Member Feature: Lawrence Tan

When I first moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, I church-hopped for about a year. This time, when my family moved from California to Texas, I decided that church-hopping wouldn't be very productive. I found out about AABC through the JEMS website because we were looking for a multicultural mostly Asian (MCMA) church, similar to our church in the San Gabriel Valley. Only one church popped up for the entire metroplex: AABC.
The reason I looked for a MCMA church was because Americans of Asian descent have a unique set of spiritual needs. Sometimes, those needs are not met at some of the larger megachurches. For example, our culture thinks of family as extended family, uncles, aunties, in-laws, etc. Conventional culture thinks more of family as a nuclear family—mom, dad and the kids.
Another reason I chose AABC as our home church is because of its affiliation through Mt. Hermon and JEMS with other MCMA churches in California. In 2007, I had the opportunity to go to Japan on a short-term mission trip. Through that experience, God really laid a burden on my heart to love the people of Japan and minister in any way possible to spread the Gospel over there.
Finally, the biggest reason I chose AABC was because of the people we met here. We did church-hop for a couple months after we arrived. AABC was the first church where people actually talked to us after the service. I mean really reach out sincerely (not just a quick introduction, handshake and move on) in a way that made us feel like we'd just arrived home. Thank you, everyone, for your godly hospitality!
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