엑스플로 74가 한국교회와 선교운동에 미친 영향

Abstract

During the 1970s, South Korea was developing its future while the nation was facing general economic and political problems. Explo ’74, the five-day evangelistic training event that took place in a Korean church in Seoul during that period, considered a historical event that was able to overcame rapid changes as well as crisis and displayed the direction excellently in which both Koreans and Korean churches should head. This paper examines the historical background of Explo ’74; the focus will be on the situation of both society and the church in Korea in the 1970s, and its three historical significances as it reflects on Rev. Dr. Joon Gon Kim’s influence on this international Christian congress. First, it established a foothold for the foundation of the lay movements in the Korean churches and for the church union movements. Second, it made preparations for the Mass Evangelism Movement and the church growth. Third, Dr. Kim had a great capacity to have an effect on uniting Korean churches and expanding the base of the National Evangelism Movement and the World Missionary Movement. Rev. Dr. Joon Gon Kim was a South Korean church leader who did his very best to fulfill the valuable faithful characteristics and traditions of the early days effectively in the Korean church and society even after the days of the country’s liberation and the Korean War. He gave his own life in order to apply the beautiful legacies, which he contributed greatly made to Korean society through his social participation, in new generations and situations by capturing them into his national evangelism movement as he emphasized the enlightenment, the nationalist movement, and evangelism in which early missionaries and Korean church leaders participated, and achieved revival. In that respect, his national evangelism movement is one of the movements that best embodies two things in the history of the Korean church: both the cultural mandate (Gen esis 1:28) and the Great Commission (Matthew 24:18-20) that God has given to us; and Explo ’74 can be considered a good historical example.