Preaching as interaction between church and culture: with specific reference to the Korean church

Abstract

The Korean church, famous for her rapid growth, has begun to notice a downward trend in her growth rate since the mid-eighties. Although many reputable investigations have recently been carried out with regard to this downward slide, these investigations have overlooked the full meaning of preaching in the interaction between church and culture. In view of this, this study sets the following four aims: (1) to investigate the reasons behind church decline in terms of preaching in the interaction between church and culture in Korea; (2) to interpret preaching in the interaction between church and culture biblically, historically and theologically in order to understand the normative Christian perceptions and practices of preaching; (3) to attempt an integration between the descriptive and the normative; and (4) to propose developmental strategies for the Korean church. To achieve these purposes, two kinds of methods are employed in this study: (a) an analysis of preaching in the interaction between church and culture both in Korea and in the normative Christian sources, with the model advocated by D Browning (1991); and (b) qualitative interviewing as an empirical interpretation with a model based on the findings of Rubin&Rubin (1995). Five claims emerge from this study: (1) How do we reset the context of preaching? (2) How do we revise the present preaching theory of the Korean church? (3) How do we define and defend conversion preaching that is seemingly exclusive in contemporary pluralistic Korean society? (4) How do we rethink and re-establish the ecclesiology of the Korean church? (5) How do we formulate the Christian culture against or in the rage of worldly thoughts and cultures in Korea? This thesis concludes by proposing preaching as interaction and the preacher as an inter-actor between church and culture. Practical strategies are developed to answer the claims.