This March, I had the unexpected opportunity of visiting Sansung Church in Daejeon, South Korea. This was thanks to Pastor Ban of Shonan Community Church in Japan. I heard about how, through Sansung Church, Pastor Ban decided to become a missionary to Japan. It was an amazing story of God’s leading and His great plans.
Sansung Church is Methodist in affliation and has over 3,000 members. I will try to summarize what I learned about this church:
1) Led by a senior pastor and 14 assistant pastors and staff members, Sansung has grown to two church sites. Not centered merely on programs, the church focuses on making disciples — that is, believers who are able to make other disciples in turn.
2) 53% of members attend a cell group or small group, where they discuss the sermons. The objective of these small groups is to grow believers who trust in and base their lives upon the Bible.
3) The church invests a great deal in the nurturing of children and youth. There are programs for young people (from toddler to high school age) across the two church sites, at 10am and 12pm. Regular Sunday services are at 6:30am, 8am, 10am, and 12pm.
4) They emphasize the importance of prayer and seek to live in a posture of being led by the Holy Spirit.
Those are the points which most struck me about Sansung Church.
My hope is that churches such as Sansung which have grown so much under God’s blessing will be able to partner with smaller, struggling churches in Japan. For instance, we have talked about the sending of a mission team from Korea who can conduct “kimchi-making evangelism”. I would be most thankful if I have a chance to witness such growth in Japanese churches.
— Shoichi Ino
