Between March and May 2004 a research project was undertaken among 1,500 non-believers in nine provinces of the nation of South Korea. The conviction of the (Pentecostal, evangelical) Christians in South Korea is that evangelism is essential for church growth. However, despite a passion for evangelism among the churches, church growth seems to have ‘stagnated’. It has recently been realised that mission to different contexts, settings, and even personalities, requires different strategies, and the purpose of the research was to identify which evangelistic strategies suit which personality-types.
The age, gender, level of education and income of each participant was noted, as well as the region in which they lived. Then the survey asked questions of each, such as: what they felt important in their life, what concerned them, what their past experiences of church might have been, what their reactions were to being ‘evangelised’, and what they might be looking for in a church. (The results of the survey suggest that poor, uneducated females over the age of 50 are the most open to the Protestant Gospel, and that this presents to the church an enormous challenge.)
One response to these statistics is a strategy devised by Joshua Young-Gi Hong, president of the Institute for Church Growth and a pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Korea. He calls it the Diamond Evangelistic System, and in it develops a customised witnessing strategy. Non-believers are classified into four types, evasive, negative, neutral and optimistic, according to their likely response to the Gospel. A ‘tool-kit’ of evangelistic strategies is also identified, ranging from the distribution of Gospel booklets, through the writing of personal letters of invitation, to involving the non-believer in a small group. A table shows how effective each strategy is likely to be is reaching each type of non-believer. One of the main tenets of the whole strategy is personal relationship, as the witness must get to know the non-believer personally in order to identify which strategy will be the most appropriate and effective.
Significantly, though, the strategy does not end with the act of evangelism. The Korean church has recognised that a large proportion of new believers do not settle in a church. Research states that at least 10 million Koreans have visited a church at least once, but the church is not able to encourage those people to continue to attend and grow in their faith. In response to this, the Diamond Evangelistic System implements a three stage ‘new-believer’ settlement strategy. First, the new believer must be in regular contact with church members, by letter, phone call, or visit (continuous contact helps newcomers to settle). Second, regular meetings (or classes) must be held where the newcomers can feel free to ask questions about their faith and learn more about Christ. Lastly, the church members must be encouraged to make friends with the newcomers (the more friends a newcomer makes in his/her first few months in the church, the more likely he/she is to stay).
The study concludes that a change of mind-set in the churches is needed, the churches must give more priority to the activity of witnessing and evangelism: “Church growth is harder to achieve but we must still have vision and hope for the salvation given to us by God … We should [know and] understand our target non-believers and pray to the Lord for help …”
It would seem, then, that the Korean church faces some of the same difficulties we do in the UK. Their members are reluctant to engage in evangelism, claiming a lack of time and/or experience. But, in response, many churches are training their members in evangelism, and providing them with small-scale, creative ways to witness in their communities (e.g. handing out Easter eggs). Through such schemes as the Diamond Evangelistic System evangelism is being put back at the top of the Korean Church’s priorities. In this way, the Protestant Church in South Korea is committing itself to effective evangelism in their context.
I believe that the UK churches can learn from the single-mindedness, the emphasis on prayer, and the very practical approach of the South Korean Christians.. We must take note of their emphasis on the need for personal relationships (as individuals and in small groups) with non-believers, and the imperative to start where they are at rather than beginning our conversations with abstract religious questions. Those of us who lead churches must also consider how we can train and inspire our members to make their whole lives a ‘witness’, and place evangelism at the heart of all we do as God’s people.
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