Stories from Network Church St Albans and Harpenden
When the Coronavirus pandemic rocked the globe in 2020, Network Church, like many other UK churches, took its ministry fully online. As participation is a high value in the church, they chose to use Zoom so everything could be done live and with interaction.
At the time, the church was primarily made up of white British members, but things started to change when families from Hong Kong joined the online services, having moved to the UK following protests and political unrest in their region in 2019. Some came because they were introduced to the church by Yan Yan Liu, a church member from Hong Kong who’d already been living in the UK for around 15 years. It was the beginning of a significant shift in the makeup of the community. Today, out of around 100 adults who are part of Network Church, half are from Hong Kong.
Initially, the church had to get to know the new members over Zoom, but as the lockdown eased, they arranged in-person meetings and continued building community together. This involved learning about cultural differences – such as how women in Hong Kong often don’t change their legal names when they get married – and speaking more slowly to communicate with those who were still getting to grips with the English language.
Over time, the church has taken intentional steps to honour both British and Chinese culture in their times of worship and fellowship. They started celebrating the Lunar New Year, hosted cultural quizzes as part of Sunday gatherings, and they now incorporate multiple languages in their sung worship. To help overcome language barriers during the sermon, they include Chinese text on PowerPoints and give people access to a live translation app.
Because of Yan Yan’s intimate knowledge of Hong Kong’s culture, she was able to educate the existing church members about this and help them see things from the newcomers’ perspective.
“I don’t think we would’ve done such a good job without Yan Yan in place,” said Louise Chick, who’s been on Network Church’s leadership team for nearly 20 years as a treasurer, administrator, and communicator.
In 2021, Yan Yan went from being a regular church member to joining its leadership team and in 2024 became their youth and community worker. Part of her role is to help integrate newcomers from Hong Kong into the church family. She’s affectionately known as the church’s “welcome pack.”
“I’m more like a middleman, helping these two groups of people get to know each other,” Yan Yan said.
At times, her “middleman” ministry has involved explaining British cultural norms to Hong Kongers, such as why they have coffee and tea after the church service. It’s also involved raising up leaders from the Hong Kong community to serve the wider church body, so they can fully thrive and belong.
At first, Hong Kong members were hesitant to take up leadership positions. Some were self-conscious about their English language proficiency, while some felt unsure if they were truly welcome or wanted. Personal invitations from Yan Yan and others to lead midweek small groups and join various teams were key to bringing about change, and gradually, Hong Kong members have become integral to every pocket of the church’s ministry, serving on the coffee team, running kids’ groups, leading the services, and preaching sermons.
Their leadership has helped to enrich Network Church, said Louise, who shared an example of when a Hong Kong member preached on exile from Exodus, and included a moving illustration from his own life. In that instance, and in many others in recent years, Louise has noticed that members from Hong Kong have brought a level of honesty and vulnerability, which is inspirational, as she believes British people aren’t naturally as comfortable with sharing in the same way.
“That’s something that’s impacted me, and contributes to our spiritual growth as a community,” she said.
If you’d like to learn more about leading intercultural churches and ministries, sign up for the Strengthening Your Intercultural Leadership course here. The course runs from April to June 2026 over six sessions.
