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Reading Through the Bible
[Christian Life]Reading through the Bible is the practice of reading the entire Bible in order, from beginning to end, according to a set plan. In Korean Protestant churches it is widely practiced through New Year reading schedules for completing the Bible in one year, intensive Bible-reading gatherings, and audio and app-based reading.
Offering
[Christian Life]An offering is money that Christians give to God as an expression of gratitude and faith, or the act of giving it. It is usually presented during the offertory in worship. In the early Korean Protestant church it was commonly called yeonbo.
Bible Study
[Christian Life]Bible study is a learning activity, undertaken individually or in groups, in which participants read the biblical text, learn its meaning, and apply it to their lives. In Korean Protestant churches it takes many forms, including district (guyeok) and class (sokhoe) meetings, discipleship training, and doctrinal instruction.
Evangelism
[Christian Life]Evangelism is the work of making the gospel of Jesus Christ known to those who do not yet believe and inviting them to faith. It takes various forms, including street evangelism, relational evangelism, and door-to-door evangelism.
Children's Sunday
[Feasts & Seasons]Children's Sunday is a Sunday set apart for blessing children and reflecting on the responsibility of passing the faith on to the next generation. It is also known as Flower Sunday. Korean churches usually observe it on the first Sunday of May, just before Korea's Children's Day.
Fellowship
[Christian Life]Fellowship is the communion and sharing that Christians have with God and with one another in the faith. The term translates the New Testament Greek word koinonia, which is also rendered "communion" or "participation."
Vacation Bible School
[Christian Life]Vacation Bible School is an educational event in which a church gathers children and youth for several days during the summer vacation for Bible teaching, singing, and recreational activities. It is also called Bible school or VBS.
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.
Church Membership Register
[Christian Life]A church membership register is the record of a person's status as an enrolled member of a particular church, together with that member's personal details and history of faith; the term can also refer to the membership status itself.
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.
Short-Term Missions
[Christian Life]Short-term missions are trips in which church members travel to domestic or overseas mission fields, for periods ranging from a few days to several weeks and in longer cases one to two years, to assist local churches and to engage in evangelism and service. In Korean churches the practice is also widely known as a "vision trip."
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.
Jesus Christ
[Doctrine & Theology]Jesus Christ is the central figure of the Christian faith. Christianity confesses Jesus of Nazareth, who ministered in first-century Judea and was crucified, as the Messiah and the Son of God, and calls him by this name.
Young Adult Ministry
[Christian Life]A young adult ministry is an age-based church department that follows the church school years and gathers mainly college students and unmarried young adults in their twenties and thirties. Depending on the church, it may also be called a young adults' association or a college ministry.
Atonement
[Doctrine & Theology]The atonement is the Christian doctrine concerning the work by which Jesus Christ, through his death on the cross, dealt with human sin and reconciled God and humanity. It is also referred to as substitutionary atonement.
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.
Grace
[Doctrine & Theology]Grace is the favor and gift that God freely bestows on those who do not deserve it. Protestantism holds that a person attains salvation not on the basis of his or her own merit but by the grace of God.
Trinity
[Doctrine & Theology]The Trinity is the central Christian doctrine that God is one in essence and exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is confessed in common by Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Church Retreat
[Christian Life]A church retreat is a gathering in which church members leave their daily routines and stay together for several days to focus on worship, prayer, Bible study, and fellowship. In Korean Protestant churches, retreats are usually held by individual church departments during school vacations.
Predestination
[Doctrine & Theology]Predestination is the Christian doctrine that God determined the salvation of human beings from all eternity. It is emphasized by the Calvinist tradition, including Presbyterians, while the Wesleyan tradition, including Methodists and the Holiness Church, places greater emphasis on the human response.