by Manik Corea, C4SO’s Global Consultant
Two weeks ago, I made my first visit to South Korea. I had been invited, along with a few other mission leaders from Asia (and a couple from Latin America) to the 8th Korean National Congress on World Evangelization (NCOWE). This is a once-every-four-years gathering of key evangelical missionaries, mission and church leaders, under the auspices of the Korean World Mission Association, the evangelical body that represents and supports the missionary efforts of the South Korean church.
It was a privilege to be among brethren who shared the same desire to participate in God’s mission to see the nations receive the good news of Jesus and be transformed by His grace, for His glory.
It was also an eye opener for me to what God has been doing (for more than a century now) in a country renowned for its rich history, a difficult period under Japanese colonizing in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and a bitter fight with communist North Korea in the 1950s that has resulted in a divided peninsula with North Korea along a demilitarized zone.
Through it all, God has been gracious to the South Korean people. It not only has a robust economy and a high standard of living, but Christianity, through a series of major revivals and times of persecution, has grown in the last 100 years such that 31% of the population profess to be Christians (including Roman Catholics). South Korea is a land full of Christian churches, many with large or mega-congregations. South Korea is the second largest missionary-sending nation in the world, behind the United States.
I learned much from observing the passion and seriousness of the 600 or so missionaries serving in more than 40 countries. We joined in with the Korean habit of praying out loud all together, whether in repentance or in petition. They sang songs of worship with great gusto, and their sermons and talks were full of evangelical desire to push on with the work God has called them to and to re-examine their mission methods and goals in this new day where global Christianity is on the rise in the Global South. There was a recognition that there is still a lot of work to be done, and that they must work harder to join with the global church in partnership and in tandem.
It was also a joy for me at this conference to meet and know a Ghanian pastor, Daniel, who was working with African diaspora in a city not far from North Korean border. Many Africans and other foreigners work in industrial companies and factories there. Daniel had been in South Korea with his family for the last 11 years.
It was a reminder that we are living in an age of migration, and that the diaspora peoples are coming to us and nations like South Korea from the ends of the earth. Are we ready to befriend them and reach out to them, in the same way that we ought to be reaching out to our neighbors with God’s love and good news?
I thank God for giving me the opportunity to visit and know mission leaders and missionaries in Korea.
To learn how to mobilize your parish for global missions and in diaspora partnerships and mission in your city and state, come to the 2nd C4SO Diaspora Network Conference and the pre-conference Global Mission Roundtable. Contact me or the Rev. Jonathan Abraham-Kindberg, C4SO’s Diaspora Mobilizer, for more details.
To read more about the lessons I learned from my time in Korea, go here.
The Rev. Manik Corea served for 13 years as a church-planter in Bangkok, Thailand with the New Anglican Missionary Society (NAMS). He and his wife are now serving in a new season of mission in his native Singapore—involving coaching, writing and resourcing a new generation of missional workers and leaders in God’s mission among the unreached. He also serves as C4SO’s Global Consultant. Manik writes a weekly newsletter, “The Upward Call” on Substack. Contact Manik.