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HOUSTON?If the International Missions Mobilization Conference and Celebration held at Seoul Baptist Church in Houston was any indication, Koreans and Korean-Americans are rising to the challenge of reaching the world for Christ during a time of great opportunity.
By the end of the weekend meeting last month, more than 200 people had committed to short and long-term missions projects, said Dong Kim, a deacon and director of missions for the Korean language congregation. Seoul Baptist Church hosts two autonomous, interdependent congregations?one Korean language, one English.
Friday evening worship services in both languages drew 800 people and featured speakers home from the mission field, International Mission Board representatives, and IMB President Jerry Rankin. Saturday included IMB workshops and seminars and Saturday evening culminated in a celebration service that saw 187 people commit to short-term mission work and 33 to long-term service.
The Houston conference was the seventh in a series of gatherings across the nation that focus solely on the Korean population of the Southern Baptist Convention.
There are 750 Korean churches with a combined membership of 177,150 affiliated with the SBC. Recent years have seen an increase in missions work by Korean nationals and Korean-Americans. IMB statistics show that, with the exception of Caucasians, more Koreans serve as IMB workers than any other ethnic group.
According to research by Steve “S.C.” Moon, director of the Korea Research Institute for Missions (www.krim.org), there were 8,103 Korean national missionaries working with 136 agencies in 162 countries as of 2000. Those figures exclude independent missionaries sent by local churches, Koreans who gave up national citizenship and are mission representatives from another country, or Koreans serving less than two years on the field. So the count of 8,103 Korean missionaries in the field, Moon concluded, is a conservative one. Moon’s research shows, after Americans, that Koreans make up the largest body of missionaries worldwide.
Jonghwan Kim, director of Undergraduate Lay Theological Studies and international liaison for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said he is not surprised by the numbers and that Koreans are appreciative that someone shared the gospel with them; they want to return the favor.
The Korean conferences introduce the resources available through the IMB. Meetings have been held since January 2003 in California, Texas, Maryland, Washington, and Virginia. Warren said there will probably be more scheduled for 2005 because the response has been overwhelming. Organizers had hoped to have at least 100 Korean Christians commit to mission work. But when 200 came forward in the first meeting alone, they knew they were expecting too little.
Congregations like Seoul Baptist in Houston have long been missions minded. For 2005 the church has tentatively planned 20 missions trips by both their Korean and English-speaking congregations. Also, each of the churches’ home Bible study groups sponsors an overseas missionary.
Warren said many people leave the conference saying, “We can do that?” in response to information provided. He said the primary goal of the conferences has been to introduce these churches to “the Southern Baptist way of doing [missions work]?we can do a lot more together than individually.”
Church members and visitors from other congregations as far away as Dallas heard presentations on such subjects as “Connecting Your Church to God’s Global Mission,” “Prayer Walking Training and Opportunities,” “Strategic Involvement in International Missions,” and “Strategic Ways for Student Involvement.”
Most of the missions representatives are serving or have served somewhere in Asia, the most lost region of the world with 4 billion people. “There’s a huge challenge in Asia,” said Elvin McCann, IMB director of Church Services. “There is a dearth of messengers in Asia.”
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