Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
11-2014
Abstract
This paper explores how the evangelical spatiality of an Asian Canadian senior pastor at a historically Anglo-Saxon congregation has transformed it from an ethnically homogeneous, aging church to a heterogeneously-constituted gathering in an evangelical Protestant tradition. This piece challenges the conventional wisdom of the church growth movement and the new religious economics in the sociology of religion, both of which advise religious groups to construct homogeneity and consensus in efforts for numerical growth over against secularizing forces. The paper argues instead that Pastor Ken Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality from the mid-1990s to the present must be understood as a theological embrace of difference in a church gifted to him by God over which he prayerfully pastors along with his staff. This paper understands Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality through his own New Testament exegesis, his denominational affiliation with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, his ancient spiritual practices of indiscriminate hospitality, and his mystical reception of Tenth as a welcoming space toward a multiplicity of ethnic, class, and religious backgrounds. This article contributes to Asian Canadian Christian studies by discouraging a future where panAsian churches in Canada are homogeneously constructed and by exploring the concrete possibility of non-strategies in which heterogeneous, complex spaces that include Asian Canadians are received by pastors and studied by academics as a divine gift.
Keywords
Asian Canadian, Evangelical, Difference, Space, Place, Geographies of Religion
Discipline
Asian Studies | Religion
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Relegens Thréskeia
Volume
3
Issue
2
First Page
24
Last Page
56
ISSN
2317-3688
Identifier
10.5380/rt.v3i2.39092
Citation
TSE, Justin K. H..(2014). Difference and the establishment: An Asian Canadian senior pastor's evangelical spatiality at Tenth Avenue Alliance Church in Vancouver, BC. Relegens Thréskeia, 3(2), 24-56.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3097
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.5380/rt.v3i2.39092