Churches everywhere in Korea

Churches everywhere in Korea

You cannot fail to notice the red neon crosses at night sky in Korea. They are almost everywhere on top of buildings. If a church in Korea shares a building space with other tenants, a red neon cross is placed on top of the building which lights up Korea’s night until the midnight or later. There are also many huge scale churches which have their own buildings with an architectural form of a typical church as you can see in Western countries. A lot of foreigners as well as Korean people get annoyed by these light pollution from the neon crosses at big cities in Korea. "Looking from above, the night scene of Seoul looks like that of a graveyard," one Internet user complained in a posting.

According to the number of neon crosses, people might think that a lot of Koreans are Christian. Some research show that 35% of the South Koreans are Christian and there are over 50,000 churches around Korea, over 10,000 in Seoul alone. As a Christian, it is so sad to say that there are not many true churches in Korea which follow through God’s word and don’t pay attention to stick to Biblical ways. Most of them have abandoned the basic doctrine and have been swaying in the current popular programs that some modern church leaders in America developed and succeeded to get people in their church temporarily. Furthermore, Korean churches have been tainted by the Korean traditional religion which is a faith for blessing.

Here is one interesting thing you should know to understand the Korean church. Almost every pastor in Korea who passed the test for a being minister in a church tries to open his own church, even though there is no financial support or they do not have their own savings. They just rent some space of a commercial building, open a church, and distribute the flyers of the church’s advertisement in the street. Why do many pastors in Korea want to open a new church tenaciously even when there are enough churches around? There are a few kinds of ministers who are in charge of teaching the Bible by sermons or Bible studies in Korean Church. There is a head pastor who plays a major role, a curate who helps and assists the head pastor, and an apprentice who studies in a theological college and also does a lot of miscellaneous works for the Church at the same time. The problem is that they are treated unequally by the people and the system of a church depending on their position. It goes without saying that there is a huge income gap among ministers, and it is not easy to endure being treated like a low caste.

These unequal and poor treatments drive them to open their own church to be a head pastor. Nevertheless, over half of pastors in Korea who opened their own churches are still suffering from severe poverty. Mostly they have to get two jobs to make ends meet and many times, close the church if things get worse. I don’t want to make a snap judgement though, but anyone can guess there are some people who consider a church as a business. Of course, some of churches who are doing their best to build true and healthy churches give other minor ministers fair treatment and reasonable financial support as well.

As a Christian, I often feel like I owe an apology to a lot of foreigners and Korean people who get disadvantages and inconveniences from the mess many Korean churches are making rather than presenting beautiful God’s way and glory. Oh God, please have mercy on us.