Reformed Protestantism in Korea is represented by 10 million members in 50,000 churches. The largest Protestant denomination is the Presbyterian Church, which is followed by Methodist, Pentecostal, Holiness and Baptist churches.
The Presbyterian Church in Korea is divided into more than 200 branches. Major Presbyterian organizations include the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK), the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea (GAPCK), GAPCK Kosin, the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK), GAPCK Baek Seok, and the Korean Presbyterian Church Hapshin. Among them, PCK and GAPCK are the largest, boasting about 3 million members each.
These organizations also run seminaries and theological universities--Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, Chongshin University, Kosin University, Hanshin University, Baekseok University, and Hapdong Theological Seminary. Major Presbyterian churches in Korea include Myungsung Church, Youngnak Church, Sarang Community Church, Onnuri Community Church, Sooyoungro Presbyterian Church in Busan, and Hosanna Church.
The Korean Methodist Church is a monolithic group encompassing 1.6 million members in 6,000 churches. Methodist Theological University belongs to this group. Kwanglim Church, which is the largest Methodist church in the world, and Kumnan Methodist Church are members of the denomination.
The Pentecostal Church in Korea consists of the Assembly of God of Korea and the Assembly of God of Korea Yoido Full Gospel. They run Hansei University and other seminaries. The world’s biggest church with 850,000 members, Yoido Full Gospel Church belongs to this denomination.
The Holiness denomination, which is native to Korea, is divided into the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church and the Jesus Korea Sungkyul Church, which run Seoul Theological University and Sungkyul University, respectively. The two groups include about 4,000 churches with more than a million members. Shinchon Evangelical Church is the largest church of the denomination.
The Korea Baptist Convention encompasses 2,900 churches and runs Korea Baptist Theological University. Its followers number around 800,000. Global Mission Church is a major church of the denomination.
By Paek Sang-hyun
