





































Ecclesial Futures
2023 – Volume 4 – Issue 1

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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef13749

A R T I C L E S

DOI: 10.54195/ef13749

Balancing Visible and Invisible Belonging 
for Korean Migrant Missional Churches in 
Aotearoa New Zealand

Hyeong-Kyoon Kim

Abstract
This paper explores how Korean migrant churches in Aotearoa New Zealand can 
find a balance between missions (understood as extending the Church) and Mission1 
(construed as participation in the missio Dei), in relation to their sense of belonging. For 
this purpose, the research uses a qualitative methodology interview method guided 
by interpretivism. The paper begins by identifying key contextual factors related to 
Koreans in New Zealand as migrants, Christians and missional beings. The responses 
of 31 research participants regarding what constitutes a “sense of belonging” are 
analysed in terms of visible and invisible belonging. Visible belonging is associated with 
churches that have strong boundaries, and invisible belonging is found in one’s rela-
tionship with God; the two can be correlated with missions and Mission, respectively. 
The analysis suggests that a missional understanding can be a trigger for enabling 
interaction between visible belonging as missions and invisible belonging as Mission, 
through three missional concepts: purpose, progress and experience. Finally, the paper 
suggests practical ways that Korean churches in New Zealand can balance missions 
and Mission by following three missional guidelines.

Keywords: Korean church; Mission and missions; Belonging; Missional; Migrant

Purpose and structure
The phrase “Mission vs missions” has been used to illustrate different perspectives 
on the mission of the church. “Mission” and “missions” are at times controversial 
issues in Korean churches (Han 2012: 90–99). For example, some Korean churches 

1 In order to distinguish these two terms, the author has capitalized Mission throughout the article. 



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that emerged from evangelical movements are strongly oriented toward church 
growth, and thus emphasize the importance of missions (Han 2012: 93–96; Ma, 
2017). In contrast, other churches with a more ecumenical outlook tend to focus on 
Mission as missio Dei (An & Park, 2008: 313).

Korean churches in New Zealand are not free from this controversial issue. However, 
both Mission and missions are essential to live out Jesus’ command to embody life in 
the Kingdom of God. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper is to explore the 
meaning of belonging in Korean churches in New Zealand with the aim of building a 
bridge between Mission and missions through missional perspectives.

With this purpose in mind, a sampling of 31 Korean Christians in New Zealand 
answered the question: “What is the sense of belonging?” Their responses can be 
summarized in three categories: visible belonging, invisible belonging, and missional 
belonging. Purpose, process and experience are missional triggers that provide a 
stepping stone to establishing a bridge between Mission (invisible belonging) and 
missions (visible belonging).

The paper is divided into two main sections. The first section explores three contex-
tual terms: Korean churches, missional, and belonging. This section also provides the 
rationale for incorporating the contextual background in missional and practical 
theology studies. The second section is the analysis of the 31 interviews, which identi-
fies three different understandings of belonging: visible belonging, invisible belonging, 
and missional belonging as a catalyst for synthesizing the first two concepts. Following 
the analysis, the paper suggests practical ways to enable Korean missional churches 
in New Zealand.

Scope
This research is located in the fields of missional and practical theology studies. 
Missional and practical theology approaches are linked to contextual interpreta-
tion, although the two approaches have different focal points. For example, the field 
of missional studies tends to emphasize direction, like a route on a map, whereas 
practical theology suggests practices for achieving visible results. Despite these 
differences, the interpretation of contexts is an essential starting point for both 
approaches.

Swinton and Mowat describe practical theology as “recognising and respecting 
the diversity of interpretation within the various expositions of performed gospel” 
(Swinton & Mowat 2006: 5). In other words, practical theology focuses on observing 



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and interpreting context through “performed gospel”, which means the gospel real-
ized in our context. Contextual interpretation is also important in missional studies. 
As Darrell Guder writes, “Our understanding of truth is always an interpretation rela-
tive to our context and cultural understanding” (Guder and Barrett 1998: 40).

In terms of methodology, this paper uses an interview method based on a qualita-
tive and interpretivist methodology which is useful for analyzing contexts in light of 
practical and missional perspectives. The aim is to observe Korean churches in New 
Zealand and to encourage these churches to be missional churches both within and 
beyond ethnic boundaries.

This study does have certain limitations in terms of sampling and translation. 
First, although 31 interviews provide a suitable sampling size for the case study, 
the sampling is limited in the sense that the participants were drawn from only 
two Korean churches. However, I maintain that this is nonetheless a representa-
tive sampling, because the two churches are the oldest Korean churches in the two 
largest cities and Korean communities in New Zealand. These two churches can thus 
adequately represent migrant Korean Christians’ perspectives despite the geograph-
ical limitations.

The second limitation is related to translation issues, as it is impossible to translate 
an interview from Korean to English without changes in nuance and emphasis. As a 
result, I have used an interpretivist methodology. This is a methodology in the social 
sciences that is suitable for contextual analysis because it offers scope for a variety 
of interpretations related subjectively to specific contexts (Furlong and Marsh 2010). 
This paper accurately records interviewees’ perspectives, but some words, phrases 
and sentences may be interpreted by the researcher to provide a clearer meaning 
in English.

Three contextual terms
The title of this paper incorporates three main terms: Korean churches, missional, and 
belonging. These words have developed in a specific context, and thus it is neces-
sary to define the three terms contextually. First, ‘Korean Christians’ in New Zealand 
construct their own boundaries as a way to interpret their Christian faith within 
Korean culture. This is in line with Bevans’ characterization of contextual theology as 
being based on “present human experience” (Bevans 2002: 4).

Second, the term “missional” first emerged from real issues in North American 
churches, so it is impossible to understand “missional” without this contextual under-



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standing (Guder and Barrett 1998). Finally, the sense of “belonging” obviously cannot 
be excepted from contextual understandings. This section explains the contexts of 
the three core terms in this order: the Korean church, the missional understanding 
and the sense of belonging. It also explores how a possible relational structure can 
be built between the three contextual categories.

Korean church context
The character of the Korean church is best described in terms of diverse character-
istics developing in different times and locations, because every church has roots 
in living societies, united by a belief in an unchanging divine being. Contexts rely 
on “personal and communal experience, culture, social location and social change” 
(Bevans 2002: 7).

Applying this claim to Korean churches makes it clear that they are contextual 
churches through their experience, culture, social location and experience of social 
change (Guder and Barrett 1998). Korean churches in New Zealand have erected 
unique boundaries to help them understand and live in the New Zealand context. 
They are grounded culturally in Korean culture and locationally in New Zealand. 
These churches have experienced migrant life and extreme social changes from 
Korea to New Zealand.

Korean migrant churches in New Zealand are comprised almost exclusively of Korean 
rather than other ethnicities, and the Korean language plays a pivotal role in these 
churches (Chang, Morris and Vokes 2006). In contrast, the majority of New Zealand 
churches are rooted in European or, to a lesser extent, Maori cultures, so the English 
and Maori languages are essential in their churches to sustain religious and cultural 
identities. Koreans in New Zealand refer to churches that use English and consist 
mainly of Europeans (Pakeha) as ‘Kiwi churches’ (Chang, Morris and Vokes).

Korean migrant churches in New Zealand attempt to preserve their culture through 
Korean Christianity, an approach deemed the “anthropological model” by Bevans, 
who writes that “The primary concern of the anthropological model is the estab-
lishment or preservation of cultural identity” (Bevans 2002: 54). Korean churches in 
New Zealand have a strong connection with their members’ experiences as Koreans 
and as migrants, and with the Korean language. Because of these strong bonds, 
members of Korean churches can recognize their differences and similarities in rela-
tion to broader New Zealand society.

In New Zealand census results, Korean Christians are categorized in three ways: 
their experience in Korea; their experience in New Zealand; and their experience as 



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migrants moving between Korea and New Zealand. Figure 1 shows the percentages 
of Christians in three different contexts: Christians in South Korea, Christians in New 
Zealand as a whole, and Korean Christians in New Zealand. The percentage of Chris-
tians is decreasing in all three contexts, so the numerical weakening of Christianity 
is common to each context.

 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

2004 2006 2013 2014 2018 2021

Christian Population (%)

New Zealand Korean churches in NZ Korea

Figure 1 Christian percentages in three different contexts

Korean and New Zealand censuses are tabulated in different years, so it is not 
possible to perfectly compare the percentages of Christians in Korea and New 
Zealand. However, while the census data is drawn from different years, the purpose 
of this comparison is to check trends.

Korean Christianity in New Zealand has unique characteristics compared with Chris-
tianity in Korea and in New Zealand as a whole, regardless of denomination. First, 
the percentage of Korean Christians in New Zealand is significantly higher than in 
the other two contexts. According to three censuses in New Zealand, the percentage 
of Koreans who were Christians decreased from 73% in 2006, to 68% in 2013, to 57% 
in 2018 (Stats.govt.nz, 2018). But while the percentage of Christians among Koreans 
in New Zealand has indeed decreased, these statistics show that Koreans in New 
Zealand have a solid Christian culture compared with those in Korea itself.

Christianity has been one among several religions in Korea from the missionary 
period until now (Gallop.co.kr, 2021). In contrast, in the New Zealand Korean commu-

http://Stats.govt.nz
http://Gallop.co.kr


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nity, Christianity is the main religion, and the percentage is more than double that 
of Christians in Korea. As a result, Koreans belonging to religions other than Chris-
tianity are comparatively marginal in the Korean community in New Zealand (Kim, 
Hocking and McKenzie-Green 2016). The point is that Koreans in New Zealand tend 
to cultivate a more Christian-centric culture than Koreans in Korea.

Moreover, compared with the overall percentage of Christians in New Zealand, the 
Korean Christian percentage in New Zealand is outstanding. Theologians and sociol-
ogists interpret this phenomenon as one in which Korean migrants believe that their 
Christianity plays a crucial role in how they are perceived in the social (secular) arena 
(Butcher & Wieland 2013). For example, Butcher and Wieland illustrate the percep-
tion of the Korean church in New Zealand through the phrase “God and Golf”.

One reason for the high percentage of Christians in the Korean community in New 
Zealand may be that new migrants struggle to integrate into New Zealand society 
because of the linguistic and cultural differences (Chang, Morris and Vokes 2006; 
Morris, Vokes and Chang 2008). Interestingly, several other migrant ethnicities also 
show a higher percentage of Christian affiliation in New Zealand than in their home 
countries (Stats.govt.nz 2018). Korean churches and perhaps other migrant churches 
in New Zealand offer members a safe space in which to escape from the stresses 
of integrating into New Zealand society. In sum, Korean churches’ characteristics in 
New Zealand are shaped by their migrant context.

Missional perspective
Defining the word “missional” is not straightforward because this terminology is 
a fairly recent addition to the field of missiology, emphasizing certain distinctive 
directions related to mission (Roxburgh and Boren 2009: 30). Missional has been 
defined briefly as “the doing of the mission” (Ott, Strauss & Tennent 2010). However, 
Roxburgh and Boren highlight the danger of only “doing” something to achieve 
visible results and escape confusion between missional churches and the so-called 
“attractive” churches.

Roxburgh and Boren offer two helpful warnings for the missional journey: “Beware 
of formulas for creating missional churches, and beware of missional church models” 
(2009: 23–25). Because the missional movement is shaped by specific contexts in 
different places and times, Roxburgh and Boren assert the importance of reading 
contexts carefully. Missional movements are linked inextricably to the act of inter-
preting contexts.

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The starting point of “reading context” in a missional movement is the word “here” 
– “where we stand” (Roxburgh and Boren 2009: 122). “The missional journey begins 
where people are, not from some vision for where we would like them to be” (2009: 
123). This is a crucial point in connecting the missional movement and local churches, 
because “the local church we belong to is shaped by a history that forms the ways it 
works and how people interrelate” (2009: 124).

This statement can be applied to the Korean churches in New Zealand insofar as they 
are shaped by a migrant history that has influenced the ways their context unfolds 
and how they relate to people in the host country. The Gospel and Our Culture 
Network has examined missional boundaries in North America along these lines, 
and found that regional context plays a pivotal role in this missional network (Guder 
and Barrett 1998: 7–12).

Missional approaches seek to erect a bridge between the gospel and local culture. 
“The gospel is always translated into a culture, and God’s people are formed in that 
culture in response to the translated and Spirit-empowered Word” (Guder and Barrett 
1998: 11). This means that a missional approach offers a meaningful gospel lens 
through which to settle in a new culture, and revises forms of Christian proclamation 
in the light of culture (Guder and Barrett 1998: 12). Therefore, when interpreting the 
missional movement in the Korean church context in New Zealand, previous experi-
ences related to the Korean church will be their past “here” context, and more recent 
experiences of the sense of belonging will influence their present “here”.

Moreover, the missional movement has the energy to move toward missio Dei – the 
Mission of God – beyond visible results seen in church programmes and campaigns 
(Franke 2020; Terry 2015). Missional language does not limit a church’s boundaries, 
and for this reason Alan Roxburgh uses the phrase “missional people” instead of 
“missional church” to focus on missional life broadly understood (Roxburgh and 
Romanuk 2011). In this perspective, missional language can be a trigger to move 
beyond a church-centred life. This is a transformation from “God-Church-World” to 
“God-World-Church” (An & Park 2008: 273–81).

The sense of belonging
The third key word or category is “belonging.” Generally, this refers to the sense 
of belonging in a certain place or community. Discussions of belonging in a church 
context may include, for example, reflections on how to grow membership. However, 
the sense of belonging encompasses not only such visible aspects but also an invis-
ible aspect, focused on belonging to God.



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Visible belonging may refer to “fitting in” in an institution, group, ethnicity and so 
on, and invisible belonging may be experienced through culture or traditions (Kim 
2021:  73–75; Painter, 2013: 1–2). But even though the sense of belonging can be 
divided into these two “types”, it is impossible to separate them too rigidly, because 
the sense of belonging is connected with the real world in all its dimensions.

According to Emile Durkheim, the sense of belonging in a moral community is the 
foundation of religious life, and he calls this community a church (1995: 44). There-
fore, the church as a moral community is a visible manifestation of belonging. Simi-
larly, Max Weber (2005) asserts that the sense of belonging is expressed in cultural 
and religious communities. In this sense, a denomination established on the basis of 
religious belief can create a visible boundary around the sense of belonging, and a 
cultural boundary like Christendom can create an invisible sense of belonging.

Secularization theorists assume that religious communities and gatherings will fade 
away over time in the societies where they are located (Dobbelaere, 2009: 602). As 
a case in point, religions such as Christianity, the major religion in Europe in the 
past, came to maintain a cultural function instead of a religious one. Secularization 
theorists thus claim that Christianity in Western countries is an example of invisible 
belonging through culture (Davie 1994; 2002).

Secularization theorists rely on an understanding of visible belonging to strengthen 
their theory that religion will fade away in modern societies. Church attendance 
or membership is seen as evidence of visible belonging. Rational Choice theorists 
evince a similar understanding of visible belonging to support Christianity’s revival 
in the United States through the numerical evidence of membership and attendance 
(Stark and Finke 2000).

Sociological approaches do not lean toward one side of the sense of belonging, 
visible or invisible. They see the meaning of the sense of belonging not as unchange-
able but as influenced by contextual factors. Philosophical or ontological research 
tends to situate belonging in invisible boundaries like culture, and practical or epis-
temological research, such as a census, attempts to provide clear evidence for visible 
belonging.

For example, researchers at Pew Research Centre interpret church belonging in 
terms of affiliation with a congregation or denomination (Mohamed, Cox, Diamant 
and Gecewicz 2021). This means that unaffiliated people do not “belong”, even if 
they have Christian beliefs, so the sense of belonging is restricted to visible forms of 



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church boundaries. New Zealand censuses have interpreted belonging to denomina-
tions and other groups in the same way (Stats.govt.nz 2018).

Interactions among the three contextual terms
In the previous sections, I explained the three contextual terms at the heart of this 
study: Korean churches, missional and belonging. These concepts are related to each 
other. For example, missional is based on “here,” where Korean churches are located, 
so the fact that Korean churches in New Zealand are migrant churches is an influential 
context. Since belonging consists of two aspects, visible and invisible, visible church 
boundaries and invisible cultural boundaries also interact in Korean churches.

In this interaction, the Korean church is an influential factor for missional movement, 
as a context for developing a sense of belonging beyond visible boundaries. However, 
it is also possible to go in the opposite direction, such that the sense of invisible 
belonging can develop into visible contexts through a missional understanding.

The understanding of mission has two dimensions: one is Mission as missio Dei, which 
emphasizes God’s mission, and the other is missions, which describes the churches’ 
human activities to extend the gospel (Franke 2020; Gailey & Culbertson 2007: 8; 
Terry 2015). In this study, I adopt a new frame to describe Mission and missions: 
Mission–invisible belonging–missio Dei; and missions-visible belonging-church (its 
human side). Balancing visible and invisible belonging therefore means balancing 
Mission and missions in Korean migrant churches. The coming sections will address 
the interrelation between the three contextual terms by analyzing interviews with 
31 Korean Christians in New Zealand.

Analysing interviews
The earlier sections explained the three core contextual terms by drawing on theo-
retical and scholarly sources, in order to establish an interacting frame for the three 
words. This section investigates this frame in Korean churches in New Zealand by 
means of a qualitative methodology, based on 31 interviews with Korean Christian 
migrants in New Zealand. The interviewees’ ages spanned from people born in the 
1940s to people born in the 2000s, and their migrant years ranged from the 1980s to 
the 2010s. In addition, some interviewees were born in New Zealand and are known 
as the second generation (Kim 2021: 170).

The interviewees were primarily recruited for my PhD research, so this paper re - 
interprets their earlier interviews through a missional lens. Specifically, this study 
interprets interviewees’ answers to the question, “What is the sense of belonging?” 

http://Stats.govt.nz


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To maintain confidentiality, I use fictional names instead of the names of the partic-
ipants. This section first explores specific expressions of belonging related to the 
Korean church, followed by insights regarding how the concepts “missional” and 
“belonging” are understood by the interviewees.

Visible belonging in Korean churches
Korean churches have two primary visible aspects. First, some concrete information 
is recorded and maintained to indicate membership, beliefs and identities. Second, 
other words and activities focus on the people’s context as migrants. These visible 
aspects might be summarized in two orientations: human-centred, and church-cen-
tred.

Visible belonging can be expressed by tangible boundaries in the church. One inter-
viewee, Gong Ji-Hu, described the sense of belonging as providing a way to maintain 
Korean culture by emphasizing the boundaries within the church that separate and 
preserve Korean identity and culture over against the dominant “Kiwi” identity and 
culture.

The Korean church is thus a place-based boundary within which to teach and enact 
Korean culture. In the church, Korean migrants can affirm their uniqueness and their 
differences from the dominant New Zealand society. Lee An, who is second genera-
tion, described the sense of belonging in terms of recognizing these differences, and 
she also felt a stronger sense of belonging in a church group whose members are of 
a similar age. Park Do, who is also second generation, likewise emphasized finding a 
sense of belonging in a Korean Christian group which has shared interests.

In addition, interviewees focused on institutional norms and organizations, which 
are boundaries in themselves. The denomination was one of the crucial reasons for 
choosing a church after migrating from Korea to New Zealand, because the Presby-
terian denomination provides a lens through which they understand Christianity. 
Korean migrants thus naturally prefer to attend church in the same denomination to 
which they belonged in Korea.

This explains why the Presbyterian Church is the main denomination of Korean 
migrants in New Zealand, because it is the major denomination in Korea, compared 
with Methodists, Anglicans, Pentecostals and others. Denominational boundaries 
are crucial in maintaining Korean Christians’ religious identities. Maintaining their 
identity as Korean, Christian and Presbyterian expresses a church-centred under-
standing of visible belonging.



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In addition, several interviewees described the Korean church in New Zealand as a 
kind of base camp for nurturing social activities and relationships. This is because 
the Korean church is one of the most comfortable places to meet other Koreans, in 
the face of the larger context in which New Zealand is a comparatively strange place. 
These are trusting relationships, as Korean churches represent family, home and 
friends.

Relationships with others in the church thus play a leading role in constructing 
visible boundaries. Kim Sung-Hyun emphasized that the Korean church is a place 
for “working together”, which can also be understood in terms of socializing with 
friends. Hwang Eun explained that feeling a sense of belonging in the church means 
“living together like a family and helping together”.

Korean churches are also crucial for socializing without language barriers, and 
Butcher and Wieland describe Korean churches as “golf communities” (Butcher and 
Wieland 2013). Korean migrants feel similarities with other Koreans regardless of 
faith, but visible membership in a church is a safety boundary for developing and 
extending their relationships and feeling connected to others as social beings. These 
relationships illustrate the second aspect of visible belonging, the human-being- 
centred focus.

Invisible belonging in Korean churches
The previous section focused on the role of visible belonging in migrant Korean 
churches in New Zealand, but that is only a part of understanding what the sense of 
belonging means for people in these Korean churches. Invisible aspects of belonging 
show the desire to belong to God rather than to manufactured systems, institutions 
and practices. Invisible belonging is closer to the missio Dei perspective.

According to Choi Sung-Je, the sense of belonging is a sensitive issue and he describes 
the sense of belonging as being “a child of God.” Park Hyun also explains the sense 
of belonging as “to stay in God”. Many Korean Christians in New Zealand, espe-
cially the first-generation migrants, converted to Christianity from other religions 
after migrating to New Zealand. Hence, they firmly believe that migrating to New 
Zealand was God’s plan to save them. Park Hyun and Choi Sung-Je thus both say, “I 
am elected” as a child of God when explaining the sense of belonging. The “child of 
God” symbolism focuses on the relationship with God instead of membership in a 
religious institution.

In the Confucian perspective, humans are connected to the divine being, Dao (道) 
or Tae-Kuk (太極) through Jung (情) or Yang-Ji (良知). And recovering the harmo-



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nious relationship is illustrated the healthy relationship between parents and chil-
dren (Kim, 2000; 2022: 152–55). Moreover, humans are related to the whole world, 
including animals and nature, via Jung or Yang-Ji. Missio Dei for Korean Christians is 
underpinned in part by these Confucian principles. In other words, belonging in the 
sense of being a “child of God” is a Korean expression based on the Confucian under-
standing found in passages such as John 14.11 and 15.5.

Among six first-generation interviewees who migrated to New Zealand after 2010, 
five articulated their understanding of belonging in terms of their relationship with 
God, using phrases such as “a child of God”, “my root is God”, “always [I] belong to 
God”, “belong to God” and “the relationship between God and me”. These expres-
sions all emphasize the relationship with God instead of the sense of belonging to 
institutions.

Lee Gao explained the difference between social belonging in the form of “member-
ship” and religious belonging, stating that belonging is about one’s relationship with 
God, which is not found only through being a member of a church. Of the 17 inter-
viewees who were from the first generation, 11 also stressed that the sense of 
belonging is not found only within social boundaries but in one’s relationship with 
God. As one said, “The sense of belonging is not [related to] U-Ri as a church, Korean 
churches and denominations, but to the relationship with God.”

Understanding the sense of belonging in terms of one’s relationship with God 
was not only found in the first generation but also in the younger generation. Lee 
Bun-Woo described the sense of belonging in this way: “As I belong to God, [I prac-
tise God’s love] even though I meet unfamiliar people who are different from me. 
[This is because] they are also one of God’s creatures.” This sense of belonging plays 
a pivotal role in developing one’s identity. Choi Hee-Su added that because the core 
of belonging, which is the relationship with God, is nurtured in a church, church 
membership is one way to enhance this relationship with God.

The children of the first generation of migrants used phrases such as these to illus-
trate the sense of belonging: “God stays with me”, “God’s plan” and “[being part of] 
one body”. Kwon Suk’s starting point for describing the sense of belonging was a 
question: “Where do I belong?” He already has membership in a Korean church and 
strong friendships with other Koreans there, but his relationship with God is none-
theless the core element in his sense of belonging.

Prioritizing the invisible sense of belonging was also spelled out in Cho Il-Eun’s expla-
nation of the connection she makes between belonging and identity: “Clearly, before 



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I had firmly believed [in God], I felt that identity issues were very important [in my 
life]. Am I a Korean or a New Zealander? Even though I am a Korean and Kiwi by 
half and half, the proportion of the mixture was different. In this situation, [I] was 
confused by having no absolute standard [to recognize my identity]. [However], this 
problem was solved after finding belief [in God].”

In summary, research participants preferred to use phrases such as the following 
to explain invisible belonging, regardless of different migrant generations, genders 
and ages: belong to God, the child of God, unity with God, in Christ, one body, invis-
ible relationship with God. In other words, their invisible belonging prioritized divine 
being rather than human beings and manufactured systems.

Missional movement as trigger
I have described above the relationship between membership in Korean churches 
as a visible sign of belonging and belonging to God as an invisible aspect. These 
two features interact continuously, and there is therefore a need for a catalyst, such 
as a missional orientation, to create interacting movement or an active interrela-
tion between the two. This section analyses possible trigger words for this missional 
movement which emerged in the interviews. These trigger words that stimulate 
interaction between visible and invisible belonging can be divided into three catego-
ries: purpose, progress and experience.

The first category is related to the purpose of becoming church, but it is not results- 
oriented. Interviewees dreamed of the church as the Kingdom of God, which is impos-
sible to achieve on earth. Lee Sung-An asserted that the final goal of belonging is “the 
recovery of the image when created by God”. Kim So-Mi said that belonging is not 
an artificial but a natural phenomenon; there can be no intention to gain it because 
she already belongs to God. Kim Ham-In also felt that belonging is not something 
one can attain or achieve on one’s own, whether it is manifested visibly or invisibly.

In expressing the original purpose of the church, interviewees tended to use words 
associated with essential Christian faith, such as “salvation”, “calling”, “comfort”, “the 
place of meeting God”, “hope”, “love”, “Christ” and “identity”. The interviewees used 
these words to describe why they believe the church exists on earth. Interviewees 
hoped to develop resilience related to these more idealized purposes of the church, 
in the face of several disappointing experiences of church, such as church splits, 
conflicts and corruption. Shin Ji-Su emphasized the importance of flexibility and 
resilience in the life of faith, and these traits could be seen as triggers to stimulate a 
healthy interrelation between visible and invisible experiences of belonging.



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The second triggering category is progress in Christian discipleship, and this category 
is closely connected with practical actions. This can be seen in interviewees’ refer-
ences to the importance of special acts of faith, such as love, sharing and contrib-
uting. Interviewees hoped to make progress toward becoming mature Christians 
through actions that grow out of belief.

However, these actions do not focus only on individual tangible achievements but 
on inner spiritual progress or growth in the life of faith. Many interviewees asserted 
that these actions are the responsibility of all Christians. Gong stated that belonging 
is not only to a church but to the life of a Christian. Son Mi-Ju had a similar perspec-
tive, describing belonging as “the progress of reaching to God in my life.” Actions 
such as love, sharing and giving, which are essential to living daily life as a Christian, 
synthesize or integrate visible belonging to a church and invisible belonging to God.

The last category which can be a missional trigger is experience. Belonging is not only 
a theoretical concept but an experienced reality. According to interviewee Lee Gao, 
the sense of belonging is “living together”. This is a meaningful understanding of 
belonging because it is not only an individual experience but a communal experience 
of Christian life. Living together can connect all of the aspects related to belonging: 
sharing, solidarity, love, recovery and so on. “Sharing” is impossible to do alone, since 
sharing needs to be done with other beings.

To summarize, the key words highlighted in the interviews can all be grouped under 
the “missional” concept, and these words are not result-oriented but progress-ori-
ented, in the service of realizing the purpose of the church and the life of faith. 
Progress-oriented words include aspects of experience beyond individual activi-
ties; progress is understood as spiritual and moral development, which has concrete 
implications for the actions we take. These missional concepts can be a catalyst to 
balance and interweave the visible sense of belonging found within the boundaries 
of Korean churches in New Zealand and the invisible manifestations of belonging 
associated with missio Dei.

Implications
Defining Korean churches in New Zealand is impossible without taking into account 
the Korean migrant context, and so the earlier sections of this paper explored Korean 
migrants’ understanding of the church in light of their migrant experience. In light of 
their visible and invisible experiences of belonging in relation to their Christian faith, 
I introduced a missional approach to integrate a missions orientation based on visible 



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belonging with a Mission orientation associated with invisible belonging to God. This 
section suggests possible implications for Korean churches in New Zealand.

According to Christian Life, a newspaper published for Korean Christians in New 
Zealand, there are 109 Korean churches or Christian institutions in New Zealand. 
They exist largely to support Koreans rather than other ethnicities or English-based 
Christians (christianlife.nz, n.d.). Less than 10% of Korean churches in New Zealand 
belong to “Kiwi” (English-based) denominations such as the PCANZ (Presbyterian 
Church of Aotearoa New Zealand), Elim, GPCNZ (Grace Presbyterian Church of New 
Zealand) and others (onechurch.nz n.d.).

There are several reasons Korean churches find it hard to relate to Kiwi churches, 
but the central reason is differing understanding of “missions and Mission”. Korean 
churches put considerable effort into overseas missions, in countries such as 
Vanuatu, Fiji, and other Asian countries. However, the Korean migrant churches do 
not always sense this same zeal for missions in the English-based denominations in 
New Zealand.

But how do the missions of the Korean migrant churches in New Zealand interact 
with Mission, with its sense of invisible belonging? First, the “purpose” of missional 
orientation is a valuable way to identify Christianity’s unchangeable purpose on 
earth, in the process mitigating differences between ethnicities, denominations or 
religious traditions. Korean migrant perspectives can be very helpful in this regard. 
As one example, the belief of all Christians in an eternal life with a return to a heav-
enly home, an original homeland, triggers Korean migrants’ connections with other 
Christians in New Zealand, because we are all migrants on earth.

Second, the “progress” of missional orientation has the potential to move beyond the 
church-centred focus that is geared toward church growth to encompass a spiritual 
growth focus on living a mature Christian life. In this regard, the chaplaincy system, 
which exists outside the church, is a valuable point of connection with non-Chris-
tians. In New Zealand, pastoral care for students in schools is mandated by law and 
must be provided (NZQA 2021). Chaplaincy can connect students regardless of reli-
gion or background, and for international students, having a chaplain of a similar 
background can help to mitigate their isolation.

In a larger sense, encouraging Korean church members to join local non-profit organ-
izations or charities might stimulate Korean Christians to live out their Christian faith 
through acts of love and service outside the church walls or concerns about church 
growth. The “progress” missional element is also not only for individuals but for 

http://christianlife.nz
http://onechurch.nz


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communities. Therefore, encouraging Korean churches to work with other denomi-
nations, charities, government agencies or other institutions is pivotal in bridging the 
gap between the churches’ missions and God’s Mission.

Conclusion
This paper has explored three contextual terms related to Korean churches in New 
Zealand: Korean churches, the missional orientation and the meaning of belonging. 
Through this exploration, the understanding of the Korean church context was linked 
inextricably both to visible belonging, in the form of missions which are human and 
institutional works, and invisible belonging in the form of Mission as missio Dei. Both 
missions and Mission co-exist in Korean migrant churches in New Zealand.

However, while missions and Mission are ideally essential aspects of all churches, 
they are at times in conflict in Korean churches in New Zealand. This prompted me to 
explore more deeply Korean Christians’ understandings of what it means to “belong” 
as migrant Korean Christians in New Zealand. This paper therefore analysed, through 
a representative sampling of interviews with Korean Christians in New Zealand, 
their understandings of the sense of belonging, highlighting both visible and invis-
ible manifestations of belonging. Their perspectives, in turn, suggested possible 
resources (related to purpose, process and experience) for balancing missions and 
Mission in New Zealand’s Korean churches, with the aim of being a healthy missional 
church in the midst of their contextual realities as an ethnic minority in New Zealand.

About the author
Hyeong-Kyoon Kim moved from South Korea to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2017. He 
is interested in the voice of migrants, especially Asians, in New Zealand. He lives in 
Palmerston North with his family and works at HanMaEum Church and Alphacrucis 
College, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Contact: hyeong.k.kim@gmail.com

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