Korean church crosses cultural lines

By Karen L. Willoughby

Sung Kun Park, senior pastor of Berendo Street Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

Once considered the “mother church” of all Southern Baptist Korean congregations, today Berendo Street Baptist Church of Koreatown, Los Angeles, is reaching cross-culturally and building bridges for other people groups to come to know Christ.

Susumu Miyagawa, a native of Japan, started attending Berendo Street with his Korean-born wife. After he had been baptized, trained and ordained by Berendo Street, he started two Japanese churches in the Glendale, California, area before moving to Lake Elsinore and starting Gospel Siloam Church in connection with a hotel that includes bubbling hot springs. Bathhouses are very popular in Japan for their physical and spiritual healing. Miyagawa uses this to evangelize nonbelievers—the hot springs a metaphor to illustrate the need for spiritual renewal in Christ.

In addition to the Japanese church in Lake Elsinore, Berendo Street also sponsors on-site Hispanic and Chinese-Korean congregations as part of its global missions commitment.

A global vision
Located in what is still known as Koreatown, the area west of Interstate 5 and north of Interstate 10 has become increasingly multicultural. As Koreans acquired the means, many moved to suburbs. Berendo Street Baptist, however, has no plans to relocate though the church has outgrown its property—the equivalent of 17 city lots (77,000 square feet) on two sides of a residential street. About 2,000 people participate in Sunday morning worship.

As Berendo Street strengthened and matured, they found their place in God’s global plan, says former administrative pastor Yongjae “Christopher” Yim. Since its beginning in 1957, they’ve trained and sent out more than 100 people as pastors and career missionaries. Each summer Berendo Street sends out more than 100 members on short-term mission trips. The church financially supports 25 churches around the world and has adopted a Chinese-Muslim people group.

“By doing this mission work we are participants in the evangelizing of the whole world that God commanded,” Yim says. “Primarily our purpose is Korean but we bow to the people of the community.

“We have to try to understand and meet their culture for effective ministry,” Yim says. “God is a God of variety. They have their own characteristics and distinctives in culture, language and customs but even though we are different, in Christ we can be one family, like brothers and sisters in accord with each other so God is glorified by the cooperative effort.”

Kingdom-focused leaders
By keeping a strong focus on the needs of its primary people group while at the same time teaching the importance of the Great Commission, Berendo Street develops kingdom-focused leaders who seek out areas of ministry where God can use them to help start new churches.

Potential leaders go through an intensive three-year program of study that includes internships under the direction of seasoned leaders who look for strengths to be capitalized on and weaknesses to be addressed by the intern. Only those with a sincere calling to church planting, discipline to accomplish the work and humbleness of spirit are given the opportunity to start a new work. Others are guided to ministry situations that suit their calling.

“People look at Berendo Street as a model church,” says Dan Moon, who served as a liaison between the SBC and Korean immigrants for 33 years. “They systematically train and send out people who become leaders wherever they go.”

Senior Pastor Sung Kun Park has been called the pre-eminent pastor among Korean Southern Baptists in the United States. Yet, he keeps a low profile, choosing to focus his ministry on fulfilling the Great Commission by starting churches among other ethnic groups. Dr. Park is continuing the legacy started by Berendo Street’s founding pastor Don Kim who led the church to start four new churches in South America in the early 1980s. The churches in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Venezuela, now in their third generation, are starting churches for native peoples.
Sang Keun Cha, born to Korean parents in China, immigrated to the United States to study at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and found his way to Berendo Street. Pastor Yim knew of many Chinese-born Koreans. After Cha was trained and ordained, the church asked him to start a mission that would meet the needs of this people group who are much less stabilized and much more underprivileged, than most Koreans.

Esteban Choi was a missionary to South America who was trained, ordained and sent from Berendo Street. He returned to the United States to find many more Hispanics in Koreatown than had been there when he left. The church dispatched him to establish a church that would meet Hispanics’ spiritual needs in a cultural context that would get and keep their attention.

“They have their own culture and understanding, and so do the Chinese Koreans,” Yim says. “It’s a good situation that we have a pastor who knows them. They can open their hearts to him.”

An ultimate purpose
The success Berendo Street has had in starting cross-cultural churches isn’t “success” but rather being observant to see what God is putting together, and being obedient to following His commands, Park says.

“Our pastors talked about the purpose of church; the reason is ultimately missions,” says Yim. “Pastor Park is a man of faith and a man of ability and a man of vision. We trust him and support him and God guides him in the right direction.

“It is time for the Korean churches to evangelize non-Korean ethnic groups,” Yim continues. “They have established their own churches; they’re pretty much stabilized, and there is a greater need for non-Korean churches. Also, the Koreans easily find accord with the people. So it’s like we have no reason not to start churches and send out our people to serve God in our neighborhood and around the world.”

Karen Willoughby is managing editor of the Louisiana Baptist Message in Alexandria, Louisiana.

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