Church rolls tell a tale of change

BY ROBERT POLNER | NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER

March 18, 2006

Pastor Abraham Lu poses outside the Bethany Lutheran Church on 91st Place in Elmhurst, Thursday, October 20, 2005. (Newsday Photo/ Audrey C. Tiernan / March 17, 2006)

Abraham Lu straddles two generations as senior pastor of the thriving Grace Chinese Lutheran Church and interim pastor of the fading Bethany Lutheran Church, both in Elmhurst.

His Sunday services at Grace Lutheran draw upward of 200 Chinese, most of them new to America, having arrived within the last five years or so.

In contrast, Bethany Lutheran, with an aging Germanic congregation, draws just 10 or 15 parishioners for its Sunday prayers, compared with more than 300 in the 1960s. The stone sanctuary marked its 90th anniversary in 2004, and its shrinking congregation consists of gray-haired descendants of Europeans -- men and women who have lived in Elmhurst since before World War II, and are now in what the pastor described as the twilight of their lives.

"My long-range role is to redevelop the church. I am still thinking: What would be a good strategy?" Lu said.

The strategy is more clear-cut at Grace Lutheran, framed by the necessity to provide spiritual comfort to Chinese immigrants disoriented by America's free-market economy and social and political freedoms. This confusion often leads to depression and loneliness, giving a pastor, and his church, an important role, he said.

"This society gives people such a sense of competition that does not exist in mainland China," Lu said. "People in China may feel helpless, and cannot speak up for themselves. But they will not feel so much competitiveness."

Lu, 48, is from Taiwan. He is married, with two children.

"More and more, Chinese residents are advising their family members back home to think, plan and consider before they jump into the melting pot" and invest time and money to find the American dream, he said. "They can lose their loot, and identity, if they're not very careful."