COVID-19 New Normal Era, Pastoral Leadership in Need of Changes and Responses of Korean Churches

Abstract

The New Normal Era refers to a new standard era in which things that were considered abnormal become normal. The transition to a new normal society is macroscopically reorganizing the world order and changing the landscape of the citizens' life world. This phenomenon seems to continue to occur in the church and in the life of faith. The church is experiencing changes in worship such as online worship or Drive-In Worship is taking place due to the suspension of on-site worship services on Sunday, which is the first in a Korean church. Although on-site worship is being resumed, the church is changing into a digital pastoral platform by establishing an online worship system in parallel with offline worship and opening a YouTube channel. These changes will become the inevitable pastoral capabilities that the church must have after Corona. What is the pastor's response to the corona crisis? This study aims to study the method with a focus on the future church theory, and to reconsider the characteristics of worship, sermon, and evangelism suggested by emerging churches, and to suggest methods for pastoral leadership in Korean churches to cope with. The way to deal with the corona crisis may differ slightly depending on the ministry site and target, but there will be alternative methods for everyone. However, the most important solution will be change. Therefore, this study intends to examine the changes and responses of the Korean church in the Corona New Normal Era. For the study, first, the need for change in the post-corona church is discussed, second, the characteristics of the future church are presented through prior research, and third, the challenges faced by the leadership of the Korean church are considered. Next, the study presents the factors that should change the leadership of the church, and finally, the study intends to suggest the changing factors of the leadership of the pastor.