by Brian Hall in 2001

The Early Years

Chinese Christian Fellowship was started at Rutgers University in 1982 by a seminary student named Milton Eng. At the time the group was called "Rutgers Chinese Evangelical Fellowship" and consisted of only a handful of students, most of whom had been born overseas but raised in America. The meetings were actually Bible studies, held at 4:30 in the afternoon!

Milton Eng graduated from seminary in 1985 and then moved away from the New Brunswick area. As a result, CCF no longer had a "leader." One of the members of the fellowship then invited a young man named Tom Sirinides--who at the time was a recent Rutgers graduate--to lead the group. Interestingly, at the time Tom had been seeking God's prompting to be involved with some ministry, so he eagerly accepted the invitation to lead CCF. Tom describes his experience as follows:

And so I went. It was five students who met. And I really enjoyed it, and as I met with them, I would lead Bible study each week . . . And I found myself enjoying more and more the things I did on campus and less and less the things I was doing [at my job] . . . I also met with some international students, a couple of men from mainland China, and my friendship with them had grown. That as well was a real opportunity. They were open to the gospel, very interested in everything to do with America, and they considered Christianity part of it, so I had been praying about that as well as about Chinese American students, and then I thought, "Maybe I can do this full-time. Wouldn't that be great."

It just so happens that InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was looking to start a ministry for international students at Rutgers University. Tom seemed to be the perfect candidate to lead such a ministry, so in the spring of 1987, InterVarsity hired Tom with the intent of developing a ministry focusing specifically on international students. Since Tom was already working with the Chinese American group, however, he was encouraged to keep his involvement with that group as well. In the process, CCF went on to become affiliated with InterVarsity.

For the next several years, CCF grew only modestly. Most of the people who attended CCF during this time were "American-raised Chinese," meaning that they had been born overseas but moved to the United States sometime thereafter.

Early 1990s

By 1990 the demographic make-up of CCF began to change. For whatever reason, the group became increasingly attractive to "ABCs"--American-born Chinese--and less popular with American-raised Chinese. According to Tom Sirinides, these American-born Chinese were neither exclusively American nor exclusively Chinese but rather a unique hybrid of both cultures, resulting in an entirely new "third category." These ABCs, says Tom, were raised in predominantly white suburbs and had had little interaction with other Chinese Americans as young people. For many of them, CCF at Rutgers became their first place of contact with other Chinese Americans.

Two students in particular--Simon Huang and Alice Liu--stood out because of the active role they went on to assume in CCF. Both Simon and Alice had grown up relatively isolated from other Chinese people; both, for example, lived in predominantly white communities, and neither had attended Chinese churches while growing up. Nevertheless, both went on to become active in the Chinese community at Rutgers. Simon served as the CCF praise team leader during his senior year of college, while simultaneously serving as president of the secular Chinese Students Organization, and Alice served as president of CCF during her senior year of college.

During Simon and Alice's college years of 1990-93, not only did CCF draw more and more ABCs into the group, but the format began to change as well. The group became less and less a "Bible study" and more and more a "fellowship," more in line with the model propagated by InterVarsity. The weekly large group meetings, for example, were no longer "Bible studies"; instead, separate "small group" Bible studies were instituted to complement the large group meetings. The number of people in CCF began to shoot up as well. The 1992 membership directory, for example, contained 81 names; the 1993 directory contained 116 names. Attendance at large group meetings, however, was still rather limited, drawing about 35 to 45 people each week; large group meetings were held in the rather tiny meeting rooms of Busch Campus Center and Rutgers Student Center simply because bigger rooms were not necessary at that time.

During the 1994-95 school year, CCF underwent another major transformation. For the first time ever, the weekly large group meeting was moved to a lecture hall because the small meeting rooms the group had been using were no longer adequate. Furthermore, the weekly meeting was moved to the College Avenue Campus at Rutgers University, a "less Asian" campus but more "central" to the university as a whole. The membership directory that year listed 123 students. Part of the explanation for this increase in membership must be credited to the visionary leadership of Dave Chang, that year's CCF president. Dave was well-known within the Asian community at Rutgers, by both Christians and non-Christians alike, and maintained good ties with other campus groups, particularly Korean Christian Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Chinese Students Organization.

The growth trends continued during the next two years as well. During the 1995-96 school year, CCF president Erica Chin promoted a more "seeker-oriented" large group atmosphere, meaning that speakers were instructed to be more "sensitive" to non-Christian participants in CCF; whether or not speakers actually abided by this, however, is open for debate. Nevertheless, large group meetings were well-attended throughout the year, averaging 80 to 120 people per meeting.

Equally significant that year was a dramatic increase in the number of small groups in CCF. In previous years, CCF had only two or three such groups each year; in 1995, however, the number of small groups doubled, with special groups catered to men, women, even freshmen. Furthermore, a special discussion group called "CAFE" was created for non-Christians. Interestingly, quite a few of the non-Christians in that group went on to become Christians by year's end.

That year also brought about new staff leadership in the group. Staff worker Tom Sirinides left CCF to concentrate on ministry to international students. In his place, Jenny Kim, another former Rutgers student, took the helm. Jenny had participated actively in CCF when she was a student, serving as praise team leader during her senior year of college; Jenny joined the staff of InterVarsity shortly after she graduated from college. Assisting her were two volunteer staff: Dan Ying, a pastor at the nearby Rutgers Community Chinese Church, and Jane Lo, also a member of that church.

Late 1990s

Under the leadership of CCF president Kenny Chan, the 1996-97 school year got off to an exciting start: Over 250 people crammed into the Van Dyck lecture hall to attend CCF's first large group meeting that year, the highest-attended meeting in CCF history. The CCF membership directory that year listed ??? students. Furthermore, participation in small groups also increased.

The phenomenal growth of CCF was due, in part, to the simultaneous increase in Asian students at Rutgers University. In 1982--the year that CCF was started--Asians made up only 4 percent of the overall student population at Rutgers; by 1992, Asians had become the second largest racial population at Rutgers, making up 10 percent of the university population (Only whites were a larger racial category.). By 1995, Asians made up 16 percent of the undergraduate population in New Brunswick. While this may provide part of the explanation, it should be noted that membership in CCF increased at a rate five times greater than the increase of Asians at Rutgers. Some credit for the growth must be attributed to members of the group who actively introduced their friends to the fellowship. For example, CCF president Kenny Chan and small group coordinator Kevin Hsu stood out for their quiet yet effective leadership and for modeling Christ in their daily lives. Both Kenny and Kevin were responsible for introducing a lot of people to CCF, several of whom went on to become Christians. In any case, CCF had become a major Asian organization on campus in its own right. In fact, CCF was now the most-attended Chinese group on campus.

Traditionally, many of the leaders of CCF, as well as many of the members, all came from one church: Rutgers Community Chinese (now "Christian") Church (RCCC). During the 1996-97 school year, however, the most represented church among the CCF freshmen class was a relatively unknown Chinese church called Iselin Christian Assembly, not RCCC. Furthermore, CCF continued to attract students from Christian Testimony, a family of Chinese churches with several branches in North Jersey. This broadening church base within CCF was good for the fellowship because it broadened CCF's appeal and helped to ward off "cliquey-ness."

The 1997-98 school year was a year of transition for CCF. Participation in large group had begun to decline, and the number of non-Christian participants in the fellowship had also begun to dwindle. Unlike in previous years, it appeared that CCF had become much more detached from other Chinese groups on campus, so much so that very few people in CCF interacted with or even knew people in the secular Chinese groups. Furthermore, there appeared to be a growing rift between Christian and non-Christian participants in CCF. Part of the explanation for this may have been due to the fact that large group meetings seemed to focus more on Christian discipleship, not outreach. Part of the explanation, however, must also lie with the members themselves. For many, CCF did indeed become a "family," but it also appeared that many of the Christians--in their pursuit of fellowship--did little to reach outside of the group.

The 1998-99 school year ushered in a new crop of leaders and dramatic changes to the fellowship. Former president Kenny Chan replaced Jenny Kim as staff leader for CCF, and Luke Tsai, a member of Iselin Christian Assembly, succeeded Kenny Chan as president of CCF, becoming the first president in years from a church other than RCCC. One of Luke's goals was to make the fellowship (and the Christian faith) more attractive to non-Christians. This is how Luke described his vision for CCF:

Large group will no longer be geared toward Christians, nor will it be merely "seeker sensitive." Instead, it will be entirely geared toward non-Christians. This means that there won't be heavy "teaching" focused messages, nor will there be extended worship times. The goal is to create a comfortable, appealing environment for non-Christians that we can use as a springboard for building relationships with them. It will be through these relationships that we can show them Christ and share with them the reason for our hope.

That year's exec team responded by dramatically "overhauling" the fellowship, moving large group meetings to Wednesday nights and small group meetings to Thursday nights. The primary reason for the move was so that the large group meeting would no longer be in competition with secular Asian groups that traditionally met on Thursday nights, in the hope that non-Christians would then be free to attend the CCF large group. The format of the meeting itself was also dramatically altered: No longer a worship meeting for Christians, large group had become a place where non-Christians could learn about the gospel in a light-hearted, "less-threatening" atmosphere. As expected, some Christians were not happy with the changes; some even dropped out of the fellowship altogether. Nevertheless, the new format did succeed in attracting a large number of freshman, many of whom were not Christian. Furthermore, participation in small groups also increased that year.

It still remains to be seen whether or not the programming changes will produce a similar change in the hearts of people. Some of the old criticisms of CCF (e.g., "It's cliquey.") still remain, but there seems to be a new energy in the fellowship. Luke and the exec team deserve much credit for their bold attempt to transform CCF into a group that carries out the gospel mission to reach out to others, to not be content to maintain merely the status quo. On a personal level, I can attest to the fact that Luke has also tried to carry out the mission in his own life as well. Because of these efforts, it could be argued that CCF has become one of the most radical and most visionary college fellowships in the country.

This year CCF celebrates its 19th year of existence. God has truly done great things through this group. There are many people who now know Jesus Christ because of the ministry of CCF, and there are even more who can attest to the role CCF has played in helping to strengthen their identities both as Christians and as Asian Americans. Through the years, God has provided CCF a steady supply of gifted and visionary student leaders to serve the fellowship while also providing members whose personalities have been diverse, whose talents have been immeasurable, and whose faith have been solid. Here's to 19 great years. May God continue to work in us all!