From Megachurches to the Invisible Temple: Placing the Protestant “Church” in the Seoul Metropolitan Area

Abstract

This paper examines three newly formed strategies for creating places used by Protestant churches in the Seoul metropolitan area. First, some big churches with more than 10,000 members construct elaborate buildings, which are used as sacred “places.” These so-called megachurches try to construct costly branch church buildings in the most developed areas of Seoul. This type of strategy emphasizes the value of physical place, shown by the buildings’ description as “temples.” Churches for the homeless and other churches located in low-income neighborhoods pursue a second strategy. Most of these small and poor churches cannot afford to have places for worship service, although they might have small administrative offices. Without their own worship space, these small-scale churches use public places in Seoul to hold services utilizing back alleys or playgrounds as temporary sacred space. Instead of heavily investing in building “places,” churches that adopt the third strategy try to distribute their resources in other directions, such as educating lay members, raising funds for social welfare, or participating in cultural movements. Some of these strategies rely on the belief that the attachment to a physical space does not match up with the Protestant idea of a church that is a holy community. Theological principles and religious views on the definition of a “church” can be witnessed in the different endeavors of these three types of approaches to place.