Centering On The Gospel In South Korea

I recently asked my friend, Pastor Songhwan Kang, Lead Pastor of Lord’s Grace Church in Korea, if he’d be willing to write us an update on his church and his writings. This was his wonderful reply…

I am Songhwan Kang, and I serve the Lord’s Grace Church in South Korea. It is God's grace and joy for me to able to deliver the latest news of our church to our friends at SG. 

Lord’s Grace Church has recently moved to a new location. It was difficult to move from a familiar location to which we had grown an attachment to for the past 10 years to a new region, but the moving process was a special event for the church community to be able to experience God's goodness and faithful guidance. We thank our SG friends for your prayers.

In the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic for the past year and a half, our church is periodically repeating both offline and online worship. Yet even in the uncertainty of the pandemic, God has protected the church and the members. Although sometimes we worship at home via YouTube, we are all praising the gospel of His grace. We are also having small group meetings online but are still growing in love by caring for and encouraging each other.

This September is Lord’s Grace Church’s 11th year anniversary. 11 years of God’s grace and kindness, and one of the fruits that we are thankful to God from this time, has been the publishing of two books: “The Steadfast Christian in the Gospel” and "The Steadfast Parenting in the Gospel”. 

The first book I wrote by myself, and the second book with my wife, Miran. These books are all about what my wife and I learned through our 15 years of experience with Sovereign Grace. These books are a summary of what a gospel-centered church is, what gospel-centered parenting is, and what our church members have learned together and applied in our lives. I would like to express my gratitude to my precious friends at SG who have been a role model for me in living the life in the gospel. I thank pastors Dave Taylor, Larry Malament, and Marty Machowski for encouraging me to write this book.

There were two reasons for me to write these books. The first reason was to teach the new members of the church the core values of the gospel and how to live a gospel centered life (humility, the church community, biblical masculinity and femininity, God's sovereignty, etc.). Raising children is an important issue for Korean families., and so I wanted to write about what gospel-centered parenting is. But more than that, I wanted to ensure that all of our church members would not forget the importance of a gospel-centered church and life. The book, “The Steadfast Christian in the Gospel” is therefore being used as a one-to-one training material in our church. 

The second reason was to introduce the core values of SG to Korean churches. Many pastors wonder what a healthy gospel-centered church is and are curious how the gospel is applied to the lives of believers. Through this book, I wanted to share this vision with other pastors in Korea. 

I am not a theologian with excellent theological knowledge. I'm not a writer who likes to write. However, my earnest hope is that gospel-centered healthy churches like SG would be established in Korea. Because of this hope, God gave me and my wife the courage to write these books.

I ask all my friends reading this to pray for Korea. Please pray that the beautiful Church of the Lord would be established through Lord’s Grace church and that we will be able to plant another gospel-centered church within the next few years. Please pray that He will use our church to turn many lost souls back to the Lord. On behalf of our church, I express our gratitude for your continuous love and care.