Many Christians in Korea worry about what they see is happening to the Church of England. This is because there are many churches that are closed, and I keep hearing the heartbreaking stories that the buildings are being sold turning into shops, offices and even mosques. In fact, there is a church building that has been converted into a Buddha Hall near the back alley of our Central Church, and there is a pretty church that has been converted into a company building near our Wimbledon church. Whenever I pass these places, I pray “please give me the opportunity to purchase back the churches”.
Despite this, there is still good news that Christianity in England has grown significantly over the recent years after the pandemic. In both Wales and England, the number of churchgoers who attend church at least one a month has increased from 8% to 12% over the past 7 years. In particular, the number of young people aged between 18-24 has increased significantly from 4% to 16%, which has been led by diaspora churches like ours. Although it cannot be generalised by an institution’s report, it is surprising that there are such positive changes.
Every Saturday during evangelism in the streets of London, there are many people who are willing to listen to the gospel. Perhaps because it is the land of the gentry as even when they reject the gospel, they are still polite. Nonetheless, there are many occasions when people accept Jesus through our evangelism, and I believe Britian is certainly more powerful than any other European countries because there are still many faithful followers of Jesus all around the country.
Sometimes I encounter Christians who are fixated with London. I am also one of them, but I’m hopeful that there will be a major spiritual change here. I believe that passionate and conservative diaspora churches will play a big part in the work, and the next generation born and raised here will be the last runners to preach the gospel to the end of the earth. In the past, if the flames of a revival started from one part of Wales to spread across the world, the epicentre of the last major revival will occur simultaneously in large cities such as London.
Churches in London are continuing to revive, and they are being pioneered. The city should not be viewed as the capital of a single country, but as the capital of the 56-nation commonwealth. The UK is also by far the most influential country to the world’s leading United States. Considering this, I am very excited to work here and have high expectations on how our church, which is mostly young, will be used by God.
This Thursday evening, I spoke at the campus prayer meeting. A restaurant owner I recently met also provided food for the event, and I requested him to do the same moving forward. On Friday evening, there was a service at the Nepalese Church in Croydon as we declared them as our church’s Daughter Church. I led a ceremony for the appointment of one of the church’s deacons and I met the pastor of the Federation of Nepali Churches, who preached on this day. There were youths from the Nepal Youth Camp back in the summer greeting me with joy. I also met the Worshiper leader couple who established the Birmingham Nepal Church with Elder Anil. While watching the event, I could see a lot of clumsy things, but while I was sitting down, I was moved because I felt that it was a place of mission and I thanked God.
