53% of Korean Overseas Missionaries Are Concentrated in 10 Countries
2014-01-14 20:01
As of last year, there are 25,745 overseas missionaries from the Korean church working in 169 countries around the world. This number is an increase of 1,003 since 2012. The regional distribution, however, is seriously uneven as the increase rate of dispatched missionaries is still high in the 'already evangelized' regions.
The current situation of dispatched missionaries was reported on January 13th at the 24th general assembly of the Korea World Missions Association (KWMA), held at Yoido Full Gospel Church. The survey included KWMA’s 137 member denominations and organizations and 118 non-member organizations.
According to this survey, since 2009, when the Korean church dispatched 20,840 missionaries, the number of Korean missionaries increased every year by 1,300-1,400 until last year, when there were just 1,003 more newly dispatched missionaries. The increase rate went down because the mission divisions of denominations did not send more missionaries. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that the Korean church continues to send out more than 1,000 additional missionaries every year despite the fact that it is undergoing a growth plateau. KWMA’s analysis is that missionary dispatch keeps increasing by the Korean church’s continuing passion for mission.
The number of dispatched missionaries announced on this date did not include so-called 'independent missionaries.' Their number is estimated at approximately 10,000 and is usually added to the official count. This number was also counted in the statistics that ranked South Korea in second place just behind the U.S. in number of dispatched missionaries. However, trends in mission do not count those 'independent missionaries' without official approval by denominations or organizations. It is necessary in the future, therefore, to clarify their membership and structure of supervision.
The survey also revealed that more than half (52.7%) of the Korean overseas missionaries are concentrated in 10 countries (U.S., Philippines, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Cambodia, Germany, as well as a country in Northeast Asia) where many Korean missionaries have already been stationed. Therefore, the results of the survey give the Korean church the new responsibility of having to evenly distribute missionaries in the not-yet-evangelized regions as well. Particularly in the case of the Philippines, where Protestants are more than 15.5% of the population, 1,602 missionaries (115 more than the year 2012) were newly dispatched in 2013.
Major regions of dispatch are Asia (15,323), Africa (1,877), Western Europe (1,329), the Mideast (1,177), Latin America (1,152) and the South Pacific (884). The most popular areas of missionary activities are: building new churches (10,693), raising disciples (8,612), campus ministry (2,499), education (1,361), welfare and development (819), and medical care (515).
KWMA President Rev. Young Hoon Lee of Yoido Full Gospel Church said, “The continuing of mission proves that the church is alive. I hope the Korean church will devote more attention to mission this year even though it is experiencing stagnant growth.”
Reporter Sangmok Shin (smshin@kmib.co.kr), Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Click here for the original article in Korean
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