Because of my recent travels to Asia, not to mention being back at Oxford earlier in the summer, the global church is on my mind. The Korean church, in particular, has caught my eye because of the remarkable growth of Christianity in the Republic of Korea over the past century. According to Pew, in 1900, only 1% of the population was Christian. In 2010, about 3 in 10 (29%) claimed Christianity as their faith.
I’m back in Korea in September for the fourth Lausanne Congress in Seoul. This will mark the largest representative evangelical gathering focused on mission in the history of the world. Billy Graham was instrumental in the first Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, in July 1974. This first meeting birthed the Lausanne Movement, leading to Lausanne II in Manila, Philippines, in 1989, and more recently the third Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2010. This Lausanne Congress marks 50 years from the first one.
Much of the conversation will be on the future of global mission, the work of cross-cultural missions, and probably some significant reflection on the church in Korea as well.
The Korean Megachurch Phenomenon
The Outreach 100 issue highlights both the largest and fastest-growing churches in the United States. But large churches are hardly an American phenomenon. You simply can’t survey the Korean church scene without considering the megachurch in that picture.
Many of the largest churches in the world are in Korea, including the Yoido Full Gospel Church, the single largest church in the world with almost a half million members. Myungsung Presbyterian has about 100,000 members. I preached at Onnuri Community Church with about 50,000 members, and at SaRang Church, which is recognized by the Guinness World Records as having the largest underground church building in the world (6500 seats–and literally built under the street). I spoke at a prayer meeting there on a Saturday morning where thousands of people prayed in a way that would be hard to replicate in an American church.
Why Highlight Megachurches?
Each year, when we publish the Outreach 100 issue, it fosters some debate. Is there value in continuing to track the largest and fastest-growing churches? Why create such lists?
There are many reasons, but one of the main reasons is that we think it’s a significant project worthy of study. Peter Drucker once noted, “The pastoral megachurches … have been growing very fast in the United States since 1980. They are surely the most important phenomenon in American society in the last 30 years. And while all traditional denominations have steadily declined, the megachurches have exploded. They have done so because they have asked, ‘What is value?’ to a nonchurchgoer.”
The Outreach 100 is an annual research project with Lifeway Research in collaboration with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research—which has maintained an online list of megachurches since 2000. As part of this we work to put out lists that illustrate the state of the American megachurch. It’s worth noting that American megachurches no longer rank as high in the list of the world’s largest megachurches as they once did. As you look around the world you find much larger churches throughout Africa, South America and Asia.
Now to be honest, I would tell you that just as in the United States, the Korean megachurch phenomenon has not been a completely positive thing. Some have struggled with ministry failures, succession issues and more. But it is a uniquely American practice to criticize megachurches so widely, even when we see that around the world so many Christians choose to attend them.
One of Many Ways God Works
I think a better way to look at this is to see the megachurch as one of the ways that God works among people around the world. In some contexts and some cultures, people gather in larger spaces for worship, and that can become a way for them to honor the Lord with their excellence and with a large-scale amount of participation.
However, it’s also worth noting that while I’m in Korea I’ll be in breakout groups talking about house church movements around the world, how missional incarnational communities are engaging secular spaces, and how traditional churches continue to do important work. One of my hopes for the future is that we might hold our church models loosely and our gospel clarity firmly. God has used the megachurch in places like Korea at the same time he’s used the house church in places like China. I think a bit more of a humble approach to this would be appropriate.
The point is that God has chosen the church to make known his manifold wisdom (Ephesians 3:10). Culture, times and places impact how churches gather, form and live on mission. At Outreach magazine we celebrate all the myriad forms that mission takes. For example, in his article “Disperse the Church” (Page 100 of the printed magazine), Rob Wegner writes about his experience transitioning from decades-long ministry in the megachurch to forming a microchurch network in Kansas City. Additionally, through our partnership with Exponential, and in other ways, we highlight small, rapidly reproducing networks that might be organic, simple or missional kinds of churches. We regularly have a small church focus where we talk about small and traditional churches. And in our next issue, we’ll partner with the Barna Group to explore the marks that thriving churches of all shapes and sizes share in common. In short, we believe in celebrating healthy churches whatever form they take.
Mission Shapes All Churches.
We all share in the frustration when churches fail. When large church leaders fall, it makes national news, but both small church and large church leaders are prone to failure. There is no evidence or research that shows there’s a disproportionate failure rate between larger and smaller churches, though the blast radius of larger church failures is greater. I’ve seen the broken lives, hurt people and broken families in small and medium-sized churches as well. That’s why a church with mission-shaped people living together for the gospel makes all the difference.
As I sat on that Saturday morning with thousands praying in Seoul, the word “teeming” came to mind. The space was teeming with people seeking after God.
I think churches shaped by mission will be teeming with three specific traits:
- Integrity
We want to celebrate churches that are on mission with integrity. These are churches that genuinely care about their community for the gospel’s sake, and resist any bait-and-switch approach to outreach. These churches don’t overlook obvious integrity issues in leadership or structure. This means there are systems of accountability for leaders, not only for their role, but also to protect them with times of rest, resources for times of struggle, and more. We need churches that value honesty and vulnerability without legalism. Can leaders in your church reach out for help with confidence they will receive it? Do you have a culture of accountability, and if so, is it driven more by confidence and support or by fear?
- Evangelism
Celebrating big churches or small churches that don’t reach people, but only move people around, is not a good thing. Churches teeming with evangelism have a book of Acts kind of passion focused on spreading the gospel by word and deed, no matter the cost. How clear is your church on a burden for the lostness in your community and in our world? What are you specifically doing to equip believers to share Jesus and live on mission? What opportunities do they have through your church to show and share Jesus both locally and globally?
- Discipleship
Jesus called us to teach disciples to obey all that he commanded. Making disciples who make disciples is at the heart of churches shaped by mission. That can be done in megachurches through effective small group ministry, in house churches where intimacy in the group is a value, or in a traditional church through the Sunday school. Do you have a clearly articulated disciple-making pathway? Do people in your church know it well? Is it being implemented and evaluated?
The theme of the Fourth Lausanne Congress in Seoul is “Let the Church Declare and Display Christ Together.” Whether we are part of a house church or a megachurch, a rural church or an urban congregation, a church that is centuries old or just recently planted, may we be marked by showing and sharing Jesus to the world, together.