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Church Year
[Feasts & Seasons]The church year is the church's calendar, which arranges a year of worship in sequence according to the life of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, beginning with Advent and continuing through the season after Pentecost. It is also known as the cycle of church seasons.
Feast of the Holy Innocents
[Feasts & Seasons]The Feast of the Holy Innocents is a commemoration in the church calendar honoring the victims of Herod's killing of the young boys of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18). The Western church observes it on December 28.
Baptism of the Lord Sunday
[Feasts & Seasons]Baptism of the Lord Sunday commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. In the Western church calendar, it is usually observed on the first Sunday after Epiphany.
Transfiguration Sunday
[Feasts & Seasons]Transfiguration Sunday commemorates the event in which Jesus was transfigured in glory on a mountain (the Transfiguration). In the Protestant church calendar, it is commonly observed on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season, the Sunday immediately before Ash Wednesday.
Advent
[Feasts & Seasons]Advent is the season that includes the four Sundays before Christmas. During Advent the church remembers the coming of Jesus Christ and awaits his return, and the church year begins with this season.
Maundy Thursday
[Feasts & Seasons]Maundy Thursday is the Thursday immediately before Easter. A Holy Week observance, it commemorates the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples, at which he instituted the Lord's Supper and washed the disciples' feet.
Palm Sunday
[Feasts & Seasons]Palm Sunday is the Sunday immediately before Easter. It commemorates the occasion when crowds carrying palm branches welcomed Jesus Christ as he entered Jerusalem. Holy Week begins on this day.
Easter Controversy
[History]The Easter controversy is a dispute within the church, dating back to the second century, over when Easter should be observed. The term encompasses the Quartodeciman controversy in Asia Minor, the decision of the Council of Nicaea, and the calendar differences between the Western and Eastern churches.
Pentecost
[Feasts & Seasons]Pentecost is a church festival observed on the Sunday that falls on the fiftieth day after Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus Christ (Acts 2). It is also called Pentecost Sunday.
John Wesley
[People]John Wesley (1703–1791) was a priest of the Church of England. He launched the Methodist movement in eighteenth-century England and is regarded as the founder of Methodism. His theology also influenced the Holiness movement, The Salvation Army, and the Pentecostal movement.
Songguyeongsin Service
[Feasts & Seasons]The Songguyeongsin service is a worship service held from the night of December 31 until about midnight as January 1 begins, in which worshipers look back on the past year with thanksgiving and entrust the new year to God. It is widely observed across denominational lines in Korean Protestantism.
Christmas
[Feasts & Seasons]Christmas is a Christian feast commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed by most churches on December 25. In South Korea it is a statutory public holiday officially called Gidok Tansinil ("the Day of Christ's Birth").
Church
[Doctrine & Theology]The church is the community of those who believe in Jesus Christ. The word translates the New Testament Greek term ekklesia (an assembly of those who have been called out), and it refers first to a gathering of people rather than to a building.
Church Minister
[Church Offices]A church minister is a person whose principal work is ministry in the church, such as preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. In Korean Protestant usage, the associate pastors, evangelists, and others who assist the senior pastor are collectively called associate ministers.
Church Bulletin
[Worship & Rites]A church bulletin is a newsletter that a church publishes every Lord's Day, containing the order of worship, sermon information, church news, and announcements.
Church Dedication
[Worship & Rites]A church dedication is a service in which a newly built church building is offered to God as a place of worship. In Korean Protestant churches, it is usually held after all construction debt has been paid off.
Church Constitution
[Organization & Polity]A church constitution is the foundational body of rules in which a denomination codifies its principles of confession of faith, church government, offices, worship, and discipline. Depending on the denomination, it may be called a "constitution," *The Doctrines and Discipline*, or another name.
Church Discipline
[Organization & Polity]Church discipline is the practice by which a church examines the sins and wrongdoing of its members or officers, urges them to repent, and, when necessary, imposes censures in accordance with its church constitution. It is also referred to as church governance or, in its judicial form, ecclesiastical trial.
Church Polity
[Organization & Polity]Church polity refers to the systems and structures by which a church appoints its officers, makes decisions, and exercises governance and discipline. It is broadly divided into three forms: episcopal, presbyterian, and congregational.
Church Plant
[Organization & Polity]A church plant is a newly established church, founded in an area with no church or too few churches or directed toward a new group of people; the term also refers to the process of establishing such a church. In Korean Protestant usage, it commonly denotes a church in its early years with a small congregation and a limited financial base.