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Suneung Prayer Meeting
[Christian Life]A Suneung prayer meeting is a prayer gathering held by churches in South Korea for students preparing to take the College Scholastic Ability Test (Suneung) and for their families. It is also called a senior-year prayer meeting.
Bell Tower
[Doctrine & Theology]A bell tower is a tower or structure from which church bells are hung. It has been used to announce times of worship and prayer. In Korean churches, it long served as an architectural element symbolizing the church building.
Christian Funeral
[Christian Life]A Christian funeral is the set of rites by which a church, together with the bereaved family, commits a deceased member to God and confesses the hope of the resurrection. In Korean Protestant churches it typically proceeds through deathbed, encoffining, departure, and committal services.
Deathbed Service
[Christian Life]A deathbed service is a brief service of worship held by family members and ministers at the side of a believer who is about to die or has just died. In Korean Protestant churches, it is regarded as the first rite of the funeral process.
National Salvation Prayer Meeting
[Christian Life]A national salvation prayer meeting is a church prayer gathering held for the well-being of a nation and its people when the country faces a crisis or a matter of great national importance. In a broader sense, the practice is also called "prayer for the nation."
Theological Degrees
[Christian Life]A theological degree is an academic degree awarded for completing a course of theological education. Examples include the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) for training pastors, the Master of Theology (Th.M.) for advanced study, and the Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) for pastors already in ministry.
Pastor
[Church Offices]In Protestantism, a pastor is an ordained minister responsible for preaching, administering the sacraments, and caring for church members. Qualifications and ordination procedures vary by denomination.
Board of Church Officers (Jejikhoe)
[Organization & Polity]The board of church officers (jejikhoe) is a deliberative body in which a congregation's officers, such as pastors, elders, deacons, and kwonsas, meet to discuss and carry out the practical work of church finances and service. It is found chiefly in Korean Presbyterian churches, where it operates under the provisions of the church constitution.
Quiet Time
[Christian Life]Quiet Time (QT) is a personal devotional practice of reading a passage of Scripture, meditating on it, and praying at a set time each day.
Westminster Confession of Faith
[Doctrine & Theology]The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith produced by the Westminster Assembly in seventeenth-century England. Together with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms prepared by the same assembly, it serves as the doctrinal standard for most Presbyterian churches worldwide, including most Presbyterian denominations in Korea.
Heidelberg Catechism
[Doctrine & Theology]The Heidelberg Catechism is a Reformed manual of Christian instruction produced in 1563 in the Palatinate region of Germany. In 129 questions and answers, it explains the core of the faith in terms of comfort and gratitude.
Ezra (Scribe)
[People]Ezra was a priest and scribe of Judah in the Persian period who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and taught the law of Moses. He appears in Ezra 7–10, Nehemiah 8, and elsewhere.
Westminster Larger Catechism
[Doctrine & Theology]The Westminster Larger Catechism is a manual of doctrinal instruction of 196 questions and answers, composed by the Westminster Assembly in 1647. Together with the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter Catechism, it serves as a doctrinal standard of Presbyterianism.
Revised Common Lectionary
[Worship & Rites]The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) is a table of Scripture readings that assigns the biblical texts to be read in worship on each Sunday and festival according to a three-year cycle. It was published in 1992 by an ecumenical consultation of North American denominations.
Two Kingdoms Doctrine
[Doctrine & Theology]The two kingdoms doctrine is a Protestant teaching that God governs the world in two ways: through a spiritual government, in which he rules faith by his Word, and through a temporal government, in which the state and the law preserve social order.
Source Criticism
[Doctrine & Theology]Source criticism is a method of biblical study that seeks to identify and distinguish the earlier sources (documents or traditions) that appear to have been used in the composition of biblical texts. It is classified as a branch of historical criticism.
Church Anniversary Sunday
[Christian Life]Church Anniversary Sunday is a Sunday on which an individual congregation remembers the day of its founding and holds a service of thanksgiving. Because it is not a common observance of the church year, each church sets its own date and manner of observance.
Confirmation
[Worship & Rites]Confirmation is the rite by which a person baptized in infancy, upon growing up, personally professes the faith and becomes a full baptized member of the church. In Korean Protestant usage it is commonly called ipgyo ("entering the church"), while Lutheran and some other churches use a term meaning "rite of strengthening faith."
Conversion
[Christian Life]Conversion is the change by which a person turns from sin to God and comes to believe in Jesus Christ. The term is often used alongside "being born again" and "regeneration," although some denominations distinguish conversion from regeneration.
James (Brother of the Lord)
[People]James is a New Testament figure identified as "the Lord's brother" and was a leader of the early church in Jerusalem. Tradition holds that he wrote the Epistle of James.