Hanam Presbyterian Church in South Korea, which has been serving pastors of non-self-sufficient churches for the past eight years, has set out to now serve pastors of Korean immigrant churches. The ninth "Happy Pastors Seminar' that Hanam Church has hosted was attended by 30 some pastors of Korean immigrant churches and took place late last month at High Desert Church and CJ Grand Hotel.
"I also felt a thirst while serving at an immigrant church for nine years," shared Rev. Sung Il Bang, the senior pastor of Hanam Church. "I wanted to encourage and cheer on those pastors of immigrant churches who may feel like Elijah when he was sitting under that tree during their lonely pastoral journey."
The aspect that stirred the attention of pastors for this particular seminar, however, was the fact that Tom Mercer was featured as one of the guest speakers. Mercer, who leads High Desert Church, introduced a new paradigm of evangelism and church growth called "Oikos,' and through it, his church grew to some 12,000 members in 27 years.
"Oikos is not a program or an event," said Mercer. "It's everything that Jesus did and taught and lived to build up his church."
"Oikos' means family in Greek, and according to Mercer, God supernaturally and strategically created an individual to be able to form meaningful relationships with eight to 15 people. God used the family as a primary space to share the gospel, and oikos means "an extended family.' The primary family could be a biological one, or it could be a workplace, people one sees as they visit a market on a regular basis.
"There are too many programs and ministries in today's church," Mercer said, "and all of these programs overwhelm the congregants who have a lot to deal with in their daily lives."
Mercer added that when a church conducted a survey among its members asking how many hours each week they would be willing to invest in church, most said they would be willing to invest five hours each week. And when they were asked whether they would like to participate in some work that would change the world during those five hours, many of them agreed to it. So with those five hours, the church decided to spend an hour and a half in meaningful worship, two hours in meaningful small groups, and an hour and a half in service or ministry through the church, according to each person's giftings.
Mercer also emphasized the importance of worship, and said his sermons always focus on three main parts: A) Admitting sin; B) Believing that Jesus is the only one who can save from sin; and C) Choosing to follow Christ. Listening to sermons that always focus on these three aspects allow anyone to easily understand the gospel, Mercer said.
The last day also featured a Q&A portion with Rev. Bang. When asked whether the Oikos paradigm was applied in Hanam Church, Bang responded, "Oikos isn't a program or a workshop. It's something you just need to do to be able to say you are doing it."
"Mercer's disciples are people who share the gospel. In the Korean church, there are many Pharisees who have listened to too many sermons so their heads have become big. Our church is also wrestling to go back to the basics of the church, to be one that shares the gospel."
"While pastoring in the Korean immigrant church, I felt myself becoming frustrated and helpless. I found myself just drained of energy and feeling empty," Bang said. "At that rate, I knew I would either just collapse on my own or get kicked out. Pastors must have a time for themselves to recharge."
Meanwhile, Hanam Church will continue the 'Happy Pastors' Conference by serving Korean pastors in Europe next year.
