South Koreans exulted last week in Kim Yu-na’s matchless performance in Vancouver. So, too, on Sunday, at Yoido Full Gospel Church, where the figure skater, a Roman Catholic, wasn’t mentioned by name but everyone knew whom the pastor was talking about when he lifted up the country’s Olympic athletes in prayer.
Yoido Full Gospel is the mega-est of megachurches. With a membership of more than 850,000, it bills itself as the world’s largest Christian congregation, and that’s probably right. At the 11 o’clock service last Sunday, there were more people in the 120-singer choir than in the entire congregation of the country church I attend in New England.
The church stands on an island in the Han River in central Seoul, not far from the National Legislature. The main sanctuary holds 10,000 people. Nearby are several church-owned buildings, including a high-rise filled with offices, meeting rooms and banquet halls. There are satellite churches elsewhere in Seoul and around the country.
A very informative article in the WSJ, full of basic facts about the flourishing state of Christianity in South Korea. It’s great to see a positive write-up about the world’s largest church, Yoido Full Gospel Church, with its over 850K members, and all their outreach ministries, including its hospital in Pyongpang, the capital of N. Korea.
I loved hearing about how this giant church provides translations in eight languages for foreign guests, including such perhaps unexpected languages as Japanese (although nearby, there are so few Christians there), Indonesian, and Arabic! If South Korea’s population of 48 million is 30% Christian now, that means there are about 15 million believers in that country. Quite a missionary force.
It’s also nice to hear that the new female figure skating champion is one of them. I hadn’t heard that she was Roman Catholic.
May the Korean Church continue to grow and thrive. And may the corrupt and wicked regime in the North soon collapse, so that all Koreans may share in the blessings of the gospel. It seems that Seoul is now the “Jerusalem of the East.”
Though the ethnic Chinese in Singapore might dispute that.
David Handy+
Pyongyang in North Korea was known as The Jerusalem of the East as 98% of that country was Christian. Now that country turned their back on scripture and look what they are now…funny how that sounds just like another revisionist organization closer to home.
Intercessor
I had lost track of this church. Sometime ago they had 10,000 people per hour praying for the church and its mission. It was built on a cell model and many members became Christians after they were invited to a small group.
Could someone who is a student of the history of missionary outreach tell me why Korea and China have significant Christian populations while, on the other hand, Christianity has never seemed to take root in Japan. Is it merely cultural, historical, or some other factor that accounts for the difference?
Daniel (#4),
I’m no expert on the history of missions in Asia, but I can at least help a bit. Ultimately, I think it’s a mystery why some nations or individuals respond positively to the gospel when others don’t, a mystery as deep as the unfathomable relationship between divine providence and human free will.
But there was a time when it seemed that Japan would turn Christian. Back in the latter 1500s, the great Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier saw tremendous response to his labors in Japan and many tens of thousands were converted and baptized. But you’re right, the Church never fully took root in Japanese soil, and when persecution struck, it hit with a vengeance, with such terrible, relentless ferocity that the Christians were almost completely wiped out before the Church was firmly established. And today, less than 1% of that wealthy and highly secularized nation is Christian.
There is such a thing as critical mass, and we’ve never had it in Japan since that fierce persecution destroyed the initial foothold gained by the Catholics long ago. But I can’t explain why.
BTW, one little known fact about the history of Christianity in Japan. When we dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki in 1945, do you know what the actual target chosen to focus on was? It was the highest point in the city, which happened to be the steeple of the Catholic cathedral. Nagasaki had the largest community of Christians in Japan, and we Americans destroyed it, dropping the bomb on the largest Christian church in Japan. Lord, have mercy.
David Handy+
The largest Christian population in Japan before WWII was in Nagasaki. They are now with the Lord.