Abstract:
According to Acts 20:28, God acquired the Church for himself with the blood of his own Son,
whilst Ephesians 4:13, 15 proposes that the Church, the body of Christ, has to grow towards
the measure of the fullness of Christ and into Christ. For this to succeed, there must be a
comprehensive approach to building the local church, even though it may not have a single
element that could account for congregational development. Building the local church (BLC)
through a needs-oriented diaconal ministry (NDM) that meets effectively the needs of the
community and its people by providing the essential functions of the church, such as koinonia,
diakonia, kerygma and leitourgia in synergy, will be helpful to congregational development,
functioning as a living organism that leads church members to vitality and equips them to
fulfil the variety of works available in the body of Christ. This article focused on two key
factors that can be used to develop a sound and effective BLC through NDM, namely, (1) BLC
through NDM supports a sound theory of congregational development and (2) BLC through
NDM makes for an effective strategy to promote congregational studies. To this end, this
article presented and interpreted data from a case study of the baby schools of Choongshin
Church and Daegwang Church and the pregnant women’s group of Daegwang Church in
South Korea, in order to prove the soundness and effectiveness of BLC through NDM and
suggest a diagram of BLC through NDM. When BLC through NDM is utilised fully and
applied to the missionary strategy in urban areas, more people will become meaningfully
involved in Christian life and membership of the churches.
Description:
This article is an adaption of
the Ph.D. disseration of Revd.
Yun which was completed
under the guidance of Prof.
Malan Nel, Department of
Practical Theology, University
of Pretoria, South Africa.