The Role of the Churches at the time of economic crisis

                                                                Rev. Soh, Kyung Suk, the Seoul Korean-chinese Church


1.

  After top US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15th of last year, the global financial crisis spread to all corners of the globe and the Korean economy was also returned to that of 10 years ago when the Asian financial crisis hit the nation. In the last quarter of 2008, Korea’s growth rate dropped to as much as -5.1 percent. The currency rate surged and the stock market plummeted, spreading fears that the Korean economy is on the verge of collapse.
 The economic recession also created a massive unemployment crisis. The unemployment rate surpassed 3.7 percent and the unemployed rose nearly to one million. The number of jobless youths also rose rapidly.  But recently, the Korean economy has shown a turnaround and the growth rate of the 2nd quarter amounting to 2.6 percent. This is a stark comparison to other developed countries such as UK with – 0.7 percent, US with – 0.3 percent, Germany and France with 0.3 percent and Japan 0.6 percent.
But the Korean economy still has many problems to solve. National debt has risen by 67 trillion won to a total 366 trillion won and the actual living wages have continued to drop with the employment situation showing no signs of improving. Family debts have increased but housing costs are continuing to rise, deepening the suffering of the citizens. 

2.

  Then how does the Korean church cope during the economic crisis? When the economy becomes difficult churches see drops in church revenue and rather than cutting wages, they are likely to cut more flexible funds such as missionary funds and charity funds. Therefore, churches do not even dare think of introducing new programs and concentrate only on continuing their previous charity and volunteer programs. Also, the missionary work overseas becomes very difficult with the surge in foreign currency rates. Despite these overall difficulties however, movements has begun that center on the thinking that the economic crisis is an opportunity given by God for the church to care for those in hardship.
  One of those movements is the 5 percent sharing movement of pastors’ fees. The movement began last February after seven Korean church leaders such as Rev. Kim Sam-hwan and Rev. Lee Gwang-son who are former and incumbent PCK denomination moderators proposed donating 5 percent of their salary. Afterwards, 125 major church leaders also joined in the movement. They announced a statement urging churches to join in the suffering of the people, saying that God has given them a special mission to take care of those in need. 
  During the year 2009, pastors resolved to donate an additional 5 percent along with the usual tithes to help the poor. They also decided to reduce church spending while increasing funds for charity and missionary work. When helping the poor, they made efforts to do it through the small churches and hoped that this movement will spread to all fields of society.
  In May, “the Korean Church Association for sharing of people’s suffering” was formed to further promote the movement and was able to raise 24 million won during the past three months to be used for helping unemployed youths and provide food for the poor. With the recent recovery of the Korean economy however, the movement has ceased from spreading much further.
 
  3.

  Another movement is the ‘banchan’ food (side dish that comes with rice) aid project being carried out by an organization called <the Joy of Sharing>. This organization was founded 4 years ago and has focused on the role of community members such as churches, schools, companies, restaurants, stores and residents to raise funds to help their most deprived neighbors within the community. And now, about 2,600 small church pastors are participating in this organization as activists. The reason why so many small church pastors join in this movement in only four years of time is because churches of which the pastors actively participated in the Joy of Sharing activity have grown rapidly without exception. And also it is because as the news of the Joy of Sharing activity became well known in the community, the church which was involved in the Joy of Sharing activity began to grow, and hearing the news of church growth, other small church pastors decided to join the Joy of Sharing. 
  From this year, <the Joy of Sharing> started a movement to give out side dishes(banchan) to the needy. Although it is easy to make rice, it is not easy to cook side dishes, so pastors in small churches made side dishes every week and gave them out to those in need. Their response was so great that the Joy of Sharing decided to expand the program nationwide.
  Now the program is being carried out in a dozen cities across the nation including Seoul, Incheon, Seongnam, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju and Daejeon. The big churches supply the food boxes while the small churches distribute them to the needy. Five thousand food boxes are being distributed every week in Busan, with 1,500 in Daegu, 1,000 each in Gwangju, Daejeon and Incheon and 2,000 in Seoul.   
  This program is very meaningful in several ways. First, the program contributes to easing conflicts between big churches and small churches. Followers would often leave small churches to go to big churches, resulting in even bigger churches but also resulting in 3,000 small churches closing down every year. Second, it is meaningful that small churches are given the responsibility to take care of the poor because they are better at the job than big churches.
  If big churches give gifts to the poor they are not moved at all but if small church pastors visit the poor with the food box, they are often moved to tears. That is because the food boxes are filled with the pastor’s love for them. The pastors from the small churches also were able to realize their mission is to care for the poor and needy. Third, the church networks made through the side dishes aid program can also be used in many ways to help the living of residents such as distribution of used products, reducing medical fees and affordable purchase of essential goods. In this way, the churches can unite to create a society where the poor can live a better life.

4.

  These kinds of services for the poor, which were activated by the economic crisis, is making churches realize the importance of following the life of Jesus. According to the testimonies of the pastors taking part in the Joy of Sharing programs, they say they find themselves living like Jesus after they began to take care of the poor. What Jesus did in Galilee was to feed the poor, treat the sick, befriend the lonely and pass on the Good News to the poor. As the small church pastors began to live like Jesus, people became very moved and went on to believe that God exists, which in turn resulted in the growth of the small churches. When the pastors tried to have people attend the churches very few came but when the pastors lived like Jesus the churches naturally prospered. The experiences of the Joy of Sharing pastors give us many things to think about.
  During the past 10 years, Korean churches have lost about 140,000 members. Why did the Korean churches stop growing? That is because the utmost goal of the church is the growth toward big size church and not living the life of Jesus. Engrossed in the ‘mega church syndrome’ such as materialism, commercialism, and egoism, the churches are failing to show through their lives that God exists. The church ceased being the hope of our people and is being portrayed as a religion that represents only the 1% rich. Now, the Korean church must undergo a fundamental change. The Korean church must not be represented by the big churches, but by those which follow the life of Jesus regardless of size. Through this, the Korean church must once again become the hope of the Korean people. If not the church will follow in the footsteps of the Western churches and deteriorate.
  In 2013, the general assembly of the WCC will be held in Korea. What will the Korean church show the world church leaders taking part in the conference? Will we show our current state_ the mega churches engrossed in materialism and commercialism and the ultra-right CCK (The Christian Council of Korea) and outdated leftist trend of NCC (National Council of Churches) fighting against each other? If so, what’s the use of the WCC being held in Korea? From now, the Korean churches should seriously initiate a campaign to repent ourselves. They must change their goal from “growth only” to “living after Jesus”. Only then can the churches be revived. Also, the conservative and progressive churches must become one and the Korean church must urge WCC and the Evangelical Lausanne III Congress to unite. If not, the global church community will not be able to properly deal with the current situation which shows the fall of Christianity and the rise of Islamism. 

 
[이 게시물은 웹지기님에 의해 2012-01-18 18:14:44 칼럼에서 복사 됨]