The Chinese Heritage Church (CHC) Collaborative is just that: a collaboration among ministers from Chinese heritage churches. A group of English speaking pastors gathered in Boston in May 2019 to connect and see if they might find value in further developing relationships. After that 2019 Pastors Colloquium, those pastors decided they would be willing to meet again and see where God leads. A second Pastors Colloquium was scheduled for 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic happened and plans were altered. But after two online Colloquiums, the pastors agreed to name an Executive Team and commissioned two foundational papers to be written. Producing those two papers would provide the opportunity for this group to clarify our thinking and to invite others to dialogue about what we were doing. One paper is about the history and thinking behind the term “Chinese heritage church.” Another paper served as an opportunity to make a positive case for how God is using ethnic heritage churches like the Chinese heritage church. You can find those papers on this website.
After the papers were written and received approval from the pastors, the group commissioned the Executive Team to work on our first public gathering. That first public gathering would become known as our first Ministers Collective.
The initial group of pastors was invited by a small steering team of pastors. We simply looked around the English speaking world and invited friends and colleagues we had met along the way from the USA, Canada, and Europe.
For now, those on the Executive Team sense there may be significant value to encourage and offer ways for ministers in Chinese heritage churches to connect. Perhaps this little adventure will conclude after our first public event. Or, perhaps the Lord would lead us to continue in various initiatives. Only the Lord knows!
Executive Team
Pastor Enoch currently serves at Boston Chinese Evangelical Church (BCEC) in both their inner city and suburban campuses. He is married to Karen, and they have 3 sons at home and 1 daughter who has passed on. They have a dog named Colby. Enoch received his education from UCLA and Talbot School of Theology in California, where both he and Karen grew up. He is the author of In Reverence and Awe, a practical worship leading resource. Enoch also serves on the Executive Team of the Chinese Heritage Church Collaborative, the organizing group of this event.
Pastor Steven Siu has been serving as the senior pastor of Chinese Evangelical Church of San Diego since 2004. He is a third generation Chinese American who was born and raised in Oakland. He has been blessed to have participated in good Chinese heritage churches over the years, and he has heart to see second and third generation Chinese Americans pastors thrive in Chinese heritage churches.
Jason Tarn is the Lead English Pastor of Houston Chinese Church, a non-denominational Chinese heritage church in Houston, TX. He received his bachelors from UT Austin and completed an M.Div. at Regent College. Jason grew up at Houston Chinese Church as a teenager and has been pastoring there since 2011. His passion is to bring healthy reform to the immigrant church that is rooted in sound doctrine and a missional vision. He is married to Theresa and has two daughters, Talia and Maisie.
Justin Young serves as the Pastor of English and Youth Ministries at the Chinese Community Church of Indianapolis. He graduated with a BA from Wheaton College in Biblical and Theological Studies and an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and his wife have three children. His current interests include technology, green living, and essentialism.
Advisory Team
Steven J. Chin is currently retired from full time church ministry. He had served at the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church for 42 years as Assistant to the Pastor (1977), as Associate Pastor (1984), and as Senior Pastor (2000). He was born in Boston and grew up in Cambridge where his father operated a laundry. Steven went on to college at New York University where he earned a BE in Industrial Engineering. It was during college that he came to dedicate his life to the Lord and began to attend a Chinese church in New York’s Chinatown. After working as a Senior Health Planner for the Mass. Dept. of Public Health, he switched careers to serve in church ministry. Steven received his theological training from Dallas Theological Seminary, earning his MA in Biblical Studies and later his Master of Theology. Steven is a founding council member of the Gospel Coalition. Steven has been married to Nancy since 1976. They have two adult children, Stefanie and Matthew, and three grandchildren.
William Eng is currently retired from full time church ministry. He was born in Massachusetts, raised in Chicago, saved at the age of 12, discipled and served at the Chinese Christian Union Church of Chicago in his young adult years. He received his BS from Illinois Institute of Technology and proceeded to teach for 9 years as a high school chemistry teacher in Chicago. He later enrolled into seminary and received his Master of Divinity from Talbot Theological Seminary in 1981. He had served at the Chinese Baptist Church of Orange County for 35 years as the Associate Pastor (1981) and as the Senior Pastor (1993). He also served as a director of the Fellowship of American Chinese Evangelicals. He has been married to Cheryl since 1973, and they have three sons: Jeremy, Scott, and David; and eleven grandchildren.
Pastor Andrew Lee serves in retirement as the Associate Director of the Global Diaspora Institute at Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. He has served in, and led the largest Chinese churches in New York City and Chicago. He has also been a seminary professor at several institutions and has written for both the academic and ministry worlds. He holds a PhD in Religion from Baylor University.
Pastor Fred Tow was born in Hong Kong and came to the States at the age of eight. He was raised in Oakland, California. During his teenage years, he trusted Christ as his personal savior. Before being called into the ministry, he taught two years of public high school. Upon graduating from Dallas Seminary with a Master of Theology in 1984, he became English pastor of Houston Chinese Church, where he has been serving for over 38 years. He received his Doctor of Ministry at Asbury Seminary in 2008, where he wrote his dissertation entitled “Training American-Born Chinese Pastors to Minister in a Predominantly Chinese Bicultural Church.” He has worked with a group of pastors and para-church leaders to establish Houston Association of Christian Educators, which developed a city-wide Christian Education Conference in Houston for ten years. He has also served over 38 years in Partnership of Asian American Churches in Texas, which is a fellowship of evangelical churches whose mission is to assist the local church in advancing ministries among English-speaking Asians. He is presently the Family Life Pastor of Houston Chinese Church. He and his wife, Ellie, have two grown children and five grandchildren. His interests include tennis and reading.
What We Believe
Because we’re committed to serving Chinese heritage churches across various denominations and theological traditions, we approach collaboration from a center-bounded mindset. That means we can accept differences in belief and practice so long as we are centered on the orthodox truths of the Christian faith and a shared vision for the Chinese heritage church.
Our understanding of Christian orthodoxy can be summarized in ancient creeds like the Apostles’ and Nicene or in modern formulations like Christiany Today’s Statement of Faith (see below). And our shared vision for the mission of the Chinese heritage church is captured in our organization’s Foundational Papers.
Anyone who can readily affirm the following Statement of Faith and our Foundational Papers can benefit from the relationships and resources provided by this Collaborative.
Statement of Faith (Christianity Today)
- The sixty-six canonical books of the Bible as originally written were inspired of God, hence free from error. They constitute the only infallible guide in faith and practice.
- There is one God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, infinite in being and perfection. He exists eternally in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are of one substance and equal in power and glory.
- God created Adam and Eve in his own image. By disobedience, they fell from their sinless state through the temptation by Satan. This fall plunged humanity into a state of sin and spiritual death, and brought upon the entire race the sentence of eternal death. From this condition we can be saved only by the grace of God, through faith, on the basis of the work of Christ, and by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
- The eternally pre-existent Son became incarnate without human father, by being born of the Virgin Mary. Thus, in the Lord Jesus Christ, divine and human natures were united in one Person, both natures being whole, perfect, and distinct. To effect salvation, he lived a sinless life and died on the cross as the sinner’s substitute, shedding his blood for the remission of sins. On the third day he rose from the dead in the body which had been laid in the tomb. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he performs the ministry of intercession. He shall come again, personally and visibly, to complete his saving work and to consummate the eternal plan of God.
- The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Triune God. He applies to man the work of Christ. By justification and adoption we are given a right standing before God; by regeneration, sanctification, and glorification our nature is renewed.
- When we have turned to God in penitent faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are accountable to God for living a life separated from sin and characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. It is our responsibility to contribute by word and deed to the universal spread of the Gospel.
- At the end of the age, the bodies of the dead shall be raised. The righteous shall enter into full possession of eternal bliss in the presence of God, and the wicked shall be condemned to eternal death.