Centre for Asian Christianity
Rev Dr Andrew Prince, Director of Centre for Asian Christianity, Lecturer in Ministry and Mission
Welcome to the Centre for Asian Christianity. The Centre for Asian Christianity (CAC) was launched in July 2016 with the vision of being a leading centre for training, research, networking, and resourcing Christians for contextual Asian ministry. Since that time many exciting initiatives have already developed, including: Training – a new unit developed titled ‘Contextual Asian Ministry’, speakers from across East Asia and Southeast Asia, student scholarships for engaging in ministry in Asia, significant engagement with churches and mission agencies serving in an Asian context; Research – CAC Research Fellows from across Australia and Asia furthering research in Asian Christianity, visiting scholars; Networking –networks and partnerships developed in China, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Asian ministries across Australia. Resources − book published: Contextualisation of the Gospel. If you have a passion for Asian people we’d love you to connect with you.
Meet the team
Rev Dr Andrew Prince, Director of Centre for Asian Christianity, Lecturer in Ministry and Mission
Andrew Prince
Andrew grew up in Sydney and originally trained as a veterinarian. God took him on an exciting journey from caring for animals to caring for people, and he spent more than six years pastoring two Baptist churches in Brisbane following his theological training at Moore Theological College in Sydney. Andrew joined the faculty at BST in 2009, teaching in the areas of Ministry and Mission. His PhD is on contextual communication of the gospel across cultures, and was published as a monograph titled Contextualization of the Gospel: Towards an Evangelical Approach in Light of Scripture and the Church Fathers (2017). Andrew has always loved connecting with and learning from people from other cultures – and Asian cultures in particular – and his role as Director gives him great scope for indulging this passion. Andrew is married to Sue, who works as a clinical Social Worker, and together they are raising three sons.
Dr Joseph Cheung, BSc MSc PhD
Dr Joseph Cheung
Joe was born and grew up in Hong Kong. After graduating from secondary school, he went to the United States for his university education and completed his Bachelors degree in Engineering Physics and PhD in Theoretical Physics at Cornell University.
He worked in the telecommunications field and held posts including a department head at Bell Laboratories, a business management director at Lucent Technologies, and Chief Operating Officer of a start-up company. For over two years he lived in Hong Kong and China, during which time he successfully led joint venture negotiations between AT&T and the Chinese Ministry of Telecommunications; Joe was briefly the managing director of this Shanghai JV, one of the earliest such entities in China. His international experience also includes leading groups and working with partners in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Now retired, Joe and his wife Anne live in New Jersey. They attend Monmouth Chinese Community Church where Joe is involved with the music and translation ministries. Joe and Anne support various Christian organisations in the United States and Asia, including serving as advisors to a non-profit microloan organisation based in Pennsylvania with operations in China.
They have two children and four grandchildren.
Anne Cheung, BA, MS, MAT(TESOL)
Anne Cheung
Anne grew up in Hong Kong and has been living in the USA for the last forty years. She worked for many years in the pharmaceutical industry with responsibilities for registration in Asia-Pacific countries. Now retired, she and her husband Joe supports various Christian organisations in the USA and Asia. She spends her time teaching English to immigrants at a community college and at her church. She also spends time supporting Chinese Christian Herald Crusades in their work with Chinese cancer patients in the New York area. Above all, she enjoys spending time with her four grandchildren.
Scott Litchfield, BTh, GradDip of Pastoral Studies, GradCert TESOL, MTh (Qual), PhD (candidate)
Scott Litchfield
Scott, along with his wife Rachael, have recently taken over the National Personnel Director role for Interserve Australia. They now call Adelaide home, after being involved in cross-cultural ministry in Thailand, Cambodia and Australia for over 25 years. In his spare time Scott enjoys growing vegetables and herbs and is learning to paint. Scott and Rachael have two adult children – Tennyson and Elliot.
BSci (Comp Sci), GradDipDiv, MA(ChrStds)
Grace Lung
Grace grew up in Sydney in a large Chinese church. Since then she has loved and served various Chinese churches over the years working with youth, students, young workers and women. Her passion and interests are contextualizing the gospel to Asian Australians and developing the ethnically Asian churches in Australia.
Grace studied and then worked in IT for five years before studying at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and completed her Masters project on Chinese Australian identity and ministry. She spent two years as a Pastoral Worker before giving birth to a daughter.
Grace is married to Chris and she supports her husband’s role as a Pastor at Brisbane Chinese Alliance Church, as well as serving with children and families. Grace cares for her daughter during the week. When she has some free time, she enjoys catching up on Asian pop culture and finding great Asian food spots around Brisbane to share with others. Grace is currently studying towards a Certificate in Asian American Contexts at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Ray Notley, BCom MDiv
Ray Notley BCom MDiv
Ray grew up in Newcastle, NSW, and graduated from the University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Commerce before spending more than 20 years working in business and corporate leadership positions. Ray completed his Masters of Divinity through Sydney Missionary and Bible College and is passionate and highly motivated to see God’s message of hope extended to all the nations.
As the leader of the mobilisation team at Pioneers Australia, Ray helps prepare, mentor and mobilise people to share the good news to unreached people throughout the world. Married to Kathy, together they long to see more people raised up for God’s Global Kingdom purposes.
Dr Wally Wang, BSc, MSc, PhD, MDiv, ThM
Dr Wally Wang
Wally was born in Hong Kong. After completing high school there, he went to the USA for his tertiary education. After he graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics from Florida State University, he went on to pursue post-graduate studies in physics at Carnegie Mellon University. After he was rewarded with a Ph.D. in Theoretical Particle Physics, he worked in Argonne National Laboratory as a research associate. Dr Wang then worked at the University of New South Wales, Australia, as a Post-Doctoral fellow before he went back to Hong Kong to study theology in the China Graduate School of Theology. After graduating with a Masters of Divinity, he worked in Jubilee Ministries. He served as a lecturer in its training school and participated in its ministry of serving those grass-root people living in Hong Kong. During this period, he also worked as a visiting lecturer of Evangel Theological Seminary. Later he went back to Australia and served as a pastor in Evangelical Free Church in Sydney. Later he went back to Hong Kong to pursue further study in theology. During this period, he also served as a tutor, visiting lecturer, and online teaching mentor. Upon graduation with Theology Masters degree, he joined the faculty of Brisbane School of Theology in 2013. Now he is the director of our Chinese Program and Lecturer of Christian Thoughts. He is married to Wai Ling and has one son and two grandsons.
Rev Ying Yee, BEng (Mech) BD
Rev. Ying Yee
Ying grew up in Sydney, studying Mechanical Engineering at UNSW and Theology at Moore Theological College. Ying has been a pastor at his home church – the Chinese Christian Church of Milsons Point NSW – for the past 25 years. As a second generation ABC he has had to think through the theological and cultural challenges of serving in Chinese churches.
His passion and mission from the beginning has been to raise up the next generation of pastors who will be able to grow the Chinese church and empower her to bring the gospel to the nations. For this reason he has been engaged in recruiting and mentoring the next generation of leaders around Australia. A key strategy in this work has been to establish lay training conferences around Australia and beyond. Some of these conferences are in Sydney (SWEATCON), Brisbane (Ignite, previously knowns as BLT), Melbourne (Connect), Adelaide (RED), Philippines (ETF). Ying is also currently an executive member of the Sydney Chinese Christian Churches Association with a particular focus on raising up second generation pastors for Chinese churches. He was also on the organising committee to establish the English arm of the 7th, 8th and 9th CCOWE (Chinese Congress in World Evangelisation). Ying is married to Ivy and has three daughters.
Research Fellows
The Centre for Asian Christianity has developed a Research Fellowship Scheme for the purpose of encouraging people to engage in research in the area of Asian Christianity and to support people engaging in research through access to support services. Applications to become a CAC Research Fellow are welcome.
Research Fellows enjoy the following privileges:
- Annual membership of BST’s W. J. Tunley library (including full student borrowing rights and extended library access);
- Online access to BST’s electronic resources (including EBSCO and ATLA);
- Invitation to participate in CAC and BST Research Symposia throughout the year;
- Opportunity to meet with visiting scholars to the Centre;
- Opportunity to stay at BST as part of the Research Sabbatical Scheme.
Application process:
For further information or to apply to become a Research Fellow for the Centre for Asian Christianity please email cacdirector@bst.qld.edu.au
Current Research Fellows
Karen Kim, B.A. (Hons.), MDiv, PhD (cand.)
Karen Kim
Born near Melbourne, but raised on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Karen’s Ministry and Academic interests have been heavily influenced by a decision to move to South Korea in 2005 after graduating from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Communication and Cultural Studies.
Since then Karen’s personal experiences, ministry and research have been married together − quite literally. Right before completing her Master of Divinity at Torch Trinity Graduate University in Seoul, she married a native Korean in 2011. While continuing her studies in Seoul at Yonsei University with a PhD in Pastoral Counselling, she gave birth to their son in 2014. Finding herself to be part of small group reflecting a larger dramatic shift in Korean society for which there was very little literature, Karen decided to write her Thesis on the Experiences of Western Women raising Biracial Children with their Korean spouses in Korea.
Karen served as Youth Pastor for the English Ministry of Yoido Full Gospel Church (2008-2011) and as Associate Pastor in the Adult English Ministry (2011-2013). She also completed her counselling Internship and Residency at the Global Diaspora Coaching Network and Yonsei Counselling Centres seeing predominantly International Student clients.
Karen’s particular research interests include multicultural counselling and how inter and intra personal dynamics are influenced by cultural and personal narratives.
Monographs and papers
Kim, Karen L. “Korea and the Gender Construction of Female Marriage Migrants” Pastoral Psychology 66 no. 1 (2017): 13-25.
Contact Karen: karenlkim81@gmail.com
Grace Lung, BSci (Comp Sci), GradDipDiv, MA(ChrStds), GradCert (Couns) [cand.] GradCert (Asian Amer. studies) [cand.]
Grace has served at various Chinese churches over the years in youth, students, young workers, women and young families. She previously served as the English Pastoral Worker at Brisbane Chinese Alliance Church. Her passion is integrating faith to Asian Australians and developing the ethnically Asian churches in Australia.
Grace worked in IT for several years before studying at Sydney Missionary and Bible College and completed her Masters project on Chinese Australian identity and ministry. Grace is currently studying with the Asian American Centre at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her research interests include Asian Australian / American theology, East Asian culture, contextualization, pastoral/practical theology, counselling and peacemaking.
Monographs and papers
Lung, Grace (2018). “Is Chinese parenting a form of emotional abuse? An evaluation within the Chinese migrant context.”
Lung, Grace (2018). “Understanding the Post Modern Asian Australian: a ministry proposal.”
Lung, Grace (2017). “A Chinese Australian’s personal narrative through the Asian American Quadrilateral: a self-reflection.
Lung, Grace (2017). “An evaluation of John 11:45-53 as moral analogy for the Chinese Australian context.
Lung, Grace (2017). “Internalized racism in Hong Kong Australians and its contribution to church conflict; a proposal.”
Contact Grace: grace.auyeung@gmail.com
Cathy Hine, PhD (Gender Studies), BA (Hons, Arabic and Islamic Studies), Diploma in Biblical Studies.
Dr Cathy Hine
Cathy joined Interserve in 1986 after looking for a mission agency that would nurture God’s call to ministry with women who live under Islam. This has provided the focus to Cathy’s last thirty years of ministry. Cathy is passionate about women and change, particularly how the transforming power of the Kingdom of God, expressed in the message of the Gospel, is foundational to challenging the structures that mediate Muslim women’s lives. In her PhD Cathy explored this theme through the lives of women activists in Pakistan.
After completing almost nine years as part of Interserve’s International Leadership Team, first as Regional Director for the Arab World and Africa, and then as Director of Ministries, Cathy stepped down at the end of 2014. In 2015 she partnered to launch a new initiative for When Women Speak ….
When Women Speak … (http://whenwomenspeak.net/ ) is a network that encourages the exploration of the place of women’s voices where Christianity, Islam and missiology meet. The network encourages women to share and debate their work on mission, women and Islam, focused on nurturing ministry that engages Muslim women with the gospel.
Cathy’s research interests include women, Islam and mission; women, social activism and change. She is presently researching issues that impact discipleship for women followers of Jesus out of Islam, honour and shame as experienced by women, and the intersection of women’s social activism and the gospel.
Monographs and papers
Hine, Cathy (2018), co-editor, When Women Speak …, Publisher Regnum
Hine, Cathy (2018), Veiled: Muslim Women in Modern Mission Strategies in When Women Speak … Regnum Publications
Hine, Cathy (2018), Patronage and Reciprocity: Leveraging aspects of shame and honour in discipling women followers of Jesus from a Muslim Background in When Women Speak … webzine
Hine, Cathy (2017) Negotiating from the Margins: Women’s Voices (re)Imagining Islam in Dynamics of Contemporary Muslim Societies: Christian, Theological and Missiological Implications Evelyne Reisacher (ed), Intervarsity Press
Writing as Melanie McNeal
McNeal, Melanie (2014) ed, Discipleship: reclaiming Missions Strategic Focus. Grassroots Mission Publications
McNeal, Melanie (2014), Mission Paradigms: Is discipleship important? in Discipleship: Relclaiming Missions Strategic Focus Grassroots Mission Publications
McNeal, Melanie (2012), Who’s responsible?: Mission Organisations, Leadership and the Management of Crises on the Field in Risk and Suffering in the Church and Mission, Grassroots Mission Publications
McNeal, Melanie (2010), Do Muslim Women Need Saving? in Reconciliation in the Arab World. Grassroots Mission Publications.
Mc Neal, Melanie (2008), Contextualisation or the Affirmation of Patriarchal Norms? In Doing Mission in the Arab World. Grassroots Mission Publications
Contact Cathy: cathyhine@gmail.com
Xiaoli Yang – BBus GCCS GDCS MDiv PhD Post-Doctoral Associate
Xiaoli has been serving in Australia and Asia as a lecturer, pastor and mentor. In her teaching, she adopts creative methodologies to build bridges between the secular and the sacred, the East and the West, theology and poetry. She enjoys research, poetry, travel and her dog.
Monographs
Yang, Xiaoli. A Dialogue between Haizi’s Poetry and the Gospel of Luke—Chinese Homecoming and the Relationship with Jesus Christ. Theology and Mission in World Christianity. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Book chapters
Yang, Xiaoli. “Poetry as Theology—a Creative Path.” In Challenging Tradition: Innovation in Advanced Theological Education, ICETE Series, edited by Perry Shaw and Havilah Dharamraj, 425-45. Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2018.
Yang, Xiaoli, Havilah Dharamraj, Grace Al-Zoughbi Arteen, and Karen Shaw. “Verse by Verse: The Use of Poetry in Advanced Theological Education”. In Challenging Tradition: Innovation in Advanced Theological Education, ICETE Series, edited by Perry Shaw and Havilah Dharamraj, 447-59. Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2018.
Yang, Xiaoli. “A ‘Steam Boat’ Theology of Home—Reading the Gospel of Luke with Chinese Eyes”. In Reimaging Home, edited by Darrell Jackson, Rosemary Dewerse and Darren Cronshaw. Sydney: Morling Press, 2018 (forthcoming).
Yang, Xiaoli. ‘Meal Custom’, ed. Dyron Daughrity, in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018 (forthcoming).
Yang, Xiaoli. ‘Jesus – Christianity – China’ in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR), Jesus – Kairos, Vol 14, ed. Christine Helmer, Steven L. McKenzie, Thomas Römer, Jens Schröter, Barry Dov Walfish, Eric J. Ziolkowski, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017.
Articles
Yang, Xiaoli. “The Rise of the Middle Kingdom – Reflections on Chinese Indigenous Mission Movement”. Australian Journal of Mission Studies 12, no. 1 (June 2018)
Yang, Xiaoli. ‘China, Christianity and the Question of Culture’ in International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, Vol 15, Issue 4, 2015.
Contact Xiaoli: xyang@whitley.edu.au
STh, MTS, Th.M, Ph.D
Martus Maleachi
Martus is a Chinese-Indonesian “pastor’s kid” born and raised in Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta. While as a youth he had no intention of following his father’s footsteps and becoming a full time minister, in His time God called him and led him into a life of ministry. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in theology from Southeast Asia Bible Seminary (known as SAAT in Indonesian) in Malang, East Java, he completed his internship at Anugerah Indonesian Christian Church in Bandung and continued to serve at that church until SAAT invited him to return as a faculty member in 1995.
Although Martus’s primary passion is to serve a congregation, most of his life has been dedicated to the training of future ministers through his work at SAAT. He believes that the core of theological education lies not on academic ability but on a readiness of the heart to serve Christ our Lord and Saviour; therefore, academic quality has to be based on a spiritual foundation. Sent by SAAT, Martus continued his education in the United States, receiving his master’s degrees (MTS and ThM) from Calvin Theological Seminary and his doctorate (PhD) from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Since 2015, Martus has had the honour of serving as SAAT’s president.
Martus lectures on the subject of Old Testament Literature. The focus of his research is on the Historical Books of the Bible. His goal is to help the Asian congregation understand those books according to their original context. He believes that the Bible will come to life when allowed to speak in its own way.
BA, LLB, GDLP, MDiv, ThM (cand.)
William Hong
William was born and raised in Melbourne as a second-generation Korean-Australian, coming to faith in the context of the Korean immigrant church community. He completed his Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Asian Studies) and Bachelor of Laws at Monash University, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice at the Australian National University. He also studied abroad for one year at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, where he focused on Korean language studies and international relations.
Following his undergraduate studies, William worked as a public servant and lawyer with the Australian Government, dealing primarily with migration and refugee issues. After six years, he left the Australian public service to prepare for his calling at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, where he completed his Master of Divinity degree with a cross-cultural ministry focus.
William has been a member of various churches while living in seven different cities across Australia, Korea, and the United States, most of which have been diaspora Korean congregations. He has held a long-standing interest in cross-cultural missions, having visited and served with various ministries located in China and North Korea on several short-term mission trips. Most recently, he had the privilege to serve as an English ministry pastor for youth and young adults at a Korean church while living in the Chicago area.
William is currently pursuing his Master of Theology in Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Through his research, he aims to study how theological education was contextualised by Western missionaries and to assess its impact on the formation and growth of the Korean church in the early twentieth century. By examining the role of theological education in the development of Korean Christianity through a missiological lens, he hopes to establish a historical framework from which to further consider the implications of theological education and its significance for advancing mission in the twenty-first century.
Contact William: williamhong@fuller.edu
Upcoming events
CAC Fundraising Dinner
CAC FUNDRAISING DINNER 2018
On Tuesday 29 May the Centre for Asian Christianity held its inaugural Fundraising dinner. With Asian-themed décor and sumptuous Asian food, more than 90 guests heard about the history, vision, and achievements of the Centre over the past two years. They also heard from speakers from different parts of East and Southeast Asia, as well as students who were preparing or currently serving in Asian contexts. The success of the event has led to this now established as an annual event for the Centre.
TESOL PART-TIME COURSE
30 July – 27 October
