Our desire is to see Asian American Christians to live integrated lives in community.
Many leaders who work with youth or oversee those working with youth are sensing a growing fracture within the relational and formative life of the church.
We are increasingly encountering a generation of young people who may still attend church activities, yet feel spiritually disconnected, relationally isolated, and uncertain about their place within the body of Christ. In many cases, students are participating in programs without experiencing meaningful belonging, intergenerational discipleship, or deep-rooted identity formation within the church community.
At the same time, many parents desire to support their children spiritually but often remain peripheral to the discipleship process—unsure of their role, disconnected from ministry rhythms, or overwhelmed by the pressures of modern family life. This has contributed to a growing gap between church programming and holistic faith formation.
At the heart of this effort is a shared burden: the growing reality of youth disaffiliation within Asian American church contexts—particularly in Korean and Chinese churches—and a desire to respond through relational and communal discipleship.
In recent conversations and research, several key patterns have emerged:
Fragmented structure and relationships within church and ministry life
Parents on the periphery, rather than integrated into discipleship
A growing sense of relational disconnect among students
An overly individualized framework of faith, disconnected from community
Limited community involvement beyond programmatic spaces
A noticeable lack of youth agency in the life of the church
Taken together, these are not isolated issues—they are deeply interconnected and point to a larger formation gap in how faith is being cultivated. Our hope through this cohort is to create space for pastors and ministry leaders to learn together, share honestly, and discern what faithful, sustainable, and contextually grounded discipleship can look like within Asian American church contexts today.
We want to address this—not by importing outside solutions, but by discerning together what faithful, contextual discipleship can look like within Asian American church communities.
What we’re inviting you to participate in a cohort of 20 selected churches to learn together, share honestly, and build toward a scalable Faith Formation Framework for Asian American churches.
- Ideally includes both a lead pastor and youth pastor
- A congregational pastor with the lead pastor’s blessing is also welcome
- No cost — this cohort is free to participate
This cohort will be led by Dr. Clark Fobes and Dr. Justin Wong, with a focus on theological depth, practical wisdom, and contextual application.
We will also draw from and interact with existing tools—particularly the TENx10 Youth Leader resources (https://www.tenx10.org/youth-leader-tools)—as we consider how to faithfully adapt these insights for our contexts.
Timeline:
Signups Close: November 30
Cohort Start Date: December 9
Cohort Structure (6 Gatherings) 60-90min/session:
Meeting 1 – Vision & Assessment
- Casting vision and cultivating belonging
- Overview of the current state of the Asian American church
- Current youth ministry practices
- Research on family and intergenerational formation
- Introduction to the Faith Formation Framework
- Guided assessment + group sharing
Meetings 2–6 – Framework Deep Dive
- Facilitated discussions around key areas of the framework
- Space for contextualization, collaboration, and shared learning
Our hope is not just to talk, but to discern together what faithful, sustainable youth discipleship can look like in our specific contexts, and to develop something that can serve the broader Asian American church.
We are asking you to pray and consider the needs of your own church but also the Church as a whole and what this could mean for future generations. We would love to have you as a part of this cohort or learning more.
Next Steps
If you’re interested, here are a few simple next steps:
Pray and discuss with your leadership (especially your lead or youth pastor)
Fill out the form
We will follow up with a short interest form and cohort details
Final cohort participants will be confirmed
Dr. Clark Fobes IV is the Associate Pastor at FirstSF, a diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-generational congregation in the heart of San Francisco, and California’s oldest Protestant church. He serves as the Editorial Director for the Asian American Christian Collaborative and as a Steering Committee member for the Rooted youth ministry Asian American initiatives, which he helped start in 2015. Being half-Korean, Clark has often written and spoken on the intersection of culture, theology, and missiology. Over his seventeen years in pastoral ministry, he has served in a variety of Asian American (Korean, Chinese, immigrant, 2nd Gen) and multi-ethnic churches, and has ministered to students (both youth and college) for the entirety of his career. He received his M.Div. from Talbot School of Theology (BIOLA) and his Doctor of Missiology from the Southern Seminary. He is a contributing author to the Jesus I Wish I Knew in High School, Jesus I Wish I Knew in High School: Asian American Edition, and God With You teen devotionals. He lives and ministers in his home city of San Francisco with his wife and two daughters.