Analysis on Women Leadership in Women House Churches in Comparison to Leadership in Male-centered Mainstream Presbyterian Churches

This paper analyzes the tension on woman leadership between woman house churches and mainstream Presbyterian churches in Korea. What is the woman house church? There are Protestant Christians in Korea who meet regularly in private houses for a worship service. Most of them are lower-middle class women coming from different denominations mainly Presbyterians and Methodists, and they are active members in their churches. Thus, participants keep double membership at their mainstream churches and woman house churches. All leaders who take charge in the meetings are women despite a few male participants. They call the house meeting Gajung Jedan in Korean (literally house altar, in this article, woman house church).