Last Thursday evening, the annual London City Mission’s (LCM) Thanksgiving Service was held at Westminster Chapel. LCM is a Christian missionary organisation established in 1835 with around 200 full time staff. It is a well-trusted organisation, which receives continuous support from many local churches in the UK. LCM works closely with local churches and provide support through various ministry partnerships. LCM also serves and shares the gospel with the least reached people in their community, e.g. the homeless, elderly, youth, Muslims etc.

My first interaction with LCM was in the summer of 2019, when LCM invited leaders of diaspora churches for the first time. LCM had a long history of working with local churches in the UK, but had only recently started to gain interest in diaspora ministry due to the growth of diaspora churches in London and the increasing share of immigrants within local churches. They now include diaspora ministry as one of their six main ministries and host a number of conferences for diaspora church leaders. I was also invited to participate as a member of the LCM Ministry Reference Panel, where we meet with the LCM leadership team 3 times a year to have an open discussion on a particular topic.

Last year, I attended LCM’s Thanksgiving Service for the first time at All Souls Church. This year, the service was held at Westminster Chapel, where Martyn Lloyd-Jones had served as minister. He is well-known in Korea for his expository preaching. Before coming to the UK, I had wanted to visit Westminster Chapel, but for some reason or another, I hadn’t visited even once since coming to London. So attending the service at the chapel felt even more meaningful to me.

This year, I attended the Thanksgiving Service with Pastor Juyoung Park and Deacon Jeeyong Park from our Outreach Team. When attending a Korean church, there aren’t many opportunities to interact with local UK churches and missionary organisations, so I wanted them to meet ministers from other backgrounds and indirectly experience and hear about their ministries. Personally, I felt encouraged and was grateful that I was able to develop meaningful relationships with many of the church leaders. In particular, I met a few second-generation Korean pastors who were serving local UK churches. They told me that there were four second-generation Korean pastors in London and that they wanted to invite me to their bi-monthly meeting next time.

I hope that London’s local churches and missionary organisations in this great city will work together and that diaspora churches like ours will also play a part in the re-evangelization of the UK. Furthermore, I yearn to see such re-evangelization occur in the world’s major cities and to finish the Great Commission during our time. I felt very joyful and grateful after attending this year’s Thanksgiving Service. Although I and our church are still weak and lacking in many aspects, my desire to help support many churches and ministries in the UK is becoming stronger. “Lord, please keep extending our boundaries and help us to serve more people”.