REVISITING CHURCH GROWTH IN KOREAN PROTESTANTISM A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

Abstract

HONG, YOUNG-GI [*] A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION The rapid growth of the Korean church The Korean churches are situated in Asia where only eight percent (262,700,000) out of a population of three billion claim to be Christians (in 1995), and where major traditional religions, e.g. Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism, are prevalent among the people. Asia has the largest population in the world (sixty percent of the total), but the percentage of Christians is the lowest. Considering the general reluctant reception Christianity has in Asia, the growth of the Protestant Korean church has been perceived as striking and exceptional by many leaders and scholars. Protestant church growth in Korea is characterized by its rapidity and the emergence of many large churches. In 1920 the Protestant population was 323,574, about 1.4 percent of the population. This increased to 507,922 in 1940, and to 623,072 in 1960. [1] By 1985, the Protestant population had strikingly increased to 6,489,282, or 16.1 percent of the population. In 1995, it was 8,760,000, i.e. 19.7 percent of the population. Add on the numbers of Roman Catholic Christians (6.6 percent) and Korean Christianity represents 26.3 percent of the population in that same year. In spite of its short history, Christianity has become a main religion, together with Buddhism (23.1 percent). The number of Protestant churches increased from 5,011 in 1960 to 35,869 in 1995. The growth in Korean Protestantism has resulted in a number of large churches. In 1999, it was estimated that there were 15 Protestant 'mega-churches' with more than 10,000 adult members who attended regularly, and 400 Protestant churches with more than 1,000 members in Korea. [2] These large churches may be understood as the products of a combination of cultural and contextual factors (e.g. preference for modern large-scale and rapid urbanisation), benefits from modernity (e.g. the use of technologies, resources [3] and the mass media), and strong pastoral leadership that elicits passionate spirituality from church members. These contextual [4], and theological/spiritual factors [5], as well as the role of strong and fervent pastoral leadership [6] can never be ignored. The stagnation of growth Since the early 1990s most mainline denominations in Korea have experienced a stagnation or fall-off in membership and attendance. In the 1980s the average annual growth in membership was 4.4 percent. Government statistics show that the growth rate was 3.9 percent in 1991, 0.6 percent in 1992 and minus 4 percent in 1993. Some denominations are beginning to see downward growth in their membership. A major Presbyterian church in Korea reported a decrease of 1.8 percent in membership in 1998. Speculation is rife as to the causes of this stagnation. Church leaders wonder what the future pattern will be. The current stagnation may be a warning signal that signifies problems within the church. Some factors may be suggested as the causes of this stagnation. Contextual factors that assisted the earlier rapid growth of the Korean church no longer seem to be at work. [7] New contexts that include religious pluralism, social mobility and the economic prosperity of Christians, political and social stability, the success of Buddhism, and an increased range of leisure activities may all have affected the growth of the Korean church. Materialism and secularism seem to be a powerful force in the Korean church, which has attracted the largest segment of its membership from the middle-class. So, although Christians enjoy an important position within Korean society, this assured place does not guarantee that they will not succumb to the subtle danger of becoming an irrelevance both to Korean society and to the Christian gospel. Apart from contextual factors, I would suggest two possible reasons for this stagnation: the downgrading of social credibility and the phenomenon of nominalism. …