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Military Chaplain (Protestant)
[Church Offices]A military chaplain is a pastor who serves within the armed forces, overseeing the religious life of service members and providing counseling. In South Korea, the term refers specifically to a Protestant pastor commissioned as a chaplain officer.
School Chaplain
[Church Offices]A school chaplain is a pastor attached to a school founded on Christian principles who is responsible for worship, religious education, and counseling for students, faculty, and staff.
Doxology
[Worship & Rites]A doxology is a short utterance or song of praise that gives glory to the triune God. The term refers both to the words of praise that close Scripture passages and prayers and to the brief hymns sung at the beginning or end of worship.
Women's Evangelistic Society
[Organization & Polity]A Women's Evangelistic Society is a self-governing association formed by the women members of a church for evangelism, missions, and service. Methodist churches and some other denominations call it a Women's Missionary Society.
Commissioner (Church Delegate)
[Organization & Polity]A commissioner is a delegate sent by a lower church assembly, such as a session, presbytery, or district conference, to represent it at a higher assembly, such as a presbytery or general assembly. The term is used mainly in Presbyterian churches; other denominations use terms such as "delegate" or "representative."
Cooperating Pastor
[Church Offices]A cooperating pastor is an ordained pastor who is affiliated with a church or institution and assists the senior pastor in ministry. The title is used mainly in Presbyterian churches, and its conditions of service and standing within the presbytery vary according to each denomination's constitution.
Parable
[Bible]A parable is a form of speech that conveys spiritual truth through comparison with everyday objects or stories familiar to the listener. In the church the term usually refers to the parables of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, which deal chiefly with the kingdom of God.
Sabbatical
[Organization & Polity]A sabbatical is a period during which a pastor or missionary, after serving for a set length of time, steps away from ministry to rest, study, pursue further training, and recharge. The term is taken from the Old Testament ordinances concerning the sabbatical year.
Steward
[Doctrine & Theology]A steward is a person entrusted with managing a master's household and property. In Protestantism, the term refers to the teaching that life, time, talents, and material possessions are entrusted to people by God and are to be used responsibly.
Confession of Faith
[Doctrine & Theology]A confession of faith is the act by which Christians declare what they believe, in speech or in writing, or a document formally adopted by a church that sets out what it believes. A brief summary document of this kind is commonly called a creed.
Pastoral Pension
[Organization & Polity]A pastoral pension is a pension system operated by a denomination or church to support pastors who have retired or can no longer carry out their duties, as well as their surviving families.
Joint Easter Service
[Worship & Rites]A joint Easter service is a worship service held on Easter at which multiple denominations and churches gather together, often at dawn. In Korea, the first such service is reported to have been held in 1947 on Namsan in Seoul.
Praise Gathering
[Christian Life]A praise gathering is a meeting that exalts God primarily through the congregation singing a series of praise songs in succession. In Korea, such gatherings spread widely among young adults under the name "praise and worship."
Pastoral Honorarium
[Organization & Polity]A pastoral honorarium is money that a church pays regularly to its ministers, such as the senior pastor, associate pastors, and evangelists, to support their living. It is often referred to simply as an "honorarium."
Vow
[Christian Life]A vow is a voluntary promise by which a believer pledges to God to do something or to offer something. In Korean Protestant churches, vows commonly take forms such as vow prayers, vow offerings, and vows by parents to dedicate their children to the pastoral ministry.
Hospital Chaplain
[Church Offices]A hospital chaplain is a minister attached to a hospital who carries out pastoral ministry, such as worship services, counseling, and visitation, for patients, their families, and hospital staff.
General Assembly Moderator
[Church Offices]A general assembly moderator is the person who represents and presides over the general assembly, the highest deliberative body of a denomination. The office exists in many denominations, including Presbyterian, Holiness, and Baptist churches, and its term and authority vary from one denomination to another.
Sanctuary (Church Building)
[Worship & Rites]A sanctuary is a building or space in which a congregation gathers for worship. Among a church's facilities, the largest space used for Sunday worship is often called the main sanctuary.
Prayer Retreat Center (Kidowon)
[Christian Life]A prayer retreat center, known in Korean as a kidowon, is a Protestant facility, usually built in the mountains or on the outskirts of a city, where people can devote themselves to prayer and fasting. Equipped with meeting halls and lodging, it is used for individual prayer and group retreats.
Minister Without Charge
[Church Offices]A minister without charge is a title used in Presbyterian constitutions for an ordained minister who retains ministerial standing but has no church or institution in which he or she is assigned to serve.