에딘버러대회와 한국교회

The World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh and the Korean Church

On the commemorating the centennial anniversary of the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910, it is meaningful to describe changes and developments of the Korean Church. After liberation from the Japanese annexation in 1945, the Korean Church had to undergo a trial which occurred inside the church. There was a conflict between a pro-Japanese group and an anti-Japanese group, conservative and liberal, and hegemony of power which was based on local influence. During these conflicts, the Korean Church experienced a split in the Presbyterian church. The Korean War occurred on June 25, 1950. During the Korean War many church ministers and believers were martyred, and hundreds of churches were burned down. The Korean Church perceived this as God's punishment for worshiping Japanese Shinto during the period of colonization and warned about a church split. During 1970s, mass evangelical meetings: revival meetings and spiritual charisma movements such as the Billy Graham Crusade in 1973, Explo '74, '77 the National Evangelization, and the '80 World Evangelization Crusade permeated the Korean Church. At the same time, Korean Church statistics revealed that the number of Korean churches were rapidly growing. The numerical growth and material wealth of the church was the largest in Korean church history. The Korean churches have experienced decline since the middle of 1980s. The church enthusiastically gathered people, but did not realize their social responsibility as Christians nor encourage them to be equal to their responsibility in the world. One of the standards of measurement for church growth is whether the church is engaged in God's mission in society. Thus, from this instant, the church should assume leadership for social service, because community service involvement and leading social services are an important role of the church. Evangelization is the most effective means of social reform. Participating social service is also a way of restoring the credibility of the church. Therefore, the Korean Church should not disregard its social responsibility. The role of the pastor is very important. Pastoral ministry is rooted in theology, therefore, ministry and theology cannot separate. The theological core of mission should be established on the well balanced foundation of church growth quantitatively and qualitatively. Therefore, ministers have to change their misconceived notion of materialistic perspective on church expansion and their false assumption on ecclesiology. Another task is that the church should restore its identity. The mega church in itself is not wrong. The question is stewardship: how to utilize the resources of the church for mission and evangelism. Church should provide equality and unity in Christ to all, because church is a community of believers. As Christ is for all, church should be for all.