by Liz McGregor, Champion for Discipleship and Mentoring
28 February 2008

In November 2007, Malcolm and I were in Korea as guests of SaRang Community Church, a large church in Seoul that SIM has enjoyed an informal relationship with for quite a few years. The reason for the invitation was firstly to attend a consultation on business-based ministries and secondly to have exposure to a Discipleship Training Leader Seminar—“Called to Awaken the Laity” (CAL), based on Colossians 1:28-29, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Disciple making is at the heart of SaRang Community Church and although they do not in any way feel that they have all the answers, they have chosen to share what they have learned with others.

This was the 76th CAL Seminar hosted by SaRang Church and was in Korean and Chinese. Chinese pastors from many Asian countries were attending as well as local Korean pastors and church leaders.

Dr. David Yoo, the Missions’ Pastor at SaRang, knew of my deep interest in discipleship and invited us to attend the 5 day seminar. They provided excellent simultaneous English translation and did everything possible to help us understand the ministry philosophy of the church. Due to other SIM commitments in Korea, we were not able to stay for the whole seminar but we learned a lot in the sessions we were able to attend.

I think the most striking aspect of this particular seminar is that it is totally church focused. Many of us have had wonderful opportunities to grow in the context of groups like Young Life, Campus Crusade, Intervarsity, Navigators, etc. and we thank God for everyone of these organizations, but somehow it isn’t easy to see discipleship embedded in the life of a whole church community.

I know many SIM missionaries work alongside local pastors who ask for help in this area all the time. It was one of the recurring themes from church pastors in the “Seize the Day” review. This seminar was the first time I had heard the principles of discipleship so clearly grounded and explained in the context of ecclesiology – the doctrine of the church.

Although notes were provided and they do have study guides available, they have been careful to not mass produce their experience as a “method”. However they do host the seminar twice a year and invite people to experience for themselves their passion for discipleship in SaRang. For example, some of the topics covered were:

• The environment and character of small groups
• Small group leadership
• Beginning and operating discipleship training in your church
• The reality of managing the training
• Discipleship training and church growth

and afternoons included “field visits” to a small group leaders’ meeting and a discipleship training class.

Here are some of Malcolm's reflections from the seminar:

For me, the highlight was listening to Pastor John Oak, the retired Pastor of SaRang Community Church, talk about the development of his ministry philosophy over the past 30 years. It is centred around his passion: “Make one soul into Christ (Christlike) and amazing things can happen”. He sees “making the laity into disciples of Christ as the essence of pastoral ministry”.

He gave three lectures on ecclesiology because he believes “ecclesiology (our understanding of the church) determines the direction of the pastoral ministry”. Ecclesiology gives birth to ministry philosophy, which then gives direction to the life of the church.

He says, “One of the reasons for all kinds of frustrations (a)rising in church is (the) pastoral leadership that lacks a firm philosophy on how and why the church should act. People in ministry often see methods, but fail to see the philosophy or strategy that lies behind the methods. Thus people usually attribute success to methods but remain indifferent to the invisible principles that determine those methods. Healthy churches do not depend on methodology. The most pressing matter is to establish the ministry philosophy.”

SaRang Community Church started with nine members over 25 years ago. It is now a congregation of 60,000, with over 2,000 small groups that meet weekly to help nurture and disciple the congregation. However, in the midst of this incredible growth, John Oak has never lost his passion for bringing one soul to Christ and helping that person grow.

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Comment on this post: Email liz.mcgregor@sim.org