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Wednesday Service
[Worship & Rites]A Wednesday service is a midweek worship service held on Wednesday, between one Lord's Day and the next. It is also known as a Wednesday prayer meeting. Most Korean Protestant churches hold it on Wednesday evening, and in Korea it is also called the samil service ("third-day service").
Catechumenate (Hakseup)
[Worship & Rites]The catechumenate is the stage before baptism in which a person learns the foundations of the faith and, after an examination, is received as a catechumen. In Korean Protestantism, where it is called hakseup, it is practiced chiefly in Presbyterian churches.
Memorial Service (Chudo Yebae)
[Worship & Rites]A memorial service is a worship service in which bereaved family members and fellow church members gather, usually on the anniversary of a death or on a major holiday, to remember a person who has died. In Korean Protestantism it became established as a rite that takes the place of Confucian ancestral rites; it is also known as a remembrance service (chumo yebae).
Sermon
[Worship & Rites]A sermon is the proclamation of the Word in worship that expounds a biblical text and applies it to present-day life. It is regarded as a central element of the worship service, and in Korean Protestant churches it is commonly referred to simply as "the Word" (malsseum).
Pastoral Call
[Organization & Polity]A pastoral call is the process by which a church formally invites and receives a minister, such as a senior pastor or associate pastor, according to established procedures. The specific procedures and the body that makes the decision vary with each denomination's system of church government.
Congregational Meeting
[Organization & Polity]A congregational meeting is an assembly of all the baptized (communicant) members registered in a local church, convened to decide important matters such as electing church officers, calling a pastor, and approving the budget. The name is used in Presbyterian churches; in Korea, other denominations use names such as "general business meeting," and the courts refer to it as a "general meeting of church members."
Ash Wednesday
[Feasts & Seasons]Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the Wednesday falling forty-six days before Easter. Its name comes from the rite of placing ashes on the forehead as a sign of repentance.
Discipleship Training
[Christian Life]Discipleship training is a form of Christian education in which church members receive systematic instruction over a set period, through small-group Bible study, prayer, and examination of daily life, so that they may live as disciples of Jesus Christ. In Korea it spread widely as a program of lay training through Ok Han-heum and SaRang Community Church.
Building Fund Offering
[Christian Life]A building fund offering is an offering collected separately from general offerings to pay for constructing, purchasing, or renovating church buildings such as sanctuaries and education buildings.
House Church
[Christian Life]A house church is a form of church in which believers gather in homes to share meals, study the Word, and pray together as a community. Among Korean Protestants, the term usually refers to the pastoral model that Pastor Young-Gi Chai began at Seoul Baptist Church of Houston.
Justification
[Doctrine & Theology]Justification is the act by which a sinner is accounted righteous before God. Protestants hold that it comes not through works but through faith in Christ, a teaching known as justification by faith.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit
[Doctrine & Theology]Baptism in the Holy Spirit refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit upon a believer. Denominations differ in their understanding: some hold that every believer receives it at conversion, while others regard it as a distinct experience received after conversion.
Liberal Theology
[Doctrine & Theology]Liberal theology is a movement in Protestant theology, emerging in the nineteenth century, that treats modern reason, scholarship, and individual religious experience as important criteria for understanding the faith. Among Korean Protestant churches, the term is used chiefly as a critical label by conservatives.
Acts of the Apostles
[Bible]The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament. It records how, after the ascension of Jesus Christ and with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the church began in Jerusalem and spread as far as Rome.
Alcohol and Tobacco
[Controversies]The question of whether Christians may drink alcohol or smoke tobacco. Views differ on whether the Bible actually forbids them. In Korean Protestantism, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco has been treated as a mark of the Christian life since the early days of missionary work.
Contemplative Prayer
[Controversies]Contemplative prayer is a form of prayer that uses few words and rests silently in the presence of God. Some embrace it as a spiritual discipline, while others regard it as a departure from biblical prayer.
The March First Movement and Christianity
[History]The March First Movement and Christianity examines the role Protestantism played in Korea's March First Movement of 1919. Protestants accounted for 16 of the 33 National Representatives, and churches and Christian schools served as bases from which the independence demonstrations spread across the country.
Robert Jermain Thomas
[People]Robert Jermain Thomas was a Welsh missionary of the London Missionary Society. In 1866 he sailed up the Taedong River as an interpreter aboard the American merchant ship General Sherman and was killed at Pyongyang. Korean Protestants commonly regard him as their first martyr.
David Yonggi Cho
[People]David Yonggi Cho (1936–2021) was a Pentecostal pastor. He founded Yoido Full Gospel Church, which began in 1958 as a tent church in Daejo-dong, Seoul, and built it into the largest church in the world.
Yi Gi-pung
[People]Yi Gi-pung (李基豊, 1865–1942) was a Korean Presbyterian minister. In 1907 he was one of the first seven Koreans ordained to the ministry, and as the first missionary sent out by the Independent Presbytery of the Korean Presbyterian Church, he founded churches on Jeju Island. He died from the aftereffects of torture he suffered for refusing Shinto shrine worship.