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January 24, 2013
January 20, 2013
"English Worship" in a Korean Church has become a Cliché
English speaking
believers who have stayed in Korea a longer period of time gradually lose the
taste for "English Worship" in a Korean Church. Although there
are some good English Ministries in Korea, but generally the state of
"English Worship" in a Korean church has become ineffective in
meeting the needs of English speaking population. There may be many
reasons for such a low view of "English Worship" and one of the
primary reasons is I think the desire for every Korean church to have English
Worship as a fashion to show off their edge over other Korean churches.
If the Church is big enough for money and manpower, it must have
English Worship at any cost. The purpose of such English worship is not to
provide worship experience to the English speaking believers, but to use them
as a means to attract the English desiring Korean young people to the
church. God, worship, and the spiritual needs of the foreigners are not
the purpose of English Worship; it is the English language. Because the
purpose of English worship is English language instead of God, then, the
emphasis is not on hiring a godly pastor, but a native English speaking
individual (preferably a white male in his twenties), regardless of one's
pastoral qualities. Once such a new "pastor" arrives, the
church shows great interest and enthusiasm, people fight to get a chance to
volunteer in the English worship. Even the non-English speaking members
join the worship service. But alas, the native English speaker is not a
magician! Foreigners move on because their spiritual needs are not
met. Non English speaking members stop coming because they cannot
understand the language, and the volunteers get tired by the end of the year.
So, the native English speaking pastor too is told to move on and the cycle
repeats all over again. This is how I think the English Worship in Korean
Church is loosing its relevance for the foreigners who truly want to find a
place of worship and fellowship. There are other churches who want to
keep the foreigners coming to their churches at any case by providing free
lunch, free pickup/drop facilities, free retreats/sightseeing activities, and
free medical and other services. But these are also not the best alternatives
for a genuine worship experience for those of us who don't understand Korean
language.
Therefore, English
Worship in a Korean Church has to reconsider the way it has been
functioning. The purpose of worship has to be God and the focus has to be
in meeting the needs of English speaking believers instead of using the English
speakers as bait to attract the Korean youth. The leadership of English
Worship has to be spiritually authentic and experientially stable to meet the
spiritual needs of the believers instead of just focusing on English language
ability and visibility. In doing so, English Worship can become a great
mission tool in the hand of Korean Church to reach out to many foreigners who
come to Korea in search of their destiny. By providing an authentic
worship experience, the believing foreigners will be strengthened to be the
living witnesses to their fellow Korean and foreign friends.
With right motives
and strategies, Korean Church has great potential in serving the English
speaking foreigners and expanding the kingdom of God around the world instead
of letting "English Worship" become just a cliché.
January 14, 2013
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