Minjung Church

Definition and Meaning

A minjung church is a church that calls those pushed to the margins of society, such as workers, the urban poor, and farmers, the "minjung" (the people), and that understands its mission as sharing in their lives in the communities where they live. Such churches were founded mainly in factory districts and poor urban neighborhoods during the 1970s and 1980s. Alongside worship, many minjung churches ran programs such as night schools, childcare centers, and labor counseling. Their sanctuaries also served as everyday gathering places for local residents. Their theological foundation is minjung theology.

Biblical and Historical Background

Proponents of the minjung church cite the following passages:

• Luke 4:18, in which Jesus declares that he has come to preach the gospel to the poor. This verse quotes Isaiah 61:1–3.
• Luke 6:20, which begins, "Blessed be ye poor."
• The Exodus narrative of deliverance from oppression.

The minjung theologian Ahn Byung-mu focused on the "crowd" (Greek ochlos) that followed Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. He emphasized that Jesus stood with the marginalized crowd.

Historically, the groundwork was laid by the industrial missions and missions to the poor that Protestant denominations carried out among factory workers and the urban poor beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. During the rapid industrialization and the Yushin regime of the 1970s, this experience in the field was developed into minjung theology by Suh Nam-dong, Ahn Byung-mu, and others. In the 1980s, pastors working in these settings are reported to have founded a succession of minjung churches and to have formed associations within their denominations. Many minjung churches took part in the labor movement and the democratization movement.

Practice in the Korean Church

Denominations differ in their relationships with minjung churches and in their assessments of them.

• Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea: Regarded as the denomination in which minjung theology and the minjung church movement were most active.
• Korean Methodist Church: Some pastors founded minjung churches out of their ministry to the urban poor.
• Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap): Has continued its ministry to workers through its industrial mission agencies.
• Conservative denominations and evangelicals: Conservative Presbyterian bodies such as the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong), along with parts of the evangelical camp, have criticized minjung theology, arguing that it reduces sin and salvation to social and political issues and weakens the emphasis on personal conversion and evangelism. Minjung church proponents respond that holding personal salvation and social action together is what the Bible means by the kingdom of God.

Following democratization, many minjung churches are reported to have shifted their focus in the 1990s toward local community work, such as community children's centers, cooperatives, and care for the elderly and migrant workers. Some of these churches describe themselves as "neighborhood churches" or "small churches." Because of their small membership and limited finances, many operate as financially dependent churches.