Talk:David Yonggi Cho
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There's no place called 교덩 in korea. Should be 교동, or 교성.
[edit] Name change
I gather he was originally called Paul Yonggi Cho but he changed his name to David at some point in the early to mid-1990s. Any indication exactly when, and why? Jammycakes 22:54, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Actual size of Yoido Full Gospel Fellowship, Seoul, South Korea
While I would not contest the fact that Cho's church is indeed the largest in the world today, to use the figure of 800,000 members is not accurate, despite what the church officials might say or publish. According to published authors who have researched this church (Karen Hurston, who was a youth pastor at Yoido years ago, author of "The Largest Church In The World"; Joel Comiskey, who did his doctoral dissertation on this church in 1996, author of Home Cell Group Explosion), this 800,000 number would include all past members and even some long-term, regularly attending visitors of this church.
The actual membership/regular attendance of this church is and has been around 225,000 persons for a number of years according to both of these respected published authors.
One might ask why the church would publish such large numbers when they know it is not true by the very accurate accounting of weekend attendance they perform dutifully. While it is just the opinion of this Wiki-participant, I believe it is caused by a lack of proper translation mixed with the cultural issue of losing face or saving face, depending on how one views it. To publically say that the church is not 800,000 members strong today would indicate they have not been truthful about membership for years, and it would also indicate stagnation, neither of which are seen as favorable in any culture, but especially in the highly performance-driven culture of South Korea.
- The explanation is actually very simple. The leadership of my own church in New Zealand has long had a close relationship with the Yoido church, so I know something about the topic (but cannot provide external references). In recent years, the Yoido Church has founded numerous "satellite churches" and has transferred most of its membership to them. Each satellite church has its own building and its own pastor, but is still OFFICIALLY part of the mother church, and its pastor is subordinate to David Yonggi Cho. Members of the satellite churches are counted as members of the mother church, though in practice they may have nothing directly to do with it. David Cannon 10:03, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
