Shincheonji Church of Jesus has fulfilled its vow in producing 100,000 graduates this year. The level of satisfaction among students who completed the course is almost 100%, and it is attracting the attention of the religious community. The above photo shows students of Zion Mission Center smiling brightly. 

The established church has suffered years of negative growth, falling in membership by 1.24 million over the last ten years. Shincheonji Church of Jesus’, on the other hand, has grown by 100,000 people.

The established church in Korea is in decline, while Shincheonji Church of Jesus’ is in rapid growth. This year in particular, Shincheonji Church of Jesus has shown unprecedented growth through a 100,000 graduation ceremony. And I wanted to understand why.

Firstly, according to the General Assembly of the Established church, report cards for the established churches have been poor in the last ten years, showing negative growth of most established denominations since their peak between 2008 and 2012. Denominations surveyed included The Presbyterian Church of Korea, The General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea, The Presbyterian Church in Korea (PCK:Kosin), The Korean Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea and Korean Evangelical Holiness Church.

The peak of the established church was as follows: The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea in 2008 (327,903), The Korean Methodist Church in 2009 (1,583,385), The Presbyterian Church of Korea in 2010 (2,852,311), Korean Evangelical Holiness Church in 2011 (5,943,143), The General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea (2,994,873) and The Presbyterian Church in Korea (PCK:Kosin) (48,102) in 2012.

The Presbyterian Church of Korea has fallen in membership by 298,084; The General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea by 338,107; The Korean Methodist Church by 298,074; the Korean Evangelical Holiness Church by 156,570; The Presbyterian Church in Korea (PCK:Kosin) by 57,787 and The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea by 91,867. The total number of church members who have left their churches numbers about 1.24 million. The number of church members in The Korean Methodist Church, The General Assembly of Presbyterian Church in Korea and The Presbyterian Church of Korea decreased for the ninth, sixth and fourth consecutive years, respectively.

On the other hand, the number of believers in Shincheonji Church of Jesus has been growing over the last ten years. In 2008, the number of its members was 53,137, reaching 59,055 in 2009, 71,220 in 2010, 85,513 in 2011, 109,210 in 2012, 128,260 in 2013, 142,421 in 2014, 161,691 in 2015, 177,750 in 2016, 181,750 in 2017 and surpassing 200,000 last year (202,899). This year’s figure, due to be published through its end-of-year statistics, is expected to surpass 300,000 through the 100,000 graduation.

Of particular note is the rate of evangelism of those who graduated, which currently stands at 108%. This means that there are more than 100,000 people waiting to graduate within the next 6-8 months and the number of evangelists is only expected to grow next year. This sharp growth is likely to pressure the crumbling established church.

Why are the two churches in stark contrast to one another? Cheonji Ilbo found out why through interviews with leading religious academics and pastors.

I listened to one story about Pastor Song Mo from the Korean Presbyterian Minority Church who asked for anonymity. He tweaked the church's hereditary succession rules and altered church management, driving church members away from other churches. In fact, according to data recently released by Shincheonji Church of Jesus, pastors were found guilty of 12,000 crimes from 2008 to 2018. Pastor Song said that people leave their churches because of morally and ethically bankrupt pastors, but others believe that the root cause is different.

Pastor Kim (woman), who co-leads a church in Yejang, Seoul, said, “Church leaders are unaware, or do not discern, the fact that truth is absent. The real problem is the absence of the Bible. I'm sorry to be saying this.” She lamented, saying, “Church congregations used to be very respectful towards pastors, but they now treat them very differently.”

I also contacted a pastor who lectures at Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Mr. Bong, a pastor who joined Shincheonji Church of Jesus’ Peter tribe Gwangju branch church, said, “At the church where I used to belong, I had the gift of an experiential faith that was outside the Bible. Yet I was so thirsty to know the true meaning of the Bible. After listening to the word for a while, I came to Gwangju and prayed all night for 20 days with a desperate heart to listen to the words from Mount Zion (Shincheonji Church of Jesus)."

He added, "Most pastors today are confined to the theological thoughts they have learned and consider other teachings heretical and unworthy of learning. However, all pastors in the established church must listen to and learn from the words of New Heaven New Earth (Shincheonji Church of Jesus), and repent of their false teachings.”

The stories I heard through leading religious academics were even more disturbing. Seung-yong Yoon, Director of the Institute for the Study of Religion, said, “The early boom of religion has now entered a period of destruction.” He examined the current religious world in two ways. Firstly, there exists a post-religion phenomenon that seeks to break away from institutional religion with its well-maintained vested interests. This can be seen through the increase in the number of Catholic ‘apathists’ and lapsed Protestant Christians.

On the contrary, there is now a church that is gathering more people than ever before through true religion; the creation of a new trend that completely differs from the established religions which are crumbling in a post-religion era. This is creating an organisation with a stronger and more cohesive culture which, as Yoon concluded,“Shincheonji Jesus Church would be this case.”