Bridging the Gap - A Reflection on the 52nd PCA General Assembly
By Paul Han
A Brief Overview
At our 52nd General Assembly, I found myself unsettled and disheartened during our debates and discussions. As I mentioned in my General Assembly reflection last year, I came into the PCA through a Korean American church. Little did I know that almost twenty years later, ethnicity and ethnic ministries would be at the forefront of the debates.
This year, Overtures 42 & 43 were written to prevent the collection of ethnic data among our churches in the PCA. Overture 42 sought to amend our Rules of Assembly Operations (RAO) to include a sentence that would prevent ethnic data from being collected. That narrowly failed to receive the two-thirds votes required to pass. Overture 43 specifically directed the Administrative Committee to not collect ethnic data this upcoming year. Overture 43 passed relatively easily. In 2018, our 46th General Assembly adopted the report of the Ad Interim Committee on Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation—where the General Assembly directed the Committee on Mission to North America (MNA) to budget and plan for renewing research to report on racial reconciliation progress.
The Administrative Committee's attempt to collect ethnic data was aligned with part of the directives of our previous assembly. Knowing the ethnic makeup of our churches could possibly help us know the progress we have made on the issue of racial reconciliation. Or perhaps it could have instructed us on how we can strive to build a denomination that seeks to live out the calling of Ephesians 2:14.
I believe my wife's words from last year's reflection article continue to cut at the heart of the matter. When asking our pastor before taking my current pastoral call, my wife said, "You guys are very white, we are not, and I need to know that my family will be okay if we take on this call because I fully intend on raising my boys as unapologetically proud Korean Americans, made in the image of God." Our pastor responded with kindness and compassion, but he also acknowledged that we would likely face challenges because of our different culture and race, even in the local church, but when that happens, he promised that he and the Session would stand with us and support us.
There has been plenty of spilled ink on the topic of affinity groups in our denomination, but I hope that my words can add to the conversation, especially coming from the perspective of a minority. The controversy over affinity groups reveals how our cultural differences are misunderstood, and it minimizes the truth that many minorities continue to face really difficult cultural and racial challenges.
The unfortunate reality is, due to our history here in America, race and culture are deeply connected. Slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation are still considered recent history. The church here in America, the PCA included, continues to be affected along racial lines. So when we talk about race, we are actually talking about culture as well.
A Personal Note
I wanted to share the realities of how my "normal" everyday experience as a Korean American is not the same as those of the majority culture. It’s especially noteworthy that all of these instances happened within the last year.
At an event last year, where PCA leaders from across the country joined together, we played an ice-breaker where the question was posed, "Would we want to live 100 years in the past, or 100 years in the future?" Many of us minorities looked at one another and we all emphatically shared that we did not ever want to go back and live 100 years in the past. We easily recognized the hardships that minorities faced 100 years ago, especially for our Black brothers and sisters. Many of us played it off, but it made me wonder, who was this ice-breaker question for?
In his first week of Kindergarten, my son brought Korean food, kimbap, to school and a teacher mistakenly called it "sushi", making him so self-conscious he no longer wanted to bring Korean food to school. When I shared this experience with a white friend, he said, trying to be helpful, "He just wants to fit in like everyone else, like how everyone wants name brand sneakers." His response made me question myself. Am I hurting my child by not allowing him to fit in?
While visiting another PCA church, my sons spoke Korean to one another and one of the kids said to them "Hey, speak normally." The nearby parents laughed it off, saying, "kids don't understand." A well-meaning adult at a Trail Life troop meeting said to my son, "You must be good at origami, it's in your Asian blood." Just a few months ago, my father-in-law was driving through South Carolina and was pulled over for speeding, and was questioned for 15 minutes about his immigration status. Some Christian friends responded, "At least he's legal, right?"
Again, all of these incidents happened this past year. These are not isolated events. My experience as a second generation Korean American is very different from the majority culture. Growing up in the mid to late 1990's, even in the "progressive" city of New York, Koreans were still a novelty and there was a lot of ignorance regarding our culture.
Why does your food look like a snake? Why does it smell so bad? What are those weird outfits you guys wear? It was exhausting as a kid to explain our different customs and traditions. Even after explaining it, I would often stare at uninterested, confused, or disgusted faces.
So growing up in the Korean American church, not only was it a place of rest in the Lord and finding my identity in Christ, it was a place to find solace and rest with people who understood what I was going through as a child of immigrants. There were days in elementary school where I would ask God, "Why am I Korean? Why am I so different? Why did you do this God?" The Korean American church gave me the community and support that allowed me to give thanks to God for creating me and placing me as an ethnic Korean growing up in the United States.
I contend that it is not wrong, sinful, or segregationist to have Christians coming together with shared cultural and ethnic backgrounds in "affinity groups." Most Reformed theologians agree wholeheartedly that our ethnic and cultural differences are a part of God's design. Genesis 1 tells us we are made in God's image. Acts 17:26 reminds us that He determined the boundaries of the nations. Revelation 7:9 gives us the final vision of the church: people from every tribe, tongue, and nation worshiping before the throne. God made the nations, sustains the nations, and saves people from every nation. This means our ethnic and cultural distinctiveness is not erased in heaven, it's glorified.
The Korean American church gave me the community and support that allowed me to
give thanks to God for creating me and placing me as an ethnic Korean growing up in the United States.
The Case for Affinity Groups
The goal of the church is not homogeneity. The goal is unity in Christ, a unity that does not erase our culture.
For those in the majority culture, I understand that it is difficult to be a part of a minority culture. A few years ago, a white PCA ruling elder once told me he was moving to an area with no PCA churches within an hour drive, except for a Korean one. He concluded, "That obviously wouldn't work for me." I agreed with him. It probably wouldn't work. But that begs the question, is the onus on second generation Korean Americans to leave their Christian heritage and join the majority culture just to simply "make it work" for everyone else?
Asian American Christians often seek other Asian American counselors because those of different cultures have a difficult time understanding the shame-honor dynamic, the collectivist nature of Asian society, and the immigrant’s pressure to succeed at all costs. Korean American Christians have a unique Christian heritage and we owe much of it to American Presbyterians who went to Korea to share the gospel. However, cultural differences in styles and forms of worship are points of stress and debate, even in the PCA.
In discussions surrounding affinity groups, the assertion is sometimes made that they are more problematic than kinism, or that they are an example of kinism—an explicitly racist ideology that this year's General Assembly rightly condemned. This comparison is misguided because affinity groups do not claim racial superiority or even exclude other races. They are about spiritual care for minorities who endure marginalization and are treated as outsiders because of different cultural experiences from the majority. As a reminder, only 1% of PCA teaching elders are Black, and around 10% are Korean.
Historically, Black Presbyterians had to create their own communions. Denied the sacraments, barred from leadership, and treated as second-class, they formed their own churches. Not because they rejected Reformed theology, but because the American church did not live up to them regarding slavery and segregation. These churches weren't born out of division. They were born out of necessity. The current reality is that many continue to endure hardships as minorities in a denomination that is culturally very different from our own.
The historical actions of our previous General Assemblies make our current debates even more puzzling. In 1977, the General Assembly affirmed "specialized ministries to reach minority groups…should be a vital part of the ministry of this denomination." In 1978, the General Assembly adopted the report of Mission to the United States where a sub-committee was formed to assist minority ministries. In 2004, a pastoral letter on racism clarified that affinity groups are not racist groups unless they explicitly exclude or segregate. In 2018, the Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation Report urged us to support the different ethnic ministries under MNA, Mission to the World (MTW), and Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). Our denomination has reiterated, over and over again, the importance of ethnic ministries and they have been a part of our denomination for almost 50 years.
The Korean American Leadership Initiative (KALI) is one of these ethnic ministries that began under MNA. KALI’s development proves the value of these ministries. What began as a Korean Language Presbytery initiative now supports Korean Americans in all ministry contexts, including those in mainly white churches (myself included). At our 2025 KALI Dinner at General Assembly, we saw different ethnic ministries eating and praying together for our denomination—that we would be able to reach people of all tribes and tongues here in the United States and all over the world for his glory.
When I have brought my concerns about my ethnic and cultural experience to white Christian friends, there are some who respond with compassion and understanding. There are others who significantly struggle to grasp different cultural realities. Comments like, "At least you grew up here (America)" or "You don't have to worry about immigration, you're legal at least, right?" reveal a lack of understanding that is frustrating and tiring.
Affinity groups are not about retreating from the church. They are about entering into the church more fully, with honesty and without fear. They foster deeper engagement, not disengagement. Many Korean American presbyters faithfully attend General Assembly because of the friendship and bonds formed in KALI.
My hope is that churches in the PCA would reflect the diversity of our nation and of heaven. America is a unique place where we can live out the unity we have in Christ with the diversity of different tongues and ethnicities. However, fulfilling this vision of Revelation 7 will require more than theological clarity. It will require humility and a desire to bridge the gap. The reality is the gap is still large.
Some of my fellow Korean American PCA elders have asked, "Why are we still here?" I cannot answer for them. But for me, I believe that God has called us to be a part of this denomination, and the gospel calls us to something harder and more beautiful than simple tolerance. It calls us to an active love across cultural lines, and to build that bridge to decrease the gap.
I pray that all of us have the courage to live this out, even though it will be painfully hard. Although the bridge may never be fully built between our cultural differences, may we strive to do so until that day comes when we will be able to fully love one another and worship our Lord together. May we long to embrace our distinct cultural differences, without sin, suffering, and pain. May we long for that day.
Paul Han is a Teaching Elder in Heritage Presbytery and received his MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is serving as the Youth and Young Adults Pastor at The Town Church (PCA) in Middletown, Delaware. He loves serving in youth ministry and has been volunteering or ministering to teenagers for over 15 years. He met his wife, Yina, in college and they have two sons together.
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