Our church is composed of mostly first-generation Koreans. However, we have some significant minorities in our church. First, there are first generation who does not speak English very well and second generation of Korean children and teenagers many who do not speak Korean very well. Second, there are some international marriages between American men and Korean women. Some couples were married with white men, some were married with Black men. There are invisible differences between White men couples and Black men couples. Third, as class disparities, there are class stratifications as well in the church. Many immigrants are well-to-do professionals that entered the U.S. as graduate students and found jobs afterwards. Other classes are poor and less-educated immigrants that own donut shops, sandwich shops, and cleaning businesses.
Although Korean church looks homogenous, there are several different subcultures and subgroups. To affirm diversity to our church, I would like to propose the following ideas.
First, to reduce the gap of first generation and second generation, church needs to provide open communication nights or parents and children nights. Once a month, 2nd week of Friday night on 7:00pm-9:00pm (You can change the different time based on your convenience), have communication night for parents and children. Through this activity, parents learn how to communicate with their children and teenagers’ cultures, school life and concerns. Children need to be aware of parent’s desires and concerns.
Second, for international marriage couples, all church members need to respect, appreciate, and affirm who they are whether White or Black, whether rich or poor. Many cases international marriage couples are segregated from Korean middle-class couples. To provide multicultural and diversity perspectives, church may offer “guest speaker” to build positive attitudes and relationships to international couples. This opportunity will be helpful to reduce prejudice or bias about international couples.
Third, to reduce of class stratifications perceptions, I would like to request to the church “story night for successful immigrants.” Through this activity, all church members could know how less-educated immigrants were worked so hard and succeeded in their workplaces and businesses.