교회가 참여하는 도시 지역공동체 세우기

Abstract

In this study, the characteristics of cities that constitute environment for living in a modern, industrialized society are examined, and as an attempt to overcome problems of cities, local community movement is discussed. This study organizes and analyzes the results of in-depth interviews of church leaders from 16 case studies of churches that actually participate in local community movement, and explores implications from a Christian perspective. Churches involved in the case studies come from diverse historical backgrounds and denominations, from the conservative Hapdong to the progressive Christian Presbyterians. The size of the churches was relatively small at 100 or less. The reason for selecting smaller churches was because of the greater meaning attributed to the smaller churches that has less resource than larger churches but participated in resident type activities. Especially, 5 new churches had interest in local community movement from the time the church was founded. It is also shown recently regarding activities that the majority of activities involve residents in general as oppose to a certain age group or class. The motivation for involvement can be classified according to those that began this movement with a belief that the church needs to be together with community, either from the founding of the church or from the time the pastor who currently leads the local community movement is installed, or those that didn’t have a clear recognition in the beginning but through a certain incident realized the need and began participating. The usual process of forming a consensus generally began with pastors recognizing the need for community involvement, after which, through sermons and education, members are motivated. As members who practice typical Christian living tend to focus on personal walk of faith and church life and thus, lack the recognition for the need for this kind of movement. Thus, from the perspective of the pastors, persuading current members and motivating them are the major tasks. The success of the movement is that initially, in regards to the local community, an opportunity to meet together with local residents is provided without any strings attached. As trust towards church deteriorated it became more difficult to meet people. Especially, pastors of smaller churches have a greater hurdle to advertise their churches, but the advantage of these movements is that the pastors can readily meet and communicate with residents through these movements. For those pastors who began these movements from the beginning of the founding of the church voice that it is a good church planting model. The subsequent success in regards to the church is that the members have become mindful of the local community and their perspective on community have widened. The task going forward is sustainability. Rather than expecting success in a short time by making local community movement as a means of evangelism, it is desirable to place its value in the movement itself as a way of loving the neighbors and continually unfolding it. Also, there will be many trials and errors in the process as well as various conflicts among participants. Different interests collide and compete for initiatives, so it is important for pastors or churches not to become biased but centered. Lastly, since the majority of the members of the movement in our nation are highly-educated professionals from upper-middle class, the important task is how to involve the lower- middle class who lack marginal time due to current livelihood problems..