The existing perspectives claims that there is a static relations between Gospel and Culture. That is, biblical text is constant and is the subject of hermeneutics. Besides, context acts passively as the object of hermeneutics. However, context is the totality of human life's creative selfunderstanding. It means Sitz im Leben which is developed in political, economic, social and cultural sphere. Therefore, it also provides a dynamic hermeneutics of the text. Finally, on the one hand the text illuminates the context, on the other hand the context illuminates the text. The fact that both Text and Context have hermeneutical functions on illuminating each other makes us face both the problems of Truth and humanics. Every one can hear the Good News only in his/her own culturally conditioned context. Therefore, any intercultural understanding prerequisites common hearing. Only when we are together, we can understand the biblical truth in impartial and more complete manner. There must neither be superiority nor inferiority over others where the biblical text is being heard and understood together crossculturally, instead there must be reciprocal dependence with one another. The postmodern intercultural ecumenical missiological hermeneutics aims at realization of the koinonia in diversity, pursuing reciprocal complement and learning through the newly understanding of the Gospel being interpreted in each culture. Thus, the worldwide churches becomes not only a hermeneutical community, but also it becomes a learning, supporting, and celebrating community. The church is the participatory subject and agent of mission of God, but not the sole recipient of Gospel. We need newly interpreted Gospel by crosscultural process. Actually, the authentic subject of the postmodern intercultural ecumenical missiological hermeneutics is the Holy Spirit. Under the free and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, the church cannot absolutize its own truth claim. Rather, it has to be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit's leading the church from partial understanding to a fuller understanding of the truth. In this regard, mission is not just something the church is doing alone, but it is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit which precedes the church's involvement in missio Dei. The church has to spread this Gospel with words and life. The proclamation and presence go together in mission. Only through the missionary renewal which unites the missionary proclamation and the missionary presence, the church can accomplish mission work more faithfully in the world. Therefore, both western and oriental churches, and all other churches of the world as well need each other.
The church growth movement, which is one of the most influential school of mission theology in the 20th century, was born in the postcolonial turmoil which traditional Western churches began to experience stagnation and decline on the home front in North America as well as Europe. In this climate of uncertainty, the research of Donald A. McGavran who had been influenced by the research project of J. Wascon Pickett for the church growth in India, questioned the status quo in missions. This produced The Bridges of God (1955) which suggests new ways to envision the missionary task of the churches. Later on McGaveran’s church growth theories based on research continually challenged the traditional mission strategies and suggested more effective and culturally sensitive ways to win people to Christ. Under his influence, church growth, together with his strong recommendation to adopt research for the church growth, became an indispensable and essential] condition of missions. It is because effective mission strategy based on research for church growth is an indicator of faithfulness to God's command to him. Whereas early church growth movement was mainly concerned with the twothird world church, in 1970s it had been applied into the North American church. Later on many institutes of church growth and church growth scholars have influenced missiology through the different research models. However, it is notable that, while social scientists focus on the contextual factors over which the church have no control, McGavran’s research paradigm usually emphasizes on institutional factors over which the church has control. Nevertheless, it does not discard its contextual factors. By accepting the methodologies of social sciences, the church growth movement has continually developed the effective manuals for research to standardize the research procedures. Although research is not a perfect tool for church growth, strategic research for church growth may well be the most important legacy of church growth movement.
This article aims to analyze the features of early christianity mission and mission tasks in Jeonju region. The mission in Jeonju started with the seven missionaries who were sent by the overseasmission department of the Southern Presbyterian Church of America(SPCA) in 1892. They arrived in Jemulpo in November 1892, and were assigned to Honam area. And they started their mission works in 1893. At that time, people in Jeonbuk were in the depths despair under the failure of Donghak revolution. In this dark period, people were lured to newlyemerged religions such as Jeungsangyo, Cheondogyo( Donghak), and Wonbuddhism. These religions were surprisingly originated in Jeonbuk area when the Buddhism and Confucianism were hopeless and became weak. So, the first feature of mission in Jeonju is that christianity started the mission work and approached to people as hope under this situation. Another feature of mission in Jeonju is that the triangle mission station which are based on the church, school and hospital was formed in Jeonjumission station. SPCA in 1893 purchased a house in Eunsongri, Jeonju for future purpose. This house became the place for worship later and gave birth to motherchurch( called as Seomoon church) in Honam. In 1902, Mattie B. Ingold and Mr. Harrison established Jeonju hospital on the mission site which is known to ‘Jesus’ hospital now. In 1899, missionary Harrison taught a few boys churcheducation on Sunday and he also started training 8 boys with his language teacher. From 1900, missionary Reynolds, the founder of ‘Shinheung’ school, started the regular curriculum at his house with his wife, Bolling. From April 24, 1900, Mattie Tate started training 12 girls churcheducation and regular curriculum twice a week at her house. This was the beginning of ‘Kijeon’ girls’ mission school. The third feature is that the activity of local layman missionaries were great. The early mission strategy of protestant in Korea adopted the ‘Nevius’ plan which are based on the ‘Three Self Principles’. This Nevius plan was very helpful to mission work by the layman at that time because there were absolutely short of leaders like pastor. Therefore, there are some mission tasks to solve for world mission in Jeonju region. First of all, churches in Jeonju region are to change their goals from expansion of each denomination to Missio Dei. In Missio Dei, the subject of mission is God, not the church. Also, the purpose of mission is the expansion of kingdom of God, not the church. And it is not the glory of church but the glory of God through His Son in Holy Spirit. Therefore the authentic mission is expanding the kingdom of God, not the church and setting the sovereignty of God firmly. Thus Missio Dei made the theological cofoundation between evangelical and ecumenical and opened up the interdenominational cooperation for world mission. Second, the mission needs to be shifted from the salvation of soul to holistic mission. The early christianity mission in Jeonju was the mission based on the social service with the church, school and hospital, but it was different from the Missio Dei which builds up the sovereignty of Christ. Early missionaries enlightened the people by education, evangelism, and bible distribution, and also they did medical work for aid and service. But it was a way for the salvation of soul, not today's holistic way. The holistic mission through social welfare is just to help the poor, to heal the wound, and to fill the poverty, and it is the anticipation about a new life, a new community and a freely world in the kingdom of God. The Missio Dei, which aims for the kingdom of God, should be the holistic mission. It should be changed from an individual salvation to a whole man salvation and social salvation. Third, It should be ecumenical mission with local people together. There was a surprising revival in the early Korean church but it was relatively slow in Jeonju which was assigned as the mission region to SPCA because it was the local culture of confucianism and rooted male domination and the antiecumenical theology of SPCA. Mattie Ingold who laid the foundation of Jesus hospital, is an example. Therefore, Mission plan has to be made in a most appropriate way to do the ecumenical cooperation among the ministers. Especially, the overseas Korean missionaries have reported that the biggest problem is the conflicts among themselves. It shows us how desperately urgent the ecumenical cooperation needs.
Some of biblical scholars assert the idea that there are neither messages nor visions about mission in the Old Testament, but J. Raymond Tallman said, “The bible is a book of mission from its beginning to the end,” David J. Hesselgrave said “The more the biblical scholars do world mission in the perspective of the whole bible, they will better understand that the bible is a book of mission,” Arthur F. Glasser said “The Old Testament is a book of mission.” Johannes Blauw confessed that there was time “he was ignorant of missionary ideas in the Old Testament,” and mentioned that “the Old Testament does not ignore or takes lightly of the missionary meaning and its evidence about people all over the world.” In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the activities of four patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are well recorded and God, the primary subject of mission, selected them as missionaries and did missionary work. Abraham was born a son of Terah, a descendent of Shem (Gen. 11:27) and was called upon a missionary at 75 (Gen. 12:4). He left his hometown, Ur of the Chaldeans and moved to the land of Canaan. Before he went to his missionary field, God gave him a vision that he will make into a great nation, his name will be great and will be a blessing, and in the missionary field, God gave him the same vision repeatedly (Gen. 12:13, 13:16, 15:5, and 22:1718). Abraham with his three hundred eighteen trained men born in his house defeated them and recovered all the goods and brought back the captured people. When the king of Sodom requested of the return of his people but not of the goods, Abraham took an oath in the name of God and returned the goods as well as the people. Abraham let known of God with good virtues to the King of Sodom (Gen. 14:1116). God commanded Abraham of circumcision and of mission for all nations by ordering circumcision of people they bought from a foreigner. (Gen. 17:1214) Abraham let known of God to Abimelech king of Gerar and his officials with the guidance of God (Gen. 20:18). Thus, Abraham’s mission was a life mission that took place within his life. Isaac was born as the only son of Abraham and Sarah when Abraham turned one hundred years old, and was offered to God as a sacrifice (Gen. 22:913). He obeyed to God’s word in the years of famine, and instead of moving to Egypt, he stayed in Gera. The year Isaac planted crops in that land, God blessed him with a hundredfold of crops and made him rich and very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that made the Philistines to envy him, so he had to leave the land. But later, Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar visited him with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces and told him “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you”, “Let us make a treaty with you that you will do us no harm,” and “And now you are blessed by the Lord.” and made a treaty with Isaac. Isaac absolutely obeyed to God’s commands, received great blessings from God in foreign soils, revealed God through his life, and did life mission that made the foreign king to confess the name of God.
The paper aims to do a comparative research on foreign social services and cultural understanding of the religious organizations of Korea and of the United States which have been active in Cambodia. The results of the research will be helpful to contribute to develop the support policies of the government authority to religious NGOs and to achieve more effective results in the field of international development by the religious NGOs in Korea. The first part of the paper defines some concepts on community development, international cooperation NGOs, understanding of culture, and foreign social services of the religious organizations. Further the paper makes clear the practical structures of goals and processes of the social service (community development) of religious NGOs which transform the religiocultures of the native population. The second and third parts analyze the religious NGOs of Korea and of the United States. The activities in Cambodia and staff education on the culture of the 12 religious NGOs of Korea are examined to influence the community development or social service which is closely related to cultural change. The third part discusses the activities and staff education of the 7 religious (Christian) NGOs of the U.S. which have practiced the social services in Cambodia. The fourth part compares with the merit points of the religious NGOs of the two countries and discusses the issues of NGO activities in the fields. Finally the paper suggests three points to the NGO authorities in Korea such as financial support of the government authority to the religious NGOs, enforcement of religiocultural education for the staffs of the religious NGOs, and establishment of new department such as world relief service by the denomination basis in the Korean churches.
Today, Korea society focuses on multisociety and kid problem of multiculture home. Korea does not accept traditional multisociety, but entered in multiculture society according to economic, political, global trend. Multiculture society has so many problems; such as criminal situation, culture shock, identity destroy in multiculture home's kids. In this situation, how can do Korea church take care their life problems? Korea church should support toward them in multiculture home through missional education. This article mentions meaning of multiculture society and based on biblical foundation about multiculture society, kids of multiculture home, and Korea church mission toward mlticulture society. This study focuses on for survivals of migrants kids and social discrimination of Kosian in Korea society. Korea churches have to support their settlement by their own ways and encourage them to establish not only their own identity in Korean society but also Christian kid identity based on multiculture society. Therefore, how would Korea church' task do to support for children education of multiculture society. Above all, this article deals with knowledge shift of multiculture society about kid problem and education method. This multiculture came from low fertility and super aging society. Korea churches should response problems of multicultural peoples and their kid with multicultural living together in Korea society.
This study deals with welfare missional practice of local church for the single parents family. This article focuses on carrying the welfare missional alternatives to the single parents family in the Korea context. The single parents family has so many difficulties about children problems such as health, economic, social, and human relationship. Because their problems brought out home collapse, divorce society. This article explains some opinions the task of social institutions, governments, and local churches. They should be need counseling, care, financial support, study support, and program development from local churches and social welfare institutions. I want to suggests several kinds about welfare missional practice for the single parents family. First, local church and pastor should be change paradigms about social service mission. The church mission could be act for the single parents family. Second, the welfare missional practices are making network among social welfare group, local church, Christian NGO, and government. Third, local churches support program development and service improvement for single parents family.
Hendrik Kraemer (18881965) was one of the outstanding Christian thinkers and activists in the 20th century. He studied linguistics and relgions in University of Leiden, Netherlands, and Islam and Arabic in University of Al Azhar, Egypt. After acquiring those academic training, he went to Indonesia to help translating Alkitab, the Indonesian Bible. In 1937 Kraemer came back to Netherlands and became a professor of comparative religion in University of Leiden. After spending 10 years in there, he was appointed as the first director of the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey near Geneva. In his latter years (19561957) he was invited from Union Theological Seminary in New York as a guest lecture. The most significant contribution of Kraemer is to define the meaning of revelation of God in relation to other religions. He insisted that God is only and perfectly revealed himself in Jesus Christ according to the Bible. Any other religion or philosophy cannot influence to the revelation of God at all. This is the basic concept of Biblical Realism. Christianity is clearly distinguished from other religions, but simultaneously Kraemer warned a superiority of Christianity over them. Kraemer claimed that the nature of church is both mission and diakonia. In and through missionary activity church reveals her reason for existence. Church should be “WorldCentered” rather than “Being ChurchCentered.” If she mainly emphasizes her own organization instead of ‘World,’ it is a betrayal of calling. In that sense, the role of lay people is crucial. According to Kraemer, the definition of lay people is different. They are not a group of people who contrast to ordained pastors, but a chosen people of God. As a lay person, Kraemer paid attention to roles of them in relation to mission in Islamic context. They should participate in the mission of God in everyday and everyplace.
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.
The Korean Churches have reached today’s phase with joining the pain of the people and leading the Korean society. Then it has to be join today’s Korean society, it is required the answer for solve the problems of the society. In this regard, I think the Missiological Approaching for the problems of stress that they are a big problem on mental health is very necessary situation in today’s Korean Society. The Korean Churches had tried to approach through Pastoral Counseling so far but this trying was negligible. The Korean Churches could not answer about the problems of stress comparable with various another society groups in Korea. So we need to try the formated character of the Korean Churches from the early days of mission in Korea, connect with the stress treatments. If we investigated deeply about the stress treatments are exhibited by the Department of Health and Human Services, we can find that the Korean Churches have a lot of possibilities which could approach to the stress treatments. Actually, the Korean Churches have possibilities on a lot of parts. So I arrange the ‘linkage possibilities’ of the character of the Korean Churches and the treatment of stress. As follows; 1. Tradition of ‘Faith which emphasizes the Church’ and ‘Regular Lifestyle’ 2. Tradition of ‘Biblical Christianity’ and ‘Actively and troubleshooting type Response’ 3. Tradition of ‘Spiritual Movement for example prayer movement’ and ‘Relaxation therapy’ 4. Tradition of ‘Independent – Faith’ and ‘Time Management’ If we would missional approach to these linkage possibilities, we could contribute for treatment for stress which is a big problem in Korean society. Actually, the Korean Churches have lead for solve the problems of the Korean society, have concluded fruition of various healing ministry through the ability of the Holy Spirit. Now the Korean Churches have to approach with concern about the way of heal for the problems of stress, and if would approach through the tradition of the Korean Churches we can expect a lot of good fruits from this approaching.
The Philippines is a beautiful country which has diversity in terms of ethnicity, language, faith, and culture. In the past, the Philippines was colonized by Spain, Japan, and America. In particular, Philippine culture is complex largely because of different cultures shared and transmitted by the members of Filipino society. This study attempted to study the main characteristics of some representative cultures of the Philippines and tried to effectively communicate the Gospel to the people on the basis of “points of contact,” revealed during study of the representative cultures. This study presented three culture themes as “points of contact” related to Filipino culture. First, this study discovered that Philippine society had mainly nuclear family units composed of father, mother, and unmarried children. Nuclear family units were usually linked to the larger family which occurred within the traditional bilocal extended family. This study utilized a house church model to evangelize the people who were living in this kind of family system. The house church model was effective on the basis of multiple human relationships of the oikos. Second, this study discovered that there were poor people who were living marginal lives, whether in rural areas or urban areas. They were suffering from severe poverty transmitted from generation to generation largely because of the structural evil caused by the corruption and inability of the Filipino government. Churches would need to support the poor more substantially and systematically in cooperation with the NGO’s and the Filipino government while understanding the culture of poverty. Third, this study discovered that there were plural religions including both traditional and popular religions. The main, traditional religion was animism prevalent throughout the Philippines, whereas popular religions were a mixture of various religions, developed according to indigenous situations of the Philippines. This study presented methods of evangelism which would effectively transform the Filipino world view in order to make them true disciples of Jesus Christ. They would need true conversion through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Philippines is a beautiful country in which Filipinos can experience real righteousness, peace, and joy in God's kingdom as the churches intentionally engage in holistic mission. Holistic mission calls for the house church model, solidarity with the poor, and evangelism, that is, making true disciples of Jesus Christ.