Understanding Burnout Recovery Among Native-Born Korean Missionaries

Hannah Kyong-Jin Cho

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781532674983, 9781532674990
• eBook ISBN: 9781532675003
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

In this timely book, Cho provides mission scholars, sending churches, and mission agencies with an understanding of Korean missionaries' burnout recovery process.Her study of Korean missionary burnout recovery included thirty-nine research participants who had experienced burnout in missionary service and who subsequently recovered. Participants reported a variety of physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms, as well as relational difficulties experienced during burnout. Cho describes how their self-help approach, characterized by independent, religious self-effort, brought only temporary relief. Through self-care, however, they experienced genuine recovery. Self-care that leads to lasting recovery is holistic and grace-based, characterized by a correct understanding of the roles of God and others in their lives and engagement in authentic community for interdependent care.This study also gives insightful recommendations to missionary member care systems, mission agencies, and other sending organizations in an Asian cultural context about how to care for Korean missionaries. It is also intended for counselors of home churches so that they can provide better member care for burned-out missionaries. Lastly, this study advances research into contextually appropriate paradigms and strategies helpful to cross-cultural missionaries in the area of both Korean missionaries and non-Western studies in missionary member care.

1

Introduction

From 1997 to 1999, when I was in my mid-twenties, I worked on one of Youth With a Mission’s Mercy Ships. As usual among young Korean missionaries, I set out having little more than a fervent zeal to devote my life to missions—I had no church partnership, a lack of financial support, and no cross-cultural training. Living on board for two years, I found it difficult to adjust to the Westerners surrounding me. At first, I could barely speak any English and was scared I would make serious communication errors and offend my coworkers.

While I was growing up in the traditional Korean church, my pastors taught me to pray hard, read scripture diligently, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. I did not know how to process my experience in cross-cultural ministry. About nine months into my two years on board, my inability to fit in with the ship’s American community led me to become emotionally and spiritually burned out. I felt that I was completely alone and had no one other than God who understood me and with whom I could talk.

The Westerners on the ship really seemed to enjoy serving God, whereas as a Korean Christian I thought that in order to serve God I had to work very hard and exercise strict discipline in fulfilling my duty to God. I did not know how to move on to the next step. I felt depressed and my heart was wounded. Not knowing how to solve the cross-cultural problems or understand other people’s perspectives, I felt that my efforts and abilities were useless.

While I was looking for emotional and spiritual healing, my pastor encouraged me to study in the U.S. to get to know the Bible better, so I went to a Bible college. Truly knowing God, I gained confidence in being myself, rather than only pleasing pastors and leaders, to fulfill my duty to serve God. I also met my mentor and volunteered in Christian Marriage and Family Ministry (CMF). My mentor helped me to be disciplined and influenced me with his spiritual leadership. Because I had a mentorship with trust and communication and had openness within the close relationships among prayer-community members, I began to see God’s plan and myself more clearly. I found love and care through the dynamic sharing of the community. This was a healing process. I was reenergized to move forward to serve God.

My story is not unique; there are many other Korean missionaries who experience burnout, and future missionaries will also. Research shows that “the missionary movement in Korea keeps growing faster than any other national missionary movements in the world.”1 Yet many Korean missionaries face numerous challenges that can lead to burnout: overwork, dutiful obedience, hierarchical structure, and suppression of emotions. According to the following studies on burnout among Korean ministers, cultural values are key influences. Burnout is extremely common among Korean ministers.2 Moon pointed out that it seems to be a common condition among missionaries as well.3 S. S. Kang noted: “74.2% of Korean missionaries are pastors and 25.8% are laymen, or tent-maker missionaries.”4 In a more recent study, Moon demonstrated a similar trend: pastor missionaries make up 70.4 percent (including spouses), while 29.6 percent are lay missionaries.5 S. S. Kang concluded that Korean missions are heavily focused on evangelism and church planting.6 In light of the fact that more than two thirds of the Native-Born Korean Missionaries (NBKMs) in this study are pastors, D. S. Kim’s observations are vital: “Korean pastors of authoritative and demanding traditional backgrounds think that rest and taking care of themselves are the ways of liberal pastors, and that causes burnout to deepen.”7 One reason for this attitude can be found in the culture of Korean ministries. Pan stated, “Coexistence of collectivism and individualism forces the Korean pastors to overload themselves, and confront conflicts of values in their ministry.”8 He further remarked that in Korea the traditionally collectivistic culture “produces conflicts of roles, and forces them to accept their inability to bring about ‘win-win’ conflict resolutions.”9 The Korean expects dutiful obedience and strict adherence to the tradition of hierarchy, and thus many ministers not only believe that they have to suppress emotions, but they also attempt to escape personal problems by overworking themselves.

Many pastors who suffer burnout exhibit characteristics of perfectionism and may be seen as workaholics—idealistic, obsessive, narcissistic, and authoritarian.10 Few have clearly defined boundaries in a context where the cle...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Chapter 3: Methods and Procedures
• Chapter 4: Sources and Consequences of Burnout
• Chapter 5: Paths To Recovery
• Chapter 6: Signs of Recovery
• Chapter 7: Discussion, Implications, Applications, and Recommendations
• Appendix A: The Semi-Structured Interviews
• Appendix B: Informed Consent Form
• Appendix C: The Protection of Human Rights in Research Committee (PHRRC)
• Appendix D: Gender Influences
• Appendix E: Group Mentoring and Counseling
• Appendix F: Education as an Aid to Burnout Recovery
• Curriculum Vitae
• References