





































Ecclesial Futures
2023 – Volume 4 – Issue 1

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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ ef13656

A R T I C L E S

DOI: 10.54195/ ef13656

Churches’ Missional Engagement During the 
Pandemic and Afterwards in Korea1

Bokyoung Park

Abstract
The paper describes new ways of missional engagement during the Covid-19 pandemic 
and afterwards in Korea. While Covid-19 is inflicting serious damage on the entire 
Korean society, the damage to the Protestant churches is serious. The local govern-
ment’s prohibition of ‘in-person gathering’ for worship resulted in the decrease of 
membership and endangered the unique paradigm of ‘in-gathering’-centred ecclesi-
ology in Korean Protestant churches.
The study tried to understand how local congregations coped with the changed situa-
tion in their missional engagement. Three congregations were used as case studies of 
how the local congregations responded to their missional tasks during the pandemic. 
With some preliminary assessments from these case studies, the paper suggests three 
ways of missional engagement of local congregation in Korea during the pandemic 
and even after the pandemic: 1) engaging personal fellowship using narratives, 2) 
performing a habitual ethical lifestyle, and 3) embracing the practice of hospitality.

Keywords: Missional engagement; Covid-19; South Korea; Local congregation; 
Storytelling; Ethical living; Hospitality

Introduction
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues and new variants are being discovered constantly, 
humanity has entered a prolonged pandemic. There is no question that Covid-19 is 
inflicting serious damage on the entire society. Not only is it posing serious risks to 

1 This paper was originally published in Korean in Theology of Mission 65 (2022): 157–88. However, it has 
been revised to suit a global audience. 



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people’s health, but due to continued social distancing working-class people are on 
the brink of bankruptcy, and a sense of despair is settling throughout the society.

Damage to ordinary Christians in Korea is also serious. The credibility of the Korean 
Protestant Church has fallen significantly during the pandemic. According to a survey, 
the credibility of the Korean Protestant Church dropped from 32% in the year 2020 
to 21% in 2021 (Ministry Data Institute 2021: 3). Such a steep decline offers a glimpse 
into the Korean Protestant Church’s fall in the perception of society. According to 
the survey, only 9% of non-Christians consider the Korean Protestant Church cred-
ible (Ministry Data Institute 2021: 3), and this phenomenon can be expected to 
have a negative impact on communicating the gospel in society. Besides, there is 
already widespread aversion to the church throughout Korean society. Due to media 
reports of church gatherings becoming Covid-19 super-spreading events, Protestant 
churches have been labelled as anti-social institutions.

As society increasingly regards Christianity in a negative light, internally, churches 
are seeing an accelerated loss of membership. How can the church carry out its task 
of communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ in a new way in this new context? How 
can we engage missionally in this time? To find the new way, this paper attempts 
to find the answer from local churches. Based on their actual response, the paper 
proposes a new way for missional engagement especially during the pandemic era, 
and even applicable to the time afterwards.

Korean society and churches during the pandemic
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the unchanging truth but the form containing that truth 
must be renewed for each generation. In this changed situation, we are called to 
discover new and more appropriate approaches to missional engagement for this 
generation. So what are the new factors that have descended on Korean society 
recently? Lee Mann-shik identified five general changes to Korean society (Lee 
2021:  18–29). First is the generational imbalance due to low birthrate and rapid 
aging. As lifespans lengthen and the senior population increases to accelerate popu-
lation aging, various factors are worsening the problem of low birthrate to result 
in generational imbalance. Second, with the improvement of women’s status, new 
family structures – especially the single-person household – are appearing. Third, 
the transition to postmodern society is evident in relativistic views on truth and chal-
lenges to authority. Fourth, Lee identified the loss of joie de vivre as a character-
istic of Korean society today. Severe competition and chronic fatigue are causing 
society-wide depression. Fifth, Korea is becoming multicultural due to the constant 
increase of immigration from various Asian countries. These characteristics existed 



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in Korean society before the pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated the changes 
already begun.

Among these factors, the rise of single-person households warrants special atten-
tion. This is forming a culture of aloneness and hastening the transition into the age 
of digital media ( Ji 2020: 318–21). Among many causes behind the dawning age of 
digital media is the coming of age of the digital generation. They hold fundamen-
tally different values from previous generations. The characteristics of the digital 
generation are identified as follows. First, as the internet is easily accessible, there is 
the equalization of knowledge, naturally resulting in anti-hierarchical relationships. 
The digital generation is anti-authoritarian and prefers to work in start-up compa-
nies that tend to be less authoritarian and encourage creative approaches. Second, 
the digital generation is emotionally sensitive, values self-expression and individual 
experience, and prioritizes the individual rather than the collective. Third, they value 
individual rights, while at the same time being interested in social issues that they 
encounter online. In a nutshell, they actively participate in various social issues and 
monitor society’s moral standing (Nam 2020: 96–97).

In addition, the prolonged pandemic became another factor in the rapid emergence 
of the digital age. As the pandemic continued people spent more time alone. With 
social distancing, meetings were limited, and people quickly entered the digital 
space. As social distancing was prolonged in the pandemic, these phenomena inten-
sified. The age of digital media has inescapably dawned on us.

The trend of finding information from algorithm-focused media is intensifying polar-
ization by class and age. Bias according to individuals’ ideological preconceptions is 
further isolating the people from other people who hold different ideas and is inten-
sifying the information bubble with others who hold similar views, which results in 
deepening social polarization.

Furthermore, months of the Covid-19 pandemic is also causing depression 
throughout society. Due to the pandemic, opportunities for in-person encounters 
are minimized and everyone is forced into an “un-tact” lifestyle. This lifestyle is natu-
rally intensifying anxiety and depression in the phenomenon of “Covid blues” ( Jung 
2021: 69). Loneliness had already been a feature of modern society, but prolonged 
social distancing has intensified the loneliness (Choi 2020; Jung 2021: 71). These are 
the situations the churches are facing in their surrounding world.

Then, what is the situation with the Korean Protestant Church in this age of pandemic? 
In the pandemic, loss of church membership is evident. Even before the pandemic, 



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Protestant churches suffered from a negative image due to media reporting on some 
problematic churches with their obsession with growth and extravagant building 
construction. The scandalous news of hereditary succession of mega-church lead-
ership also brings them into social contempt with the public. The public news that 
reports about heretical groups of fanatic believers also brings negative images of 
churches. This negative image of the church became a major stumbling block in 
sharing the gospel with the public. In the meantime, smaller churches also suffered 
financially. New members were few and far between while existing members were 
leaving the church.

During the pandemic, Protestant church membership decreased even more. Jeong 
Jae-young predicts that in the pandemic the most visibly accelerating phenomena will 
be the increase of “unchurched believers” and the loss of church membership ( Jung 
2021: 72–73). Before the pandemic, there were more than 1.5 million “unchurched 
believers”, many of them deciding to leave after being disappointed by churches. 
Considering the unique characteristics of Korean Protestants, that is, confessing the 
Christian faith is identified with being a member of a local congregation, increasing 
the “unchurched believers” who adhere to Christian faith but refuse to be members 
of a local congregation, a new phenomenon in Korean Protestant churches.

In the Korean Protestant Church, the ecclesiology of the “in-gathering paradigm” 
emerged from its unique history. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centu-
ries, Christians faced persecution and resistance in society. Conversion to Christi-
anity meant detachment from traditional paganism. This separation from society 
coincided with a new sense of belonging to the local congregation. The local church 
provided space for communal fellowship and solidarity to provide emotional support. 
In addition, church programmes such as Bible study groups and spiritual training 
programmes for church members also heightened the “in-gathering” paradigm. As a 
result, loyalty to local congregations is very evident, and their identity as Christians 
is often associated with their regular attendance at Sunday worship services. The 
“in-gathering paradigm” was inevitable in such a social context (Han 2016: 17–18). 
Therefore, when the pandemic hit, the government prohibition against in-person 
gatherings for church services posed a crisis, even a threat, and was met with severe 
resistance by some conservative Christians. Among them, some had expressed their 
strongest protest, publicly criticizing the current administration’s social distancing 
policy. They called the policy a persecution that threatened their freedom of 
assembly. Unlike a few extreme conservative groups, many local churches proac-
tively accepted the prohibition regulation of in-person gatherings. These groups 
considered the new situation to be an opportunity to overcome serious polarization 



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between church and society which had been a major side-effect of the “in-gathering” 
paradigm.

In sum, during the pandemic, the Korean Protestant Church had experienced serious 
decline and many committed Christians turned into “unchurched believers”. Public 
perception of the Korean Protestant Church is worsening due to negative images 
shown in media reporting of some extremist conservative churches that put up 
strong resistance to the social distancing policy. Due to regulations against and limi-
tations to in-person gatherings for worship services, churches lost membership 
during the pandemic.

Missional engagement of local congregations during 
the pandemic
The pandemic has abruptly caused major changes in the Korean Protestant churches 
– changes nobody could have prepared for it in advance. The previous section gave 
an overview of changes to the Korean Protestant churches. This section more specif-
ically explores how local churches have responded in their missional efforts. This 
is a field study of three specific local churches and their attempts to communi-
cate the gospel during the pandemic. For this, I conducted these interviews from 
March to June 2021 at Dongil Presbyterian Church, Baegut Joeun Church and Onnuri 
Vision Church. These churches had a membership of 1000 to 2000, and all belong to 
the Presbyterian Church of Korea. All three churches are considered middle-sized 
churches with sufficient ministers to support the changed situation caused by the 
pandemic.

Dongil Presbyterian Church2

Dongil Presbyterian Church is typical in its indirect approach to missional engage-
ment. The church successfully adjusted to local government’s prohibitions against 
gatherings thanks to their new programme of Family Worship that started three 
years ago. The church distributes a 365-Day Bible Verse Memorization, Meditation, and 
Home Worship guide to all members both as booklets and through social media. Each 
family logs on through a link online to have Family Worship sessions. Along with this 
emphasis on worship in the family unit, Bible verse memorization was also encour-
aged for the congregants’ spiritual training.

2 The interview with Rev. Kim Hui-Hyun, the senior pastor of Dongil Presbyterian Church, was carried out 
on 11 March 2021.



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Moreover, since church members were not allowed to gather, the church started a 
new ministry of distribution of church newsletters. Newsletters are sent out three 
times each week. Scenes in Dongil Community is about various events that happened 
in church in the past week. On Thursdays, Dongil Mission Bulletin and Dongil Church 
School Bulletin were sent out. The purpose of these newsletters is to continue deliv-
ering church-related information and to strengthen the members’ sense of belonging 
even when they cannot attend in-person worship.

A new ministry that started in the pandemic was the Online Prayer Room ministry. 
The link to the Prayer Room is sent out to congregants every Monday through Kakao 
Talk (a Korean social media platform). Individuals can go online to join the Online 
Prayer Session. Each person may participate whenever they can, whether at home 
or in the office, by clicking onto the link and following through the prayers according 
to a preset sequence. The last part of the Online Prayer Session encourages partici-
pants to contribute their own prayer requests, which also functions as a satisfaction 
survey for this ministry.

Dongil Presbyterian Church also conducted several neighbourhood ministries. 
When Covid-19 cases were identified among church members, they proactively 
encouraged PCR testing for the whole congregation and followed hygiene require-
ments suggested by the local government. While some conservative churches’ 
resistant and uncooperative attitude became scandalous to the public, this church 
tried to show a more positive image of the church to its neighbours by responding 
proactively on disease prevention. When there was a period of mask shortage, they 
distributed masks to the poor and to marginalized groups in the neighbourhood 
free of charge. The church especially prioritized mask distribution to foreign labour 
migrants who could not buy the masks without citizenship identification numbers. 
When local small businesses struggled with social distancing measures, the church 
began a campaign among congregants to buy things from these local businesses. 
They also explored other volunteer opportunities to deliver gifts to the marginalized 
in the local area. Moreover, special offerings were regularly sent to other churches 
that were suffering financially.

Baegot Joeun Church3

Baegot Joeun Church, located near the city of Incheon, is an extraordinary case of 
a local congregation that actively conducted an evangelistic campaign during the 

3 See their homepage http://thegoodchurch.co.kr/main/main.html. The interview with Rev. Park Joseph 
was conducted on 13 May 2021 at his church. See also Shin Dong-ha 2020. 

http://thegoodchurch.co.kr/main/main.html


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Covid-19 pandemic and even saw notable results. This church’s outreach ministry 
is centred around Open Cell Group Gatherings. Open Cell Group Gatherings are an 
outreach strategy uniquely developed by this church. In these groups, non-Chris-
tians are invited to hear the gospel and commit to the faith. Unlike many churches in 
Korea, outreach ministry is not only the task of individual church members, but also 
of the cell group.

This is how Open Cell Groups operate. First, the groups are organized and started 
entirely by voluntary initiative of group leaders. New groups then emerge out of 
these existing groups, headed by leaders who have been trained and appointed by 
the original group. In this way, cell groups continue to divide and expand. When three 
or more cell groups form in this way, the original cell group leader is promoted to 
regional leadership, and he or she may take more responsibilities in ministering to 
cell groups. In this way, the lay leader’s ministry influence also expands.

Outreach campaigns by cell groups are also the focal point of this church’s outreach 
ministry. Each year the church organizes a ten-week outreach festival to invite 
non-Christians. During this period, new members are invited to the church. But the 
focus is not on bringing new members but encouraging existing church members to 
become passionate about sharing the gospel. The first five weeks are critical, when 
cell group members go through preparatory training on outreach ministry. Then each 
cell group considers and identifies potential converts, sets a numerical target for the 
group, and writes down the names of potential converts. Simply writing down the 
names of potential converts is enough to remind cell group members of the impor-
tance of outreach ministry. Sermons and Bible study lessons delivered in this period 
also encourage the church to be passionate about evangelistic outreach.

During the pandemic, however, in-person gatherings in cell groups became diffi-
cult. As the public image of the church got worse, a ten-week evangelistic outreach 
festival was almost an impossibility. After some consideration, the church decided to 
hold the festival in an alternate form while respecting social distancing regulations. 
Open Cell Group Gathering used to mean inviting non-Christians to the cell group 
leader’s house, but with the regulation against private gatherings of five or more 
people, Open Cell Groups that used to involve ten to twenty people were further 
divided into more frequent sessions involving four or less people gathering in loca-
tions convenient to the invited non-Christian. The Evangelistic Outreach Festival of 
Open Cell Groups was organized and resulted in the commitment of a higher number 
of new converts than in previous years. When non-Christians who had been isolated 
by social distancing measures were invited to small groups, they were even more 



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willing to join the church than before. This proved that Open Cells for evangelistic 
outreach were an even more effective approach during the pandemic.

Onnuri Vision Church4

The city of Suwon, where Onnuri Vision Church is located, is a region where a compar-
atively younger population resides and works in various companies in the area. This 
means that the church had to respond to the pandemic faster than in other regions. 
The news of certain uncooperative churches spread rapidly through the media and 
among company employees. The perception of the church in this region turned so 
negative that some new Christians were afraid of even stepping foot in the church 
lest they get infected. The image of the church was negatively impacting Christians 
at their workplaces. Recognizing this, the church conducted two rounds of surveys 
among church members in April and August of 2020.

In the first round of surveys in April 2020 more than half of the church members 
absolutely preferred to hold services online. In the second survey at the end of 
August, almost all the members responded that the church should continue online 
services. Onnuri Vision Church could not ignore these results. The church members 
preferred online services mainly because of unspoken pressures at their workplace. 
They did not want to risk becoming Covid patients, forcing hundreds of co-workers to 
get tested and quarantined. They also wanted to protect their young children. Espe-
cially in the August survey, the church members expressed pride in their church’s 
online services compared to some conservative churches widely criticized around 
that time for resisting government regulations. The younger church members were 
even more supportive of the church’s decision to continue with online services.

Meanwhile the church shifted its ministry focus to prepare a greater variety of online 
services. First, they began bold remodeling of the sanctuary to make it more condu-
cive to online services. To raise the level of satisfaction of the congregants, Sunday 
worship sessions that used to be held in four different time slots were divided among 
the head pastor and the assistant pastors to be uploaded online. This provided an 
opportunity for church members to experience different worship styles. The four 
different Sunday services are each produced in video format to be uploaded. There is 
a total of seven services each week, and each sermon is also uploaded, which means 
there are a lot more video clips uploaded online than in other churches that hold the 
same number of services. This is designed to provide a variety of options to church 

4 See their homepage http://www.onnurivision.org/. The interview with Rev. Kim Dong-guk, the senior 
pastor was conducted on 19 May 2021 in his office. 

http://www.onnurivision.org/


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members who participate in worship services at home. As a result, Onnuri Vision 
Church has more subscribers to its video platform than other churches of similar 
size.

Onnuri Vision Church is interested in reaching “unchurched believers”. The prolonged 
period of online worship services naturally produced non-committal Christians who 
skipped worship and eventually ended up as “unchurched believers”. But by the end 
of the pandemic at least some of them will return to the church community. Onnuri 
Vision Church is predicting a large-scale horizontal move of Christians from one 
church to another at this point. Unchurched believers will decide to settle at a church 
depending on whether the church has acted ethically during the pandemic. This 
means that constructing a positive perception of the church during the pandemic 
is critical, so Onnuri Vision is trying to be even more proactive in following social 
distancing regulations to be a model church in the local community and make for a 
positive perception. This is ultimately to attract “unchurched believers” to the church 
once in-person services resume.

*
Based on these interviews, I come to the conclusion that even though their attitudes 
toward the changed situation were different, there are a few common characteris-
tics of how these local congregations responded to the changed situation in their 
missional engagement. They are as follows.

First, during the pandemic, many Korean Protestant churches generally focused on 
membership strengthening such as implementing the programmes for the spiritual 
growth of current members rather than reaching out to non-believers. Churches 
focused on devoting themselves to survival. The most proactive missional engage-
ment that churches could offer was preventing church members from turning into 
“unchurched believers”. It is true that this is not direct engagement with nonbe-
lievers, yet strengthening the faith of existing church members was also impor-
tant missional engagement. Nominalization of the Christian faith has been one of 
the noticeable phenomena during and even before the pandemic. In light of this, 
it is meaningful enough to strengthen the existing church members. In the case of 
Dong-il Presbyterian Church, the weekly church newsletter has been an important 
source for the sharing of church members’ stories.

Second, the pandemic created a new perspective on their ecclesiology, and made 
these congregations accept the new ecclesial paradigm of dispersion. As mentioned 
earlier, the Korean Protestant Church historically developed a gathering-centred 
paradigm, but this became difficult churches were forced to shift to the new ecclesio-



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logical paradigm of dispersion. In my observation and interviews, all these churches 
recognized the necessity of the ecclesial paradigm of dispersion. The sudden 
pandemic forced these churches to rethink the purpose of the church, and led to the 
transition that prepared these churches to become missional churches.

Third, most of the missional engagement by local congregations was by indirect 
approach. They served neighbours in need, distributed goods and helped small 
churches financially. In such ways, the local congregations attempted to show a posi-
tive image of Christians to the public. In Dong-Il Presbyterian Church, they switched 
from direct evangelism to more indirect evangelism by showing good works for the 
suffering neighbourhood, and such good works for suffering neighbours is only 
possible through this new ecclesial paradigm of dispersion.

Fourth, during the pandemic, missional engagement in local congregation to 
non-Christians was not entirely dismissed. As large-scale meetings were prohibited, 
small group gatherings were still possible. The case of Bae-gok Joeun Church is a 
unique case of this. This church was able to develop in new ways. Instead of inviting 
non-Christians directly to mass worship services, they were invited to small group 
sessions. In this case, they modified the existing campaign event to fit the new situ-
ation. The case shows that even when in-person gathering was restricted, churches 
found other ways to engage missionally in new ways.

Fifth, there was a clear increase in attention to “unchurched believers” for missional 
engagement. Many congregations are considering specific and unique ways to attract 
these people into church community during the pandemic and once the crisis is over. 
In the case of Onnuri Vision Church, their bold investment in online ministry is aimed 
to reach out to “unchurched believers” and non-believers. Their online programmes 
are designed not just for the existing church members, but also for “unchurched 
believers” who may decide to join.

Sixth, there was a clear increase in online services in many congregations. Due to the 
pandemic, many local congregations launched new online ministries and streamed 
their worship services. Churches began to offer various online Bible studies and 
produced various church-related contents. But in many cases, these are produced to 
support existing membership. In other cases, online worship services became new 
opportunities to participate in the worship services of other churches. As a result, it 
weakened the commitment of existing members to their home congregations.



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Proposals for missional engagement during and after 
the pandemic
In the previous section, I described how local congregations handled the pandemic 
situation as they engaged in missional endeavour. Many congregations were not 
able to actively engage in any evangelistic endeavour during the pandemic, but that 
does not mean that they totally abandoned their missional outreach. Some are more 
direct in how they engage in evangelism, but some are more indirect as they seek to 
be meaningful neighbours as the local church.

In finding an appropriate way to encounter suffering neighbours, I propose three ways 
of missional engagement during and even after the pandemic. These approaches are 
suggested by the lessons derived from previous sections.

Missional engagement using narrative
In this time of deep pain and despair, we must pay attention to the power of narra-
tives in communicating the gospel. Alister McGrath emphasizes the importance of 
narratives in apologetics (McGrath 2019: 7–8). He states that “God has shaped the 
human mind and imagination to be receptive to stories.” For McGrath, narrative 
approaches are not displacing but rather supplementing reasoned argumentation 
in apologetics. He states that mystery, in the proper sense of the term, refers not to 
something that is irrational, but to something that cannot be fully comprehended by 
reason (McGrath 2019: 8). The mystery of the gospel can be better communicated by 
narratives.

John Drane similarly states that “telling a story requires honesty to accept both our 
strength and weakness. When we show our weakness and vulnerability others are 
more willing to identify with us and hear our invitation to join us in following Christ” 
(Drane 1997: 67). Earlier on, David Bosch in his classic Transforming Mission wrote 
that the postmodern paradigm proved that rationality is not enough to tell the entire 
story of life, and therefore, it needs to be expanded. One way of expanding it is to 
recognize that language cannot be absolutely accurate, and that it is impossible to 
define neither scientific laws nor theological truths once and for all (Bosch 1991: 353). 
So, in articulating the nature of God, we can employ stories both oral and written. 
Therefore, the upsurge of interest especially in Third-World churches in narrative 
theology has become prominent. Today “theology as narrative” and other non-con-
ceptual forms of theologizing have become more important. I also experienced how 
narratives can persuasively communicate the gospel especially during a time of 
suffering (Park 2021). When people are in deep suffering, the emotional dimension 
often stays front and centre. An intellectual approach to the gospel does not fully 



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engage the listener’s imagination for empathy, but stories that share similar pains 
and interests can make people more open to the gospel.

Narratives are even more important for digital natives. Digital storytelling is a 
new form of narrative approach through digital medium (Y. W. Lee 2010: 13) and 
is receiving more attention due to heightened interest in virtual reality. In this 
virtual world, people experience new stories of self through their avatars. Some are 
concerned that the virtual world would create more isolation in people’s lives. But 
in Storytelling Animal, Jonathan Gottschall argues that, if the migration of humanity 
to the virtual world is inevitable, we should rather utilize the virtual world for narra-
tive (Gottschall 2013: 197). The virtual world is not a cause of isolation in modern life 
but rather a response to it. Gottschall further states that the virtual world is more 
authentically human than the real world in important ways. It provides us the sense 
of community, a feeling of competence, and a sense of being an important person 
whom people depend on (Gottschall 2013: 195–96).

Narratives are also useful to answer the existential questions and communicate 
the mystery of life more powerfully during a time of pain and suffering. During the 
pandemic, words such as “God”, “prayer”, and “death” rose as most searched terms 
globally, which shows people are asking existential questions especially during times 
of suffering (W. J. Kim 2021: 129).

In the case studies, I also found that narratives are powerful ways of sharing the 
gospel and appropriate tools for the missional engagement reaching non-believers 
and “unchurched believers”. In these case studies, I highlighted that during the 
pandemic, many Korean Protestant churches had implemented various programmes 
for the spiritual growth of existing members. In the case of Dong-il Presbyterian 
Church, when the regular worship services were restricted or banned, the weekly 
newsletter prepared by the church has been the important source for the sharing of 
the stories of members. Here, the stories of the members are used in strengthening 
the friendship that had been distanced among church members. In Beagot Joeun 
Church the small group meetings use narratives to make a warm atmosphere for 
the newcomers. Once rapport was established, the religious and existential conver-
sation can be expressed more comfortably. In this sense, the narratives can be used 
for encouraging a more welcoming and hospitable space. After all, narratives on 
existential topics such as the meaning of life based on a Christian worldview can 
open people to Christ more easily than ever before.



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Forming a habitual ethical lifestyle
In the age of the pandemic and afterwards, missional engagement must be expressed 
through forming the habitus of an ethical lifestyle. As already proposed by many 
scholars, the ethical lifestyle of Christians is the key factor in spreading Christianity. 
According to Rodney Stark, the explosive growth of Christianity in the first century 
was the result of their ministry toward neighbours infected by disease and facing 
death. These early Christians demonstrated charity and love to their non-Christian 
friends (Ko, Hudson & Jao 2020). Similarly. Alan Kreider argues that the distinctively 
holy lifestyle of the pre-Christendom Christians was key to evangelism and church 
growth. Prior to Christendom there was no intention to make worship attractive to 
outsiders. Yet worship was all-important in the spread of the church. Its rites and 
practices were designed to reform the pagans who joined the church into distinc-
tive people who lived in a way that individually and corporately looked like Jesus 
Christ. And these reformed people were attractive. Their freedom, their new prac-
tice of corporate life, and their behaviour toward non-Christians in this period was 
intriguing, inviting and question-posing (Kreider 1994: 10).

Ethical lifestyle continues to be a significant factor in missional engagement, and it 
became even meaningful in the time of pandemic and afterwards. However, I want 
to express the importance of their habitual dimension in practice. According to Suh 
Jung-Woon, the respected Korean missiologist and President Emeritus of Presbyte-
rian University and Theological Seminary, a person’s ethical lifestyle is the result 
of how one subconsciously behaves in everyday life (Suh 2021). Such ethical living 
is not something that can be practised through rationality, will-power or self-con-
trol. Rather it is something that subconsciously flows out of oneself. The gospel 
embedded in the subconscious is manifest outwardly and naturally in everyday situ-
ations, and such manifestation of the gospel through one’s life in fact communicates 
the gospel. What Suh emphasizes here is the importance of deeply embedding Chris-
tian values in one’s subconscious if one is to communicate the Christian gospel. In 
other words, it needs to be the habitual and natural.

Similarly, Michael Frost emphasizes the importance of habits in missional practice. 
According to Frost, missional habits are not strategic, but they are consequential 
(Frost 2016: 21). In other words, the gospel becomes attractive when the audience is 
surprised or intrigued by the exceptionally ethical life of Christians. As Christians live 
an extraordinary holy life to the point of making others curious, Christians may then 
point to the gospel as the answer. In other words, the simple way to show the gospel 
to the world is none other than to surprise them through the life of the Christian. 
When Christians’ good deeds flow out of the unconscious and become habitual, only 
then is gospel communication possible. Therefore, missional engagement happens 



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through Christians’ lifetime of self-discipline and acts of love. Here Frost’s argument 
resonates with Suh’s view. While such an approach cannot be expected to show the 
visible results of evangelistic endeavours immediately, in the long term they are deci-
sive for missional engagement.

Embracing the practice of hospitality
Hospitality is essential in communicating the gospel in the pandemic. Whether 
in-person or online, in small groups or one-on-one settings, the essential aspect 
of fellowship is whether one has experienced hospitality. Donald McGavran’s 
famous homogeneous unit principle also emphasizes the importance of a sense of 
belongingness in the process of the conversion: “people like to become Christians 
without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers” (McGavran 1990: 163). Although 
McGavran’s arguments apply mainly to ethnic and racial groups, his basic idea is 
that social detachment is often the real reason that unbelievers do not respond to 
the gospel. For the gospel recipients, friendship and a sense of acceptance is more 
important than the message itself. In this way, the sense of belonging and of being 
accepted is truly essential part of relationship. The affective dimensions, such as inti-
macy, belonging and solidarity, are prerequisite for gospel communication.

Recently the affective dimension is increasingly highlighted in gospel communica-
tion. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch introduce the idea of “whispering” to show the 
importance of emotional intimacy when meeting with people one wants to evan-
gelize. Evangelism is to be seen as whispering to the soul of the other (Frost and 
Hirsch 2013: 126). The evangelism associated with militant and invasive ways needs 
to be revisited. We must rather approach others to whisper to their souls, listen to 
their inner desires and respect their humanity. Similarly, Ha Do-gyun also empha-
sizes the importance of small groups in evangelistic sharing. He values small groups 
as the halfway point for non-Christians to finally come to Christ. Small groups are 
“nurture groups” and safe spaces where non-Christians are contacted and nurtured 
in Christian faith (Ha 2020: 69–71). It is my understanding that if these small groups 
are truly to function as halfway points and communicate the gospel, they must be 
where enough hospitality is experienced for one to safely share one’s vulnerability.

In section 2, I showed how the pandemic had intensified the sense of loneliness and 
isolation in the Korean society. When the isolation becomes so severe and prevalent, 
the experience of hospitality and a sense of intimacy can be even more crucial and 
valued in our missional engagement when isolation is common. As Frost and Hirsch 
remind us that most people are whispered into the kingdom slowly and gracefully 
(Frost and Hirsch 2013: 128), the experience of intimacy and safety in small groups 
is often key to non-Christians meeting Christ and even joining a faith community. 



45
Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ ef13656

Non-Christians who first experience hospitality and feel entirely accepted into these 
small groups gradually become more open to the message that Christians want to 
share.

To summarize, I developed the interrelationship of three approaches in missional 
engagement as Figure 1 below.

Personal Fellowship
Using Narratives

Habitual Ethical Lifestyle

Practice of
Hospitality 

Figure 1 Three ways of missional engagement

The missional engagement usually starts with the storytelling of the messengers. 
The messengers’ storytelling leads the recipients to encounter the gospel in a new 
and deeper way. Then the messengers’ exemplary and ethical living witnesses to 
how the gospel can transform a person. The hospitality that is experienced by recip-
ients integrates all these processes and opens their hearts to Christ. Sincere hospi-
tality of the messenger enables the communication of Christ’s love to the recipient. 
The three approaches do not progress mechanically one after the other, but they 
often overlap and echo each other.

Conclusion
As Covid-19 has swept the whole of Korean society for the last three years, we expe-
rienced fundamental changes and entered a totally new situation. The pandemic 
changed the way we connect not only in the society but with the whole creation. The 
despair and the feeling of powerlessness caused by disease opened a new space for 
longing for God. Yet the church in Korean could not respond to the invisible cry of 
the people.

This paper tries to locate where we are in this situation in our missional engagement, 
while at the same time attempting to provide better approaches to such a situation 
from the three cases studies. Then, the article proposes a new framework to the 
Korean protestant churches for missional engagement during and after the Covid-19 



46
Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ ef13656

pandemic. The paper suggests three different approaches. First, we can present the 
gospel through personal fellowship using the narratives of the messenger. Second, a 
habitual ethical lifestyle as subconscious self-expression is credible evidence of the 
power of the gospel. Finally, embracing the practice of hospitality is to be initiated 
through hospitality.

It Is true that these three types of missional engagement are applicable gener-
ally throughout history, yet it is even more applicable in this time of crisis. As the 
prolonged pandemic resulted in the isolation of individuals and the sense of belong-
ingness is even more desired by many people, these approaches recquire more 
attention in our missional engagement. Especially where the church has lost its 
ethical and positive influence in the society, these approaches are even more mean-
ingful. Finally, although I have not yet provided concrete and applicable suggestions 
for churches to utilize for their ministry, this topic will be discussed in a future paper.

Covid-19 brought a crisis in the church’s missional engagement, but the gospel of 
Jesus Christ needs to be shared without stopping. If old tributaries are blocked, new 
waterways form. The message of the gospel will continue to shine through new 
people in new places and through new methods.

About the author
Rev. Bokyoung Park is professor of missiology at Presbyterian University and Theo-
logical Seminary, Seoul, Korea. She has been serving vice-president of IAMS from 
2016 and, since 2022, she serves as the president of International Association for 
Mission Studies. She also founded theKorea IAMS Fellowship in 2020, for mentoring 
young scholars from the majority world to enhance their visibility in global theolog-
ical scholarship. Contact: parkbokyoung718@gmail.com

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