TRANSCRIPT

NATHAN JONES

Welcome back and thanks for joining me as we head to Taiwan this month to hear from Benjamin Juang. Benjamin is a youth minister committed to reaching the next generation with the gospel through a variety of means, always dedicated to the truth, while being open to methods that reach young people where they're at.

I'm your host, Nathan Jones, and you are listening to the Inspiring Stewards podcast.

Benjamin, thanks again for the time. This is good to jump in. Give us an overview, who you are, where you're from, where you grew up, family, that sort of thing.

BENJAMIN JUANG

I am Benjamin. I was born in the U.S. I was born in Columbia, Missouri. My parents were studying. They're from Taiwan. My dad was studying for his PhD. And I was raised in a Christian home. I attended a Chinese Christian Church.

At the beginning, it was just a college fellowship at the university. But my dad, actually being a leader in the fellowship, he helped build it into a Chinese church. And it's still there today. So, I was very happy to be part of that.

I was born in a family of five kids, and I later moved to Taiwan when I was 10 years old. Right now, I am serving full-time at my church. I am a youth minister, not a pastor, a youth minister. I serve in our children's Sunday school, our youth, and our young adults ministry. I've been married for five years, and I have two kids and a third one on the way.

NATHAN

Very cool. How old are your kids?

BENJAMIN

Three-and-a-half and one-and-a-half.

NATHAN

Tell us about how you came to know the Lord and the impact that had on your life.

BENJAMIN

So, my dad was actually also born into a Christian family. So, if you count from his side, being a Taiwanese person, I am a fourth-generation Christian. And that's pretty rare, actually.

But dad actually left the church after, I think, junior high school, high school. And it wasn't until he married my mom, moved to the U.S. that he started attending church again. I was born into a Christian family.

At the age of five, I gave my life to Jesus at a winter retreat. I can still remember doing that prayer. And then, I felt called to become a missionary, actually. At five years old, I was attending a children's Bible camp, and the teacher was telling a story of all these missionaries that went to faraway countries.

And at the end, the teacher asked if anyone was willing to go to a faraway place, learn a new language, and share the gospel. And I stepped forward, and I gave the rest of my life to Jesus, saying that I would be willing to become a missionary. And then, I was baptized at the age of 14 and of course, this is in Taiwan already.

One of the largest impacts that becoming a Christian or giving my life to Jesus had on me was when I had to struggle through my student years when I just moved to Taiwan. My Chinese wasn't really good and that was very frustrating. I remember doing lots of homework late at night, being very angry, very frustrated.

And my mom would remind me: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. So, I started looking at my situation differently. Instead of caring about how well I performed at school, I decided to dedicate the rest of my student life to honoring God with every opportunity that I would have gotten.

Whether that be helping out a classmate in need, or sharing the gospel with my friends, or just doing my best and studying hard. And in the end, I ended up getting into one of the best universities in Taiwan.

NATHAN

Thanks for sharing. You mentioned a year at Bethel.

BENJAMIN

So, after working in tech for one year, I decided to quit my job, and I became a full-time volunteer at my church, serving in children's Sunday school, youth, and young adults.

After serving for two years as a volunteer with like little to no pay, my pastors said that, “You know what? Maybe it's time for you to do some studying.”

I was about to go to a seminary, but we decided on going to something different because most of the pastors from our church go to pretty prestigious evangelical seminaries. So, they're like, “Let's try something different.”

So, I went to Bethel Church in Redding, California. Well, it's controversial, but at least it's well-known. [laughing] That's where I met my wife. And yeah, I enjoyed my stay there.

There were a lot of things that I agreed with, a lot of things I didn't agree with. But it was a cool experience.

NATHAN

Well, jump ahead to today. What does the Lord have you? You mentioned a little bit about working with youth, but unpack that a little bit more.

BENJAMIN

Now, I serve full-time at my church. I lead children's Sunday school, even though we are shrinking. We have fewer and fewer kids right now. We have probably three kids on average every Sunday. We have five teenagers, something like that. We have more young adults, though. We have around 30-40 young adults.

My church is a mid-sized church in Taiwan. We have about 150 members with about 100 weekly attendants. Other than that, I actually have the privilege and opportunity to teach a team-building course in our public schools here in Taiwan. So, I teach this in elementary schools and in junior high schools.

And even though we are prohibited from sharing the gospel in these public schools, it's an opportunity for me to engage with these students and then, invite them to attend our church activities. So, that would be what I do related to my church.

Other than that, I run a Mandarin Chinese YouTube channel. It's called Brother Nai. And what I do is I share the gospel using some public topics like discussing the news or discussing some taboo issues like same-sex marriage, politics, or sexual harassment, sexual assault that happens within churches, you know, stuff like that.

It's gets a lot of clicks and views, and it's an opportunity to break through the algorithm, break out of the Christian echo chamber, and reach people who have actually never heard of Jesus before.

NATHAN

And that's in Mandarin, you said?

BENJAMIN

Yes, in Mandarin Chinese.

NATHAN

Wonderful. One more question on the YouTube channel. You mentioned that's kind of breaking outside the mold, which is fantastic. Are there other believers that are utilizing channels like that to reach beyond?

BENJAMIN

So, currently, most of the larger channels in Mandarin Chinese, if you look it up on YouTube, are owned by churches. They do their live streams. They edit their sermons.

People who are kind of like me, kind of actually doing a personal YouTube channel, there are a few. I'd say half a dozen out there, and some of them are doing pretty well.

NATHAN

Yeah, that's very cool to hear about. Well, this is the Inspiring Stewards podcast. Tell us about how the principle of stewardship is making an impact in your life.

BENJAMIN

So yeah, I like to draw from the Prophet Daniel and how he had to serve under these ungodly kings.

In Taiwan, we have a 95% population that isn't Christian. So as a Christian growing up, I always kind of stand out. I could never hang out with my friends on Sunday mornings.  And I remember going through my teenage years. And we had this very popular basketball three-on-three tournament in my city. And every year, my friends would invite me to join them, and we'd sign up for the tournament. But every year, I'd turn them down because it takes place on Sunday morning.

So, well, if you want to talk about my YouTube channel, I try to not water down the gospel just for views. With only 5% Christians, a Christian YouTube channel in Mandarin Chinese is very niche. And like I mentioned, many topics may offend non-Christians.

And then, if we're going to talk about skills, I never studied how to make videos, how to do YouTube, how to do social media. But I really enjoyed watching YouTube videos and especially other Christian channels.

So, over the course of eight years now, I have learned. I've grown, even though the first year of starting my YouTube channel was very tough. I would produce one video every single week. It would take me 15 to 20 hours to produce it. I'd get 20 clicks, and that was it.

After a year of doing YouTube, I had less than a hundred subscribers but I really felt called to share the gospel in Mandarin Chinese online on YouTube. So, I'm very thankful that God has been able to use my channel.

NATHAN

That's interesting to hear about how the call continued to push you forward, and learn more, try more, and just stick with it. And I think that that is going to echo with a lot of where a lot of people are at, kind of feeling perhaps struggling or burned out to listen for that voice, which is beautiful.

Well, let's zoom out a little bit. How are you seeing God at work locally and beyond in the world today?

BENJAMIN

So, locally in Taiwan, I've been observing a new generation of younger church leaders rising up. For a long time, many of the well-known churches in Taiwan, they were built by pastors who have been pastoring their church for almost 50 years. And all of a sudden, we see many of these churches going through this transition.

So, we have a generation of younger church leaders, including my own church actually, and that changes how churches operate, how churches collaborate, and how the church is communicating the gospel to the non-believers.

And besides that, during COVID, when everybody was in lockdown and many of the churches had to start doing live streams, it turned the attention of many Christians and non-Christians to the online platforms. So now, it's very easy to use livestreams, to use all sort of video calls to reach people out there.

And there are more Christian social media platforms, whether that be on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram. And with the boost of the algorithm, a lot of the times, it has actually become a very powerful tool to reach many of the people who will probably never walk into church voluntarily. So, that's what I've been observing here in Taiwan.

And besides that, I run a YouTube channel, and I really enjoy watching YouTube. I usually only watch English content, meaning a lot of YouTube channels that I follow are either from Canada or from the U.S.

And I have been observing how Gen Z and millennials in the West are actually turning back to some traditional values. And that's very unique because growing up with all the pop culture and Hollywood movies and just stuff that young people felt was cool, you could see how it's actually bringing people away, turning people away from God.

But over the past, I would say three to five years, this has started to shift, especially online. And of course, social media is reaching even more people out there who haven't heard of the gospel.

NATHAN

Why do you think the shift?

BENJAMIN

I would say the shift has happened because people actually have come to see how miserable their lives can become when they try to live a selfish, godless life.

And with the Internet, with social media, everything has become very clear that if you're only going to live for yourself, that is probably not a good idea.

So, with many of these Christian influencers online, I feel like they have been able to encourage more people to seek out the truth. And that's exactly what I’ve been trying here.

NATHAN

Okay, one more question off the cuff before I give you a chance to give us a final thought. And that is of the younger generation, maybe those that are 15 and under that are being called Gen Alpha, what are the questions that they're asking that are driving them to the gospel, or could drive them to the gospel?

BENJAMIN

So, I have the opportunity to serve many children and teenagers in schools. So, I would say I'm pretty familiar with the Gen Alpha in Taiwan. I see how they grow up with their faces attached to their iPhones for like eight hours every day. They're like sponges and they can soak up a lot of information.

So, when I have conversations with them, I notice how they seem to know more than a 12-year-old, than a 10-year-old would have known 10 years ago, 15 years ago. However, the same thirst for belonging, for community, is still there.

And I feel like growing up with their parents, all the adults in their life, all having their faces attached to phones, all being kind of addicted to social media, has brought out this loneliness pandemic among the children.

And I feel like if we, as a Christian community, can figure out a way to reach out to these this younger generation through connection, through love, that would be critical.

NATHAN

Wow, that's good, we can wrap up. What's any final thought you would have for us today?

BENJAMIN

So, I mentioned how I have a three-and-a-half year old, one-and-a-half year old, and a third baby on the way. Me and my wife both grew up in a family of five children.

So, we're aiming to have six kids, which is unpopular these days [laughing]. But what I've come to realize is that building strong God-centered families is much more important than building big church ministries, whether that be trying to build a mega church or trying to build a mega YouTube channel. That's something that's been on my heart for quite a while.

NATHAN

What a good word for those parents that are maybe struggling through the busyness and the chaos of raising children to know that that is a high calling and to hang in there and stick with it.

So,  Benjamin, thank you for your time. This has been wonderful.

BENJAMIN

Thank you, Nathan.