DALLAS — At least a dozen ethnic leaders at this year’s Asian Collective Kickoff Celebration re-signed the covenant they first signed last year, signifying their continued interest in working together as Asians through the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) for the sake of the gospel.

Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Lao, Thai and Vietnamese leaders were among the 200 or more people attending the fourth annual Asian Kickoff, which took place at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The celebration was one of the events preceding the SBC’s 2025 annual meeting.

“I think it went fantastic,” President Victor Chayasirisobhon told Baptist Press during the dinner that followed the meeting. “God and the Holy Spirit did it. I’m very proud of all the fellowships that turned out.”

“When it comes to unity, the Asian Collective needs to be the tip of the spear,” the president said during his remarks. “We are family. When we are united before God, it honors God in a bless-ed way.”

The worship team from Semihan (Korean) Church in Carrollton, a northwest Dallas suburb — host church for the Kickoff celebration — had already led three services at the Carrollton campus before they led the Asian Collective in a five-song session of rousing praise and intense worship.

“We are the people who walk with the Lord,” Semihan’s Senior Pastor Ryan Lee told all his multicultural listeners, as he listed things Asians have in common with each other and with the rest of the SBC. “We are all witnesses of Christ. … We are all set apart to be set aside for the diaspora: people who scatter from their homeland to spread the gospel.”

The Asian Collective also celebrated the announcement that Victor Chayasirisobhon has been elected president of the group organized in 2021 by Filipino leader Peter Yanes.

Yanes was present to pray for the new president and the growth of the unity already seen among the 10-and-growing Asian cultures that partner with other Southern Baptists in reaching people throughout the world with the Good News of God’s love.

“There’s only one way to go,” Yanes told the Collective before he prayed. “Forward, together, side by side.”

Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the SBC’s Executive Committee, was the first of seven men to bring short messages. He spoke of the growth of Asian churches in becoming part of the SBC’s global missions focus.

In addition to talking about identity, Lee of Semihan Church spoke of sun and shadow, spiritual strength and weakness, the stock market, and how they all relate to Jesus.

Where there is sun, there usually is shadow, Lee said. When a person owns 49% of something, he is a “minority” stockholder, but when he owns 51%, he is majority owner and much better off than he was when he had just 2% less. The more directly a person stands under the light of Jesus, the sun, the less shadow — weakness — there will be.

“What is the%age of sunshine in your life?” Lee asked. “With 51% of sunshine in your life, you are a majority stockholder of Jesus!”

Todd Lafferty, executive vice president at the International Mission Board, spoke of 3,550 IMB missionaries serving in 155 nations across the world, but still there are 3,000 unreached, unengaged people groups with 166,338 people dying each day without ever having had the opportunity to hear of Jesus.

Lafferty spoke at Tacoma (Wash.) First Baptist Church two years ago, a majority Korean congregation, when an 89-year-old man responded to a call for older people to serve as missionaries.

“He asked, ‘Can you send me?’ We started the ‘Masters’ program because of that,” Lafferty said, referring to an IMB option for active people in mid-career and beyond. The IMB vice president also spoke of the “Explorers” program for young adults — now with no age limits — to go to far distant places. “Can we get the Good News to the thousands who may never have seen an outsider?”

The goal to reach all 3,000 unreached people groups is 2033, Lafferty said.

Charles Grant, the SBC Executive Committee’s associate vice president for convention partnerships, spoke of the “Navigating the SBC” publication — “a menu of all things SBC,” he said — which now is available in English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and French-Creole (Haitian) languages, with more languages yet to come.

ERLC started something new just last week, President Brent Leatherwood told the Asian Collective: the cause of religious workers (specifically pastors) forced to leave the United States when their visas expire, who are not permitted to re-enter the U.S. for significant months or years. This often causes churches to wither or die.

Leatherwood requested people with knowledge of churches facing this turmoil to send basic information to [email protected].

“The voice of the SBC when we’re united can make a difference,” Leatherwood said.

There is an “unbroken trajectory of growth” in Asian ethnic churches, reported Carter Tan, president of the Ethnic Research Fellowship. In 1990 there were 649 churches; as of 2023, there were 2,209, averaging 45 new churches each year.

“In just one year, Asian representation on SBC committees jumped by 33%, and trustee seats by 33%,” Tan said. “This is a powerful demonstration of what happens when opportunity meets readiness.”

The most recent stats show that 4.5% of the SBC is Asian, and 4.5% of the members on entity trustee boards are Asian. See baptistresearch.com for more stats, and to see a map of the U.S. indicating Asian churches in all but four states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and West Virginia.

Hyung Lee, co-coordinator of the Asian NextGen Pastors Network, spoke of the Network being a bridge between first, second, third and later Asian generations.

“The SBC Asian NextGen Pastors Network exists as a hub for English-speaking pastors and church leaders to encourage and equip one another through friendship, collaboration and connection, mentoring and resourcing,” Lee said.

There are regional and national gatherings, as well as a monthly book club and 90-minute monthly Zoom meeting.

See sbcasiannextgen.com for the group’s history and lists of regional leaders in the East, West and South. Additional participants are being sought from each Asian culture, added Lee, pastor of Living Rock Church in Pasadena, Calif.

“Helping young pastors will help Asian churches,” Lee said.

The Asian NextGen Pastors Network is meeting today, Monday, June 9, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Ballroom C3 of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center with a theme of “Hoping Beyond Hurt; Loving the Local Church.”

At least three times during the Asian Collective Kickoff’s three-hour event, Minh Ha Nguyen was recognized for his contributions to the SBC.

One of the millions of “boat people” who immigrated from war-torn Vietnam, he had worked at International Mission Board (IMB) for 24 years before he died at 57 in a rip tide drowning accident last July, but his legacy lives in the Baptist Research Network, which he birthed as a labor of love for Asian churches in the SBC.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Karen L. Willoughby is a national correspondent for Baptist Press.)