Editor’s note: This July, we are praying for the Chinese diaspora throughout Asia. Join us this week, as we pray for Chinese living in Australia. Tim L, director of Asian Ministries for City to City, tells us about the Chinese population in Australia, and how he hopes to mobilize Chinese to reach Australia’s mainstream culture.
Needs and Struggles
China Partnership: What are the needs of the Chinese diaspora in Australia? What common struggles, hopes, or dreams do Chinese people in Australia have? What are the cross-cultural challenges?
Timothy Lau: There are 1.4 million Chinese in Australia. Our total population is just slightly over 27 million, so we are about 5.5 percent of the total population. About 700,000 speak Mandarin, 300,000 speak Cantonese at home, and the rest – about 400,000 – speak English. This is the next generation.
There are 1.4 million Chinese in Australia…about 5.5 percent of the total population.
Both the Mandarin speakers and the Cantonese speakers – a group of about one million – are migrants. So, this means that around 70 percent of Chinese in Australia are first-generation migrants. They came here to look for a better place to live, for better education, and also a better future. These are the things that they look for.
The migrants tend to stay within their community, not involved in or engaging the mainstream culture. So, the cross-cultural challenge is how to encourage them to open themselves up and to get to know others, not just Chinese. The challenge is to help them feel secure and comfortable in communicating with peoples of other races and skin colors.
Chinese Church Planting Goals
CP: Tell us about your church (and, if possible, the Chinese church plants in your city). What is your hope for Chinese church plants in Australia?
Our goal is to plant 100 Chinese churches by 2030.
Lau: We hope to see more Chinese church plants in Australia. In fact, at City to City Australia, I’m serving with the Asian Ministries Department. Our goal is to plant 100 Chinese churches by 2030. So far, after our three years of training, we have helped to plant more than 20 new churches. So, we still need to work harder to plant 70 churches in the next five years.
How to Pray
CP: How can we pray for your family and your church?
Lau: Pray for opportunities for us to make meaningful and deep connections with Chinese leaders of various denominations and traditions. Pray that we are able to pull all or even most of the Chinese leaders together. We long and pray for a healthy support movement, not just among Chinese churches and Chinese leaders, but that these leaders will be willing to collaborate and work with other churches and with people of other races.
We long and pray for a healthy support movement… that these leaders will be willing to collaborate and work with other churches and with people of other races.
As for my family, our prayer request is that we will continue serving and loving the Lord. We have two children who are both already adults. Praise the Lord! They both love the Lord and serve in the church. Pray for me and my wife, that we will be faithful in preaching and living out the gospel.
Tim L serves from Melbourne and works alongside Chinese leaders across Australia. He is the director of Asian Ministries for City to City. Tim comes from a pastoral and theological education background, and is currently involved in leadership training, mentoring, preaching, writing and lecturing.
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Pray for more Chinese church plants, and for Chinese believers to partner with others to glorify God’s name in Australia.
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