Fuller Theological Seminary to Host Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration

Fuller Theological Seminary’s Asian American Center is set to host its annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month celebration on May 1-2, 2024, focusing on the “Past, Present, and Future of the Asian American Church.” The event, which will take place at Travis Auditorium on the Pasadena campus, will feature prominent scholars and practitioners and be accessible both online and in-person.

The celebration will begin on Wednesday, May 1, with an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Chapel service from 10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. PST, where Soong-Chan Rah, the Robert Boyd Munger Professor of Evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary, will deliver a sermon. A reception will follow outside the auditorium.

Later that day, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. PST, Dr. Rah will lead the Asian American Theology Lecture, titled “Asian American Evangelical Church: History and Lessons.” The session aims to explore the last 50 years of Asian American Evangelicalism, with a particular focus on the Korean American immigrant narrative and its transition to a second-generation ethnic-specific community.

On Thursday, May 2, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PST, Gordon Nagayama Hall, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon, will present the Asian American Psychology Lecture. His talk, “Changing Historical Disparities: Increasing the Personal Relevance of Psychotherapy for Asian Americans,” will cover the history of mental health disparities among Asian Americans and propose methods to make psychotherapy more effective for this demographic. Continuing education credits are available for this lecture.

The event will feature distinguished speakers, including Soong-Chan Rah, a respected theologian and author known for his contributions to the field of evangelism; Timothy Tseng, the Pacific Area Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries; Gordon Nagayama Hall, a prominent psychologist and former president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity; and Jessica ChenFeng, an associate professor at Fuller Theological Seminary specializing in marriage and family therapy.

The Asian Pacific American Heritage Month celebration is free and open to the public, with registration required. For more information and to register, visit bit.ly/APAHM24.