Reflections and Prayers for Korean United Methodist Churches among Disaffiliation
This photo was taken during my ordination service. Standing behind me is a Korean American clergywoman by whom I was inspired (and empowered) to pursue ordained ministry.
On March 4th 2023,
there was a vote taken for 41 churches in the North Texas Annual Conference to disaffiliate. 3 out of 6 Korean UMCs in the North Texas Annual Conference were also disaffiliated that morning. The Dallas metropolitan area has the biggest Korean population in Texas, and 9th biggest Korean presence in the US, according to the Pew Research Center. In fact until about two weeks ago, one of the biggest United Methodist congregations in the NTC was a Korean congregation. This is a remarkable achievement and witness, knowing that Korean constituents make up only 1.3% of the entire population in the DFW area. Think about your church membership and divide that by 100. If a 3000-member-church like the one I serve now, was to be a Korean church, it would be a congregation of 30 people with 12 in regular attendance. It took many Korean United Methodists' sweat and tears to build six thriving Korean congregations and their vibrant witnesses in the DFW area. To see them departing was surreal and hurtful.
Don't get me wrong, I have many issues with many Korean immigrant churches.
And that includes the Korean UMCs. Responding to my call to ministry at an immigrant church with my immigrant family was simply brutal at many times. The trauma of immigration and living as a minority (let alone a model minority) has left our folks pushed out and dishonored. While we are blessed with many faithful clergy, many pulpits of the Korean immigrant churches are defiled with unresolved trauma and the prosperity gospel guised in a strange obsession with "blessings." Many pulpits of Korean immigrant churches often perpetuate the Honor-Shame culture instead of fostering the gift of vulnerability. Many of them fail to help us to dynamically engage in reading Scripture and to faithfully navigate the complexity of this world, including the complex nature of human sexuality, which seemingly has torn us asunder.
I'm caught in these weird mixed emotions of feeling both proud of our remarkable witness and extremely frustrated with our current realities. I, like many United Methodists in the US, am feeling helpless and almost hopeless as I look towards the future without half of us.
Where do we go from here now?
I honestly don't know, and I don't dare to provide an answer for all these mixed emotions, thoughts, and questions- but I know that there is a calling to pray around this, as my dear spiritual director would say.
It is a prime time to pray.
During my prayer this morning for the Prayer Vigil with the North Texas Annual Conference, I had a chance to pray around the story of Moses' calling in Exodus 3, and the healing of the servant of a Centurion in Luke 7.
"Indeed, I know their sufferings." (Exodus 3:7 NRSV)
This verse struck a chord with me. Just as God saw the sufferings of Israelites and suffered with them, God saw the sufferings of early Korean immigrants, and moved God's women and men to build a church to suffer alongside the immigrants. The same God is now with suffering with us as we go our paths separately. It is the most ironic thing in the world that to love at a certain moment in a certain situation is to let go instead of holding one another.
"But say the word, and my servant will be healed." (Luke 7:7 NIV)
But as the Gentile Centurion in the story of Luke believed that Jesus WILL heal, I dare to pray in faith that we will be healed. I honestly don't have earth-shattering prayer to offer. But I'm lifting up the United Methodist Church, and especially Korean United Methodist Church today.
This is my prayer
God will heal us, and God is healing us even now.
May our witness in the world be healed and made whole.
May we suffer alongside God,
who suffers with those who are in desperate need of love and belonging.
May God work through our brokenness to birth wholeness, yet again.
Amen.
