Encounter, engage, expand:
Koreans are spreading the gospel
by Ryan Miller

Jae-Young Lee (left) and Kyong-Jung Kim, leaders at the Korea Anabaptist Center, in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: David Fisher Fast/Mennonite Mission Network

Most Korean Christians equate biblical peace with inner peace said Daniel Ahn of Jesus Village Church. In South Korea, military service is compulsory, and few question the need to serve, perhaps because the wounds from Japan’s 35-year occupation before World War II and the Korean War of the 1950s have not yet healed.

Koreans, he said, have determined to never again be weak enough to be dominated. Strength, not peace, is the desirable goal, whether in relating to the Japanese or the North Koreans.

"Love your enemies? It's more like, 'Love your neighbors who do bad things to you,'" said Jae-Young Lee, KAC peace program coordinator. "North Korea? That’s something else."

Some peace workers outside of the Anabaptist tradition buck the trend. World Christian Frontiers, a parachurch organization in Seoul that prays and works for peace in areas decimated by disaster or conflict, holds a growing relationship with KAC. Frontiers leaders hope for an exchange program with other Mennonites around the world.

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Still, peace without faith in Christ, the Koreans said, is worthless. Kyong-Jung said Anabaptists are called to live beyond themselves, following Christ’s leading and knitting together faith, discipleship and social action.

Kyong-Jung said KAC also follows previous Mennonite models of interaction, even if no one from KAC or Jesus Village Church has direct connection to Mennonites of the past. Until it closed in the 1970s, Mennonite Central Committee’s Mennonite Vocational School left an impact on many of its students, even if it did not leave any Mennonite churches.

"The [MCC workers] helped materially and taught us but did not necessarily evangelize," Kyong-Jung said. "What they did [was] live together and walk together with Koreans.

"Even though we look very young and very isolated and very small, I want people in North America who sent mission workers a long time ago to know that the seed they planted sprouted and grew and is bearing fruit," Kyong-Jung continued. "KAC is a good example."

Korea Anabaptist Center also includes Korea Anabaptist Press, which produces and translates Korean-language peace and Anabaptist resources; Connexus, an English-language teaching institute; and a two-year International Visitor Exchange program with Mennonite Central Committee for Korean young people.

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Return to Beyond Ourselves—Summer 2006