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About Us
Learn more about our mission, vision, and founding in 2006.
Our Mission & Vision
We equip Asian American faith leaders to live out their God- given calling with courage and confidence by integrating faith, culture, and justice, and by passing on the stories of faith.
We envision a more inclusive church and society shaped by Asian American leadership, where future generations inherit a vibrant legacy of our experience of God.
Our Story
ISAAC, formerly known as the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity, was founded in April 2006 to bridge the academy and the church. Reverend Dr. Timothy Tseng gathered five other founding members: Reverend Drs Viji Cammauf, Russell Moy, Russell Yee, Young Lee Hertig, and Dr. Grace Choi Kim.
We ran a series of educational forums and symposia and conducted research in AAPI faith contexts. ISAAC was founded in response to the phenomenon known as the Silent Exodus in the mid-1990s, when many seminary graduates who were not prepared with an AAPI-specific curriculum left their ministry within three years, resulting in a high attrition rate.
When Timothy Tseng left for the congregational ministry in 2011, the Board elected Young Lee Hertig as the second Executive Director on December 1, 2011. One of the first tasks she took on was to change the name to ISAAC, Innovative Space for Asian American Christianity.
After changing the name, Young Lee Hertig organized a series of symposia, the Asian American Equipping Symposium in partnership with Fuller Theological Seminary from 2009 to 2011, and began partnering with local churches until 2014. She also changed the name of the journal SANACS (Society of Asian North American Christian Studies) to ChristianityNext. Once securing funding for the journal, we plan to resume its annual publication.
You can support ISAAC's mission and today's programs by making a donation.