Watching Bollywood movies as a child, it was not uncommon to see token Christian characters make an appearance from time to time. These characters spoke Hindi with a smattering of English, and the women wore skirts when the other women in the movie wore sarees. On an everyday level, we saw churches, even the rural ones, often had steeples and bell towers, not unlike what one would expect from an English church.

Despite these marks of the foreignness of Christianity in India, common Indian Christians were indistinguishable from any other Indian in their everyday lives. We ate similar foods, spoke the same language with the same accents (unlike the Bollywood depictions), lived in similar houses, and shared the same joys and sorrows as the rest of India.

These realities of being Christian in India, with points of belonging and foreignness held together in one reality, are not unique to the Indian context. In fact, similar questions about the belongingness of Christianity are asked across the Asian context. This has led to many efforts to define and describe a truly Asian Christianity or to list prescriptions for making Christianity truly at home in Asia.

Multiple Belongings of the Asian Church

However, careful thought will show that the solution is not a simple, unidirectional process of finding a home for Christianity in Asia. This is because Christianity, even from its very beginnings, has been called to cross national and ethnic boundaries (Matt 28:26-20; Acts 1:8). Hence, the church that is formed through this call belongs to a global community of faith while also being at home in each context where it is planted.

So, what does an Asian Christianity look like? Or, more specifically, what does an Asian evangelical church look like? Attention to the terminology would show at least three considerations—Asian, evangelical, and church. Simon Chan, in his contribution to Asian Christian Theology: Evangelical Perspectives, presents a thoughtful answer to the question of what an Asian evangelical church should look like.

Chan avoids simplistic answers. He begins by locating Asian evangelicalism within the wider context of the church by drawing from Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions.¹ This is followed by an engagement with two key aspects of life in Asia that the evangelical church encounters—the family and ancestral veneration (pp. 145-153).

Chan argues one must engage Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches in Asia because “evangelicalism in the West has become theologically problematic and may not provide the best resources for articulating an Asian evangelical ecclesiology” (p.140). Further, he notes that because of their historical origins with para-church organizations and non-denominational mission agencies, Asian evangelicalism has a weak ecclesiology (p. 141). Hence, by dialoguing with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, Chan seeks to propose a more robust Asian evangelical ecclesiology.

An important conclusion for Chan is the “close inseparable link between the Spirit and church” (p. 143). He argues that this can help evangelical churches in Asia move beyond functional understandings, as seen in the Lausanne Convention 1974, which emphasized the church’s social responsibility. With a strong emphasis on the indwelling of the Spirit as essential to the church’s nature, Chan asserts “the church which ministers the gifts of the Spirit in the world must do so without drawing attention to itself, without an ulterior motive to convert, but in self-forgetful love for the other” (p. 144).

Finding a Home in the Asian Way of Life

Chan notes that because of their historical connections with the Free Church tradition, evangelical churches in Asia tend to emphasize “individual decision, believer’s baptism, and a memorialist view of the ‘ordinances’” (p. 141). Examining what an Asian evangelical church would look like beyond theory, Chan cautions against the disconnect between the centrality of the family in Asia and evangelicalism.

With this consideration, Chan calls for evangelicals to “take seriously the sacramentality of the ‘ordinances’” (p. 148). Thus, baptism is not merely a ritual or a symbol. The Asian context reminds evangelicals to think about the deep essential changes that rituals like baptism bring in the person. Relatedly, the church needs to be understood beyond a sociological reality to one that acknowledges the church’s deep ontological reality, relating to the very nature of its being (p. 145).

Considering the church beyond mere functional and sociological aspects, Chan leads the reader to consider Asian traditions like ancestral veneration. He calls for Christians to understand the church as an entity that is both “in both heaven and earth”—noting that Christians have classically affirmed the “communion of the saints” (p. 149). Pushing the envelope further, Chan proposes that evangelical churches in Asia need not outright reject practices like ancestral veneration. Instead, he suggests that Asian Christians should consider them within a broadened theological perspective through dialogue with the wider church and the Asian context. Ultimately, this would mean that the church cannot just affirm filial piety as seen in ancestral worship without “concrete ritual acts” (p. 150).

Chan is touching on a historically divisive and challenging discussion in the Asian context. Yet whether readers accept or reject his proposals regarding the treatment of ancestor veneration, we should take seriously his warnings regarding the “ritual impoverishment of evangelical ecclesiology” (pp. 150-52). In a context like Asia, where the connection between belief and ritual is strong, Christians should be hesitant to remove “the sacramental component as part of regular worship” within the church. Even for Christians with a modest theology of the sacraments could benefit from engagement with Chan’s call to consider these issues in light of both church history and the Asian context.

Chan’s proposal for an Asian evangelical ecclesiology is both illuminating and challenging. He offers a helpful corrective to the tendencies toward ahistoricism, functionalism, and sociological understandings of the church found in evangelical churches. Further, he helps evangelicals think of their identity in dialogue with the broader church, which has not always been the case.

Heeding Chan’s call can most certainly help the Asian evangelical church grow in many key areas of its life. However, it is also good to note that the evangelical churches in Asia are also communities that are actively missional, with vibrant spiritual lives, and offer valuable embodiments of the good news in their contexts. Thus, evangelical readers of Chan’s chapter must approach it with a dialogical spirit, confident in who they are while also seeing to learn from perspectives that may challenge them.

Watch this video for an illuminating conversation with the author about Asian evangelical ecclesiology.

Matthias Gergan serves as Program Coordinator for the ThM/PhD in Theological Studies offered by the Asia Graduate School of Theology in collaboration with the International Graduate School of Leadership. He also serves as Project Editor for Non-Commentary Books for Asia Theological Association (ATA) Publications. His current research interests are World Christianity, the church in Asia, and the development of theological studies in Asia. Matthias is from a mixed Ladakhi and Lepcha heritage from the Indian Himalayan region. He currently lives in Dehradun in Uttarakhand with his wife Menguphrenuo, mother, and son. His most recent article is “Faith Seeking Understanding in the Indian Himalayan Region” in Insights Journal.