By DJ Chuang & Phyllis Myung
W
hat tables do you sit at? What tables do you wish you sat at? When I (Phyllis) was in kindergarten, I wanted to sit at the “regular” kindergarten tables, but instead, I sat at the ones that were for English as a Second Language kindergarteners. When I was in middle school, I wanted to sit at the student council table, but being a new Asian American girl at my new middle school made that seem unfathomable. In high school, I wanted to sit - not at a table, but at the benches where all the cool kids sat for lunch time. But alas, I was neither popular nor cool.
Halfway through high school, though, I responded to a scathing article about racism in our school in the local newspaper - my first letter to the editor. Because of that letter, I was able to create a brand new multicultural table for my high school. Not only was this a table where I could belong, but where students of color could voice their perspectives on how policies would get shaped and get put into place at school. It was an incredible feeling to be able to lift up and make space for new voices as well as new conversations.
Since then, I have been searching for more such tables. I’ve been looking for a table where I could sit and join in on the conversation, belong, and help move ourselves forward. However, it’s difficult to find tables when you are often invisible, silent, or ignored.
But what if… what if, as Asian Americans, we built and created our own table? What would that table look like? What would you want to talk about? Who would you want to see happen around that table?
In Spring 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia, four of us—Raymond Chang, Phyllis Myung, Jimmy Kim, and DJ Chuang—talked at length for hours about our life and faith as Asian American followers of Christ. We talked about Asian American theology and what that means, i.e. who are the theologians in our midst? Who would we want to learn with? We asked ourselves if and how Asian American theology intersects with our faith today in the church, outside of the church, in academia, in our everyday life, in our deconstruction and reconstruction, and everywhere else it touches intentionally and unintentionally.
As we talked about this intersection, our conversation explored the nuances and layers of healing, reconciliation, and restoration, especially with our Black siblings. How do we have these conversations within our own communities and how do we build a bridge? Do we really believe that our liberation is tied up in our siblings? What can we do to stand in solidarity?
Finally, we closed the night dreaming big. We dreamed about having AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders) speak into every imaginable topic for conferences, podcasts, magazines, books, schools, seminaries, churches - everywhere! It became clear to us that part of our mission at AACC is to create a table for Asian Americans where we can delve into all the unique ways that our lives intersect with our faith and what that means for us.
These conversations were so invigorating and energizing! More importantly, we can continue these conversations even while we’re miles apart; we don’t have to wait for another gathering in Atlanta. We WANT to continue these conversations and invite others to join in!
In the coming weeks and months, we want to share with you some of the big dreams we have for us as Asian American Christians. And we want to hear the big dreams that are stirring in your hearts and souls too.
Come to our Table on Twitter
Come join our virtual table at the AACC Twitter Community. Please follow along the tweet-sized conversations and jump in any time. Of course, follow @aachristcollab on Twitter. The waters for conversations are warm and we’re creating a space for our conversations, what’s on our hearts and what’s on the heart of God.
We dream of this Twitter Community as the place for all of us to start discussions. When some of these conversations become bigger than tweets or twitter threads, we will also host a Twitter Space for audio chat and/or a Zoom meeting for a video chat.
Can you imagine what the little seeds of conversations in this Twitter Community can blossom into shaping our future together? Plus, this is a great space to share your suggestions and ideas for AACC too; we’re in this together. We have a lot to talk about!
Other Spaces to Share Your Thoughts
If Facebook is more of your space, we are also having thoughtful conversations there. Click on the following link and hop over to Facebook to engage with thoughts and ideas within the AACC community: https://www.facebook.com/aachristcollab.
We know some of you need more space to share your ideas in a thoughtful long-form manner. We have space for that too. The door is wide open for you to submit an article to the Reclaim Magazine at AACC—see this page for all the details asianamericanchristiancollaborative.com/submit. Your voice matters and AACC is here for you.
DJ Chuang currently works as a strategy consultant for the .BIBLE top-level domain registry. He is also a blogger at djchuang.com and podcaster at erasingshame.com. He resides in Orange County, California.
Phyllis Myung is the Next Generation pastor at Highrock In Acton, MA, which is a suburb west of Boston. She lives with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog in a little red house. Phyllis loves Jesus, her family, the ocean, BTS, and hamburgers. When she’s not dreaming big about the next generation, you can find her watching K-dramas, dancing along to BTS, writing, and trying to read through her very high stack of books on desk. Her favorite part of ministry is journeying alongside kids, youth, and their families.