Explo '74

Background

Explo '74 grew out of the National Evangelization Movement of the Rev. Kim Joon-gon, founder of Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). The National Evangelization Movement was an evangelistic campaign that sought to bring the gospel to the entire nation. While studying at Fuller Theological Seminary in the United States, Kim met Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International, and in 1958 he established CCC in Korea. In late 1970 he held a training seminar for leadership staff. Then, on New Year's Day 1971, he announced the movement's goal over the Christian Broadcasting System: "Let us plant the blood-stained Christ in the heart of every person in the nation."

In 1972, after attending Explo '72, a CCC conference held in Dallas, Kim decided to hold a similar event in Korea. There was considerable opposition even among Korea CCC staff, who argued that gathering 300,000 people in one place for residential training was unrealistic, but preparations went ahead nonetheless. In May 1973, a Billy Graham crusade had been held at the same site.

Course of Events

• November 1973: A worship service marking the start of preparations was held at the CCC building in Jeong-dong, Seoul.
• First half of 1974: Meetings of regional committee chairs were held nationwide, along with radio sermon broadcasts and preliminary lectures.
• August 13–18, 1974: The main conference took place. Kim Joon-gon served as chairman of the preparatory committee and president of the conference, and Bill Bright, Han Kyung-chik, and Kim Joon-gon were the principal speakers. The conference slogan was "Jesus Revolution." During the day, participants received training in evangelism and discipleship; in the evenings there were mass rallies and all-night prayer meetings. Participants were housed in the classrooms of some seventy nearby schools and in a large tent city.
• August 15, 1974: First Lady Yuk Young-soo was shot at the Liberation Day commemoration ceremony. Despite the somber mood, participants continued the gatherings, and that night some 20,000 people reportedly held an all-night prayer vigil in a heavy downpour.

Results and Influence

According to the organizers' figures, more than 323,000 people received residential training, and 3,400 foreign leaders from 84 countries attended. The organizers reported a cumulative attendance of 6.55 million over the course of the conference and a crowd of 1.3 million on the opening night. By contrast, the American magazine Christianity Today reported at the time that its reporters' own counts put the largest single-day crowd at close to 300,000, so attendance estimates differ.

Explo '74 is regarded as an intermediate link in the series of large evangelistic rallies of the 1970s, which continued with the 1977 National Evangelization Crusade and the 1980 World Evangelization Crusade. These gatherings are cited as one of the factors behind the growth of the Korean church. In 2024 an academic conference was held to mark the event's fiftieth anniversary.

Assessment

Scholars within evangelicalism consider Explo '74 to have played a decisive role in national evangelization. In their view, it contributed to evangelism among young people and university students and greatly influenced the Korean evangelical movement and the training of its leaders.

Others, however, criticize the event, which was held under the Yushin regime, as having been too close to the government. At a press conference during the conference, Bill Bright defended the Park Chung-hee government's crackdown on its opponents on national security grounds, and critics noted that this remark made the conference appear political. In a 1977 article, the American Christian magazine Sojourners wrote that some Korean churches had advised their members to keep their distance because of the organizers' closeness to the regime.

Kim Joon-gon's defenders explain the matter differently. For him, they argue, national evangelization took priority over criticism of the military government, and he judged that government preferable to a communist system. This debate is connected to the broader discussion of the church and politics and the church and the democratization movement.