English Compass - bringing christian fellowship to korean americans

My Journey in the Korean-American Church

I looked in the mirror the other day and was surprised to see a gray-haired rather old-looking man staring back at me.  I turned 40 this year, which has really felt like a milestone in life.  I am not sure it is a mid-life crisis thing.  I have not gone out and bought a Harley Davidson or a sports car or gotten a tattoo.  However, I am thinking about where my life has been, where it is now, and where my life is heading. 

In particular, I have been thinking a lot about my experience in my church.  I have to say that when I was younger, I did not find church all that interesting.  On Sabbath days, I remember hiding out until my parents went into the church then running down to the local arcade to play video games.  Sadly, I would often find fellow young church members there already!  In my college years, I remember waking up just in time to make it to the Korean church for potluck! 

I don’t blame anybody for my deviance but myself.  However, I did wish that the grown ups spent a little more thought and resources into my religious experience at the time.

Thank God that my church attendance has improved a lot.  Now my main struggle is to make it to church on time but I do go to church faithfully.  I truly go to church because I want to go to church.  Yet, when I go to most churches, I don’t find a place for me there.  I don’t speak nor understand enough Korean to appreciate the sermons.  I sense a cultural divide that keeps me yearning for something and somewhere else.  I have attended American (English speaking) churches but felt the same way for opposite reasons.

I sense similar yearnings by others who are in my situations in life.  Instead of being directed to the youth group usually meeting in the side room or eating area of the church, worshiping with teens and young adults, I want to worship in my own church.  I am not necessarily saying I want my own building to worship in, but I would like to have my own church.  A pastor who ministers to my generation, ministering to the unique experiences we face in this culture that challenge us day to day at home, work, in our faith and in our church. 

There are issues that my parents’ generation does not seem to understand or appreciate.  When I speak of this to them, I get a look of confusion or disapproval.  They ask questions like, “Why would you not want to worship together, you are a Korean?  Why won’t you support the Korean church?”  I am not sure those are not valid points, yet I know I am not being ministered to in the traditional Korean church. Again, I don’t and can’t blame anyone else. 

Now I have found a small group of like-minded Korean-American Seventh-day Adventist Christians who want to worship.  I find a home here in this group I have not felt nor sensed in 40 years.  In my current group, I finally do sense the belonging. 

I do hope others in my situation find that belonging too.  But, instead of just hoping and only praying, I want to do my part and try to bring this experience to others.  Part of doing that is to speak up and take a role in the development of the Korean-American Seventh-day Adventist Ministry.  I support the Seventh-day Adventist church and believe that it will lead God’s people into the kingdom.  I know that I need to do my part and God willing, I will!

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Dr. Jae Park is a physician practicing in Warsaw, Indiana and attends the Living Word Fellowship in Berrien Springs, Michigan.  He is also a sponsor and advisor for the Online English Compass.