TRANSCRIPT

NATHAN JONES

This month, we have the opportunity to meet Duncan Szeto, who is a church planter in the Greater New York City area working predominantly with Chinese young adults.

I'm your host, Nathan Jones, and I want to thank you once again for joining me on this episode of the Inspiring Stewards podcast.

Well, Duncan, thanks again for your time today. I've been looking forward to this, and it was taking a little bit of time to get scheduled, but here we are. So, tell us a little bit about your story, where you're from, where you grew up, that sort of thing.

DUNCAN SZETO

I grew up in Hong Kong until I finished high school. My parents left Hong Kong to come to the United States when I was seven.

So, no, they did not abandon me, because they did send me money for living. But I didn't get to see them for the next 10 years. So, the good thing is that I learned to grow up fast, making my own decisions when I was still very young.

In the meanwhile, I'm used to not getting a lot of attention by anyone in my life when I was that age.

NATHAN

Well, how did you come to know the Lord, and what impact did that have on your life?

DUNCAN

At a very young age, I realized I love money very much, more than my friends at the same age.

In Hong Kong, you know that we used to get red pocket money from relatives during the Chinese New Year. I remember loving the money so much. So, when I received the money, I would get a hard iron and iron them to make them look newer, and more shiny, and sometimes look bigger, before I reluctantly deposited the money into my bank account.

And I barely spend them because I like to see my bank account balance growing as a kid. Looking back, of course, I was like missing something more important in my life. I found an idol, and at the time, it was money.

I attended a Christian school during my middle school and high school. So, I learned from the school, the staff, the teachers what the gospel is, but I never dedicated my life to becoming a Christian. Because at that time, I wanted to live my own life, like making a lot of money and dating different types of girls. By the way, both never actually happened.

But on the other hand, like during that time, I always admired the Christians, for I realized they live a very different ethic code compared to what I did. They didn't even play mahjong, which was a very popular game, and which I loved as a teenager. So, to me, they are very different.

And one day, my best friend in my school told me that he just became a Christian and wanted to go to church, but he was scared to go alone. So, he asked if I could go along with him.

I really could not say no, because he was my very best friend. Then, I started to go to church, and I learned about the credibility of Christianity. But more importantly, how Jesus’ life was real when I observed so many other Christians living out their Christian faith.

One day, my fellowship counselor asked me if I believed in the gospel, and if I would like to commit myself to Christ, which I started to struggle because at that time, my life goals, I remembered was money and dating.

I struggled, you know, like at that moment. If I committed to Christ, I could forget about those goals. But during the struggle, the image of Christ nailed at the cross came vividly in front of me, which showed how much God loves me.

Also, I realized that if I live my own self-centered life, the end results would be just a lot of hurts, and pains, and emptiness.

So, at that moment, I decided to devote myself to God. I never iron any money bill anymore, and immediately, my inner emptiness was gone. And I realized my life was forever transformed at that moment.

NATHAN

Praise the Lord! Well, catch us up to today. What is the Lord have you involved in for work in ministry?

DUNCAN

I am a church planter in New York. About roughly nine years ago, I started a church in Upper West Side in Manhattan that served basically Chinese-speaking university students and young professionals. It is called Manhattan Gospel Church.

Before I started the church, I found out that the Columbia students I was helping with in a Christian fellowship, they were struggling to find a church suitable for them. So, God led me and touched me to start a church for this new generation of Chinese.

We are located next to Columbia University, and we have about 100 people, and the church is growing healthily. I'm also participating in nurturing a local gospel movement. You may have heard of it, City to City movement.

We've been the Chinese churches, Christian community in Metro New York. We will have our first event, which is a gospel forum in October this year. It's a two and a half days conference for participants to deep dive in life transformation, nature, and power of the gospel. So, those are the two ministries that I'm currently involved in.

NATHAN

How many Chinese Christian believers do you estimate to be in that region in the Greater New York City area?

DUNCAN

Our target audience is the young generation, Chinese-speaking people. I estimate that there are about, probably 80,000 people living in Greater Manhattan. This is Manhattan, but also surrounding areas. But I estimate the Christian population is no more than 500. So, it's a very underserved group of people. There should be more churches going after to serve them.

NATHAN

With your congregation that you lead, what are some of the challenges that you're finding those young people face?

DUNCAN

There are many. I think one of the challenges is loneliness in New York, even though they have a lot of people that they know.

But we find many people have this deep loneliness and emptiness in their hearts, where all the fun activities in New York, all the good restaurants, all the other friendships could not fill. So, this is why we know that the gospel is the answer, rather than the other things that they are seeking that are not the answer.

NATHAN

This being the Inspiring Stewards podcast, Duncan, how does the biblical principle of stewardship inform your life and work today?

DUNCAN

That is a deep question. I think it's like going back to the Bible. To me, all key principles of stewardship should be gospel-centered. In the gospel, for example, that loving heavenly Father that died for us at the cross, that is Christ, of course. And we serve a Master that lovingly came to the world to serve the people as a humble servant Himself.

We also have a Lord that when we serve Him, He transformed our lives, which is a key purpose of God's gospel to humankind. So, it's going back to the center of the gospel in which we serve willingly. And because God is not only worth it, but during the process, we can experience the full gospel.

In terms of the ministry content, like in our church, like preaching and Bible study, we try to position it to be very gospel-centered. Whether it's preaching or Bible study, we always try to go back to the Bible, to the gospel.

And we learn also to be generous to each other, like with free food, and also with time available to each other. I remember we used to order food to our congregation for anyone who got COVID during the COVID time.

So, even though they were sick, we blessed them through food. We also try to share our financial resources with other missionaries and gospel organizations as a way to mimic God's generosity Himself.

NATHAN

Well, you're in a unique position, having been born in Hong Kong, living in the northeast part of the U.S., and working with Chinese students and the Chinese population. In what specific ways are you seeing God at work in the world today? You can answer locally or more regionally or whatever comes to mind.

DUNCAN

I used to be a person with little faith. When I started this church, I just envisioned a small church where young people can just gather and fellowship with each other. That was pretty much it.

But then later on, I realized that my view was too narrow. That gospel has the power, even in New York City, which – many people will say New York is today's Rome. When young people are seriously living out the gospel, I see many and many times their lives are transformed, that they're living the gospel in a fuller way.

Two weeks ago, we just had someone who attended our church, and he had a personal concert that was evangelistic in nature. He is a musician. A hundred people went to his concert. In each of the 12 songs that he sang, he sang about the gospel and how he experienced God. It was an amazing experience.

Even though our church was not the sponsor, we saw in our front seat, how people were transformed when they seriously live out a Christ-centered life.

NATHAN

That’s beautiful. Well, Duncan, as we wrap up our time, any final thoughts that you would like to share with our listeners and encourage them today?

DUNCAN

I always view myself as an average person. I was a professional actuary until a month ago when I retired, but God still used me to plant a church. I realized that God loves all His children deeply. So, the way that God views me is very different than the way I usually view myself.

The gospel is indeed powerful, whether one lives in a rural area, in a suburb, or in a city, even like New York. God is greater than all the idols combined because God never over-compromises like the idols.

It's amazing to see how God transforms people in New York City and leads us to victories. Because in the gospel, He won the war in salvation, and we just have to follow Him to win the little battles.

So, I am personally very encouraged, and I hope that all your listeners are also encouraged by the fact that we Christians are here to win.

NATHAN

Amen. Good work. Thank you, Duncan.

DUNCAN

Thank you for talking to me, Nathan. I really appreciate it.