Preaching to second generation Korean Americans: towards a possible selves contextual homiletic

This thesis discloses research on the topic of second generation Korean American preaching based on fieldwork conducted with Korean American pastors and second generation young adult respondents in three geographic regions of the United States (Midwest, West Coast, and East Coast). I employ social psychologists Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius' theory of possible selves as my primary conceptual framework to facilitate the process of congregational exegesis in the second generation Korean American church context. The research methods employed in this study include questionnaires and semi-structured qualitative interviews.Four research questions guide this study: (1) what are the possible (embodied, relational, and spiritual - hoped for and feared) selves of second generation Korean American congregants; (2) what is the present status of the preaching ministry within participating second generation Korean American congregations; (3) what homiletical strategies are Korean American preachers currently implementing to assess their second generation Korean American audiences during sermon preparation; and (4) what can Korean American preachers learn from the social psychological construct of possible selves as they explore the lives of their second generation Korean American hearers?This research identifies three central emergent findings concerning these second generation Korean American churches and their preaching ministries: (1) second generation Korean American congregations are presently undergoing a period of cultural transition and change as non-established and marginalised ethno-religious communities; (2) second generation Korean Americans' possible selves typify cultural anthropologist Gerald Arbuckle's descriptors of "cultural chaos" and "liminality" which require naming and analysis from Korean American preachers; and (3) the Korean American ethnic and cultural context requires further examination by Korean American preachers within these second generation Korean American congregations. Accordingly, this study seeks to offer a new contextual homiletic model that enables Korean American preachers to engage in deeper levels of ethnic and cultural analysis in their sermonic preparation and simultaneously reconstructs conventional preaching roles of Korean American preachers and second generation listeners so that they may co-creatively imagine new possible selves that radically advance Christian mission and practice in the world