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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.
Presbytery District (Sichal)
[Organization & Polity]In Korean Presbyterian polity, a presbytery district (sichal) is a subordinate unit formed when a presbytery divides its territory into several districts, so that its member churches can be visited and the presbytery can be assisted in its administration. The meeting of the ministers and elders of such a district is called a district council (sichalhoe).
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.
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.
Church Planting by Division
[Organization & Polity]The founding of a new, independent church by an existing church (the "mother church"), which sends out some of its members, ministers, and part of its finances. Also called "daughter-church planting," it is distinct from a "church split," in which a congregation divides through conflict.
Installed Pastor
[Organization & Polity]An installed pastor, a term used chiefly in Presbyterian churches, is a senior pastor who has been called by a congregation and installed by the presbytery to serve that church without a fixed term. The office is distinguished from that of a temporary (stated) pastor, whose term of service is limited.
Church Bylaws
[Organization & Polity]Church bylaws are a written body of self-governing rules that set out the basic principles of a church's operation, including its purpose, membership qualifications, decision-making bodies, election of officers, and management of finances and property.
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.
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.
Holy Week
[Feasts & Seasons]Holy Week is the week immediately preceding Easter, a period that commemorates Jesus Christ's entry into Jerusalem, his suffering, and his death on the cross. Korean Protestants commonly call it Passion Week, while Catholics and Anglicans in Korea generally call it Holy Week.
Denomination
[Organization & Polity]A denomination is an organized body formed by churches that share a common confession of faith and system of church government. Several denominations may exist within a single denominational tradition.
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.
Lent
[Feasts & Seasons]Lent is a season of the church year lasting forty days before Easter, excluding Sundays, during which Christians meditate on the sufferings of Jesus Christ and prepare for Easter through repentance and self-denial.
Bible Sunday
[Feasts & Seasons]Bible Sunday is a Sunday set aside to reflect on the value of Scripture and to pray and give offerings for the translation and distribution of the Bible. In Korea, churches observe it each year on the second Sunday of December, with the Korean Bible Society leading the observance.
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.
Special Dawn Prayer Meeting
[Feasts & Seasons]A special dawn prayer meeting (teuksae) is a dawn prayer gathering that a church holds for a set period and around a chosen theme, with greater intensity than its regular dawn prayer meetings. The practice grew out of the dawn prayer tradition of Korean Protestantism.
Thanksgiving
[Feasts & Seasons]Thanksgiving is a Protestant observance in which believers thank God for the year's harvest and for the grace they have received. Korean Protestant churches generally observe Thanksgiving Sunday on the third Sunday of November.
Easter
[Feasts & Seasons]Easter is the oldest and most important feast of the Christian faith, commemorating the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day after his death on the cross. It is also called Resurrection Sunday.