Once I get over (or if I ever get over) to Korea, one of the most important things for me is finding a church. I've been attending the same church here in Canada since I was six years old, and many folks in the congregation are like family to me; it's going to be just as hard leaving them as it is leaving my own flesh and blood.
Woah, melodramatic much, eh?*
In any case, it will be a difficult adjustment. But it thrills me to no end that God will be just as close to me in Korea as He is right here, in my living room in my little house in Canada. And I am super excited to fellowship with people who are having the same experiences I am.
I have been looking into churches that offer worship services in English, but it's impossible to do any serious thinking about visiting until I find out where I'll be living. Still, I don't think I'll have any trouble finding one near me (unless I'm in a tiny little town that only has bus services twice a week). Here are some of my findings.
Yoido Full Gospel Church (in Seoul) is, according to the amazing Wikipedia, "the largest Christian congregation in South Korea", and has about 830,000 members throughout South Korea. English worship, yes, but I think I'd feel absolutely lost in a congregation that huge! I think it would be amazing to visit though.
Youngnak Church is in Seoul as well, and offers International Worship in English (IWE). A much smaller congregation, and they seem very closely knit. They have Bible studies in English, too, which rocks.
I found SaRang Community Church as well, but I can't tell you much about the right now because their website seems to be down...
And after poking around on Dave's ESL Cafe I found a couple of threads dedicated to church hunting, which is wonderful. I'm glad there seem to be so many folks in Korea searching for fellowship** in English - this will make my job a whole bunch easier once I get down to business!
*Yes, I'm Canadian, and I say "eh". Giggle if you must.
**Okay, whenever I type the word "fellowship", my fingers just automatically want to continue on with "of the ring"... I'm such a nerddd...
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"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into." --Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858
From Canada to South Korea. From poutine to kimchi. From majority to minority. Things are about to get interesting.
"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into." --Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858
5 comments:
As you are looking through the world of churches, here's another link for you: the Christian International Church in Daejeon (I hope I did the html tags right for that...if not, you can just copy and paste the address). We haven't been able to get there yet, but it's on our list of churches to check out in the city, and the only English church in Daejeon with an actual website. There is also a small baptist church somewhere in the city, and another one that was just recommended to us today by one of our co-workers called Saeronam church (and I apologize for my bad transliteration job...I'm trying to get away from it and just read the Korean). There may be others, too, but those are the ones I know about at the moment. I'll post some details about them once we get a chance to visit for real.
Blessings,
D
Hey when are you going to Korea? I'm leaving on Dec 14th and I'm also looking for a church. I've heard about Yoido and there's another church located in Seoul called JSEM. I haven't been to either, but I heard their both great churches. Let me know when you decide to go!! It would be nice to hang out with another foreigner with the same experience. But I completely agree with you, the Lord will be just as close as ever and that makes traveling all the better.
God bless,
:)
okay, forget the fancy stuff...I guess I'm not nearly as good at html as I used to be. The website for the church I mentioned is http://www.welcometodaejeon.org/cic/
Hi from Korea!
I thought I'd point that even though only about 25% of the population is Christian, finding a church is the easiest thing to do. In my part of town (Bucheon, just west of Seoul), the churches all have neon red crosses on their steeples.
Elsewhere in Korea, ask your Korean teachers. Even those that aren't Christians will respect your religious conviction and assist where they can.
Chris Backe
chrisinsouthkorea.blogspot.com
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