Pastor Andy Langford’s Trip to Korea
For ten days in late April and early May 2007, Pastor Andy and 23 other United Methodist pastors from Western North Carolina visited the dynamic Methodist Church of Korea. Sponsored and paid for by the Reynolds Foundation, the group visited pastors and congregations to learn about their lives and ministries in Southeast Asia. Below is a summary of the trip:
Saturday: The 8,000 mile trip over to Korea (via Washington, DC) was uneventful. From the time I left the house to the time we got to the hotel in Seoul was 26 hours, 15 hours of which were on a plane. I slept about 4 of those. We had a quick supper then off to bed. We were 12 hours ahead of Concord time so our body clocks were upside down. Supper consisted of a number of Korean foods; including baby octopus, sushi, and a number of things I could not figure out, all eaten with chopsticks. We saw a plate of jelly fish, but I did not feel right eating it without Sally, who ate a large jellyfish in Singapore several years ago, leading the way.
On Saturday morning I took an early morning, long walk through the city, then breakfast. The city is full of high rise buildings (we saw only a few private homes on the entire trip; land is too expensive). The city is clean but very crowded. This nation of 45 million lives in an area the size of NC with 70% being mountains.
I gave our group a 90 minute lecture on Methodism in Asia (our Singapore trip, etc) and about Wesley's understanding of prayer and fasting, which are emphasized in this country. The conversation was lively. These Korean Methodists are like the first Methodists in England who were very serious about basic Christian disciplines like Bible study, prayer, fasting, the sacraments, and fellowship for worship and study.
We the moved to a retreat hotel on the side of a mountain run by the Methodist Church for conferences and small meetings. The room is Spartan (two single beds, a small bathroom, and a table light) and all the food is Korean. At every meal is kimchi (marinated vegetables in a hot pepper sauce). We will be here for the next five days. Tomorrow we go to Sunday School and worship at the 85,000 member Kwanglim Methodist Church, and in the afternoon worship at the largest church in the world (an independent congregation). We have to wear coats and ties and will be at the two churches all day.
Sunday was church day. We left here at 8:00am and got back at 8:00pm. For 8 of those hours we were at church. We attended Kwanglim Methodist Church, a congregation in 9 sites with 85,000 members. We visited the Sunday School classes during their 2 hour Sunday School time. Every class, from K to adults began with a 30-45 minutes worship time, with a robed choir and orchestra in each large classroom. The youth class featured a praise band and funny skits, and also had a grand piano and a dozen orchestra instruments for singing traditional hymns. The younger children had a snack of rice noodles and hard boiled quail eggs, which they all ate with chopsticks with glee. Then, for Sunday School, after the gathering time for worship they all broke into small groups for Bible study. The spirit was lively, but no time for games.
We then went to the 11:00am worship (which lasted 90 minutes), and sat with 4,000 people, one of 5 Sunday services. It felt like 1950s worship, singing southern gospel hymns, the 110 person choir with robes, and a 45 minute sermon against communism and liberalism. Everyone read the Bible aloud during worship. The dress code was very formal. The congregation about two-thirds women, although all the leaders were men. Then lunch with the senior and 23 associate pastors.
We then traveled to the Yido Full Gospel Bible Church, which has 823,000 members in 15 sites, the largest congregation in the history of the world. We received a lecture about their history, then attended their 2 hour afternoon youth worship. The praise band was excellent, and included a 200 person choir and 20 girl dance team. The service was Pentecostal, but we really couldn't tell when they were speaking in tongues or speaking Korean. All of the 4,000 participants in this service were youth and young adults, who wore neat but informal western clothing including T-shirts. The one-hour sermon was about the worst I have ever heard, rambling comments that included critiques of Wall Street, Israel, and the lack of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Very odd.
By the time we finished, we were all exhausted. Everyone has been very welcoming and gracious (we have received small gifts everywhere we went) and we have had kimchi at every meal. I suspect that I shall have lost some weight by the time I return.
Monday: We backed away from church and took a full-day tour of Seoul on a guided bus. We had some time for shopping, and supper will be in town. Some folk need a more western meal.
We started off with a ride to Seoul to visit the reconstruction of the old royal palace. When Japan occupied this country in WW II, they tore the entire complex down, and Korea has been slowly rebuilding it. The complex was very beautiful and the people are very proud of it. Lots of children also visiting the palace who loved waving at us and saying hello.
We then visited a beautiful Buddhist Temple. It included very large golden Buddahs, priests chanting, and persons in prayer on mats in the sanctuary. We saw fruit and oil offerings to these gods, and the lighting came from hanging lanterns with prayers attached. Most in our group had never seen such a building. I described it as “visiting the competition.” Buddhism and Shamanism (the worship of ancestors) are the two leading faiths in this country, and the Christians are working hard to convert both to Christ. Most Korean Christians are first or second generation Christians who deliberately turned their backs on the faith of their families. Our guide, a pastor in training, refused to step on the site of the temple: it was unholy ground. Being Christian is a serious business.
We ate lunch at a Korean BBQ place. A bowl of rice, with a few shredded vegetables, a raw quail egg, kimchi, bean sprouts, and thin strips of shredded beef and lettuce steamed on the table in front of us. A beer helped lunch go down.
We then toured the city on a boat along the main river, and were then taken shopping at a gem factory (sorry, the prices were very high) and an upscale mall (which looked very western) and purchased nothing. For supper, I had spaghetti with a light cream sauce and lots of fresh seafood including as usual octopus and squid.
Twelve hours later we returned home to our retreat center.
Tuesday was a full but the most fulfilling day.
We began as usual with a 90 minute bus ride into the city. We then toured the Kwanglim Methodist Church facilities and attended a 90 minute Bible study on Jeremiah 12-15. For these services, they have a live translation service for us as we wore earphones. During the service, everyone read the Scripture aloud with the pastor. About 1500 women were there for the Bible study and paid rapt attention as we worked through Jeremiah 12-15.
We then had a very nice French lunch (mushroom soup, salad, pepper steak) hosted by the pastor. Beef is 5 times the cost of beef in the U.S. For the afternoon, I went on two home visits with an associate pastor (a male) and evangelist (female). This 2 person team has responsibility for 739 families and visits each of their families once a year. They visit 8-10 families a day 4 days a week! These associates visit the hospitals on Saturday, and have no responsibilities for any work inside the church buildings except to teach Sunday School classes.
The homes I visited were expensive condos in a high-rise building. Each home had a small magnet on the door identifying the residents as members of the church. We took off our shoes, bowed, and sat at a dining room table. The homes were nicely decorated but not full of furniture. The pastor received a special financial offering from the host and a list of prayer concerns. We then (in both Korean and English) sang 2 hymns, read Scripture aloud (chosen especially for the host family), then the pastor preached to the host for 25 minutes (a full and animated sermon directed just to them). The topics included the need to give more money, pray more, attend worship more faithfully, and bring their neighbors to church. We then prayed for 5-10 minutes in very strong fashion. Then the host offered us fresh fruit and tea (Ginseng tea at one home and dandelion flower tea at the second). We then exchanged small gifts (I gave fruit jelly and a Bible bookmark and received packets of ginseng tea). Each visit lasted about an hour. No small talk, just serious time for Bible study, worship, and prayer.
At the end of the day, we visited again with the host pastor to discuss his vision for his 85,000 members. He said that they have 5000 visitors a year and receive 1000 new members each year, almost all of whom are converts from Buddhism. These people are serious about Christianity and their need to save persons from other gods.
Tomorrow morning, but then we are off to the Methodist Prayer Mountain. The accommodations will be even more Spartan. We will observe a fast for Friday (essentially skipping breakfast) and spend the morning slowly walking up the mountain and stopping at sites that remember persons and events in Jesus life. This spiritual exercise has deep Christian, but also Buddhist roots, and is a regular part of most Christians' lives in Korea.
Wednesday was a full day, but a change of pace.
After breakfast, I led our whole group discussing what we are learning in Korea that could make a difference in our local congregations. We have been impressed by the prayer life, the focus on Bible study, the worship, and their passion to reach out to other people. For example, one pastor who lost family during the Japanese invasion has now organized 62 congregations in Japan to share with them Jesus. He said, "In this world we are enemies, but we are all children of God."
Several learnings include: when we visit persons, ask them: "What are your prayer needs today?" Each year, the congregation gives a gift to each member reminding them of the primary mission of that congregation. Each Sunday, the pastor intentionally offers a prayer for persons who are visiting the first time. The music at all the strong congregations is excellent. Small groups are key to keeping people involved and focused. I'll be pondering this throughout our remaining time and suspect that we will do a few things differently at Central when I return.
Then, we spent the next several hours shopping. We went first to an area that had many shops with counterfeit goods, and tourist items, and then to a market with indigenous Korean items. I did buy a new suit that was custom made. I also purchased gifts for family and staff and the children at Central. Wait and see!
We then visited with the senior pastor of a 750,000 member Pentecostal congregation and talked about his congregation and his management style. He begins each day with 90 minutes of prayer and runs for an hour. He then has 650 associates to assist him. What is fascinating is how humble each of these pastors are in person, yet how forceful they are as they lead in sermons and prayer, and how they simply believe that God did it all.
After a Korean buffet supper, we attended a 90 prayer service at Kwanglim Methodist Church. They had a 110 voice women's choir (they have 5 such choirs, plus 5 separate orchestras to cover all their worship services), a Bible study on making peace with God and each other, and prayer.
The highlight was watching a prayer form called "Tongsung Kido." The pastor spent about three minutes outling what prayer needs for the nation, church, and people might be. As always, he included a prayer for the reunification of the Korean nation. He then shouted aloud: "Almighty God! Almighty God! Almighty God!" For ten minutes everyone began rocking back and forth in their seats and praying at the top of their voices, while the pastor prayed very loudly from the microphone and the organist played chords very loudly. What might otherwise appear chaos felt like Pentecost. Very interesting and powerful. Then, in just a moment, it all stopped. The pastor said a benediction and invited everyone to stay and pray for at least another 10 minutes.
We began Thursday morning with a trip to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea. As we drew near, we saw army camps and increased security. We passed barricades and armed soldiers. One outpost always has vehicles running to get to a fight quickly. They said that there are regular shots fired upon the South from the North for no apparent reason. All the soldiers were no nonsense and had strict rules about what we could do or not do. The highlight was walking right up to the North Korea border and standing just a few feet from their soldiers. In one room, we could walk into North Korea territory, but were told to avoid the back door. Last year, a tourist was almost grabbed. Very strange. These two nations, and ours, are clearly still at war; their weapons are loaded and their fingers are on the triggers. Thus, at every worship service we have attended the pastors and congregations have prayed for peace and reunification. We also saw a one-hole golf course called the world’s deadliest: on all three sides of the hole are mine fields!
In the afternoon, we visited another Methodist congregation, the South Kwanglim Methodist Church. They built their building (that seats 1,000) in just one year for $27 million. They are in a new town filled with 30 story high-rise apartments that has just started and has grown from 0 to 20,000 people in one year. The nicest part of the day was visiting their kindergarten program and seeing all the children, who found us very amusing. The entrance to their area included a beautiful picture of Jesus welcoming Korean children to play around him. Their playground has a "zoo" that included chickens, rabbits, a turkey, dogs, and birds. Most of the children everywhere live in high-rise apartments with very little contact with nature. This congregation expects to have thousands of new members in the next few years and have built for the growth.
Then, Bishop Kim, the retired bishop of the Methodist Church of Korea, spoke with us for three hours. He talked about his emphases on vision, prayer, hospitality, and evangelism. He began life as a North Korean soldier (although raised a Christian), who then defected to the south, and started the large congregation we visited at Kwanglim. None of his insights are unique, but he is passionate, focused, and prayerful. Very powerful. He was quite proud that he had preached at the Crystal Cathedral in California. He had attended school in the US at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC, and Fuller Theological in California. Several years ago he was the head of the World Methodist Council.
At the end of the bishop's talk, he gave each of the men a tie and the women a scarf. On the previous night, we had attended worship at the larger Methodist congregation for the prayer service and the bishop’s son, the senior pastor, came up to me, pulled on my Isod shirt, and mentioned that I was not wearing a tie (like all the other men with us but unlike all the Koreans). His father, the bishop, had to help us dress appropriately the next day!
We spent the night at a Methodist retreat house, a simply hostel with very small bathtubs (we Americans are simply too large).
Friday morning, we went on a two hour prayer walk up their prayer mountain (there are 300 of these mountains in Korea!). Each member of the churches is expected to take such a walk each month. There are ten stops up the mountain (maybe half a mile long with a steep incline) with large bronze statues of scenes from the life of Jesus. Examples included Jesus as the shepherd looking for the lost sheep, Jesus and the children, the Samaritan woman, Jesus stilling the sea, the woman anointing Jesus' feet, the last supper, the crucifixion, the empty tomb, and the Emmaus meal. Jesus and his disciples were all oddly very Anglo. At each stop, we read scripture, observed silence, and then someone in our group prayed. Persons in the group were deeply touched and many cried. We then could return to the various sites, or go to one of 300 prayer closets (a 5 foot by 5 foot room with a mat and a cross on the wall) to pray alone. This prayer time lasted about an hour. Afterwards, several in our group mentioned that this trip and especially prayer mountain would change the focus of their ministry, and we prayed especially for the members of our group who are moving to new churches this summer.
One observation about these churches is that they have a low threshold to participate, but high expectations of members. The churches have aspects similar to Buddhism (they begin worship by ringing a small bell, they have prayer mats, they pray as intensely as the Buddhists) that make a Korean outsider feel comfortable. But then, if you join a Christian community, they expect fervent prayer, everyone to tithe, everyone to participate in a small group, everyone to attend worship.
We are now back in our downtown hotel, and leave at 7:00am on Saturday morning. My new suit arrived.
Saturday. Everyone was ready to come home. We left the hotel at 7:00am and arrived back in Charlotte at about 5:00pm on Saturday. This flight from Korea only took 13 hours. This total trip took only about 24 hours (versus the earlier 26 hours). Sally prepared spaghetti for a home cooked meal!