Rick Warren Forms Closer Ties with Church in Korea

"Purpose Driven" pastor Rick Warren had been inspiring waves of renewal in South Korea's churches even before he stepped foot into the country last week. Now, face-to-face with Christian leaders of a country that houses the largest churches in the world, Warren is looking to move Korean Christians towards a third major revival as bonds are tightened between him and Korea's megachurches.

After training tens of thousands of pastors throughout South Korea with the famed Purpose Driven paradigm, evangelical pastor Rick Warren visited SaRang Church in Seoul where he delivered a sermon during the church's Sunday worship. The Rev. John Oak, former senior pastor of SaRang, proposed that SaRang and Saddleback work together more closely. As SaRang has grown through discipleship training, Oak noted the church's utilizing of the 40 Days of Purpose model as a major contributor to the training program. And he expressed on Sunday his wishes to form a closer relationship with Saddleback Church. Warren commented that it was a great honor to meet the leader who raised up the church through discipleship training at a time when the Korean Church was only emphasizing worship services. He said that the life’s purpose of a disciple of Christ is to save souls and when it comes to this, SaRang is a church that has developed a good discipleship nurturing system. Warren expressed his desire to implement the system at his church in Southern California.

During his visit in South Korea, which is part of a 35-day tour of 13 nations, Warren emphasized his desire to learn from Korean churches, which have in many ways served as a model of innovation for congregations in other countries. Warren held a Purpose Driven Church conference with 20,000 pastors – the largest conference of its kind among the 162 countries they have provided such training – at Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul July 13-14. " Korea has been in great confusion and troubled socially, economically and militarily – especially the Christians," said Dr. David Yonggi Cho, senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, according to a news release. " God has used Dr. Warren to renew the Korean Church and Christian faith in Korea. I have never seen so many preachers gathered together in one place, and I am very happy about it."

Christian Post