How am I Going to Grow Up? An Exploration of Congregational Transition among Second-Generation Chinese Canadian Evangelicals and Servant-Leadership

Abstract

Growing up in Canada, second-generation Chinese Canadian evangelicals (SGCCE) face multiple forces that shape their growth and identity, not least of which are ethnicity and religion. This cohort undergoes a double process of socialization: first, with their parents’ culture and ethnic identity through participation with the religious institutions and communities; second, with the school system and social agencies. Generational and cultural conflicts arise when this cohort attempts to deal with the religious-social psychological doubleness. This dissertation investigated how SGCCE transitioned in the growth process as shaped by their ethnicity and religious experience through a multi-case study. Servant-leadership espouses the idea of service as manifested in both the leader being the servant first and the followers’ interests being prioritized in the leadership experience. This dissertation selected Greenleaf s concept of foresight as the leadership lens to examine how leaders in the Chinese Canadian churches and other congregations addressed SGCCE’s transitional experience.