Missionary Sending by the Korean Church

Background

Korean Protestantism took root through the work of foreign missionaries after the arrival of Horace Underwood and Henry Appenzeller in 1885. Not long after it began receiving missionaries, the Korean church started sending missionaries of its own. Two factors are commonly cited as background. The first is the Nevius Mission Plan, which emphasized self-support and self-propagation (the church spreading the gospel through its own efforts). The second is the Pyongyang Great Revival of 1907.

Development

Early Sending

• In 1907, with the organization of the Presbyterian Independent Presbytery, the first seven Korean pastors were ordained. The sending of one of them, Yi Ki-pung, as a missionary to Jeju Island is often regarded as the beginning of missionary sending by the Korean church.
• After the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Chosen was organized in 1912, the pastors Pak Tae-ro, Sa Byeong-sun, and Kim Yeong-hun are reported to have been sent to Shandong Province in China in 1913.
• Overseas sending declined sharply during the final years of Japanese colonial rule and during the Korean War.

Resumption and Rapid Growth

After liberation, the Korean church once again began sending missionaries to Southeast Asia and other regions. In the 1970s and 1980s, large-scale gatherings such as Explo '74, along with campus mission organizations, are credited with mobilizing people committed to missions. In the late 1980s, the liberalization of overseas travel and economic growth led to a rapid increase in sending. Alongside denominational mission boards, many interdenominational mission organizations were also established. The Korea World Missions Association (KWMA) serves as a council of these denominations and organizations.

Results and Impact

Beginning with the 2020 survey, KWMA and the Korea Research Institute for Mission (KRIM) have published unified statistics. As of the end of 2023, there were 21,917 Korean long-term missionaries in 174 countries. By the end of 2024, the number had fallen to 21,621 in 171 countries; the number of long-term missionaries has declined every year since 2020. The same survey counted 516 short-term missionaries affiliated with mission organizations and 986 missionaries of other nationalities sent by Korean organizations.

In the 2024 survey, the country of service with the most missionaries was the United States (1,902), followed by the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand. For security reasons, some countries are identified by region or by initials rather than by name. The most common type of ministry was church planting (10,058), followed by discipleship training. Self-supporting (tentmaking) missionaries, who support themselves through employment rather than relying on donations, were estimated to make up 18.42% of the total. Missionaries serving immigrants within Korea are counted separately.

Assessment

The Korean church is frequently cited as an example of a church that changed from receiving missionaries to sending them. At the same time, aging has been identified as a major challenge. As of the end of 2024, 69.25% of long-term missionaries were in their fifties or older. The average age rose from 52.1 in 2020 to 53.9 in 2024, and the proportion of newly sent missionaries each year has hovered around 3%.

Criticisms such as the following have also been raised both within and outside the missions community:

• Ministry centered on church buildings and church planting
• Competition and duplicated investment among organizations
• Insufficient cooperation with local churches
• Provision for missionaries' livelihood after retirement
• Safety concerns regarding short-term missions to dangerous areas (a particular controversy after the 2007 kidnapping of Koreans in Afghanistan)

Perspectives on mission also differ. Ecumenically oriented denominations tend to place relatively greater emphasis on cooperation with local churches and on social service, while evangelically oriented denominations and organizations tend to place relatively greater emphasis on evangelism and church planting in regions the gospel has not yet reached.