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

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.