Strengthening Partnerships in South Korea
If you traveled to Lord’s Grace in Suwon South Korea, you’d soon discover the only difference between your home church and Lord’s Grace Church is the language. Pastor Songhwan Kang and his wife Miran have given their lives to build a gospel-centered church in South Korea that models the values and virtues we in Sovereign Grace have come to love.
In fact, Yeon Jin Kim, a member of Lord’s Grace Church, recently translated the Sovereign Grace Journals on Our Shared Values and Our Shaping Virtues into Korean. Songhwan gave them away to the nine area pastors and their wives who joined us for our pastor’s seminar on gospel-centered sanctification and counseling.
The pastors gathered were amazed as they witnessed the partnership between Sovereign Grace Churches in sending me to support and partner with Songhwan and his wife and Lord’s Grace Church. Most church planters in Korea struggle all alone to build their churches. I am grateful for the support of the Northeast Region of Sovereign Grace for covering the expenses for my trip to South Korea and I am not surprised that this gesture of partnership had such a deep impact. By the end of the pastor’s seminar, the pastors who attended from other churches were asking if I would return again. Privately some of the men asked if I would extend my next trip to visit with their churches also. Some of these pastors have expressed a desire to join Sovereign Grace and are eager for their people to experience gospel-centered teaching and care.
Songhwan and his wife have modeled biblical fellowship in their church. Korean Christians struggle to share their lives with other believers as they work to break free of a strong history of shame culture where you do not share your weaknesses and family trials. By modeling humility and promoting CJ Mahaney’s book on the topic, Songhwan, and Miran have helped the couples in Lord’s Grace Church to begin sharing their struggles with one another.
Marty Machowski is a Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, USA and Emerging Nations Representative to South Korea.
The blog post “Strengthening Gospel Partnership in South Korea” originally appeared on the SGC Missions blog on Feb. 2, 2024.