THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 4, 1995 TAG: 9507040429
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
As Hampton Roads residents fire up the barbecues and get ready to celebrate the nation's birthday, 47 visitors from South Korea will skip the festivities and begin a program in church leadership, American-style.
They are students in an academic exchange between Regent University, founded by Christian businessman Pat Robertson, and a university in Seoul, South Korea, founded by David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world's largest church. After three summers of concentrated study at Regent University, the students will earn master's degrees in divinity or history of Christianity.
``We want to find out the religion roots of America,'' said the Rev. Young-Hoon Lee, who is leading the group. ``In Korea, we have 5,000 years of history, but only 100 years of Christian history. We want to learn here.''
They'll waste no time getting started: They arrived Monday afternoon at Norfolk International Airport, weary from a 13-hour plane flight, and will pull out their notebooks for a class at 8 a.m. today. Most of them are pastors and church leaders, willing to pay more than $6,000 in tuition alone to complete the program.
As they filed off the plane, a line of Regent University professors greeted them with a Korean expression: ``Anyong Hasayo!'' meaning, ``How are you?'' There were smiles and handshakes all around, but few long chats. Most of the Koreans speak only limited English.
In the classroom, the the students will use headphones to hear a translation of the professors' lectures. One translator, seated inside a glass booth at the rear of the room, will interpret the lectures. Another translator will sit in the classroom to help the students ask questions.
Regent University professors have flown to Seoul to teach at Cho's university this summer, because some students could not get visas. Vinson Synan, dean of Regent's divinity school, said he hopes to start a program with a university in Singapore next summer.
``Our hope is not only to go and make disciples of all nations, but to learn from our Christian brothers and sisters in all nations,'' he said.
Pat Robertson is well-known in Korea through his television show ``The 700 Club,'' said Cho Hyung, a staff member at the Rev. Cho's university. ``He is very famous. . . . His name made Regent known to the students.''
Christianity has grown so rapidly in South Korea that it rivals Buddhism in the number of adherents. Cho's church, Yoido Full Gospel Church, has 800,000 members and seating for 25,000 in a cavernous brick dome on a main street in Seoul. On Sunday, people pack the building for seven services featuring orchestral music and a charismatic worship style. But most members meet to pray in small, home-based groups called ``cells.''
In the early 1900s, the population of Korea - then a united nation - was only 1 percent Christian. Currently, about 25 percent of the 45 million people who live in South Korea are Christians, according to Lee, though the 1995 World Almanac puts the figure at 49 percent.
About 30 percent practice Buddhism and about 45 percent are either atheists or people who are not religious, Lee said.
Seoul has made headlines around the world after the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store mall on Thursday, which killed at least 133 people and injured 910 others.
Officials have blamed the disaster on shoddy construction, and said the store's operators knew for hours that the top floor of the five-story mall was crumbling, but failed to warn anyone.
Rev. Lee, who is one of the pastors at Yoido Full Gospel Church, said that churches in Seoul are holding prayer meetings and urging members to donate blood to help in the medical emergency.
He and Hyung said that many Christians in South Korea also interpret the tragedy as a warning from God about their failures as a spiritual community. In particular, Lee said, they have been too complacent in their efforts at evangelizing: Christianity grew at a rapid rate until 1988, but then hit a plateau.
``Everyone has become lazy,'' he said. ``We think it is a kind of signal and warning. Everyone needs to repent.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Dean Vinson Synan, back to camera, leads a welcome for South Korean
Christians who arrived Monday to study on the master's level at
Regent University. The students are members of an academic exchange
between Regent and a university in South Korea.
by CNB