Seeking Forgiveness as the CELT’s Part in Reconciliation

A couple of summers ago I spent six weeks teaching in Hong Kong. The summer before, the team had found a budding English church, largely led by young adults who had either studied or spent time in the West. I was very excited to connect with a local church and to learn about how they understood and expressed the same faith. As a young man with a goatee and acoustic guitar climbed up on the stage and urged the congregation who were “fellowshipping” among cookies and coffee to come “grab a seat,” I realized that my expectations were different than what this local church was really like. We proceeded to sing some familiar choruses and listen to an American visitor preach about trusting God through difficult times such as a breakup or a job loss, and my heart sunk as I realized that it was a watered down mimicry of…