This graph shows you the number of permanent arrivals into Australia from some Asian countries, since the the 1975-76 financial year. Remember that the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 was only repealed in 1973.

Note that this is permanent settler migration - not merely those coming over to study or visit for the short-term.


Note the reaction to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and the leadup to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997. You can clearly see that 1992 was the big year for migration out of Hong Kong into Canada, Australia and the United States of America.

But while migration from Hong Kong used to be very strong, it has really tapered off in recent years - and by comparison, migration from China really is booming! You may have guessed that from your own observation of your suburb - but this graph really highlights the massive, and sustained increase of migration from China over the last ten years...

[ PS: how is your church contributing to reaching out to these new Chinese migrants? ]

Ever get frustrated how people from other cultures communicate? That's because people of different cultures prefer to communicate in different ways - and this diagram highlights the differences between Western, Eastern and Middle eastern cultures.
People from western cultures tend to get directly to the point. Their communication tends to have a logical and linear structure. Sermons have a clear structure, and in face-to-face communication people don't beat around the bush, but get right to the point.

Middle eastern people tend to eventually get to the point - after slowly spiraling in, having prepared the listener for the message. Sermons are lengthy, and face-to-face conversations take a long time before delicately getting to the heart of the matter.

People from eastern cultures tend to not get to the point at all. They will talk around and around the point, never directly mentioning it - but by constantly circling around it, they will make clear what they're really talking about. Sermons seem to go around and around, and in face-to-face communication people never seem to say what they really mean.

You can see that each way of communicating actually has a nice side to it. In different ways, each of these are trying to be considerate...

However people of one culture can become incredibly frustrated (and even angry) about the communication styles of other cultures. Westerners can appear blunt and rude, while Easterners can seem manipulative and untrustworthy. Sometimes that's because sin can cause people to become selfish and demanding in their communication.

Not only that, people tend to think that their own communication style has an inherent rightness about it. But this isn't the case - and you can even see some of these differences coming out in the writing of the different apostles in the Bible. Paul for instance is logical and direct in his writing - like the Western linear style. And John's letters tends to go around and around - like the Eastern circular style.

[ PS: I saw this diagram in a library book back at Moore College - but unfortunately neglected to write down the reference... ]

Over the last short while I've put up some articles on how Confucianism works. And we've seen how Confucianism puts the focus on observing the rules of propriety in the five li roles you may find yourself in (see previous post). But what implications does that have for the Chinese person's view of him or herself?

Stephen Cheng runs East Asia Access Consulting, a company that trains people wanting to do business in China. He points out that Confucian values heavily influences the Chinese person's conception of the self, and thus their behaviour - leading to a very different outcome from those influenced by Western values.

In this first diagram, he outlines the Western psychological paradigm, with its emphasis on the values of individuality, autonomy and conflict - and the outcome of this, at the level of needs, behaviours, and assertive personhood.

 

 

In the West we have names for people of different generations. There are the Baby Boomers, the Busters, then we have Gen X, Gen Y and so on. And it's useful in showing some of the broad differences in culture in each of these generations.

But what about non-Western nations ... such as China? What kind of generations do they have?

I've spoken to a number of people, and they commonly describe the following generations in China.


China has transformed itself in absolutely massive ways within one lifetime. If you think the difference between Baby Boomers and Generation Y is big, then consider the very huge generational differences opening up in China!

[ PS: if you're doing ministry among Chinese migrants, it's helpful to know what has influenced their generation... ]

So I'm at the website of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, looking around (here). And on that page there was an advertising banner that catches my eye, with the words, "Walk with Christ".

I thought to myself: "great, it must be some Bible teaching event, maybe a conference, and people are learning about following Jesus." Because that's what you would imagine, with a name like that ... right?

So I clicked the link (to here) - and discovered what "Walk with Christ" really means for Roman Catholics...

The way a devout Roman Catholic "Walks with Christ" is with a priest blessing a host (a wafer of bread), and placing that into an elaborate metal holder (called a monstrance, pictured in the promotional banner). And then the priest holds up the monstrance and carries it through the streets with people walking along with him, and others lining the route making the sign of the cross as the consecrated host passes by. That is what it means to "Walk with Christ."

"Walking with Christ" is not really about Christlike living at all - it's actually about physically walking along with a wafer of bread, that they believe has changed (or transubstantiated) into the actual body of Christ. This is all part of the feast of the blessed sacrament, an annual procession through the streets of Sydney.

They have also put up a YouTube video here promoting the event - and it's worth watching. Because the video shows up quite explicitly how different Roman Catholicism is from biblical Christianity.

       The website explains that what is going on isn't just people watching - the key verb is actually 'adoration'. And according to the words of the previous Pope, you could also use the verb 'worship'. That is what is actually going on at this event!


And if you think this event is merely a minor quirk of Roman Catholicism, think again. At one point in the video, a voice explains how "this is the central belief of our Catholic faith" (1:28).

Perhaps you might be fooled into thinking that Roman Catholics are close to biblical Christianity - at least on a superficial level. They are passionate about God, so are we. They sing similar songs to us. They love Jesus, so do we. They stand against many of the same things we are. But here you begin to see how significantly different Roman Catholicism is. How tradition has taken the language of biblical Christianity - and amazingly, unbelievably, brashly - given it their own, completely new meaning.

[ PS: some good analysis on World Youth Day and Will's blog here. ]

I have recently been looking at how many Chinese churches there are in Sydney - and how many English congregations there are in particular. Some people argue over the definition of what constitutes a Chinese church, but here I'm going with a list compiled by a Chinese parachurch organisation. And this is what I found...

This first graph is broken up into the different regions of Sydney (eg. North, North West, South, etc.). The red line graph shows you the number of Chinese churches in each of those regions. The bar graphs show you the number of congregations in each of those regions, broken up into the different languages (eg. English, Cantonese, Mandarin).


Some larger and more established churches will have multiple congregations, and others that are smaller or newer will only have one congregation - this accounts for the difference between the line graph, and the bar graphs.

This next graph isolates just the Chinese churches. Here I've presented it as a pie graph, so you can see the distribution of Chinese churches as a proportion of the whole.


I also have that in a bar graph form here, in case you find that better suits your purposes. The bar graph is useful for comparing with the following two graphs...

This bar graph shows how many English congregations there are in the different regions of Sydney. Be aware that some churches have two English congregations. And bilingual congregations with English as one of the languages do not count.


In some regions, there are very few English ministries! But even the bars that seem quite healthy can actually be deceptive. And this becomes clear with the next graph...

This one shows you the need for English ministry. These are the Chinese churches that currently do not have an English congregation.


While some churches have one, and sometimes even two English congregations, quite a few churches don't even have one. But they will increasingly feel the need to set up an English congregation to reach the second generation...

What is also interesting to note is that regions that seem strong in the previous bar graph (eg. the North and North West) still also have a great need for English ministries!

This next set of small pie graphs show you the English ministry situation for the Chinese churches in each of the eight regions in Sydney. The numbers inside the pie graphs indicate the number of churches with, and without English ministries.


Here you can see which areas are really in need of English ministries - the South, the East, and surprisingly the North!

And this last pie graph shows you how things are going as a whole in Sydney in terms of English ministry.


The Chinese churches that do have English ministries are already finding it hard to get pastors to serve in them. But this graph shows that even if we do fill all those current vacancies, we still have a long way to go to serve the needs of all those Chinese churches without English ministries! And that's not even to take into account the extra Chinese churches we need to plant to reach the Chinese of Sydney...

[ PS: Melbourne was cold for the ANZCCOE conference ... so I ended up with the 'flu the last few days! ]