Seoul Grace Church
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The Seoul Grace Church (서울은혜교회) was established by Pastor David Kwangshin Kim(김광신) who is the president of Grace Ministries International (GMI).
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[edit] David Kwangshin Kim
David Kwangshin Kim was born in South Korea as a fourth generation Christian. He graduated from Seoul National University, the most prestigious school in South Korea, and became a businessman in the United States. He went to church every Sunday but he claimed at the age of 42 to have met Jesus Christ. Kim abandoned his business and entered Talbot School of Theology. He led Bible studies as an elder and theology student.
[edit] Grace Korean Church in 1982
Grace Korean Church was founded by Pastor David Kwangshin Kim in May 1982 with three families. Three years later, the church congregation grew to be about 1,000 members with an annual budget of $1,500,000. The growth of this church and its expansion of missions made an epoch in Korean American church history and was enough to draw attention from the entire American Christendom.
Appropriating 50% of the church budget for missions, Pastor David Kim declared Grace Korean Church as a World Mission Society Church of God. By the fifth year anniversary in 1987, the church budget exceeded two million dollars. Consequently, more than a million dollars was given to world missions. Through such enormous expenditures on world missions, Grace Korean Church considered itself church existing for mission which has been rare in the immigrant church history.
The first missionary sent from Grace Korean Church was Missionary Hwang to Guam in July 1982. Since then, Grace Korean Church has dispatched many missionaries around the world, mainly to Africa, South America, China, and to past Soviet Union territories. As of 2004, Grace Korean Church has sent out 141 missionaries who successfully carry out the Great Commission of Jesus in 36 countries.
In the United States, Grace Church is considered to be doing the most mission work for an individual local church. More precisely, the size of its mission endeavors is more than double that of the second and third top American church missions put together.
[edit] Seoul Grace Church in 2004
In 2004 Pastor Kiyoung Han was commissioned as missionary to Seoul, South Korea. Two months later Pastor David Kwangshin Kim came to Seoul Grace Church and the First Sunday service was held on November 28, 2004 at Gangdong-gu. On May 15, 2005, Seoul Grace Church's Opening Service was held. As of 2006, Seoul Grace Church, together with Grace Korean Church in the United States and GMI, sent out more than 250 missionaries to more than 50 countries in the world. Through Grace Ministries International, churches have been planted all over the world--2,000 in Russia, 600 in Africa, 3,000 in China, 1,000 in Vietnam and many more in South America.
The church inaugurated the GMI Missionary Training Center in April 2007 that will train 100 missionary volunteers who have graduated from theology school. The Center has a program that offers 4 months long oversea training as well as domestic training in real mission. Seoul Grace Church's policy does not require any membership of the church to the students who will have thus benefited by the financial. That is, all of the students are encouraged to work as members of other churches and other organizations.
