“Korean Churches” on Sakhalin during the Post-Soviet Transformation (“Korean Churches” on Sakhalin during the Post-Soviet Transformation (1990s)1990s)

The author analyzes the activities of missionaries from the Republic of Korea and the results of their work on Sakhalin in the post-Soviet period. The study is relevant due to the lack of research in Rus-sian historiography. The migration and religious legislation of the Russian Federation and the Sakha-lin region, which caused the successes and prob-lems in the activities of Korean missionaries in the 1990s are analyzed. The results of the activities of missionaries from South Korea, aimed primarily at representatives of the Korean diaspora, in the 1990s include a rapid increase in the number of Protestant religious organizations and their members actively involved in solving significant social problems of the post-Soviet transformation period (charitable, educational, educational activities of missionary churches). After 1997 the growth in the number of churches stabilized, however, the churches estab-lished by Korean missionaries in the 1990s are still active, defining the confessional image of the re-gion.

Korean missions: Joy over obligation

Korean Christianity has produced an exceptionally large number of martyrs. At the same time, this phenomenon is marked by joyful witness in Korea and in other parts of the world. This article explores some of the key stages in the early growth of Korean Protestant Christianity from the perspective of joy: the evangelists in the 1880s, the revival movements in the early 1900s, and the sending of the first Korean missionaries. These examples show that Christian mission was understood more as the natural and joyful outcome of being in Christ than as a duty and command.

Jonathan Chao and “Return Mission”: The Case of the Calvinist Revival in China

Studies on mission and migration have often focused on the propagation of Christianity from a home context to a foreign context. This is true of studies of Christian mission by Catholics and Protestants, but also true in the growing discussion of “reverse mission” whereby diasporic African and Korean missionaries evangelize the “heathen” lands of Europe and North America. This article proposes the alternative term “return mission” in which Christians from the diaspora return to evangelize the lands of their ancestral origins. It uses the case study of Jonathan Chao (Zhao Tian’en 趙天恩), a return missionary who traveled in and out of China from 1978 until near his death in 2004 and is considered an instrumental figure in the revival of Calvinism in China. This article suggests that “return mission” provides a new means to understand the subjects of mission and migration, and raises new challenges to questions about paternalism and independency.

The Rise of Calvinist Christianity in Urbanising China

Over the past decade, Reformed Christianity, broadly based on the theology of Calvinism, has spread widely in China, especially by appealing to Chinese ‘intellectuals’ who constitute most of the house church leaders in urban areas. It draws its moral guidance from a so-called rational or intellectual focus on biblical theology, reinforced by theological training in special seminaries. It consequently rejects the ‘heresy’ of the older Pentecostal Christianity, with its emphasis on charisma, miracles, and theology based on emotional ‘feeling’. This Reformed theology and its further elaboration have been introduced into China in two main ways. The first is through overseas Chinese, especially via theological seminaries in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. For instance, preachings of the famous Reformed pastor Stephen Tong (唐崇荣) have been widely disseminated online and among Chinese Christians. Second, Korean missionaries have established theological seminaries mainly in cities in northern China. This has resulted in more and more Chinese church leaders becoming advocates of Calvinism and converting their churches to Reformed status. This paper asks why Calvinism attracts Chinese Christians, what Calvinism means for the so-called house churches of a Christian community in a northern Chinese city, and what kinds of change the importation of Reformed theology has brought to Chinese house churches. Various significant accounts have addressed this development in China generally. My analysis complements these accounts by focusing on a small number of interconnected house churches in one city, and uses this case study to highlight interpersonal and organizational issues arising from the Calvinist approach.

Missions from Korea 2019: Support Raising

At the end of 2018, a total of 21,378 Korean missionaries were serving in 146 countries under 154 mission agencies. The yearly increase was 158 missionaries, and the annual growth rate was 0.74 percent. The increase this year was due largely to the addition of older missionaries, who joined after retiring from their secular occupation. Fewer young people are joining, largely because of the hard realities of raising support. Faith missions have traditionally been quite casual about fund-raising, but many are now suggesting that support raising receive more attention as a significant form of ministry.