In the late 19th century, Christianity was almost non-existent in South Korea.  Today one-third of South Koreans are Christian—some 9 million Protestants and 3 to 4 million Catholics.  The capital Seoul claims 10 of the 11 largest Christian congregations in the world.  This explosive church growth is sometimes referred to as the “Korean miracle”.

What identifiable factors contributed to Korea’s church growth?  Dr Timothy Kiho Park, Director of Fuller Theological Seminary’s Korean studies program and a native-born Korean, says that foreign missionaries encouraged Korean disciples to be equipped and trained for positions of leadership.

One key to the rapid growth was the strategy adopted by the young pioneer missionaries, which emphasized developing indigenous leadership: "self-government, self-propagation of the faith, and self-support."

"This encouraged national leaders to take care of their own affairs without foreign control or funding," Dr. Park says. "They practiced it from the beginning, advising but letting the Koreans preach and run the churches."

Glenn Penner of Voice of the Martyrs Canada adds:

This is only one more piece of evidence that the practice of supporting national pastors and evangelists with foreign funding is not essential to church growth in a nation. We are often told by those who promote such ministries that the gospel is being hindered today in many nations because local leaders cannot afford to minister full-time or because they are so poor. We at The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada do not believe that this is the case.
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We believe at VOMC that churches that do not depend on outside funding of their leadership, in particular, grow more consistently in the long run and are healthier from a biblical perspective.

Today, South Korea sends more missionaries overseas to spread the gospel than any other country, except the United States.  It is estimated that 16,000 Korean missionaries are presently at work in foreign mission fields.