
Rev. Sun Hee Kim
California-Nevada Conference Photo
California-Nevada Conference | August 17, 2023
Editor's note: People are making history every day in California-Nevada. Throughout 2023 we will be spotlighting clergy and laity who work to make life better for people down the street and across the country. Click here to see the video interview. For more about the faith community that Rev. Sun Hee Kim serves read Hillsdale UMC: A Sunday filled with new beginnings.
“Diversity can be a great asset if we know how to make it work,” states Rev. Sun Hee Kim serving Hillsdale United Methodist Church in San Mateo, California. Having pastored several multi-cultural congregations, Kim has also served sixteen years as a trainer and consultant in the field of Intercultural Competency and Cross-Cultural Communication. “…if we are able to talk about it and sort it out so it’s not just ‘my’ way or ‘your’ way but building bridges, we’re making our third cultural [‘our’] way.”
Hillsdale UMC, a cross-racial appointment for Rev. Kim, is a multi-cultural congregation mostly composed of people with European and Tongan backgrounds. When Kim became pastor, the congregation had three distinct worship service times and styles with few shared events. “I wanted to see that the people feel and have a sense of unity,” states Kim. “That we are one church. We knew that with our head. But in practice it doesn’t always reflect it in the ministry that we had. People were segregated by service hours. And I really wanted to change that.”
According to Kim, currently the worship services are not specific to either ethnic group especially on the first Sundays of the month when both Tongan and English language speakers worship and celebrate communion together at a combined 10:30 a.m. service. “We’re somewhere in-between,” states Kim. “We’re building our third cultural ways that are workable for our own church.”
During the joint services, songs and Scriptures are in both English and Tongan with special communion music sung in both languages. The time includes a welcome, offering and message as well as time to lift up names of people for the pastor to pray over. After communion there is time for prayer at the prayer railing. According to Kim, on both the first and third Sundays following the 10:30 AM worship, there is a longer fellowship hour featuring a shared lunch during which everyone can get to know one another better.
Special events are for all members. “All the people pray for the event and come to the event,” states Kim. “Everybody has this sense of ownership that this is our church together.”
According to Kim, even during the pandemic when ministry was at a standstill, Hillsdale UMC came together to envision the future and build community. “We worked really hard on reassessing who we are and what we want to be and what we want to focus on.” Meeting over Zoom, the process started with a Vision Team and eventually included the entire congregation. “All of our church members are passionate about serving,” added Kim. The reassessment affirmed a common passion to serve and to focus on becoming a “service hub.” The church created the new motto, “Come to Serve and Be Served.” With children, youth, and young adults a large part of the congregation, the second focus was to support young people’s growth by providing and facilitating a healthy environment and loving community.
In addition to pastoring at the local church level, Rev. Kim serves as the Chairperson of the Conference Clergy Leadership Development Team where she can share her skills beyond her church to other congregations.
“We all have different ways to communicate and different communication styles,” states Kim explaining the need for learning skills in intercultural competencies, “just being aware of that has helped me tremendously to communicate better and build stronger relationships with our church members.”
As a certified administrator, consultant, and coach for the Intercultural Development Inventory, Intercultural Effectiveness Scale and the Global Competencies Inventory, Kim leads inventories in the field of Intercultural Studies for pastors and local churches throughout the denomination and beyond. Recently Kim was a co-trainer for the virtual Cross-Cultural/Intercultural Training—Culture Labs 1 & 2 on Saturday, March 11, 2023, for our conference. The event encouraged clergy and laity to attend to learn how to navigate differences and live into God’s vision for humanity. Kim also leads Culture Lab 3 focusing on intercultural conflict resolution.
“I truly believe that [Intercultural Competency skills are] something we need to be equipped with,” states Kim explaining how it will save time and make ministries more effective. “…sometimes we have passions about the same issues and same goals but because we have different styles of communicating, sometimes we’re missing each other. We can spend a lot of time sorting out our misunderstanding. Instead, [with training] we can work together and put our energy and focus in working together for our common goal… and truly build genuine relationships with one another.”
“That’s the beauty of [diversity],” adds Kim. “We’re able to rub our elbows together and we grow! It’s not about ‘my’ ways or ‘your’ ways or segregated ways. We build a community to build bridges and build something beautiful together—God’s beloved community.”
“The challenge is,” adds Kim, “how can we keep the culture of humility? That means to be open and curious and non-judgmental… being open to learn and willing to be changed.”
JB Brayfindley is a freelance journalist. This article is republished with permission from the California-Nevada Conference website.