"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.