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CARROLLTON?A partnership nearly seven years in the making is being used by God to lead hundreds of Korean-American Baptists to commit their lives to overseas mission services. Korean-American Baptists and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention celebrated that progress as 1,200 people attended the first Korean Baptist Missions Conference April 21-23 at New Song Church in Carrollton.
Directing the gathering was David Gill, pastor of Concord Korean Baptist Church in Martinez, Calif., who joined with IMB President Jerry Rankin to organize annual consultations between the two groups, followed by mobilization rallies hosted at Korean-American Baptist churches around the United States and a summit of Korean leadership from both the U.S. and South Korea.
“They caught the vision for people-group strategy by giving priority to the unevangelized rather than just starting Korean churches,” Rankin explained. Except for Caucasians, Koreans are the largest ethnic group sent out by the IMB, with more than 300 appointed since the partnership began and another 800 in contact with the personnel office regarding future service.
Fifty IMB personnel were invited to share mission reports, describing the greater access Asians experience in regions of the world where Anglos are less welcome.Participants will use the exchange of information to evaluate partnership efforts and recruit more Korean-American Baptists to service through the IMB.More than 130 people responded during opportunities at the conference to express a desire to pursue missionary service through the IMB, said Hyoung Min Kim, Korean and Asian church planting consultant for Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
Rankin has been encouraged by the desire of Korean-American Baptists to develop a sound missiology that moves beyond merely working with expatriate Koreans.
“We continue to put before them the lostness of the world and the responsibility of the local church to take ownership for calling out missionaries,” he said while stressing the effectiveness of a cooperative strategy among Southern Baptists.
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary President Jeff Iorg challenged the conference audience to depend wholly upon the Holy Spirit’s empowering in order to grow biblical churches. “We are often more willing to trust in strategies and programs, money and power than the Spirit’s power. Trusting in resources is false power.”
Pointing them to examples of Spirit-empowered churches described in Acts 11 and 13, Iorg said the best evidence of the Holy Spirit at work is found in the lives that are transformed.
“Healthy churches innovate to advance the gospel,” he added. “We must be willing to
change to advance the gospel, to reach more people for Jesus Christ, to grow larger churches and to start church planting movements.”
Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission, addressed the opening session on April 21 with Rankin speaking April 22 and Daniel Dong-Won Lee, pastor of Jiguchon Church in Bundang, a suburb of Seoul, Korea, offering the closing address on April 23.
In addition to Iorg, other speakers in the plenary sessions were David Tae-Woong Lee, director of the Korea Mission Training Center; Myung Jin Ko, pastor of Suwon Central Baptist Church; and Bob Roberts, pastor of Northwood Church in Keller.
