A Study on Various Church Planting Models of the Early Korean Protestant Church
The purpose of this study is to discern and describe the different church planting models in the development of the Korean Protestant church. The historical range of this study is from 1885, when the first Protestant missionaries entered Korea, to 1945, when the Japanese colonial rule ended. The Korean Protestant Christians were enthused in evangelizing and establishing churches during political turbulence. They showed seven different models of church planting, even if they did not recognize them back then as we do today through strategic dimensions. During this period, many churches were established by spontaneous evangelism. Since 1903, revivals became a strong catalyst for church planting, stimulating the evangelistic activities of believers. These models revealed the significance of the work of the Holy Spirit and the evangelistic passion of believers in church planting. Furthermore, the Korean Protestant Church used strategic methods to counteract the randomness of spontaneous evangelism. The Holiness Evangelical Church especially focused on dispatching professional evangelists to strategic locations. This method was much useful to some groups despite its difference from the Nevius Plan which emphasized not paying workers' salaries. Many Korean churches were planted by seminary students and largescale evangelism. Some models of church planting by the Korean Church, such as church planting by holistic ministries and hiving off through revivals, can be evaluated as exemplary models in the present. Through holistic methods, some medical missionaries established new churches in their infirmary where they looked after poor patients. This brings to our attention how important incarnational ministry is in local community missions. Many new churches were planted due to revivals resulting in the mother church exceeding maximum capacity. This model is missional in that it rejects egoistic growth of individual churches and values God’s mission.