The Future Of The Korean Church
The English Ministry Pastor Advisory Committee (EMPAC) is a collection of English Ministry Pastors who serve in Korean-American SDA Churches in North America. Once a year, EMPAC hosts a meeting inviting all English Ministry Pastors together to network, discuss issues facing Korean-American Churches, attend seminars, and spend time together in prayer.
This year’s EMPAC meeting was unique in that the invitation was extended to include Pastors families as well. There were a total of 32 EM Pastors and 7 Seminary and Theology students who attended. Including families of Pastors, there was a grand total of 56 attendees. The meeting location was Indio, California which was chosen with the families in mind.
The main agenda item for this year’s EMPAC meeting was a continuation of a larger discussion we had at the 2023 EMPAC meeting in Portland, Oregon. The discussion question that we started with in 2023 and continued this year was: “What is the future of the Korean-American SDA Church?”
This question is obviously incredibly nuanced and does not have one clear and simple solution. That being said, the discussion that surrounds this question is important because it helps create greater awareness to the challenges that the Korean-American churches face, and it can also help clarify the larger vision and goals of the Korean-American SDA church.
The pastors were separated into smaller groups, each having a combination of students, young Pastors, and Pastors with experience. Deeper discussions took place within the small groups and the important points were presented to the larger group. The morning and evenings were spent mostly in the small groups discussing the main question.
The consensus among the Pastors were that while the Korean Church would still exist in the future, the health and effectiveness of these churches would be in question. The divide between healthy churches and struggling churches would increasingly grow, specifically between churches located in larger cities and churches located in smaller cities. We also looked at case studies of other ethnic churches in Adventism and what their journey was.
If the Korean Church is to avoid the fate of some of the other ethnic churches who have disappeared, there must be continued cooperation and communication between the Korean and English Ministries.
At the previous EMPAC meeting, one of the largest challenges we identified was the lack of students studying Theology with the intent to enter ministry. In fact, in 2024 there was only one student studying Theology in America. This year we were excited to share that the number has grown from one student to six students studying theology. In addition, there are more pastors studying at Andrews Seminary than there were a few years ago. Both statistics point towards a more optimistic future for the Korean Church.
While the discussion and ministry updates were important, the main goal was for the families to spend time together. Specifically we wanted a space for the wives of pastors to be able to network and fellowship with each other and take a well-deserved break. A commonly held belief among pastors is that only fellow pastors can truly understand what it is like to be in ministry. The experience of being a Pastor’s wife is the same and we wanted to create a safe space for the wives of Pastors to share with each other and be truly heard and understood within the community of Pastor’s wives.
We firmly believe that the EMPAC meetings are integral to healthy ministry at our local churches. The benefit of EMPAC is not only in the networking and sharing of ministry ideas and strategies, but in the fellowship and opportunity to share with each other the burdens that we carry and the challenges that we face. It is uplifting to know that all Pastors regardless of ministry location and context are working together to build the Kingdom of God, and that there is a support network for Pastors to encourage one another and pray for one another as we continue in our respective ministries. EMPAC’s vision and goal is to support all of our Pastors in ministry, and to foster unity among all of our churches so that we can share the Gospel more effectively wherever we may be.
Jason Kim was born and raised in Maryland. He attended the University of Maryland Baltimore County and received a degree in History and attended Andrews Theological Seminary. He has served as the EM pastor at Chicago Unity SDA, Garden Grove Korean SDA, LA Central Korean SDA, and served as the media director at Yorba Linda SDA Church. He is currently the Assistant Director at the Kainos Project. He lives in Southern California with his wife Kim, 2 sons Taylor and Cory, and 2 dogs Dougie and Ovie.