Issue 38
October 26, 2020
Greetings from Seoul!
Here in Korea the autumn leaves have arrived in their lovely red, yellow and orange colors, giving us their best before returning back to earth. This issue reports the results of a survey on Korean Christians’ online worship service experiences, and compare the responses to a particular question with those in a pre-COIVD-19 survey. We also tell how a small rural church embarked on a special centennial celebration. May God’s solace be with you wherever you are in your life journey!
CISJD survey: Most Protestants see online worship as acceptable but inadequate
The Christian Institute for the Study of Justice and Development (CISJD) has released the results of an online panel survey that it conducted this past July with Christian Academy and Christian Thought, assisted by JI&COM Research. Targeting 1,000 Protestant Christians over the age of 19 nationwide, the survey covered a broad range of issues, from changes in faith perspectives due to COVID-19, to Christian understandings with regard to political, economic, social and ecological issues.
The Korean Protestant church members who responded to the survey generally agreed that online worship was unavoidable to block the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, but they rated online worship as unsatisfactory. Asked whether they expect to attend worship services at purely online churches in the future, 55.5% replied “No.” 73.4% responded that when the COVID-19 situation is over, “I’ll probably worship in the church as I did before.”
Among respondents who said they had attended worship services online, offered by their own church or via Christian channels, 52.8% indicated that “they weren’t as satisfying as regular church services”; 31.7% replied that “they were similar to regular church worship”; and 15.5% said, “In fact they were better than regular church services.” More than half expressed dissatisfaction. When asked if they felt inclined to worship only at online churches, 25.5% replied “No,” 30.0% said “Probably not,” 21.8% replied, “I’m a little inclined to do so,” 5.4% “I’m very inclined to do so,” and 17.3% “I don’t really know.”
One can also sense a gradual weakening of the perception of “Sunday holiness.” “Worship in church is necessary to keep Sunday holy” got a 27.8% response, while “Online and family worship, also, can keep Sunday holy” received 61.6%. Compared with the response to the same question in a survey done last April by the Korean National Association of Christian Pastors, the newer results show a drop of 12.9% in the opinion that worship must absolutely happen inside the church, and a rise of 7.0% in the view that online and family worship are acceptable as well.
The area that showed agreement among the respondents as a whole was ecology. 97.0% agreed on the seriousness of global warming, and 88.9% said that the first priority must be to tackle global warming, even if that means neglecting economic growth.
Rural church celebrates centennial by building school in Ethiopia
Sometime in the past, it became ingrained custom for churches to construct memorial worship halls or to compile histories in commemoration of their centennials. But Woncheon Methodist Church in Hwacheon, Gangwon-do, chose a different way to celebrate its centennial next year.
The Woncheon Church members established an elementary school in Ethiopia, Africa, which is 9,164 kilometers distant from Korea. Jawa Jacoma Elementary School is located in Nekemte, Jimma Zone, 270 kilometers west of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The 330㎡ (about 100 pyeong) school building has five classrooms, a teachers’ office and restrooms. The church supported not only the construction but part of the educational budget as well. It was a big gift for the students, who had been studying in old, cramped classrooms.
It all started when a church member said, “Let’s build a school in Ethiopia,” and initiated an offering for that purpose. The estimated total budget was 100 million won. Other church members joined in, contributing what they could to share the cost. They sent the money they had collected to the Gangwon-do office of the international relief organization World Vision. But they did not entrust everything to World Vision. Since 2018, church members have visited Ethiopia various times to directly observe the work, including the site selection and the building design. All the church members have contributed financial support to the children of Ethiopia on a regular basis, since this time.
Construction of Jawa Jacoma Elementary School was completed last January, and 13 of the church members attended the completion ceremony, which took place just before the proliferation of COVID-19. Since last summer, the church members have also personally made and sent more than 800 bags for the students’ use.
Senior deacon Choi Seon-hwan said, “100 million won is a colossal amount for a small rural church, but I’m so happy about doing this deeply meaningful work at our centennial, I don’t have words to express it.” Senior deacon Park Chang-sik said, “All the church members were of one mind in wanting to help the children in Ethiopia… I feel very thankful that we have done meaningful work for the future of children in a faraway country.”
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