Building up the local church through a need-oriented diaconal ministry in South Korea

Abstract

The theme of this study is the relationship between recruiting non-Christians for the Korean church through the patterns or styles of its diaconal services, and its influence on the religious actions of the church in South Korea. Chapter 1 defines introductory matters: the theme and its motivation, the statement of the problem, the extent of the problem and its purpose, the hypothesis of this dissertation, its structure, delimitation and key concepts. In Chapter 2 a diaconal ministry effective for the local community is dealt with. It integrates the meaning or usage of diakonia from biblical, historical and theological perspectives, especially to ascertain the theoretical foundation that will meet the need of the local community and will lead them to salvation. The characteristics of the local community are studied to find how the community influences the forms of the diaconal ministry, how the diaconal service can influence changes in the community, and the interrelations between the church and the community. In Chapter 3 the theoretical backgrounds of congregational development is studied from biblical, theological and historical perspectives. Such a building up of the local church plays an important role to motivate the Korean church to realise its missional task to preach the gospel, to stimulate its spiritual dynamics, to meet the various needs of the local community, and to quicken the members to do the work expected of the body of Christ. Chapter 4 deals with the empirical perspective. There are many methods of social research. According to the applied research method the Baby School of the Choongshin church and the Pregnant Women’s Group&the Baby School of the Gwangyang Daegwang church are analysed. The theories or hypotheses derived from Chapters 2 and 3 are revisited, in relationship to the empirical perspective. With this process, an effective building up of the local church is interpreted as seen from a need-oriented diaconal ministry that complies directly and intimately with the local community and people’s actual needs. Chapter 5 deals with a strategic perspective. It looks at the main factors these two models have in common in the light of a methodological model. Through this model, the use of the diaconal ministry that intimately and lastingly satisfies the need of the local community is indicated with a view to an effective building up of the local church in the Korean society. Applicable strategies and principles to construct successful need-oriented diaconal services for Korean congregational development in different situations are synthetically presented.