Last summer, Oak Hill student Benson Lai had the privilege of spending 8-weeks at Birmingham Chinese Evangelical Church (BCEC) as a placement student. Here he reflects on the benefit of the experience as he prepares for future ministry.
Over this period, I got involved in a wide range of ministry experiences, every week was different and I got to observe what a pastor’s weekly schedule and what life in ministry is like for him. I sat in staff meetings where pastors from English, Cantonese and Mandarin speaking congregations get together to decide on the Sunday preaching plan for the year, I also sat in weekly meetings with Cantonese pastors only to discuss pastoral concerns and pray for the congregation, and attended various mid-week groups to know the church members more. All of which has helped me reflect on how the British-Chinese culture interacts with church and ministry practices.
Cross Cultural funerals
Funeral and burial services are not the typical placement experiences of an Oak Hill student. I got to experience an Anglican-style service with a cross-cultural twist! My supervising pastor was requested to provide Cantonese translation services for an Anglican burial service of a non-believing member of that parish.
Conducting services for non-believers is often a sensitive matter, especially by an Anglican parish church for a family of Chinese immigrants from the 1960s that has barely attended that parish church. Chinese church pastors often get the opportunity to serve as translators to family members that are not fluent with English.
Prior to the service, my supervising pastor requested permission from the family members to bring along a few members of the local congregation to attend the service together, so that if they ever needed any help from the church, they could put faces to a name, to which they kindly accepted the request. My supervising pastor translated the service leading faithfully by presenting the gospel message of hope in this life, while warmly and gently acknowledging the grievous and sad occasion and speaking comfort to the non-believing family members.
Immediately after the formal ceremony, an elder family member took the lead in paying respects according to Chinese folk practices of burning incense, paper money, and bowing to the grave, and instructing the young children to follow suit. All while the Anglican minister was still stood by the grave! What a sight to see! This raises all sorts of theological, cultural questions, reminding me that ministry practices in real life are often quite messy!
Teaching the Bible across generations and backgrounds
I was given many opportunities during my placement to teach the Bible to saints from all walks of life: from primary school aged children that have just moved from Hong Kong in the last few years in a summer camp setting to Cantonese speaking retired folks in their weekly Bible study group.
This led me to reflect on how teaching the Bible needs to account for the complex pastoral needs of a congregation. How does God’s all-sufficient Word speak to people with different life experiences: some still processing the traumatic experiences from Hong Kong’s protests, some excited and confused about experiencing multi-cultural Britain, or having Muslim friends and neighbours for the first time, some feeling indifferent of even resentment towards the newly arrived Hong Kongers to a church they call home many decades. This experience really stretched me both intellectually and emotionally in preparing how to teach on the application of the Bible’s message.
