David Yonggi Cho

Life

Cho was born in 1936 in Samnam-myeon, Ulju County, South Gyeongsang Province, the eldest son among five sons and four daughters. While a second-year student at Busan Technical High School, he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and became critically ill. During this time he came to the Christian faith through a friend of his older sister who visited him. In 1956 he entered Full Gospel Theological Seminary (now Hansei University), which had been founded by the Assemblies of God. At seminary he met Choi Jashil, who would later become his mother-in-law.

In May 1958 the two pitched a tent in the yard of Choi Jashil's home in Daejo-dong, Eunpyeong District, Seoul, and held a worship service with five believers. This was the beginning of Yoido Full Gospel Church. The church moved to Yeouido in 1973 and held a dedication service for its new sanctuary on September 23 of that year. In 1984 it adopted its current name, Yoido Full Gospel Church. In 2008, the fiftieth year of his ministry, Cho installed Lee Young-hoon as senior pastor and himself became pastor emeritus. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in July 2020 and died on September 14, 2021, at the age of 85, while still under treatment. His funeral was conducted as a Korean church–wide funeral, and he was buried in the cemetery of the Osanri Choi Jashil Memorial International Fasting Prayer Mountain in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

Ministry and Achievements

• Theology and message: From the church's earliest days, Cho emphasized speaking in tongues and divine healing (healing through prayer). His teaching is commonly summarized under three headings: first, the "Fivefold Gospel" of regeneration, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, divine healing, blessing, and the Second Coming; second, the "Threefold Blessing," in which the soul, one's circumstances, and the body all prosper together; and third, "fourth-dimensional spirituality," which centers on thought, faith, dreams, and words. After the Korean War he offered hope to the poor and the sick on the basis of 3 John 1:2. He also became widely known for the slogan "You can do it, it can be done, let's do it."
• Church growth: Membership, which stood at about 10,000 when the church moved to Yeouido in 1973, grew to about 400,000 by 1984 and surpassed 700,000 in 1992. In 1993 the church was reportedly listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest church. Its cell system, which divides members into small groups for pastoral care, was also adopted by pastors overseas.
• Denomination and world missions: In 1966 Cho became general superintendent of the Korea Assemblies of God. In 1976 he became president of Church Growth International, and from 1992 to 2008 he served as chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. He held large-scale crusades in Moscow in 1992 and in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1997.
• Media and welfare: In 1988 he founded the Kukmin Ilbo, and in 1999 he established the incorporated association Seonhan Saramdeul (now Good People International). He also took an interest in aid projects for North Korea.

Influence on the Korean Church

Cho is regarded as one of the leading pastors of the era of Korean church growth and is frequently cited as a symbol of the megachurch phenomenon. He is credited with having a major influence on the spread of Pentecostal faith, with its emphasis on speaking in tongues, divine healing, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, in both the Korean church and the worldwide church.

Assessment

Supporters regard him as a preacher who brought hope amid the poverty that followed the war and who led the revival of the Korean church and its world missions. At his death, the United Christian Churches of Korea honored him as the pastor who had led the world's largest church. Some in the church and in academia, however, have long criticized messages such as the Threefold Blessing, which emphasize success and blessing, as liable to drift into a faith centered on seeking material blessings or into prosperity theology.

Cho was also convicted of a crime related to church finances. In 2013 he was indicted on charges that in 2002, while serving as senior pastor, he had caused the church to purchase 250,000 shares of an unlisted company owned by his eldest son, Cho Hee-jun, former chairman of the Kukmin Ilbo, at a price above fair value, thereby causing losses to the church. The trial court sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended for five years. The appellate court acquitted him of tax evasion and reduced his sentence, taking into account, among other factors, that he had not obtained any personal gain. On May 17, 2017, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction for occupational breach of trust and finalized a sentence of two years and six months in prison, suspended for four years.