Preaching To Korean Immigrants

In terms of practical-theology’s critical reflection on marginalized people’s wounds in a wider society, this book investigates the question, “How to proclaim the good news in response to first-generation Korean immigrants’ contextual suffering in the United Sates?” To answer the question, the book starts with investigating Korean immigrant hearers’ contextual predicaments in a new land to point out emerging practical-theological issues in relation to the practice of preaching. In this book, the primary subjects are first-generation Korean immigrants, especially those who have relatively low socio-economic status and struggle with the purpose of their lives as immigrants, particularly those whose material dreams have been shattered. In order to proclaim the good news, this book proposes a more appropriate immigrant theology for/in the practice of preaching by reclaiming the priorities of God’s future in our lives and confirming God’s active identification with Korean immigrant congregations in the depths of their predicament. Such reconstructive work for immigrant theology arises in response to their existential hardships, marginality, ethnic discrimination, and relative powerlessness in life. While acknowledging both the possibilities and limits of the diverse forms of current Korean immigrant preaching, the book then offers a strategic proposal for a new homiletic theory, namely “a psalmic-theological homiletic.” This proposed homiletic is deeply rooted in the theology of the Psalms and their rhetorical movement. This re-envisioned mode of eschatological and prophetic preaching in times of difficulty recovers ancient Israel’s psalmic, rhetorical tradition that aims toward faith. Its theological-rhetorical strategy intends to both transform hearers’ habitus of living in faith and enhance their hope-filled life through communal anticipation of God’s coming future on the margins. Specifically, this proposed homiletic critically adopts key features from psalms of lament and their typical, fourfold theological-rhetorical movement (i.e., lament, retelling a story, confessional doxology, and obedient vow) as now core elements of a revised Korean-immigrant preaching practice.

Korean churches are growing rapidly and function as a safe haven for an ever-increasing number of immigrants. In Korean Preaching, Jung Young Lee speaks to the special circumstances and needs of the Korean church, and to the preaching tools that can bring a unique and powerful message for Korean and all other congregations. Key Benefits: written by a widely known and respected author, scholar, and preacher; covers the context, style, and authority of Korean preaching; discusses the distinctive characteristics of Korean preaching and the contributions of Korean preaching to the American church at lar≥ speaks to the needs of the most rapidly growing segment of the Christian population

This in-depth study on preaching to second generation Korean Americans, the first of its kind, is based on empirical and ethnographic fieldwork. Matthew D. Kim conducted surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews with Korean American pastors and second generation young adult respondents in three geographic regions of the United States: the Midwest, the West Coast, and the East Coast. His primary conceptual framework employs social psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius' theory of possible selves to facilitate the process of congregational exegesis in the second generation Korean American church context. This book offers a new contextual homiletic model that enables Korean American preachers to engage in deeper levels of ethnic and cultural analysis in their sermonic preparation. Simultaneously, the author reconstructs conventional preaching roles of Korean American preachers and second generation listeners so that they may co-creatively imagine new possible selves that radically advance Christian mission and practice in the world. This book will serve as a primary or secondary source for upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate courses on preaching, communication studies, ethnic and racial studies, cross-cultural ministry, or social psychology.

Preaching Justice brings together eight very diverse voices from eight distinct cultural/ethnic communities, challenging them to articulate the specific justice concerns, issues, and passions that give rise to a preaching ministry within the their own community and beyond. Theological analyses are offered by theses persons representing their particular communities: Kathy Black - persons with disabilities Martin Brokenieg - Native Americans Teresa Fry Brown - African Americans Eleazar Fernandez - Filipino Americans Justo Gonzalez - Hispanics Eunjoo Mary Kim - Korean Americans Stacy Offner - Jews Christine Marie Smith - lesbians and gays This volume offers a rare vision of what transforms preaching might sound and look like, and urges that all preaching - whatever community it comes from, whatever community it hopes to reach - be grounded in the sacred acts of listening and knowing.

Kwon explores how Korea's two major religious groups, Buddhists and Protestants, have emigrated and how their religious beliefs affect their adjustments after immigration. Kwon bases his study on a survey of 114 Korean congregations, participatory observation of a Buddhist temple and a Protestant church, and in-depth interviews with 109 devout immigrants. He finds that non-religious variables-urban background, educational level, and social class-have a greater effect on adjustment to the host society than religion does. Religious congregations promote members' social capital for adjustment, but at the same religious participation serves as a barrier to assimilation.

This book explores the multicultural and multilingual dimensions of Jesus' life and ministry in first century Galilee. The study focuses on Jesus' encounters with ethnic minorities in the New Testament and the so-called « Mission Instructions (Luke 10:2-16), which show Jesus as a reconciler of cultures. The author connects the multicultural-multilingual life and ministry of Jesus to the life of Korean immigrants in the North American context. Jesus is presented as the Christ with whom they can identify in the context of their painful marginalisation.

Since 1965 the Korean American population has grown to over one million people. These Korean Americans, including immigrants and their offspring, have founded thousands of Christian congregations and scores of Buddhist temples in the United States. In fact, their religious presence is perhaps the most distinctive contribution of Korean Americans to multicultural diversity in the United States. Korean Americans and Their Religions takes the first sustained look at this new component of the American religious mosaic. The fifteen chapters focus on cultural, racial, gender, and generational factors and are noteworthy for the attention they give to both Christian and Buddhist traditions and to both first&– and second-generation experiences. The editors and contributors represent the fields of sociology, psychology, theology, and religious ministry and themselves embody the diversities underlying the Korean American religious experience: they are Korean immigrants who are leaders in their fields and second-generation Korean Americans beginning their careers as well as leaders of both Christian and Buddhist communities. Among them are sympathetically analytical outside observers. Korean Americans and Their Religions is a welcome addition to the emerging literature in the sociology of &"new immigrant&" religious communities, and it provides the fullest portrait yet of the Korean religious experience in America.

In this book Sunggu Yang proposes five socio-ecclesial codes as unique faith fundamentals of Korean American Christianity. Drawing from rigorous research and years of ecclesial experience, Yang names the codes as follows: the Wilderness Pilgrimage code, the Diasporic Mission Code, the Confucian Egalitarian code, the Buddhist Shamanistic code, and the Pentecostal Liberation code. These five codes, he asserts, help Korean Americans sustain their lives, culture, faith, and evangelical mission as aliens or “pilgrims” in the American “wilderness.” Yang outlines how his five proposed codes serve as liberative and prophetic mechanisms of faith through which Korean Americans can contribute to racial harmony and cultural diversity in North America. In this sense, Korean American Christianity—its theology and spirituality—works not only on behalf of Korean Americans, but also for the sake of all Americans. Yang shows how the Korean American pulpit is the locus where these five codes appear most vividly.