Struggles of Korean Second-Generation Leaders: Leaving the Immigrant Church

The Korean immigrant church has served as not only a religious institution but also a cultural base for the first generation of immigrants, who have a common interest in keeping their traditional values. Such an emphasis, however, has resulted in conflicts between the first and second generations. The purpose of this study is to explain the struggles of second-generation Korean American leaders that led them away from the first-generation immigrant church. Two main elements of the Asian culture emerged as the source of the intercultural identity struggle: (1) striving to maintain the honor balance and (2) struggling with due order.

Challenges of Korean Immigrant Leadership in the Church

The article suggests that the practices of leadership within Korean communal transformational leadership in Korean resistance movements provide a resource for women in the Korean immigrant church. The article addresses the challenges of Korean leadership in immigrant contexts, how immigrant leadership is performed and transformed, and how immigrants have developed and adapted their leadership from a Korean to US context during the immigrant identity transformation process.