THE KUKMIN DAILY

The two pillars of Korean church community are Sunday worship and small-group gatherings. If Sunday worship is a place of vertical relationship between God and the faithful, then small-group gatherings are the place of horizontal relationship between believers and ministers, based on the “priesthood of all believers.”

The recognition that these “two wings” must be strong in order for a church to be healthy, is currently a noticeable trend in ministry.

On October 27, the positive benefits of small-group gatherings for the building of a healthy mother church were highlighted at an “academic seminar on small-group ministry,” held at Westminster Graduate School of Theology (WGST), on Dongbaek Jukjeondae-ro in Giheung-gu, Yongin City, Gyeonggi-do. In particular, the seminar emphasized the point that small groups such as "cell" groups, "ranch" groups, family churches, "sprouts" gatherings, district gatherings, etc., are not just trends of ministry but products of history, with authoritative theological and Biblical backing.

Rev. Park Eun-jo of Eunhye Saemmul Church (Grace Spring Water Church) said that the key to small-group ministry is to start with change by the head minister. “Up to now, the believers were helpers in the ministry of the pastor, but from now on they are pastors’ solemn partners in ministry,” he asserted. “If you are a pastor who believes in the priesthood of all believers, which is the core value of Protestantism, then you need to uphold the believers as your partners, to achieve a healthy church.”

Rev. Park Ju-seong (photo), general secretary of Disciple Making Ministries International (DMI), said, “Sarang Church’s disciple training was an effort to learn from each other: listening to the stories of the believers, who were accustomed to one-way teaching by the clergy in the field of ministry…This will not only satisfy the desires of today’s Christians, but will cause ministers to preach sermons that can be heard by the congregation.” He added, “It is important to draw a big picture of small-group ministry…The point is to establish a consistent training system and to carry it out continuously.”

In his presentation, WGST Prof. Kwon Mun-sang talked about the influence of small groups in strengthening the unity of the church community. “The cloning of lay leadership to match the level of the pastor-in-charge is important…To strengthen small groups, the eschatological community, linked together by genuine Christian spirit, true faith and sincere devotion, needs repeated education to enable their understanding of small groups.” He pointed to common meals, overnight experiences of shared life and other such activities as core elements in the strengthening of unity.

Small-group ministry can also be found in Korean Christian companies. Rev. Lee Sang-hwa of Church of Dreams recalled, “Back in 1903, missionary Thomas Hardy led the church through the appointment of small-group leaders as "josa (lay asstants)"…In particular, according to the Nevius Mission Policy, small-group education through the "josa" increased in importance, and came to be an extremely useful method of faith training for communication of the Gospel.”

Concrete examples of small-group ministry were introduced at the seminar, by the youth departments of Gangbuk Sarang Community Church and Dongkwang Church.

Article and phot by reporter Sangmok Shin (smshin@kmib.co.kr) from Yongin, with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)


Click here for the original article in Korean

Related Article