According to a survey conducted by the Innovative Space for Asian American Christianity, women in Asian American churches have fewer opportunities to advance into leadership positions than in other churches. The survey also found that men and women in Asian American churches disagree on why women are lacking in senior leadership positions. Men most frequently cited “biblical and denominational beliefs,” while women most frequently cited “overrepresentation of men” and “work-life balance.”

The pilot study, titled “National Survey of Asian American Congregational Leadership Practices,” surveyed nearly 350 English-speaking congregations between 2022 and 2024. More than 60 percent of the churches in the sample were predominantly Asian American. Twenty-eight percent of the Asian American churches surveyed were part of the Protestant tradition.

An exact total number of Asian American congregations is not known, especially after some churches were forced to close due to the pandemic, said ISAAC Executive Director Young Lee Hertig. ISAAC’s research team, funded by the Lilly Endowment, drew on a database of more than 6,000 Asian American congregations to recruit survey respondents.

Research on Asian American churches is sparse, said Baylor sociologist Jerry Park, who analyzed the data. Pew surveys and studies such as Faith Communities Today include Asian American churches or ask individual Asian Americans questions about faith, Park said, but “the ISAAC survey contains the largest sample of Asian American congregations with questions relevant to church ministry.”

In the survey, more non-Asian American congregations than Asian American congregations reported that leadership was predominantly male (66 percent versus 45 percent). However, Asian American churches reported that women had fewer opportunities to advance into leadership positions. Sixty-six percent of Asian American churches allowed women to preach at a main worship service, compared with 85 percent of other churches, while 56 percent of Asian American churches allowed women to be the lead minister, compared with 79 percent of other churches.

“Many Asian American women are not serving in Asian American churches, and it’s precisely because of the gender discrimination in those churches,” said Lee Hertig, who directs ISAAC’s mentoring program for Asian American clergy, called PastoraLab. Lee Hertig estimates that about 10 women have been ordained through the program in the past three years, but only one of them is currently serving in an Asian American church.

“What they say is biblical is male-filtered,” Lee Hertig said, noting that men in Asian American churches tend to cite “biblical and denominational beliefs” as the reason for the lack of women in senior leadership. “Who does the hermeneutics?”

The survey also found that Asian American churches tend to have younger members than other churches but include fewer young adults on decision-making bodies. Nineteen percent of Asian American churches reported that one to five members of the governing body were under the age of 30, compared with 36 percent of other churches.

The survey also examined the church’s leadership culture, community engagement, participation in the Stop AAPI Hate coalition, and vandalism in the church.

During the height of the pandemic, fewer Asian American churches participated in Stop AAPI Hate (34 percent versus 60 percent of other congregations), but after 2022, participation by other churches dropped significantly to 21 percent, while participation by Asian American churches declined slightly to 29 percent.

Since the pandemic, Asian American churches have reported increased rates of theft and property damage.

“I think the survey confirms the conservative shift in Asian American church cultures over the past 25 years. The increasing affiliation with denominations that do not ordain women may be an important factor in this shift,” said Tim Tseng, director of the Asian American Christian History Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary.

“Asian American communities are increasingly at odds with their fellow Asian Americans and with American society, not to mention the Asian American women in their churches who are called to leadership positions,” he continued.

The ISAAC research team hopes to expand the sample size and translate the survey into Asian languages ​​to gain insights into first-generation immigrant churches and statistically significant breakdowns by race and denomination. They will present the survey results at the 2024 American Academy of Religion conference.

Andrew Lee, a member of the research team and deputy director of the Global Diaspora Institute at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, expressed hope that the survey results would spark change.

“I hope this survey will stimulate dialogue among pastors and church leaders to examine some traditional ideas and practices in their churches,” he said.