Challenges and Opportunities for Asian Canadian Immigrant Churches with First and Second Generation Congregants: A Qualitative Study of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean Churches in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

“… generation and beyond coupled with diminishing first generation population.This proposed study holds critical implications for the future of ACICs. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Nam Soon Song Knox College, University of Toronto Contact Me
Dong-Ha Kim Contact Me
In Kee Kim Contact Me
Ben CH Kuo Contact Me

About this project grant for researchers

Asian Canadian immigrant churches (ACICs) are experiencing a dynamic demographic shift with increasing second-generation Asian Canadians and decreasing first-generation immigrants, a shift which will have considerable ramifications. This qualitative research examines key challenges and benefits arising from this demographic change and explores the future of these churches as perceived and envisioned by the first and second generation congregants in ACICs in the GTA of Canada. The main purposes of this project are: a) to seek critical information to help these churches transform current challenges into opportunities by examining what responses are required in order to be relevant in meeting the needs of the two generational congregants; and b) to examine similarities and differences in the experiences and perceptions among the ethnic and generational groups, which will lead to a sense of future direction for these churches. Using a qualitative method, this study will employ in-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 adult participants who are active in Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean churches respectively in the GTA. The interview data will be analyzed using QSR Nvivo, based on Braun and Clark’s (2013) procedural recommendations for thematic analysis. Thematic similarities and differences among the ethnic and generational groups will be examined and considered in detail.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
  Challenges and Opportunities: Asian Canadian Churches of Today for Tomorrow 2020 Website Article Nam Soon Song
People of Faith, People of Jeong (Qing): The Asian Canadian Churches of Today for Tomorrow 2020 Book Nam Soon Song
Ben CH Kuo
Dong-Ha Kim
In Kee Kim