EMQ » January–March 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 1
By KyungMi Seo
The Korean Protestant church has grown remarkably since it was first introduced in Korea over 130 years ago. According to Gallup, Protestants currently comprise 21 percent of the population, while Buddhists make up 22 percent, Catholics 7 percent, and non-religious 50 percent.[i]
There are 15 mega-churches with more than 10,000 adult members. These are among the 50 largest churches in the world. As a major religion, Christianity has a significant impact on social and political matters in modern Korea. However, despite rapid growth, the Korean church has declined during the last 20 years. The history of the church coupled with history of the country has created unique circumstances for leadership in the Korean church which have contributed to the decline.
Presbyterian Church Offices
Among Protestant churches in Korea, the Presbyterian Church has been strongest in both numbers and influence. Many other denominations, such as Methodists, Baptists, Assemblies of God, and Holiness Churches, adopted features of the Presbyterian system. For example, they modeled their practices on the office of elder and the Presbyterian style of government, including similar forms of general assembly, the session, and the Presbytery.
Korean churches have four types of ministry roles in common: pastor, elder, deacon, and Kwonsa, which is reserved for respected older women who have faithfully served as deacons for many years. Since hierarchy is very important in Korea, the rank of each level of service matters to church life and governance. The role of pastor is the highest office in the Korean church. There are various forms of governing pastors: senior pastor, associate pastor, education pastor, mission and evangelism pastor, retired pastor, and wonro pastor (pastor emeritus).
Next are elders, who are honored almost as much as pastors. Elders may be elected directly by the laity or they may be recommended by pastors. Elders are involved in decision-making on church matters, especially the all-important choice of the senior pastor.
The third office is deacon, which consists of two types: Ansu, or ordained deacons, and Seori, or lay deacons. Men in both of these offices can also move into the office of elder. Women are permitted to serve as Seori deacons, but not as Ansu deacons or as elders. Women who have served well and have shown themselves worthy of honor are given the office of Kwonsa. Although the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) and the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) have begun to ordain women as pastors and elders, most churches have few or no women elders, thus most church decision-making is done without input from women.
Deacons and Kwonsa serve in every aspect of church work; they are responsible for ministries such as taking the offering, ushering, cleaning, cooking, and parking assistance. This ordered structure is intended to aid in the smooth functioning of church hierarchies. However, in contemporary Korea, Presbyterian polity is no longer working as effectively as in the past. Conflict between pastors and elders is becoming more common.
Leadership During the Period of Church Growth
From 1884–1995 the Korean church grew rapidly and had notable impact on socio-political matters. During this period of growth, Christian leadership was known for evangelism, caring for social-political matters, and a strong community spirit with firm faith.
Christian leaders had a strong sense of evangelism for winning the lost. In the late 1800s, several Koreans became Christians as they helped Rev. John Ross, a Scottish Presbyterian missionary, translate the New Testament into Korean while he was living in Manchuria, China. When these new converts returned home in 1882, they distributed the translated New Testament, evangelized, and established the first native church in northwestern Korea. Unlike most countries, early converts in Korea became Christians through reading Scripture or hearing the gospel from missionaries outside of Korea and then actively evangelized their own people for several years before missionaries entered Korea in 1884.
In 1890, Presbyterian missionaries adopted the Nevius Mission Policy with goals of self-propagation, self-government, and self-support. The concept influenced Korean believers to study the Bible carefully, evangelize zealously, and manage churches themselves rather than relying on missionaries. These commitments led to rapid church growth.
Christian leaders also contributed actively to socio-political matters during this time. They, along with missionaries, promoted the modernization of society. In particular, missionaries challenged the existing patriarchal society’s class and gender value system through teaching biblical egalitarianism at both church and school. Increasing numbers of women and marginalized people converted to Christianity, were educated, and worked to promote social welfare. Following the missionaries’ examples, Christians established hospitals to care for the sick, educated people, cared for orphans, and provided food, clothing, and shelter for refugees.
Politically, Christians promoted democracy by applying the gospel message to political contexts through sacrifice and faith. For example, in a push for independence from Japanese colonizers in 1919, Christian leaders and lay members helped organize a series of rallies known as the March First Movement. The movement was launched by a reading of the Korean Declaration of Independence. Sixteen of the 33 signatories on that document were Protestant leaders. Many were arrested in the rallies. Of those arrested, 25% were Protestants, although Protestants made up less than 2% of the population at that time. From this point on, Christianity and Protestant Christians were respected by Koreans.
Another characteristic of this growth period was the work of women. From the very beginning of the church, despite the patriarchal culture, women were constantly involved in ministry through the offices of deaconess and Kwonsa. In the early days of Christianity, Bible women travelled to different places, distributing Christian literature and teaching scripture to women. For example, despite the pressures on married women in Confucian families to stay home and bear sons, Sam-Tok Chun and her colleagues evangelized over six hundred women. Other women were martyred alongside male believers because of their faith in Christ. These women’s ministries contributed significantly to church growth in Korea.
Finally, Christian leaders demonstrated a strong sense of community and strong faith through their national sufferings during poverty, Japanese colonialism, and the Korean War. For example, during the 1970s, Minjung theology formed in Korea. Minjung, (meaning poor, marginalized, oppressed, and suffering) theology was an expression of hope for both spiritual and material blessings by those who had suffered. Throughout their history, whenever Korean believers faced sufferings, they came together as one and faced challenges together. They displayed their commitment to the nation through dawn and all-night prayer meetings at church, a tradition that many continue to this day.
Leadership Influenced by Confucianism and Shamanism
Christian leadership has also been influenced by the presence of Confucianism and Shamanism within Korean culture. Although these systems of thought do have strengths, some of their negative aspects may have contributed to the church’s decline since 1995. The difficulties can be characterized as follows: authoritarian leadership, devaluation of female leadership, and immature leadership.
The influence of Confucian values has helped create a type of pastoral leadership that is authoritarian towards laity. Authoritarian leadership is characterized by a hierarchical, top-down structure. Hierarchical relationships have unequal power in their communication and decision making based on age, gender, and social status.
In Confucianism, kings have authoritarian power because they are viewed as sons of heaven who govern nations by the will of heaven. According to Confucian principles, teachers are highly valued and have the same authority as kings (and fathers) because they can impact a person’s life based on their intelligence and integrity. Similarly, pastors are viewed as spiritual meditators between God and laity, and they are considered to be authoritative teachers of the Bible. This approach to power means that pastors and leaders have power over lay members, with senior pastors having the greatest authority.
Authoritarian leadership, however, requires laity to obey their leaders, lest they violate Confucian values. While obedience is good, if lay members are required to give utter obedience by a misuse of power by pastors, their spiritual growth may be hampered. Additionally, in this environment, lay people can become passive in their decision-making and ministry, refraining from using their spiritual gifts and abilities. Thus, authoritarian leadership may limit the growth of the church by preventing the full use of the gifts in the body of Christ.
A second impact of Confucian values has been the devaluation of female leadership in church. Because Confucianism shows a strong preference for males, men are seen as superior and valued more highly than women. Although women’s status has improved through education and social participation in recent years, Confucian thinking about women remains embedded in society and the church.
Female ministers may be qualified to serve as spiritual leaders by education and experience, but they have fewer opportunities to serve in ministerial positions and are respected less than male ministers when they do serve. Female ministers tend to work with children, visit church members, and evangelize, but are rarely expected to preach, teach, and make decisions. In this context, female ministers struggle to fully exercise their leadership and find their contributions devalued.
Shamanism also negatively impacts the church, causing Christian leaders to be spiritually immature. Shamanism is a form of spirit worship and is the earliest known Korean religion. The function of Shamanism is to acquire worldly blessings or to avoid misfortune through the help of the spirit world.
Because Korea was characterized by poverty and illness when Christianity first arrived, Christian beliefs were easily syncretized with Shamanism’s focus on material blessings. Early believers longed to escape the bondage of poverty and live comfortable lives with material blessings. They also had a fear of death as many died from disasters, disease, and hunger. In this situation, messages from churches brought hope both for worldly blessings in the present and for eternal life after death.
However, Shamanism’s focus on material blessings and avoiding misfortune makes it difficult for Christian leaders to mature in character and Christian life. The focus on the present world may cause some leaders to remain immature and even allow some to engage in immorality. Leaders may struggle to mature spiritually and develop a deep relationship with God. Thus, some argue that shamanistic principles have contributed to the church’s decline in recent years.
Conclusion
Examining church leadership in the Korean context is an excellent case study for understanding how national character and experience combine with indigenous religions to create distinct leadership patterns. The results of the Nevius policy were beneficial, in that the church indigenized rapidly and the gospel spread quickly. At the same time, some syncretistic elements from Confucianism and Shamanism slipped into Korean church structures and practices. Many scholars point out that in order to return to church growth, the leadership style in the Korean church needs to shift towards servant leadership which serves and empowers followers as having equal values and different roles as the body of Christ under the authority of Jesus.
KyungMi Seo (seokyungmi33@gmail.com) has a PhD in intercultural education from Biola University, and served as a cross-cultural missionary in India and England. She is currently a professor at Grace Mission University and an education pastor of a Korean American church in California, in the United States.
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NOTES
[i] “Religion of Koreans 1984–2014 (1) Region Status,” Korean Gallup, May 2, 2014, http://www.gallup.co.kr/gallupdb/reportContent.asp?seqNo=625.
EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 1. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
