In Korea many years ago, during the war with China, some Seventh-day Adventists held a Revelation Seminar that attracted the attention and eventual conversion of a young Korean woman. When the pastor set a date for the baptism of the new candidates, this woman, though pregnant, was so excited about joining the church that she chose to participate. Soon after the baptism I was born, and I admire the enthusiasm and commitment that my mother is still holding for the Adventist church.

I grew up in her church, and when I came to the U.S. to study law in a southeastern state, my family and I looked up the local English-speaking Seventh-day Adventist church. But we didn't go often; we really weren't made to feel welcome. When we visited two other churches--the Korean Presbyterian Church and the Korean Methodist Church--it was a different story.

Where we were not getting any personal or public gestures of hospitality from the Adventists, at the Korean-speaking churches we received one or more invitations every week. And more than that; we were offered practical assistance--money--during those difficult years of law school.

Although serving others always should be our first principle, many times we, as sinful human beings, forget the Golden Rule and wait to be served by others first. In that community, it was the Korean churches, not the Adventist church, which exemplified that principle. What more can I say about why my ethnic identity was more important to me than my denominational affiliation?

I know that receiving or not receiving a warm welcome from someone else should not be a deciding element in my service to the Lord. But how can I serve if I am not welcome? I could remain in the church as an anonymous member for, say, a few decades. But spending years or decades as "just a member" would be a large waste to myself and to the church community, where the Lord needs the help of every member. During my years in that college town I was offered ample opportunities to be active in church programs at the Korean churches.

At the present time I have been attending off-and-on an American Adventist church near Tacoma, Washington. In this place I found a true human relationship in the Lord. In fact, I have found all I have been waiting for in a church. The very first day we visited, late in 1997, my family was invited home by one church member. Even though we are the only Koreans in this church, we have been welcomed. Some might say this church is "too liberal." But I believe Jesus was liberal when he was communicating with Gentiles and indigents and handicapped, sick and troubled peoples.

Should ethnic likeness be a major factor when we select a church? Should ethnicity be more important than doctrinal beliefs?

When we as members of a minority canít find an Adventist church like the one I am now attending, then we are forced to choose between an English-speaking but unresponsive congregation in which we would remain strangers (while we are already strangers in the larger society), or finding a church with people more like us who will make us feel at home, regardless of creed. How much better it would be to find both ethnic compatibility and denominational identity in the same congregation!