Mission to North America recently announced the formation of City Lights Church Planting Network, a ministry dedicated to Chinese American communities. While immigrant communities are sometimes leveraged for political points in national policy discussions, MNA sees these communities as a key mission field for the 21st century. When it comes to MNA’s vision for planting 1,000 new churches across North America by the end of this decade, ministries like City Lights play an important role.
Heading up this new ministry is John Chua. Born in Malaysia, Chua moved to the U.S. as a child and graduated from Denver Theological Seminary. Moving to Virginia in the early 2000s, he pastored first in Springfield and in 2007 became pastor of Chinese Christian Church of Virginia (Falls Church), where he still serves.
Chua’s experience working with Chinese communities dates back to his first trip to mainland China in the 1990s. Through Mission to the World and the Redeemer City to City network, his missions work increased to regular, weeks-long visits until he was banned from entering the country in 2018. Those decades of ministry proved fruitful, as Chua was able to help plant churches, train local pastors, and build a growing network of faithful congregations.
Chinese immigrants represent the third-largest origin group among U.S. immigrants after those from Mexico and India. They account for 5% of the 45.3 million immigrants in the U.S. as of 2021. As their numbers increase, Chinese Christians face a growing need for sound biblical theology. Chua says that many Chinese churches, founded by a wave of arrivals from Taiwan and Hong Kong a generation ago, now lack spiritual vitality.
“Not only are they declining in numbers, but they often serve more as social hubs than as places to hear the gospel,” he says.
Moreover, because the cultural and familial narratives of immigration can overemphasize hard work and worldly gain, Chua observes, these communities are uniquely vulnerable to the idol of material success. Yet the beauty of the gospel, he says, is how it counteracts these narratives.
“You can find rest in Christ, be fed by the word of God, and feel safe and comforted by his grace,” he says.
Chua sees a few key areas of outreach for City Lights. First are those existing Chinese evangelical churches whose emptying buildings dot the corners of major cities across the country. By offering gospel-based teaching and renewal to these aging congregations, he hopes to revitalize their existing ministries both to decrease their ethnic insularity and to increase their impact across generations. More diversity in racial makeup and age is critical, Chua argues, to their long-term survival.
A second area of potential is college towns such as Ann Arbor or Atlanta that have large populations of Chinese students (whether native-born Chinese studying abroad or second- and third-generation Chinese Americans). These cities, Chua notes, are hotspots for outreach to recent graduates and young professionals.
The leadership at MNA agrees. “The growth of both Mandarin and Cantonese speaking people in North America is tremendous,” says Chris Vogel, MNA’s church planting and vitality coordinator. “City Lights enables the PCA to reach new immigrants as well as established Chinese in our communities. John Chua, a seasoned PCA leader, has hit the ground running, making connections with various Chinese congregations around the country, including those not now in the PCA.”
True to his calling, however, Chua is swift to recognize that this new leadership position is primarily one of service and adds that his love of training and encouraging younger pastors remains as strong as ever.
“You need new blood to reenergize the gospel movement,” he says. “But to be a good pastor you first have to be a good disciple yourself.”
More information about the City Lights Church Planting Network may be found at https://www.citylightsmna.org/.
Benjamin Morris is an M.Div. student at Reformed Theological Seminary and contributing writer for byFaith.