This afternoon I had coffee with one of the contacts I have made through Gina Ha-Gorlin, Dr Kyusuk Kong, who is a Professor of Old Testament at Baekesok University and is the Senior Minister at Baekesok Church in Cheonan city. He has ministered in the UK at a Korean speaking church in Sheffield for ten years and so understands both UK and Korean perspective. We had a great conversation.
Through our conversation I came to appreciate more about the Korean Presbyterian churches. How some Korean Christian's are concerned that the Christian church in the UK is dieing, and the need as they see it to send missionaries to the UK to help restore the churches. The key he felt to Korean churches and their growth is a real commitment to prayer. He spoke about the challenge within Presbyterian churches in Korea that have no formal process of recognising and accrediting ministers, and the challenge of the decline of young people within the church. I shared my experiences of formal recognition of ministry within the church, the challenge and opportunity of postmodernity, and my own testimony. We both recognised the need and the challenge to form multi cultural, and multi generational churches. We considered Galations 3:28 as a model to show us that in Christ we come together as one and yet we also remain distinctive. There is a difference between male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, but all have a place in Christ. It has got me thinking more about what that might mean and again the issue of Jesus coming to bring a new culture. I think I need to do some more study and thinking around this idea. I have arranged to visit his church and carry on this really stimulating conversation, so much to think through and consider.
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