In her book, The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America (Oxford University Press), Dr. Rebecca Y. Kim describes an in-depth case study of a relatively unstudied group of Korean evangelicals residing in the United States (University Bible Fellowship). Since the 1970’s these Korean evangelicals have sought to “bring the gospel back to America” as Asian missionaries to the West. Analyzing this movement from a sociological lens, she contextualizes her study as part of a larger global phenomenon of “reverse missions” involving missionaries being sent from nations that were formerly at the receiving end of Christian mission efforts by the West (Asia, Africa, and Latin America). Now at the turn of the new millennium, these former “colonized” regions (including South Korea) are part of an emerging frontline of missionary movements that are sending missionaries back to their former Western “colonizing” powers.
Drawing from her academic expertise in immigration, religion and Korean American Christianity, sociologist Rebecca Kim (Pepperdine University) argues in her book that these Korean evangelicals developed unique beliefs, practices and congregations that distinguished them from their American evangelical counterparts including:
(1) A biblically conservative evangelical faith uniquely shaped by the Korean culture and the “underside of history”
(2) Practices shaped by Confucian-influenced hierarchical and military-like organizational systems (“soldier spirit”) and a “theology of sacrifice”
(3) Congregational patterns that engaged the white dominant hierarchy in America by simultaneously embracing “spirit-transcends-differences” and “race-matters” models of diverse church formation
Dr. Kim further argues that despite these unique differences, these “hyper-Korean evangelicals” nevertheless exhibited the enduring influences of American global Christianity—a missiology paradigm she defines as a complex amalgamation of American imperialism, American Evangelical Christianity and White-dominant racial hierarchy. These enduring influences, she concludes, had led this group to evolve over time to be more like their mainstream American evangelical counterparts—a development that confirms a forecast of the global Christianity paradigm that the “global south Christian people, churches and missionaries will be defined by the West and its colonial power hierarchies and will ultimately mirror the West in their evolution…” and that the “vigorous and conservative ‘sect-like’ churches of the global South that are evangelizing the West will eventually lose their religious vitality and become more like the enervated Western churches” (pgs. 7-8).
Overall, the book is an impressive interdisciplinary work that engages themes across the fields of missiology, sociology, theology, ethnic studies, and Christian history. Despite being in existence for over 50 years and serving as a leading non-denominational mission agency in South Korea (per 2006 data reported by Dr. Kim, pg. 34), the University Bible Fellowship (UBF) movement has been relatively unexamined by Christian academia and mainstream evangelical scholarship (i.e. Christianity Today’s curious omission of UBF in its treatment of the Korean missions movement in Rob Moll’s lead article, Missions Incredible, March 2006). As one of the first extensive scholarly treatment of this Korean-based movement, Dr. Kim utilizes the methodological tools of her discipline (interviews, surveys, participant observations and content analysis) to develop an illuminating case study of a paradigmatic group of UBF Korean evangelicals which she identifies throughout her book as “Hyper-Korean evangelicals.”
With this book, Dr. Kim builds upon previous analyses by other sympathetic observers regarding the University Bible Fellowship movement [see Schafer et al. 2009. “University Bible Fellowship: What Happens When Missionaries from Korea Descend on North American College Campuses?” in Missions from the Majority World: Progress, Challenges and Case Studies, edited by Enoch Wan and Michael Pocock, 121-149; and also see Chung JK. 2003. “The University Bible Fellowship: A Forty-Year Retrospective Evaluation.” Missiology: An International Review 31(4):473-485]. However, unlike previous studies of UBF, Dr. Kim takes a step further in contextualizing this particular Korean mission movement within emerging trends in global Christianity. She also contributes her own expertise of Korean-American Christianity through her observations of unique cross-racial concerns and intercultural points of tension related to “reverse mission movements” in global Christianity. In particular, Ch. 6 “Criticisms and Conflicts” summarizes in an insightful manner the key tensions and controversies that these Korean missionaries generated and faced over the course of their mission to America.
Several overall observations can be made regarding her work:
(1) At several points through her work, Dr. Kim makes a persuasive case for her sociological explanations of key developments, successes and controversies related to University Bible Fellowship and its Korean missionaries in America. Nevertheless one is left wondering how easily scholars can tease out issues of culture, race and theology in complex “reverse missions” phenomenon today. How much are UBF Korean missionaries the way they are because they are “hyper”-Korean in their cultural expressions of their mission, or because they are “hyper”-Evangelical in their theology of mission? Describing UBF’s “theology of sacrifice,” Dr. Kim at one point makes an insightful observation noting that their “theology of sacrifice is to proactively suffer, self-deny, and serve for the sake of mission. It is ultimately a call to die to one’s own natural sociological inclinations” (pg. 115). Despite UBF Korean missionaries’ “theology of sacrifice” over the course of their mission, Dr. Kim suggests at several points that these same missionaries were willing on one level to make huge social and material sacrifices for the sake of their mission but were also on another level finding it nearly impossible to completely die to their own Korean cultural and “sociological inclinations.”
(2) Indeed, the same observation could perhaps be made of the very scholars who study complex interdisciplinary phenomenon like the “reverse missions” movement. How easily can one analyze outside the lens of one’s own discipline-specific inclinations and training? Can sociological categories of race and culture adequately provide explanatory tools for complex historical and theological developments occurring in global Christianity? For example, there were occasional discussions in the book where the reader may not be completely convinced that the challenges faced by Korean missionaries in cross-racial missions are readily analyzed using sociological concepts, or by simply invoking cultural (racial) explanations: namely, that Confucian-influenced norms emanating from Korean culture appeared to be clashing with the norms inhabiting Western culture. Deeper theological explorations may also be warranted [e.g. see recent theological discussions of Western guilt/innocence cultures vs. Eastern honor/shame cultures in Jackson Wu’s work and Steven Hong’s informative blog (kingdomrice.wordpress.org)].
(3) Moreover, though I applaud the author’s approach to contextualize her work within a larger context of contemporary historical and theological trends in global Christianity, I suspect that others might have appreciated an even broader contextualization of this Korean missions movement within the larger historical panorama of trends in Western Christendom over the last two millennia. For example, historical parallels could have been made with “reverse missions” in the past involving Irish missionaries in the 6th century who went back to the territories of their former Roman colonizers to “bring the Gospel back to Rome.” Other historical parallels could have been made with ancient monastic movements that also demanded high-commitments from their followers including the tradition of the Desert Fathers in the 3rd-4th centuries, the Benedictine movement in the 6th century, Franciscan movement in the 13th century, Ignatius Loyola’s military-style, apostolic Jesuit missionary structure in the 16th century, and the German Pietist/Moravian “sectarian” missionary movements of the 18th century.
Indeed, UBF bears the marks of an evangelical sectarian movement, loosely affiliated with mainstream Protestant Christian traditions. However, one could argue that the “hyper-Korean evangelical” flavor of UBF was in some ways, an Asian re-interpretation of the Benedictine tradition of Christian faithfulness (monastic vows of stability, chastity, poverty and obedience) which also demanded high-level commitments from their adherents—except in this case with a distinct Korean Protestant flavor. For example, the monastic vow of stability became in UBF terms the vow to “bury your bones in the mission field”, while the same could be argued about the other Benedictine vows: the monastic vow of chastity (“no dating”); the monastic vow of poverty (UBF’s “theology of sacrifice”, “five-loaves-and-two-fish” giving, “manger ministry”); the monastic vow of obedience (“Confucian-influenced spiritual hierarchy”and “soldier spirit”) and the ancient spiritual discipline of lectio divina (UBF’s “Daily Bread” and “sogam” writing/sharing). Indeed, these above comments are not meant to detract from the overall merits of her ambitious and informative work, as sociologists and missiologists may find the sociological and cultural observations in the book to be immensely illuminating and eye-opening at best—if not a bit unfamiliar and unsettling at times. Nevertheless, her work could have been enriched with a deeper exploration of the historical and theological connections to parallel movements in Western Christendom’s distant past.
(4) In addition, her chosen methodological approach (surveys, participant observation, interviews and content analysis) merely touches the tip of the proverbial iceberg of human experience; it cannot possibly capture the complex and detailed contours of lived experience found in the rich narratives of those who find themselves involved in this Korean missions movement. A deeply narrative, anthropological approach that intentionally captures the depth and diversity of “stories” from this movement is also sorely needed—not just from the perspective of the Korean missionaries themselves. Clearly the next logical step would be to conduct a dedicated comprehensive study of the recipients of the “reverse missions”—those that continue to remain in the movement and those who chose not to remain—all their stories and experiences (i.e. the good, the bad, and the ugly) deserve to be fully heard and appreciated in any faithful narration of this particular chapter in the Korean missions movement.
Understanding the inherent limitations of her study design, Dr. Kim appropriately narrows the scope of her investigation and offers her own disclaimer of her work in the book’s Appendix: “Despite my efforts to be objective, I understand that there will be those who think that I have been overly critical in my study of UBF as well as those who think that I have not been critical enough. Ultimately, however, my goal for the book has not been to tell the world that UBF is a “good” or a “bad” ministry. My goal has been to understand how its missionaries engaged in cross-racial evangelism in the United States and what their efforts suggest about diverse congregation formation, the evolution of ‘reverse missions movements, and Korean as well as American Christianity” (pg. 179-180).
(5) In my view, the most interesting thesis in her book is that UBF, like many other “reverse missions” movements in the global Christianity paradigm, will over time mirror the modernizing and secularizing trends of the West and eventually lose their original evangelistic fervor and religious vitality. Whether this prediction will prove prescient is still yet to be seen, but it does beg additional research questions. For example, as part of a break-away movement from UBF, how much do members of Campus Mission International (CMI) still function in essential ways as “Hyper-Korean evangelicals” like their UBF counterparts? Or does CMI’s greater openness in engaging mainstream evangelicalism suggests a moderated version of their more hyper-Korean evangelical counterparts in UBF? If so, will the CMI movement (originating from UBF) exhibit early signs of following the global Christianity paradigm more quickly? How about the subsequent generations of UBF’s physical and spiritual descendants (2nd generation and American converts)? Will they over-time revive or moderate the “hyper”-ness of their Korean evangelicals forebears? Will they still carry on the “theology of sacrifice”? Will “soldier spirit” inevitably turn into “retired veteran spirit” or “civilian spirit?” Further research in this area will potentially uncover additional evidence to further prove or disprove the authors’ apparent acceptance that UBF will inevitably follow the forecast of the global Christianity paradigm.
(6) Lastly, contrary to Dr. Kim’s conclusion, there is perhaps an alternative pathway besides the relatively fatalistic forecast of the global Christianity paradigm: is it truly inevitable that energetic Global Christians will ultimately become more like the West in losing its religious fervor and spiritual vitality? Evangelical mission organizations often reference their mission work as ultimately following in the Incarnational example of Christ, the first example of what it meant to be a “missionary” to the world—an example best described by Athanasius: “The Son of God became man that man might become God.” Based on the Incarnational model of missions, the alternative prediction is that though Global Christians in some ways may inexorably become like the West, the West in some ways may also inexorably become more like them—revived and renewed Christians transformed by the Spirit through global Christians’ energetic zeal, spiritual commitment, and devotion in spite of their evident weaknesses and failings. If University Bible Fellowship moves away from its sectarian tendencies and instead finds herself on this alternative pathway, history may very remember this peculiar Korean “reverse missions” movement as the Asian, neo-monastic apostolic movement that contributed toward the spiritual renewal of the West during the waning years of Western Christendom.
Based on this more optimistic forecast, then, the long-term legacy that these Korean missionaries leave behind in America is not so much a “hyper-Korean evangelical faith”, nor a faith that ultimately accommodates completely to imperial Western Christendom or American Christianity; but one that is neither hyper-Korean, hyper-American, nor hyper-evangelical; but perhaps in its best days more hyper-Imago Dei (image of God) or hyper-kenosis (self-emptying). Or in the modified words of Athanasius as noted above, it is “Koreans becoming more like Americans so that in the dying and renewing process of learning to become more like one another, both Americans and Koreans may unwittingly find themselves becoming more like Christ.”
Assuming we understand the mindset of these “hyper-Korean evangelicals” accurately, this alternative outcome of history is probably one they would eagerly affirm as being the ultimate reason why the “Spirit moved West” in the first place.
John D. Yoon, MD
Program on Medicine and Religion
The University of Chicago
jdyoon@uchicago.edu
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