Three ways to live

Which is your way?

Largest Christian congregation on Earth

Filed under: Uncategorized — Vitali at 10:00 pm on Sunday, November 11, 2007

When I think of a mega church, numbers like 20,000-50,000 people come to mind. Yet, it came as a big surprise to me that the largest Christian congregation on Earth, Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, has 830,000 members! One in twenty residents in Seoul is a member! My mind has difficulty comprehending what it takes to run such a huge body of believers.

But the answer is simple - small groups (or cell groups). These have basically become the modern version of house churches that existed in the early times of Christianity. No matter how large the church becomes, we are not capable of handling more than 20-30 relationships at a time. I can imagine that in churches like Yoido Full Gospel, small groups become primary place for learning and discipleship, as not every member can make it to Sunday service and at best can only view it on TV.

2 Comments »

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Comment by Jim Kang

November 14, 2007 @ 4:46 pm

To consider this church as a “Christian” church is debatable when the pastor has been guilty of teaching aberrant theological views - e.g., his salvation testimony which includes seeing the vision of supposed Jesus, changing his name because Jesus supposedly told him to, positive thinking, etc. Biblical discernment is needed here.

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Comment by Tom

August 16, 2008 @ 6:37 am

do you really believe this “Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, has 830,000 members”? this is true only as per their interpretation. actually this number includes people in japanese congregations also.
in a way this is the number of the memebrs of a denomination, not of a parish.Many people outside Korea are misled by this blanket statement and claims. I lived 8 years in Korea and I personally know this matter. If you have any sincere Korean friend, please ask them about the number game of many of the Korean churches. May God Bless U

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