Soong-Chan Rah – White Captivity of the Church Pt 1 & 2

“Is the church culturally relevant or culturally captive?” asks Soong-Chang Rah, author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity. He talks with ThinkFwd host Spencer Burke about the purported decline of American Christianity. In Soong-Chan’s view, it is not Christianity that is collapsing but rather the Western-, White-culture Christianity that’s rooted in suburban, upper middle-class, politicized culture—whether the mega church or emerging church. But just the opposite, Soong-Chan sees incredible growth and strength in the multi-ethnic, immigrant, and second generation churches. Soong-Chan was born in Korea, but lived most of his life in America. In his personal life experience, his Korean and American cultures intersect to create a new multi-cultural experience. He suggests we need to hear the stories of the Native Americans, immigrants, and the many non-white cultures (many of them much older than the recent “anci-future” trends that only go back 200 years to European roots). “I am not putting down Western White evangelicalism, and I don’t want to throw out Christianity that has existed before us. But there’s a lot more out there, and all the elements of all of our varied cultures need to be part of the discussion,” he says. By interacting with people who are outside of “our” culture, something new emerges from our dialogue together. It’s not that the truth of the gospel changes, but that seeing things from where I’m seated (culturally) or where you’re seated, we may have different and honestly valid views. We need to hear all the voices to see the full picture of what God is doing in our world.



What if the Church could be 10 years ahead of the game? It’s a common theory that the Church tends to lag 10-years behind the times, but in part 2 of his interview with ThinkFwd host, Spencer Burke, Soong-Chan says that Christianity is moving even faster towards multi-culturalism than the American society (which is also rapidly becoming multi-cultural). How, then, can we be proactive in dealing with these changes? We can bury our heads in the sand and do things the same old way, until society changes and forces us to deal with many cultures. Or, we can ask, how can we be part of the change—even servant leaders in this change toward multi-culturalism?

What might it look like for White American Christians to embrace the move toward multiple cultures in the Church? Soong-Chan offers some ideas:

1. Read authors from other cultures, or outside our typical cultural theologies
2. Develop cross-cultural relationships—inviting people who are “not like you” into our home, our lives
3. Become involved in cross-cultural ministry—learn from a church that has a completely different cultural reference than our own
4. Step into a place where someone from a different culture has spiritual authority over you

We can all benefit and grow from experiences with people outside of our own culture. Much growth begins with relationships. Soong-Chan says that first generation or primary cultural experience is very relational. Second generation culture tends to be more technical and highly efficient, where things like social media and the Internet levels the playing field in terms of information access. And now people like Soong-Chan, who was born in Korea but has lived in American for 35 years, are combining the two. This combination of primary relational experience and technological social media experience results in a new cultural reference that extends to the Church.

Our schools and our workplaces already have the widest range imaginable of ethnicities and cultures. Soong-Chan says his 6 and 8-year olds children are already experiencing many cultures in their classes and it will be “normal” to have friends from many cultures. How sad would it be for their churches to remain mono-ethnic? And what an incredible opportunity for the Church to take the lead and embrace multiple cultures, learning from each other?