Filipinos urged ‘look beyond who you are’

Jul 8, 2010
By STAFF

Related Coverage:

2010 SBC Annual Meeting

ORLANDO (BP)—Filipino Southern Baptists are better equipped to reach North America for Christ than any other ethnic group immigrating to the U.S., Jason Kim told the Filipino Southern Baptist Fellowship of North America.

“You are the only group that speaks English,” said Kim, coordinator of the North American Mission Board’s metro mission team. “That is why God sent you here to reach North America with the Gospel of Jesus. You are one of His main hopes.”

Kim was among the speakers at the annual meeting of the fellowship, held June 15 in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando.

Nearly 90 Filipino church leaders gathered to discuss new initiatives to take the Gospel to the 2.5 million Filipinos in the United States.

Filipinos represent the second-largest group of immigrants into the United States, next to Hispanics, Kim said. He encouraged them to adopt a Great Commission mindset: “When you look at God’s Kingdom, it’s better to look beyond who you are.”

Filipinos also settle in large metropolitan areas, giving them a head start to reach U.S. cities where the majority of the nation’s population resides, Kim added.

MOTIVATE Jason Kim with the North American Mission Board addresses the Filipino Southern Baptist Fellowship of North America, which met June 15 in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando. BP Photo by Van Payne

His remarks were echoed by Darwin Sokoken, a church planter in the Washington, D.C., area, who urged Filipino church leaders to “inform ourselves and equip ourselves to be multi-ethnic church planters” to reach both Filipinos and other Asian groups in the U.S.

Sokoken told the group that an emphasis on church planting among Filipinos must be directed to second-generation Filipinos who are being assimilated into the American culture.

Sokoken said the 207 Filipino Southern Baptist churches in the U.S. and Canada are concentrated most heavily in California, with 97 congregations, and New York/New Jersey, with 17 congregations.

The report was based 2005 statistics, the latest figures available, Sokoken said.

The fellowship’s president, Roger Manao, pastor of the Philadelphia Bible Church International in Pennsylvania, said it is difficult to accurately account for Filipino churches in North America. He said he hopes that as the fellowship grows, more intentionality in reporting can overcome the statistical deficiencies.

Manao called on the Filipinos to “network together and mobilize” to plant 30 churches in the next decade. “We are not doing our best to reach the Filipino community for Christ,” he said.

Related Coverage:

2010 SBC Annual Meeting

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