한국적 상황에서 “선교적 교회(missional church)”가 갖는 의미 연구

The Meanings of “Missional Church” in the Korean Context

The Korean Church is encountering three serious problems from a missiological perspective. The first is the conflict between the evangelical party and ecumenical one; in spite of the holistic and cooperative movements between them, the institutional and theological antpathy between them still exists. The second question is that the Korean church growth has stopped, contrary to its expectation of the leveling off of the size of churches after the great church growth period, and that the polarization of the church is getting worse. Third one is the question whether the local protestant churches are effectively evangelizing the local community by fully understanding their culture. In this situation, we are to serch for a ecclessiological paradigm which projects a mission church that breaks through these problems. We may ask three questions in more detail: how can we make a successfully localized church which has its roots in Korean historical cultural experiences. Is it possible to suggest an alternative paradigm that terminates the conflict between the evangelical and ecumenical parties and that consentrates on the mission tasks in mutual cooperative relationship? However, what missiological role and direction can we suggest in order to deliever the Christian message to the Christians and non-Christians effectively and persuasively in this rapidly changing society and cultural values? With regard to these questions, the discussion of the “missiological church” that is developed by the North American scholars provides a helpful insight to us in searching for an mission church models in this Korean Christian circumstance. It is because the churches of the North America and Korea share the similar questions and struggle to find a breakthrough to be successful in evangelizing the gospel in the rapidly changing local community and cultural values. This discussion is made in two ways: one is theoretical missiological approach and the other is practical one that approaches in light of church growth. This article deals with these two aspects because the question of how a church can do its evangelical mission in its local community and its own situations, after the period of great church growth in Norch American churches, is to be raised; it is so because the theological perspectives of the evangelical and ecumenical parties find their common insterests with regard to the question of evengelization and culture. Therefore, this article examines the question of whether the idea of missiological church may work as a successful model that overcomes the problems that the Korean church is struggling as mentioned above. It will survey Choi Hyung-Gun’s arguments and Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church. The background and the character of the emergence of the missiological church will be dealt with, and the possibility of application of this model to the Korean church and its meaning will be examined with regard to the questions raised above, especially in terms of three issues of church, gospel and culture.