Photo: A recent gathering of Korean pastors, elders and leadership teams gathered to engage with the ethos work in their own language.
Our Ethos translated into Korean and Indonesian
By Emily Ferguson
A group of 10 leaders have been working together over the past 18 months to articulate the ethos of churches of Christ in NSW – namely, who we are as a network of churches.
What has been articulated is a live document, still in draft form, that has emerged from and invites formative input from a wide range of voices within our network.
Accordingly, the ethos has been translated into Korean and Indonesian so that those in our Korean and Indonesian churches can fully engage in the Ethos conversation.
“When we met for Collective online in 2021 and first began to engage together around our ethos, I became aware of the barrier with language for some of our leaders,” said Kym Dixon, who leads the Ethos project.
“We have a number of Indonesian and Korean pastors who have so much to contribute to our network, and it was important for the Ethos Team that their voices were heard as we seek feedback. In response, we approached some of our pastors to see if they could assist with translating the Ethos into Indonesian and Korean.”
Stephen Cha, Lead Pastor at The Chapel Sydney, coordinated the translation from among the Korean churches.
“We have four Korean-speaking congregations, and it was a way to include them in the ethos conversation,” he said. “Considering that the ethos document is an open conversation for our churches to comment and have an opinion, having it translated and being able to engage in their own language was crucial to be inclusive. The Korean churches and leaders will now have equal opportunity to engage freely with the ethos document and to engage and give input.”
Joseph Tee, a founding Pastor of Hope and Harvest Church of Christ, coordinated the Indonesian translation.
“It is very important for our congregations to understand the ethos statements in our own language so that we can better engage with the network,” he said. “It allows us to have a common understanding and engage with other churches in the network, a common understanding within our congregation, and also with the other Indonesian churches in our network.
“Our prayer is that it will knit the community together with the understanding that at the end, we have the common language of the love of our Saviour. Jesus Christ will knit us together.”
The Korean and Indonesian versions of the churches of Christ ethos will be sent to pastors, leaders and elders ahead of regional ethos conversation gatherings.
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