THE KUKMIN DAILY

Rev. Kim Byeong-sam (54, photo) of Manna Methodist Church recently shared in his new book “A Fierce Obedience” (Duranno Publishing) his ideas on what needs passionate restoration by the Korean church and Christians. Since the start of the New Year, his Sunday sermons have been on ecclesiology: “Our church is not the building,” “We gather to scatter,” “We gather to dedicate,” “We worship with our lives.” “What is the church?” he asks.

It seems too soon for him to be thinking about retirement, but he is already preparing for it. Curious about the reason, I met him on February 5 in his office at Manna Church in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do.

Kim said, “I observed my senior pastors’ retirement process, and came to think that I should prepare for mine early on when I can still exert leadership.” He explained that a leader is one who can lead the church members spiritually and in advance of the times, but he has witnessed many pastors losing their leadership at some point. He said, “I’m pondering on ways to build new leadership while the church members are applauding me, before I lose leadership… And I hope to do this research together with fellow pastors.”

During his years of study in the United States and in his early years of ministry, he thought that a church in the postmodern age could continue its system and program so long as they were sound, and alternatively, could transplant those structures to other churches that might need them. But he learned that this would not work in Korea, where big churches have as much of an image problem as the chaebol do.

Thus, he finally decided to downsize his church through a process of scattering it into the world. Currently the membership of Manna Church is 10,000, and he plans to downsize it to half.

Manna Church used to have five worship services on Sundays, from 8 o’clock in the morning to 9 in the evening. Now also, small groups gather on every floor between services, so that all day Sunday the church is bustling with activities. “Instead of expanding the church building, I sought to maximize space efficiency,” Rev. Kim said. “Starting this April, we’ll have services on Saturdays, as well.” The plan is to disperse the services. Through the Saturday services, Kim plans to strengthen incubation of branch churches and support for nurturance and education.

The question may arise, is it right to hold and attend worship services on Saturdays? To answer this, we must examine the ecclesiology. Rev. Kim said, “If we transform ourselves into believers who worship every single day, not just once a week, it may be possible to attend worship on Saturdays and scatter to each one’s own mission church on Sundays.” In response to Kim’s sermons on this subject, his church members at first were only half convinced. After a month or so, however, they began to understand. This attempt by Manna Church has caught attention because it is a new attempt by a large church to transform itself into a mission church, which has never been done by other churches in Korea, and because this is still controversial.

Ever since he was majoring in missiology in the U.S., Rev. Kim has continued thinking about a church that fits the age. His interest in the reality outside the church, rather than inside it, led him to write his dissertation on “Church growth in the eyes of those who don’t believe in Jesus.” Kim said, “In the past, when people looked at a big church building they would think, 'I want to go in there.' But now many consider this stupid. The essence of the Gospel has not changed, but we need to think seriously about how to approach it.”

In this sense, Rev. Kim suggests alternatives for the church to follow after his retirement, as well as how to act towards society. Taking the example of the clergy tax, he said, “I think the clergy tax can be viewed as double taxation and thus it has an unfair aspect, because offerings are from people who have already paid their taxes. But under the circumstances, where those who do not believe in Jesus will never understand our argument against the clergy tax, we can gladly bear some disadvantage.” In other words, it is better to follow the world’s requirement, taking it as an opportunity to purify ourselves, than to demand a questionable exception, recognizing how this must look to the younger generation in their 20s and 30s, or to the world. Rev. Kim said, “What churches in our age must take seriously is how to do their best to create their true identity as good churches that the world hopes for, rather than playing victim and blaming ‘the outside’ for not recognizing us.”

Reporter Narae Kim (narae@kmib.co.kr), from Seongnam, with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Photo by intern reporter Shin Hyeon Ga


Original Article in Korean:
“성도들이 박수칠 때가 다음 리더십 세우기 고민할 때”: 때이른 ‘은퇴’ 대비… 분당 만나교회 김병삼 목사