Ha Yong-jo

Life

Ha was born the third of six children (three sons and three daughters) into a family that had kept the Christian faith for generations. Onnuri Church's official chronology gives his birthplace as Gangseo County, South Pyongan Province, while other sources name Jinnampo, South Pyongan. During the Korean War his family fled south to Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, where he grew up. After attending Daekwang High School, he entered Konkuk University to study animal products processing.

In 1965 he joined Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC), and at its summer retreat the following year he experienced conversion. He then served with KCCC for seven years under the guidance of Rev. Kim Joon-gon. In 1972 he entered Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary and served as an education evangelist at Mapo Church. In May 1976 he was ordained as a minister by the Mokpo Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap). Even before his ordination he had led a Bible study group for entertainers, and upon his ordination he planted the Entertainers' Church with them. It is regarded as the first church for entertainers in Korea.

After returning to Korea in 1985, he began a Bible study with twelve families, and on October 6 of that year he formally founded Onnuri Church in Yongsan District, Seoul. He struggled with illness throughout his life. He underwent seven operations for liver cancer, and in his final years he received dialysis three times a week for more than five years, yet continued to preach on Sundays. From 2006 he stayed in Japan to recuperate, traveling back and forth to Korea to carry on his ministry. In the early morning of August 1, 2011, he collapsed at his home from a cerebral hemorrhage, and he died the following day. Rev. Lee Jae-hoon succeeded him as the second senior pastor of Onnuri Church.

Ministry and Achievements

• Onnuri Church: He adopted "Acts 29" as the church's vision. The phrase is understood to mean that today's church continues writing the story that follows chapter 28 of the Acts of the Apostles. At the time of his death, the press reported that the church had about 75,000 registered members and had sent 1,220 missionaries overseas.
• Duranno: In 1980, five years before planting the church, he founded the publishing house Duranno, broadening the scope of literature ministry.
• Worship and the Word: He fostered the spiritual growth of church members through expository preaching (preaching that explains a biblical text passage by passage) and quiet time (QT, the daily reading of and meditation on Scripture). He is also credited with introducing the "praise and worship" format into worship services.
• Love Sonata: He held gatherings in Japan that combined Korean Wave culture with evangelism. At the Tokyo gathering in July 2007, he baptized Lee O-young, a former Minister of Culture.
• Education and broadcasting: He became chairman of the board of Handong Global University in 1995 and also served as chairman of the board of Jeonju University. He is also reported to have served as the founding chairman of CGNTV and as president of Torch Trinity Graduate University.

Influence on the Korean Church

Together with Revs. Ok Han-hum, Hong Jung-kil, and Lee Dong-won, he was known in Korean church circles as one of the "Evangelical Big Four." With them he led a Bible-centered evangelical movement and an overseas missions movement. He is credited with introducing the concepts of "open evangelism" and "cultural evangelism," which departed from rigid preaching formats and even incorporated popular music and fashion shows. His books include I Staked My Life on Missions and I Dream of an Acts-Style Church. More than ten years after his death, videos of his sermons continue to draw large audiences on the YouTube channel operated by CGNTV.

Assessment

His successor, Rev. Lee Jae-hoon, observed that Ha began Onnuri Church not as a copy of existing churches but as a missional church that broke with the traditions of the time, and that the new approaches he introduced spread to other churches as well. Ha himself offered pointed criticism of the Korean church, urging that it "must return to Scripture and to the essentials." Onnuri Church grew into one of South Korea's leading megachurches.