Koreana Gospel inroads in Adventism and its Dangers for the Adventist Message: A future Fork in the Korean Adventist Road?

Source: Myoungho Yang, Congregational Participation in Worship: A Study of the Korean Praise and Worship Movement in the 1980s As a Model for Inspiring Active Participation Ph.D. Dissertation Summary by Myoungho Yang Graduate Division of Religion Drew Theological School, May 2009. Journal of Korean-American Ministries and Theology no. 3, 2010. Collections from 12th Korean Worship & Music Conference Columbia Theological Seminary www.webkam.org/journal. Downloaded on the 1^st of May 2022 from https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/jkamt/03-046.pdf

1. Focus is ontology (feeling) rather than epistemology (thinking).

2. Focus is exclusively I and we rather than God and us.

3. Focus is experience or “Han” rather than Biblical Revelation.

4. Revelation is hoped for through rhythm, newness, feeling of immediacy, feeling intimacy with God, feeling of closeness with God.

5. All Nations Worship and Praise Ministries encouraged Stephen Hah to write his first song book in 1987 and three recordings followed in 1988 and 1995. They still print music booklets and recordings.

6. Messages are in content shorter but repeated rhythmic.

7. Koreana gospel contributes to the Laodicea “sleeping condition”. Why? It is less Bible focused and more feeling focused. It is less interested to explore what the Bible has to say and rather analyze and extrapolate from feelings of sorrow, need, confusion, anguish pockets of wisdom.

8. In a way, it is a self-built “Tower of Babel” and is very noisy (because of synthezisers).

9. It is more kinetic with attempts to wave, move, gesturing, shouting out, encouraging free expression, encouraging clapping of hands and Hallelujah or Amen.

10. Loadicea sleeping condition is a “switch off of prophetic analysis”. Any condition that encourage the secondary role of the Prophetic Endtime Messages of the Bible or Last Day Theology, or Last Generation Theology, is “sleeping”.

11. Pre-lapsarianism and a focus on that, as BRI vice-director G. Phandl did resulting in the 1989 statement of “discouraging of discussion on the sinless/sinful Nature of Christ” against Director A. Rodriquez post-lapsarianism, actually leads to a redundancy of Last Generation Theology. (see A. Treiyer).

12. Koreana gospel, joins then rather pre-lapsarianism and redundancy of Last Generation Theology. They do not want to speak about “Perfection” or attempts to rectify one’s sinful nature, but rather how salvation can be procured “in sin” rather than “from sin”.

13. “From the earliest days of the history of the Korean people, singing has played an important role in their life. Not only in the setting of religious rituals, but also in most occasions of life Koreans sing. For Koreans, singing worked as a vehicle of common expression in their times of joy and sorrow in the history of the nation and of relieving their Han and of mollifying their grief. Events or TV programs designed with Koreans’ fondness for singing have flourished in Korean culture. Business also proved that Koreans are singing people. For Koreans, singing is power. “ (Yang 2010, 47).

14. The origin of Koreana gospel should be seen in the backdrop of the development in the surrounding culture of music styles as Yang said: “In 1980, KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) started an amateur singing contest program, National Singing Contest which became one of the favorite programs and continues still today after twenty-eight years of performance. In 1993, it also began to air a weekly music program, Open Concert. The title implies that the audience is welcomed and encouraged to join in singing with singers to an accompaniment of a forty-two piece orchestra. Even today, more than ten thousand people of all ages are admitted to this program every week. Keunjoo Kang, “The Heat of Open Concert,” Weekly Magazine Newsmaker 148 (Nov., 1995): 68-71.” He also listed the Singing Room Culture which is in every city and hamlet.

15. “In its structure of worship, the Korean Praise and Worship movement fully incorporated this spiritual and cultural importance of congregational singing for Koreans, bringing a passionate participation in worship.”

16. “Since the early days of Korean Christianity, fervent and long prayer in a loud voice has been shaped as a typical tradition of prayer. Prayer by the entire congregation was an important element of worship service. As times passed, fervent praying and passionate singing continued as a staple of prayer meetings and became a hallmark of Korean Christians while those elements were diminished in worship services. The congregation’s expression through praying and singing became lessened in worship while the congregation wanted prayer by the entire congregation to be included in the worship services”.

17. “While a bulletin was not prepared and the worship order was not displayed, the shape of the Praise and Worship service can be defined clearly as follows: Gathering, Praise, Word, Response, and Sending…similar to the Presbyterian style of the era”. (Yang 2010, 48-49).

18. The Adventist new hymnal has hundreds of songs from different periods and different denominations, reworked for the Adventist “culture”. There is an international “thread” that links all continents.

19. The problem with Koreana gospel, is that it does not prepare any of the Korean youth for Mission in other countries where these styles are not followed.

20. This “switching off” of international effectiveness, is also “Loadicean condition”.

21. The Adventist Korean Education system do not all see the dangers of Koreana gospel.

22. Koreana Gospel leads to a fork in the road where countryside churches are singing the Advent Hymnals with joy and eagerness and the young people, arriving from the Universities and Schools in the city, packed with Korean gospel, make them sleeping in church or playing on their smartphones. Unfit and unprepared for participation in the country churches. Thus, generation split or “fork in the future road of Adventism in Korea”.

23. If one raise a snake, one may have the potential to be bitten by it in future”. My cousin was, with his python.

24. Fountainview Academy is a small Adventist high-school in Canada and their music is fresh, new, young, but within the covers of the Advent Hymnal, not without it.

25. The focus of Fountainview Music is not to import music from Presbyterians, or “Canadian only” music.

26. Nationalism can be a stumblingblock to the gospel as the fight of Paul and Peter demonstrated in the New Testament, see Galatians 2. Paul wanted to be international and Peter national.

27. Yang says that this started all in 1972. “Korean Praise and Worship movement began in 1972 when ten college students began a prayer meeting at missionary David E. Ross’ house in Seoul.” (Yang 2010, 49).

28. Later another style emerged, says Yang: “Fewer than ten years later, the Korean Praise and Worship experienced explosive responses when Duranno Worship and Praise emerged in 1987”. (Yang 2010, 49).

29. Simple lyrics, and feeling orientated as Yang says: “a single theme was emphasized in one song helped the congregation to deeply contemplate its message and apply it to their lives”. (Yang 2010, 49). It is true that the Bible in Psalms 23 (using “I” 17x’s) and 142 (using “I” 30x’s) also encourage application but the Bible does more. The Bible has many programs for our lives, not single feeling focuses.

30. “In the Praise and Worship service, however, various themes are dealt as a whole as the worship service progresses.” (Yang 2010, 49).

31. Koreana gospel religious language: Firstly, intimate relationship with God (Yang 2010, “This tendency, however, was often criticized as an indication of a preoccupation with the individual and a lack of attention to God and the community.

32. This individualization of worship songs is critiqued by M. J. Dawn as follows: “Marva J. Dawn, in her book, Reaching Out without Dumbing Down (107), argues that contemporary worship practices are influenced by “the self-centered bent of the modern world,” calling it “narcissism in Contemporary Society and Worship.” (Yang 2010, page 50 footnote 31).

33. Truth be told, Yang showed that using “we” does not improve a sense of community and using “I” does not degrade the sense of community. (Yang 2010, 52).

34. When Koreana gospel first started and people were skeptical, K-J. Lee argued that Koreana gospel adds a compliment to the Korean Traditional Church Hymnal that is absent there. (Yang 2010, page 52 mentioned Lee in footnote 36: “Kwanjik Lee, “Worship Culture of Modern Church,” in The Path of the Korean Church and Culture of Church, ed. Institute for Korean Church (Seoul: Yeosurun, 1996), 182.”

35. It is argued that Koreana gospel’s good features are: “The message, which the congregation could draw from the lyrics of the songs, was what the congregation really needed to live through times of difficulties. Proclaiming who God is and what God has done for him/her was enough to bring the congregation comfort, healing, strength, power, and hope. When they praise God as the Almighty God, they not only are singing the God is almighty, but also are thinking their circumstances to be committed to God who is almighty”.

36. All the elements mentioned by the Koreana gospel favorable advocates, are in the Adventist Hymnal as well. Fountainview Academy saw that and utilized the Adventist Hymnal to do the same! See examples of Fountainview Academy music “Old Rugged Cross” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avjXaEFKd5E.

37.There is no need for these young Christians to separate from the older people in the church and crowd themselves around synthesizers, drums, electric music and guitars for their own passionate, feeling “cult”. That is a fork in the road caused not by the Adventist church at large, but by Koreana gospel lovers themselves.

38. It is not a contribution to Christianity when Adventist Christians asked themselves: “How can we sing to the Lord in a foreign form and foreign songs”. They also have to “connect”. Also “relate”. Also “link”.

39. It does not matter if mother and father get use to Koreana music and also swing along, grandfather and grandmother doesn’t and is left in the dark. The inroad is too abrupt and too radical. The absence of continuation already shows you something is wrong.

40. All the principles of Ellen White’s Philosophy of Music are discarded with Koreana gospel. It is difficult for lovers of the works of Ellen White to feel comfortable with it. 41. What needs to be done also, in future, is to analyze the Theology of the Content of Koreana gospel. Does it cover all the corners of Adventist Theology as does the Adventist Hymnal? If not, we are seeing a “Fork in the Future Road of Korean Adventism”