Korean Church: God's Mission Global Christianity

Wonsuk Ma

• Publisher: Regnum
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781908355881
• eBook ISBN: 9781912343409
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Once considered as a Cinderella in church growth and mission in the post-Edinburgh Conference era, the Korean church is given its due in this book. As a guide to Korean Christianity, it contains more than thirty chapters, written by historians, missiologists, sociologists, mission practitioners, pastors, and church leaders. This volume assesses the legacy and place of Korean Christianity and its mission, provides insightful and self-critical accounts in topics ranging from theories, policies, practices, and prospects, and offers a useful overview of how the Korean church grew into a missionary church. It concludes with reflections on the future challenges and possibilities, and is intended as an important gift to the Korean church and to world Christianity.

SECTION ONE

MISSION FORMATION:

HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

THE EDINBURGH CONFERENCE AND THE KOREAN CHURCH

Eun Soo Kim

Translated by Gi Jung Song

Introduction

From the middle of the nineteenth century when Protestant mission was at its height, several ecumenical mission gatherings were held. But a world missionary conference in a true sense was the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh on 14-23 June 1910 (hereafter Edinburgh Conference).¹ To celebrate its centenary, the Korean Association of Mission (hereafter KAM) was organised with Jong-yoon Lee as Chair and with Kwang-soon Lee leading the process. KAM was joined by the Korean Society of Mission Studies, the Korean Evangelical Society of Mission Studies, the Korean Committee of the Lausanne Movement, the Korean Institute for Mission and Church Renewal International, the Center for World Mission, the Korean Institute of Christian Studies, and the Busan World Mission Council in its celebrations. Between 22 June and 5 July 2010, over one hundred mission academics and missionaries presented about one hundred studies under the theme ‘World Mission: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow’ in its meetings in Seoul, Incheon, and Busan.² Ten sections explored ten themes: Retrospect and Prospect of the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference; Bible and Mission Theology; Christian Mission and Other Faiths; Mission and Contemporary Society; Mission and Spiritual Leadership; Mission and Church/Pastoral Care; Korean Mission and Theological Education; Culture and Social Change; Mission and Unity; and the Korean Church and World Peace.³

Out of the studies, only a few have any relevance to the topic under consideration: ‘The Edinburgh Conference and the Korean Church’. This may reflect the dominance of the western church in the 1910 conference with less participation of non-western churches, including the Korean church. This does not belittle the unique contributions that non-western delegates made to the conference. Nonetheless, some attended the conference not to represent their countries but as part of western mission organisations.

Contribution of the Korean Church to the Conference

Contributions by Korean Participants

There were two categories of Korean delegates to the conference: first, western missionaries working in Korea; and the second, delegates selected by the American Committee. Among those delegates was the Hon. T. H. Yun (Chi-ho Yun, 1865-1945), a Korean who was also a prominent government official. Due to his involvement in the Reformist (Military) Revolution (December 1884), he had left Korea for Shanghai; there he studied at Anglo-Chinese College established by Young J. Allen of the South Methodist Mission (USA). He became a Christian and was baptised in April 1887. After his subsequent studies at Vanderbilt University and Emory University, he returned to Shanghai to teach in October 1893. In 1895, he returned to Korea as Under Secretary of Education of Korea. In 1904, he was appointed to Under Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but this appointment ended in 1905 as the Protectorate Treaty between Korea and Japan was finalised. When John R. Mott visited Korea in February 1907, Yun served as his interpreter and this relationship continued. While Yun was travelling in the United States in January 1910 through the invitation of the Southern Methodist Church, he received Mott’s invitation to participate in the Edinburgh Conference.⁴ Mott wrote:

I trust that without fail you will attend the great World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh next June. You are pre-eminently the man to represent your important and beloved country. In view of God’s mighty work in Korea, it is most desirable that you be present in Edinburgh.⁵

This short letter contains three important indications about Yun and Korea: (1) missionary work was actively progressing in Korea; (2) Yun was perceived as a Christian leader to represent the Korean church; and (3) in spite of the Japanese colonial influence, the conference still recognised the independence of Korea.

He was the only Korean delegate to the conference, and yet he spoke twice on behalf of the Korean church and his contributions were part of the published proceedings. The first contributed message was delivered on the second day of the conference (15 June 1910) at Commission One on ‘Carrying the Gospel to All the Non-Christian World’:⁶

Hon. T. H. Yun (Songdo, Korea) spoke of Korea as a microscopic mission field. For the last twenty-five years, noble men and women from Europe and America had been preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Korea, and now the day of the harvest had come. It was a matter of fact that today more converts were being gathered in Korea than in any other mission field. Twenty-five years ago, there was not a single missionary and not a single Christian; today, there are nearly two hundred thousand Christians in Korea. Different from the missionary work in Japan, the work in Korea was started among the common people, and as in the days of the Lord, the common people of Korea received the word gladly. Upon the shoulders of the common people rests the future of any country. Today, the Bible is the most well read and the most widely read book in that land. He took this opportunity to thank the British Bible Society for the great work they had been doing in that country. There were, however, great dangers. One was the revivification of Buddhism and Confucianism, and there was also the introduction of the philosophies of the West that have been made in some lecture rooms of Europe, which needed more fresh air rather than philosophy. The rapid conversion of the people was another danger. If they had a sufficient number of missionaries to take hold of the situation, the rapid increase of the converts would not mean so much danger, but when they had so few missionaries and so few trained native missionaries, there was a danger that the converts might not be taught as thoroughly as was necessary in order to lay wide and deep the foundation of the Church of the future. He pled for an adequate number of men and women to teach and train up that little country in the Christian religion.⁷

According to this report, Yun urged that more missionaries be sent, stressing three challenges that the Korean church was facing: The first was the spread of Japanese Buddhism, which had entered with the Japanese invasion of Korea, and the rise of Confucianism to counter this. The second was the introduction of philosophical thoughts that excluded religious experiences, such as Max Mueller’s liberalism of religion. Yun expressed his opposition to this view, which he believed would erode the uniqueness of the Christian worldview. The third was that education was the right path for preparing healthy missions in Korea. According to him, only the Christian worldview could bring a transformation to social sectors and the gospel could take root through it.⁸

Yun, in addition to his report on the religious and mission context, introduced the unique geopolitical situation of Korea, the unique characteristics of Korean population, and the meek and contemplative disposition of Koreans, the varying literacy rates by geographical and social groups, and the current state and the future vision for evangelisation in Korea. His report was comprehensive and detailed and pleaded with the world church to take Korea seriously.⁹

His second contribution was made to Commission Two on ‘The Church in the Mission Field’:

I am to speak from the standpoint of a native Christian on the third division of the first topic: ‘Must all work carried on by foreign money be under foreign control?’ I know it is a very delicate question for a native Christian to speak about. I know also that it is a first principle that money given by the foreign church through the missionaries representing the church should be under the control of those missionaries. I say it is the first principle, but we sometimes find that there is a principle which is higher than that principle, that is the principle of Christ, and in order to carry on the work in any particular missionary field successfully, the missionary must see to it that the distribution of the money be so directed as not to arouse any suspicion in the mind of the local church and to make the money given by the Christian people of these Christian lands do the most for Christ and for men. Missionaries have and must see to it that native leaders are taken into frank consultation in the distribution of the money, because that money is not for a selfish purpose, but for the advance of the Kingdom of God in that particular land, and that cannot be done unless you have the hearty and sympathetic co-operation of the native leaders.¹⁰

His reflection was on the indigenous church in Korea from the perspective of the Southern Methodist Church. He reasonably admitted the initiatives of Western missionaries, and yet advised the missionaries to openly discuss the administration of mission funds with national church leaders.¹¹ Based on the ‘Principle of Christ’, he pointed out the widespread racial bias and arrogance of missionaries against the indigenous population and urged them to enter a meaningful partnership with the nations. Some criticised the national leaders’ lack of contribution to the conference,¹² but Yun, along with others such as A.V. Azariah and Chen-chi Yi, pressed the conference delegates (1,355 from 159 mission organisations) to end the unilateral approach to mission and begin a mission through cooperation with native churches.¹³

Contribution by Western Missionaries

It was John R. Mott (1865-1955) wh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Forewords
• Preface
• Introduction
• Section 1: Mission Formation: Historical and Theological Perspectives
• Section 2: Forms of Missionary Engagement
• Section 3: Looking Ahead…
• Bibliography
• List Of Contributors
• Back Cover