God's New Whiz Kids?: Korean American Evangelicals on Campus

4. Emergent Ethnic Group Formation

Emergent Ethnic Group Formation If SGKA campus ministries look so much like other Evangelical campus ministries, why are SGKAs flocking to separate ethnic ministries ? The answer is simple: they want to be with other SGKAs. The substance of what binds SGKAs together and leads them to forge an emergent ethnic group identity, however, is more complicated. It involves three interactive micro and macro processes. Preconditions: Search for Community and Opportunity Search for Community At the beginning of each school year, IVCF holds a special rally for new incoming students in a large ballroom. At one of these rallies, a former WU graduate who is now an IVCF staff member talks about finding her identity and community through “Jesus Christ” and the “fellowship ” offered by IVCF. She begins by sharing that she did not want to be just another “nine-digit” number “lost in the crowd” and ends by sharing that she found herself and was “saved” when she “personally met Jesus” and became part of “the [IVCF] family.” This special rally is organized around the premise that freshmen come onto the campus scene searching for community. Campus ministries presume that students want to be known and connected—that they are seeking to be more than their social security, driver’s license, and various other identification numbers and are looking for a genuine community of friends. They presume correctly. A senior reflects on what it was like for him to start college: “You are thrown into this new situation , which you have never been in before . . . which is really exciting, but also pretty scary, so you are looking for community.” 4 71 This desire for community is especially strong in a large university like WU where the student population is in the tens of thousands and where it is difficult to establish close social relationships. A student describes WU in this way: “It is like this big . . . bureaucratic maze, and you are this rat running around. You really have to have your stuff together, or you will be lost.” Another student explains how hard it is to make friends in such a setting: In classes you go there every other day or something and you see the same people, but you don’t really meet them, you just kind of listen to your [teaching assistant]. People don’t go out of their way to meet people . They don’t really talk to each other. They might talk like “what did the professor say?” . . . but don’t really interact with one another, . . . Maybe it is because [the school] is so big. Yet another student relates how hard it is to make friends at WU: “Even if you make some friends in class, there is no guarantee that you will see those same people twice unless you make it a point to have classes with them again . . . unless you make a whole lot of effort.” Thus, many students come onto the college campus searching for community but have difficulty finding it. In this predicament, campus ministries offer a solution. As previously noted, campus ministries are distinctively aware that students come to college seeking identity, friendship, and community. When campus ministries note that they “seek out the lost,” they do not merely mean those who are “spiritually” lost but those who are also “socially” lost. As a staff member of IVCF explains, “This is not just a place of worship, it is a place of community where you develop deep bonds with people.” The students themselves are aware that campus ministries can offer a solution to their social dislocation, as one of them comments: The only way to get to really know people are through those groups . . . because in class you just listen to the lecture and leave, and most people just go back up to their dorms or to their apartments after class. They don’t hang out all day in the same spot, so the only strong relationships that you can make are outside of class like in the various clubs. Another student comments on why campus ministries are so popular: 72 | Emergent Ethnic Group Formation Why are they so popular? It is a place to meet people, where you can expect to be treated with respect, it gives you a sense of family and belonging , community. . . . It is the fastest way to meet friends. You may meet one or two friends per quarter, but this way you meet way...