출산율 감소가 한국 교회성장에 미친 영향

Be Fruitful and Multiply, and Replenish the Earth!: The Influence of the IMF Economic Crisis and the Low Fertility Rate upon the Growth of the Korean Christian Population

Korean women's fertility rate is rapidly declining as it goes down from 4.5 in 1970 to 1.3 in 2002. The impacts of the low fertility rate are many, e.g., the decline of Korean population, the lack of industrial man powers, the numerical rise of foreign workers, the growth of older generation, and so on. Soon Korean church will be under direct impacts of the low fertility rate as well. The present paper aims to investigate (1) the growth rate of Korean Christian population based on the scientific national census; (2) the rapid decline of the Korean women's fertility rate; (3) the influence of the 1997 IMF economic crisis upon the decline of fertility rate; (4) practical suggestions for the future ministry from missiological analysis which include counseling, silver ministry, ministry to coming generation, ministry to foreign workers, and encouragement for child-bearing for the Christian families. What Korean churches need now is to recognize the importance of the missionary proclaim in the Book of Genesis (9:1): “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Otherwise, Korean church would have a significant difficulty to maintain the present energy and enthusiasm due to the sharp decline of the Christian population in Korea near soon.