David Kwangshin Kim
Pastor David Kwangshin Kim (born 1935 in Korea) is a Korean Protestant Christian pastor. He is the president of Grace Ministries International (GMI), which have created more than 9,000 churches in Russia, Africa, China, Vietnam and South America. He was previously the principal pastor of Grace Korean Church in the United States, and has been the principal pastor of Seoul Grace Church since 2004.
Biography
Family and education
He was born in 1935, as a fourth generation Christian, in Gyeongsangnam-do, which is located in the southern region of what is today South Korea. He graduated from Masan High School and then Seoul National University. After teaching in a high school for 11 years in South Korea he left for the United States and became a businessman.
Ministry
At the age of 42, Kim became a born-again Christian and abandoned his business and entered the Talbot School of Theology.
He led Bible studies as an elder and theology student. In 1982, instead of beginning a church with tight-bound bible study members, he began his church with only three families. The most important emphasis of Kim's ministry is to "carry out the Great commission of God", that is, to save souls, evangelize and do missions work. Based on this principle, the church dispenses more than half of its budget for international missions work.
Mission
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. GMI sent more than 250 missionaries in about 50 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.
Strategy of mission
Kim and Grace Korean Church together with GMI have prepared different mission strategies according to the region. For example, in Russia a very concentrated theological school was established in the early stages of GMI's ministry there. In South America, high-level and well prepared mission schools were needed since 95% of the pastors did not graduate from a theology school and 80% of them only had an elementary education. In Japan, reasoning the truth of the Bible is necessary since the Japanese people will not easily accept a foreign idea if they are not convinced of it. In China, secret mission work on the family level is necessary due to the political difficulty.
Glow of Love
Also known as Tres Dias, the contents of this four-nights-and-three-days program are intended to be a surprise for participants and they are never described in detail by those that have graduated from it because it could spoil their effect. There is a fee to pay which is to cover the expenses. At one time in the United States, more than 2,000 candidates had wanted to participate in this program which cannot hold more than hundred and fifty candidates, this is a major source of income to the church. There are more than 10 Glow of Loves prepared by Grace Church all over the world—including France, German, Spain, Russia and its surrounding countries, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Africa.
G12
Grace Korean Church has a special program called "Basket Operation" that is composed of 13 successive steps:
- Oikos Evangelism
- Cell Church
- Central Church
- Grace Encounter (10 weeks)
- 1 to 1 Discipleship (16 weeks)
- Tres Dias (3 days, 4 nights)
- Gifts Discovery Seminar (8 weeks)
- Shepard Seminar (8 weeks)
- Grace Freedom
- Shepard / G-7 Member
- G-7 Leader
- Leadership College-1 year and
- Ministry Involvement