(South Korea’s) Yoido Full Gospel is the mega-est of megachurches. (Melanie Kirkpatrick, Wall Street Journal)

With a membership of more than 850,000, it bills itself as the world’s largest Christian congregation, and that’s probably right. At the 11 o’clock service last Sunday, there were more people in the 120-singer choir than in the entire congregation of the country church I attend in New England.

The church stands on an island in the Han River in central Seoul, not far from the National Legislature. The main sanctuary holds 10,000 people. Nearby are several church-owned buildings, including a high-rise filled with offices, meeting rooms and banquet halls. There are satellite churches elsewhere in Seoul and around the country.

Judging from the crowd in the designated “foreign section” last Sunday, Yoido ranks up there with the demilitarized zone on the North Korean border as one of the country’s prime tourist destinations. Simultaneous interpretation was provided in eight languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Russian, Indonesian and Arabic.

As I entered the church that morning, swept along with the crowd that had just swarmed off a bus that stopped at a side door, I was greeted by a deacon dressed in a white jacket and wearing a golden sash that said “Welcome Foreigners.” He led me briskly to an elevator and up to the fourth floor, where he handed me off to a colleague. That deacon, also in a white jacket, gave me an order of worship printed in several languages, an English translation of the sermon, and an information card that she asked me to fill out and return for the church mailing list.

FULL STORY

Follow the Neon Crosses to the ‘Jerusalem of the East ^[1]‘ (Wall Street Journal)

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South Korea growing Christianity ^[2]

PHOTO CREDIT

Flickr ^[3]