Thanh Le Church

WHO WE ARE

Thanh Le Church is a community of people who seek to help each other draw closer to God’s grace, the practice of compassion, and the joy of service. We believe that everyone needs the grace of forgiveness, healing, and renewal; everyone needs to rebuild genuine friendships to journey with each other in life; and everyone is called to live a life of sharing hope and the Good News to all.

OUR VALUES

We value the Lordship of Jesus Christ!

We acknowledge Jesus Christ as the head of our church and fully submit ourselves to His will.

We value Bible-centered Preaching and Teaching!

We believe the Bible is God’s inspired, authoritative, and trustworthy rule of faith and practice for Christians.

We value Prayer!

We believe in the power of prayer.

We value Small Groups!

We believe small groups play a vital role (spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically) in the life of church members.

We value Evangelism and World Missions!

We believe in the Great Commission commanded to us by Jesus Christ.  

We value Servant Leadership!

We believe Christ has chosen to function through human leaders in the local church.

OUR HISTORY

1975: Pastor Vo Ngoc Thien An and a small group of Vietnamese Christians who left Vietnam after the Vietnam War met for worship in Oceanside, San Clemente, Santa Ana. He later found the Vietnamese Newhope Christian Fellowship.

1976: Pastor Nguyen Thanh Nga found the Vietnamese Baptist Church at Westminster.

1986: Vietnamese Newhope Christian Fellowship and Vietnamese Baptist Church at Westminster merged and was renamed Hội Thánh Tin Lành Thanh Lễ (Thanh Le Church).

2005: Pastor Doan Hung Linh became the Senior Pastor of Thanh Le Church

2013: Thanh Le Church purchased and moved to our current location

We are officially a part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Like other ethnic churches, we have a Vietnamese-speaking ministry (Hội Thánh Tin Lành Thanh Lễ – Thanh Le Church) composed primarily of first-generation Vietnamese refugees and immigrants. Our English ministry (True Love Community) is more culturally diverse but is broadly Asian American.

OUR MISSION

TLC is here to Love God, Love People, Serve the World. 

MEET OUR PASTORS

Linh Doan

Senior Pastor

 

Pastor Linh Doan was born in Can Tho, grew up in Da Lat and Saigon, Vietnam. He began studying theology in Melbourne, Australia, and currently serves in Orange County, California. He holds a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Philosophy in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is also President of the Union University of California (uuc.edu), an accredited online university training Vietnamese leaders in many countries.
Pastor Linh is married to Grace Bich-Tram, and they have two daughters: Dorothy Thuy-Han and Beatriz Mien-Tu.

Tony Nguyen

English Ministry Pastor

 

Pastor Tony was in his own words, “brought up in New York, but calls Cali his childhood home.” Raised in a Buddhist household, he came to faith at the age of 17. He served as a Youth Pastor for 5 years at Anaheim Korean Presbyterian Church (AKPC), before being called over to Thanh Le (True Love Community) as their English Ministry Pastor. He oversees the Youth, College, Young Adult, and Couples Ministries.

 

Tony is married to his High School Sweetheart Trisha Nguyen. Together they have two amazing boys, Seth and Enoch. He received a B.S. in Biology at the University of Irvine and an M. Div at Talbot School of Theology. He has a great passion for preaching the gospel, discipleship and mission. He loves to cook, camp and eat.

 

 

Paul Cho

Associate Pastor

 

Paul Cho is our upcoming youth pastor. He received his M. Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary (2022) in Philadelphia where he was also a a youth pastor at Antioch Church of Philadelphia (2017-2022). Paul is a SoCal native, with a  B.A. of English from UCI (2016). Pastor Tony was Paul’s youth pastor during his time at AKPC and Paul considers Tony to be his spiritual mentor. 

 

He feels called to youth ministry because he wants to “love Christ by faithfully caring and feeding His sheep” and has “a passion for raising up the next generation to become disciples of Christ.” Paul eventually hopes to be sent out by TLC as a long-term missionary. His favorite Bible passage is Romans 8 and his favorite book is “The Horse and His Boy” by C.S. Lewis.

 

 

Kevin Jung

Auxiliary Pastor/Sunday Service Coordinator

 

Kevin Jung is a long time TLC member who is now officially serving as pastoral staff. He has a bachelors of English, as well as a business minor, from California State university (2018). Kevin received his Masters of Education from Union University (2019) and currently teaches at St. John Bosco high school in a handful of humanities subjects. He received his M. Div. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2022) and also leads Damascus, a discussion-style small group in the English Ministry dedicated to developing the spiritual maturity and theological literacy of it members.

 

Kevin actively disciples a number of younger brothers from our English Ministry and was himself discipled by Pastor Evan Dahl of Home Church. Evidenced by the variety of teaching roles he has placed himself in, Kevin believes he has the spiritual gift of teaching. In combination with “his love for the flock,” he felt “called to the pulpit.” His favorite Bible passages are Judges 3 and Psalm 29, while his favorite book is the Book of Genesis.

 

MEET OUR STAFF

Tim Pham

Administrative Director

 

Timothy (Tuan) was part of Thanh Le Church since 1991. He was blessed and enjoyed with the opportunities to serve at TLC in various roles and capacities thru out the years. He met his wife, Lienhai Do, when they both were part of TLC’s young adult ministry. They got married at TLC in 1994. They have three sons Samuel, Jeremiah, and Joshua.

Jason Le

Administrative Director for English Ministry

 

Jason Le was born in Vietnam but raised in the heart of Orange County. He grew up in a CMA Church for 17 years before God called him to True Love Community. He and his wife Tianna Le have twin boys and have been serving since 2010. Jason is currently the administrative director overseeing our official small groups (i.e. Damascus, TK) and various teams such as Finance and technology related ministries.  He received a B.S. in Business Administration – Management Information Systems at CSULB and a Masters in Ministry at UUC.  

Uyen Nguyen

Administrative Assistant

 

Uyen Nguyen was born in Vietnam.  She accepted Christ in 1996.  She joined TLC family 2017, and started serving in the Worship Ministry a year after.  She married Ken Ho 2009, and they have 2 beautiful children Keon & Lily.  She loves to be a useful tool in God’s hand to reach out to whoever God places in her life.