Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share about Korean churches.
I am afraid that my English is not perfect, so it may not be easy to understand. Why don’t we start with prayers?
“Loving God, give us wisdom so that we can understand each other and learn from each other what we need. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
There is a prayer at the beginning and end of every meeting in the Korean church, so I started with prayer.
I would like to briefly talk about the differences between the Korean Methodist Churches and the American Methodist Churches that I experienced.
Christianity spread to Korea through American Christianity. So, there are many similarities between the American churches and the Korean churches. American Protestants did missionary work by establishing schools and hospitals in Korea.
You can find out more by doing a Google search. Because I only can share what I know and experience.
Some of you asked me how Christmas is in Korea; there is no significant difference. However, since 20% of the population are Christians in Korea, only Christians attend the Christmas Eve Worship Service. When I was young, I used to wait until midnight to hold a Christmas Eve Worship service and sing a carol in the middle of the night. We used to visit all church member’s houses during that night.
The only difference is that the Korean church has a worship service in the morning on Christmas Day.
Indigenization (인디저니제이션) is the act of making something more native; transformation of some service, idea, etc. to suit a local culture.
The first use of the word indigenization recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is a 1951 paper about studies conducted in India about Christian missionaries.[1] The term was used to describe the process of making churches indigenous(인디저너스) in southern India.
Anthropologists primarily use the term to describe what happens when locals take something from the outside and make it their own (for example, Africanization, Americanization)
So I would say “Koreanization.”
Korean churches like to gather often.
So there are many worship services in Korean churches. In particular, worship services only in Korean churches are as follows.
New Year Worship service, First Thanksgiving(the time of barley harvest) Worship service, Thanksgiving Sunday Worship service, Christmas Worship service, Sunday Afternoon or Evening Worship service, Wednesday Worship service, Friday Night Worship service, Class Worship (gather according to region, age, etc.), Everyday Early Morning Prayer Worship Service.
My son lived in Korea until he was five years old and grew up in a Korean church. He followed me to worship almost every day; he memorized many hymns. This is why most Korean church members remember many hymns.
Protestantism (Protestant churches) in Korea bans alcohol and tobacco (except Catholic Churches). This was the rule set by the missionaries at the time when Protestantism was introduced, seeing that it was difficult for Koreans to escape poverty due to the culture of eating and drinking.
Do you know K-POP (BTS is famous)? Korean love to sing and dance.
After Sunday worship service Korean church has lunch together for free. But since the pandemic, it was not allowed.
There is Holy Rice that started with women without economic power. At first, rice was collected and given to the pastor, but as it became more and more, the church became self-reliant and helped the local community.
The Korean church has a title. This has to do with Korean traditions. Korea is a culture of giving each other titles rather than names. If you go to church consistently, you will be appointed as deacons and elders, and you will be called that title. Those who have not received any assignments are called brothers and sisters.
What is your new year's resolution? New Year Resolution for Korean Christians is to read the Bible at least once a year.
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기