There are so many things I learned in the past pandemic situation. Although a church size decreased as most of international students returned to Korea and as not many new students came to the UK, the size of adult/married ministry increased, and its solidarity strengthened. It also served as a good opportunity for people to get to know each other.

I personally got to have a clear understanding of what is important to a church ministry. The biggest lesson I learned from working here in London for 13 years after a long time in Korea was that I should simplify the ministry. Since there is no place of worship that we own, I was not able to do various ministries like I used to in Korea; instead, I focused on the companionship in words, prayers, evangelism and gospel, and as a result, the church became full of grace.

However, I struggled and prayed a lot as I was not able to meet our church members due to the pandemic. Some things have become busier than before to adapt to the new situation, but the ministry has become simpler than before. Many churches are creating many online gatherings and posting interesting videos on YouTube, but our church chose to focus on two important things: worship and small groups that share life in words.

Sunday schools in Korea tried to catch children’s interest with various methods and delicious snacks, but they failed to do so, from more interesting entertainments from the world and competitions for college entrance. Churches should have focused more on the gospel’s ability that the world does not have, but they did not believe in the gospel’s ability.

Likewise, even if churches now make many interesting video contents online that attract an attention of the people, they are nothing more than mimicking the world. Therefore, at first, although our church too will be able to draw interests in doing something similar, it will wither soon. Rather, we should minimize online gatherings and encourage an active participation in worship and small group gatherings, thereby people become spiritually filled with grace. And if possible, we should have our church members leave YouTube to build a prayer closet with the Lord.

Since the most important spiritual management in this online age is “media fasting,” we should make sure to dwell in the Lord, who is the vine. Otherwise, the church people will enter the church channel and eventually get lost in the flood of more interesting media in the world.

Another lesson I learned was to focus on the minority, one of the important principles in training disciples. At first, we discussed with leaders several times how to solve this difficult situation, and the important conclusion was, “Let’s do it first rather than ask others to do it.” As the leaders became united and moved, I saw the whole church moving together.
In that regards, church ministry should be simplified to focus on its essence and eventually to bear more fruits. Similarly, it should focus on a few influential leaders to eventually connect people and build a tight-knit community. Therefore, Jesus, the most capable and wise man, must have called his disciples and focused on them since the beginning of his ministry.

“Lord, please teach me and lead me more.”