materials.
CAMPUS GROUP BIBLE LEADERS TRAINING.
In 2006, our Bible students registered UBF as a campus club. They named it the True Vine Bible Club. 6-10 campus students who already grew as leaders through 1:1 Bible studies had four times a year Intensive Bible Camp. In Each camp they studied ten lessons for a week. These student leaders of True Vine Bible Club began to go and lead weekly Group Bible study at the campus.
In the power point picture you can see the NEIU power station leaders take turn to teach them while women missionaries brought food and drink during the True Vine Leader Group Bible Camp at the club house from 6.30 a.m. to 8.00 a.m. during the Spring Breaks, Summer and winter vacations. Until that time it was very difficult to go and approach students personally. Koreans are very shy. Their English was not fluent. The Campus environment was not favorable. Most of the students turned around not showing interest at all. Some were hostile and reported to the campus police that religious people bothered them. Sometimes we were inquired of and warned not to approach any students with religious issues. But a few students responded and grew during the last two decades and became remnants and coworkers. However, since we registered UBF as a campus club, we were free to go to the campus and invited students to the True Vine Club campus group Bible study. This was a new breakthrough to reach out to new students at the campus officially and legally.
It began 4 years ago with a few students at NEIU.
CAMPUS OPEN TABLE MINISTRY
The True Vine Bible Club leaders introduce and receive sign ups for Campus Group Bible study during the Campus Open Table Recruit Activity two to three times a year. M who studied one on one Bible studies with a missionary from Mexico who was also raised by a Korean missionary in Mexico, is now a True Vine Bible Club president during the 2011-2012 school year. As I show in ppp, he organizes the open table and comes with a poster. 6-10 leaders from 6 different countries, Philippines, India, Mexico, USA, and Ukraine, are fishers of men.[xvii] They were raised by Korean missionaries through one on one Bible studies for many years. Now they are campus disciple makers together with Korean missionaries. At the open table over 100 students sign up. But very few come to the True Vine Bible Club Bible study. We are not discouraged because we remember what Jesus said, “you did not choose me but I chose you.”[xviii] We go back to open table or fishing as Jesus ordered, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” [xix]