로잔운동 관점에서 본 작은 교회 운동

Abstract

Korean churches nowadays have faced the crisis for numerical and quantitative growth. Around 80% of the Korean churches have less than 100 attending members on Sunday worship. To make the matter worse, the next generations including primary, middle, and high schoolers are diminishing in Sunday schools. This is a serious situation with worries and shock to the Korean mentality characterized with rush and insatiable desire for growth for decades. Entering the year 2000 after the economic crisis of the latter years of 1990s, there emerged a movement called “Small Church Movement” in Korea. This movement is beyond the survival mode of smaller churches. Rather it asks a serious question about the nature of the church and pursues a new model of being a missional church. With their creative names, characteristics, coalitions, and fresh attempts, these smaller churches exert their influences in many ways. This is a very encouraging scene. The Lausanne Movement, a major world evangelical movement, makes a corrective voice to the blind and unbridled desire for the growth of the church. By examining some important parts of the Lausanne documents such as Lausanne Covenant(1974), Manila Manifesto(1989), and Cape Town Commitment(2010) mentioning about the church, this research attempts to evaluate the small church movement of Korea: its constructive aspect and its apprehensive aspect. With a newly emerging movement of the missional church and its challenge, the small church movement in Korea will provide a new opportunity, a test, and call for church renewals towards unity and maturity of the churches with their local significance.