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Dedication Worship Service
[Worship & Rites]A dedication worship service is a worship service led by a particular organization or department within a congregation, in which its members renew their commitment to dedication, that is, to serving God with body and heart. It is widely practiced in Korean Protestant churches.
Bishop
[Church Offices]A bishop is an officeholder who oversees and leads multiple churches and ministers. The term derives from the New Testament Greek episkopos ("one who watches over"). In Korea, the Protestant term for bishop refers mainly to leaders of Methodist denominations, while the Anglican and Catholic churches use a different Korean term for the same office.
District Worship Meeting
[Worship & Rites]A district worship meeting is a small worship service and gathering held in homes by church members organized into geographical units, or districts, according to where they live. The practice is widespread in Korean Protestant churches, where it is known as guyeok yebae; in Methodist churches, a gathering of the same kind is called a class meeting (sokhoe).
Seeker Service
[Worship & Rites]A seeker service is a form of worship whose format and language are simplified so that people unfamiliar with church can take part without discomfort. It is also known as seeker-sensitive worship.
Baptism
[Worship & Rites]Baptism is a rite in which water is used to signify that a person has come to faith in Jesus Christ and become a member of the church community. Most Protestants count it, together with the Lord's Supper, as one of two sacraments.
Funeral Service
[Worship & Rites]A funeral service is a worship service held when a church member dies, in which the deceased is committed to God, the bereaved are comforted, and the hope of the resurrection is confessed. The term can also refer collectively to the several services held at each stage of the funeral process.
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.
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).
Sacrament
[Worship & Rites]A sacrament is a rite believed to have been instituted by Christ that signifies God's grace through visible signs such as water, bread, and wine. Protestants generally recognize two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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).
Christian Wedding Service
[Worship & Rites]A Christian wedding service is a ceremony conducted as an act of worship in which a Christian man and woman make their marriage vows before God and receive a blessing upon their union. It is usually officiated by a pastor and may be held in a church or a wedding hall.
General Assembly
[Organization & Polity]A general assembly is the highest national decision-making body of a denomination. It amends the denominational constitution, sets policy, and elects officers. Among Korean Protestant denominations, Presbyterian bodies usually hold their regular general assembly each September.
Presbytery
[Organization & Polity]A presbytery is a governing court in Presbyterian churches in which the ministers and ruling elder representatives of a given region meet to govern the churches of that region. It is the intermediate court between the session and the general assembly.
District Conference
[Organization & Polity]A district conference is an intermediate-level body formed by the churches of a given region in Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and other denominations, or the meeting that such a body holds. It occupies roughly the same position as the presbytery in Presbyterian churches.
Hymn
[Worship & Rites]A hymn is a song sung by a congregation to praise God and confess the faith; the term also refers to a book collecting such songs. In Korean Protestant churches, the term commonly refers to the common hymnal shared by many denominations.
Responsive Reading
[Worship & Rites]A responsive reading is an element of worship, and also the text used for it, in which the leader and the congregation read a passage of Scripture, usually from the Psalms, alternately verse by verse. In Korean Protestant churches it is also known as seongsi gyodok, "the alternate reading of sacred poems."
Denomination
[Organization & Polity]A denomination is a grouping of Protestant churches that share the same theological tradition and form of church government. Examples include the Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, Pentecostal, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.
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."
Pastoral District (Gyogu)
[Organization & Polity]A pastoral district is a unit into which church members are divided, by region or by group, for pastoral care and church governance. In Korean Protestantism the term (gyogu) usually refers to a pastoral district within a single congregation, while in Anglicanism it refers to a regional church unit, or diocese, under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
Theological Seminary
[Organization & Polity]A theological seminary, or graduate school of theology, is a graduate-level program whose primary purpose is the training of pastors. Its core program is the Master of Divinity (M.Div.), and many Korean Protestant denominations treat completion of this program as a basic requirement for ordination.