It is well-known that the Rev. Kyung-Chik Han was very active in world mission. Interestingly, however, there has been few, if not any, studies on his ministry of world mission. This study reviews his ministry of world mission, summarizing it into several patterns, clarifying its main issues, and evaluating its historical legacy.
His ministry of world mission can be divided into several patterns, which is closely related to the development of his pastoral ministry. The patterns are as follows: first, the period of pasturing a migrant church (1945-1950); second, that of representing the Korean Church to the world churches (1950-1955); third, that of participating in ecumenical mission (1955-1966); and last, that of participating in evangelical mission (1966-2000).
We may recapitulate the Rev. Han’s ministry of world mission as follows. To begin with, let us examine his strong points: first, with the idea of evangelism being the core, he expanded his ministry, starting from national evangelization to world mission; second, he carried out both gospel ministry and relief ministry; third, he greatly contributed to the mobilization of the Youngrak Presbyterian Church and its daughter churches for world mission; fourth, he enhanced the church’s awareness about the world churches, and thus let it naturally accept the challenge of world mission. However, it is necessary to point out his weaknesses: first, his framework of the two-faced ministry, gospel and relief, gradually became behind the times, as he failed to respond to the new ideas of world mission; second, his role in introducing the ideas of ecumenical mission to the Korean Church was limited; third, thus the Korean Church in general, including him, remained under the influence of the viewpoint of traditional mission; fourth, owing to his close relationship with the evangelicals, his leadership was gradually confined to the evangelical camp. In conclusion, it can be safely said that he was a missionary activist rather than missionary thinker, and that he contributed to the mobilization for mission rather than the vitalization of missiology.

• 안교성(장로회신학대학교) | Ahn, Kyo Seong