Many of the following concrete areas needing correction will be directed at the Chinese Ministry mostly because in many Chinese churches, Chinese congregational members are mainly the ones in power (Chinese Senior Pastor, Chinese Moderator, and perhaps little or no EM representatives on the church board). However, even in the areas below that are leader-dependent, both the Chinese Ministry (CM) and English Ministry (EM) need to prayerfully work together to build a spiritually healthy church. These areas include:

1. Release Control and Empower the English Ministry - CM leaders need to trust and entrust leadership to EM leaders who are growing spiritually and have demonstrated maturity. This means that CM leaders need to trust EM leaders to handle individual life-style choices within EM, freely start or end ministries according to the needs of EM members, exercise leadership freedom within the church (give freedom to the EM pastor and EM leaders), and even include them on the church board (having a CM person transfer over to the EM service, and then consider that uncle/auntie as an EM representative does not count!). If a church begins to practice these things, perhaps they would soon be ready to even consider a mature EM person to be considered as the board’s moderator or even consider having the EM pastor who understands both cultures to be the senior pastor.
   

2. Humility - It is true that EM should exercise humility towards CM and CM leaders. They ought not to be selfish but to consider resource needs of the CM and the needs arise from CM elderly members so that the whole church makes decisions for all its members out of love. EM should also not quickly get angry, bitter and upset due to difference in ministry philosophy but strive to communicate concerns in respectful ways. However, as mentioned above, because in most Chinese churches, power resides in CM leaders, the reminder for humility is more commonly absent in CM leaders. In a healthy family, children who are adults eventually take huge responsibility not only for their children but also for their aged parents; it would not be healthy for parents to continue to baby them (家長式對待) when they are in their 30s and 40s. In the same way, such a shift in mindset needs to occur in the Chinese Church.
   

3. Give Freedom in Life-style Choices - Towards life-style choices such as what to dress, entertainment choices, and even participation of annual events (e.g. Halloween), CM leaders need to exercise biblical discernment and flexibility. If other Bible-believing Western churches whom your church already accepts have these above practices, but you are judging, censoring and/or restricting your EM members, then those decisions probably need to be re-assessed. The recommendation is to lean on mature EM leaders for their perspective and decision making.
   

4. Reasonable Salaries (which match the cost-of-living) - The modern Chinese church, especially those in metropolitan cities, while needing to honor the culture of the past inherited by Western missionaries or early church leaders of simple material living, need to acknowledge the higher cost of living in life today especially in large cities. As a result, it is necessary to give reasonable wages to pastors and administrative staff with salaries matching similar jobs and educational levels in society so as to not unnecessarily burden them which will hinder their ministry effectiveness. The secondary benefit of this change is that the church would attract “higher quality” staff members rather than those who are available but may have character or competent issues due to a lack of candidates for a particular staffing position. For pastoral salary, it is appropriate to recognize the principle that “the elders who rule well (should) be considered worthy of double honor” (1 Tim 5:17).
   - “善於督導教會的長老，尤其是勤勞講道教導人的，應該得到加倍的敬奉。”- 提前 5:17
   

5. Intergenerational Engagement - Because healthy transition in leadership can only happen through modelling and interpersonal relationships (and even mentorship), a healthy Chinese church should facilitate formal and informal points of connection between respectable CM members and EM members. Practically, the CM members and leaders who catch the vision can intentionally participate in EM worship, fellowship, events, ministries, outreach and mission trips in order to develop trusting relationship with EM members and leaders. When these steps are being taken, EM members should welcome them rather than to discourage uncles and aunties in their attempt to bridge the gap and make relational connections.

If Chinese churches choose not to change in the above areas, they will continue to experience the occasional church split and the silent exodus (EM people gradually leaving especially as they enter into adulthood and certainly when they have children), and the Chinese church, if there is a significant season of low Chinese immigration, will slowly age out (and for smaller churches, perhaps die as a result). Without the reasonable salary increase, Chinese churches will continue to or even increasingly experience an inability to hire EM pastors and EM support staff. Finally, even if a Chinese church can overcome much of the negatives, without positively mentoring the next generation, future issues of spiritual immaturity, biblical illiteracy and foolish leadership will likely occur.

If Chinese churches do reform in these areas, I believe the Lord will bring much healing in interpersonal relationship and relit the spiritual passion in younger EM brothers and sisters for serving and gospel ministry; as a result, they will choose to raise their families in the Chinese church and take up the leadership baton for the whole church in the future so that gospel witness may continue for generation after generation.